==The USPS Just Filed A Patent For A Blockchain-Based Secure-Voting System=

It looks like the United States Post Office is getting in the business of voting.

It has recently been unearthed that he USPS filed for a patent on February 7, 2020 for a "Secure Voting System" that uses a blockchain access layer. Obviously, this could be one of the strongest signals of a welcome adaptation to blockchain by the U.S. government since blockchain was thrust on the map by Bitcoin.

"A voting system can use the security of blockchain and the mail to provide a reliable voting system," the patent application says. "A registered voter receives a computer readable code in the mail and confirms identity and confirms correct ballot information in an election. The system separates voter identification and votes to ensure vote anonymity, and stores votes on a distributed ledger in a blockchain."

The "United States Postal Service" is listed as the applicant on the application.

"Voters generally wish to be able to vote for elected officials or on other issues in a manner that is convenient and secure," the application says. "Further, those holding elections wish to be able to ensure that election results have not been tampered with and that the results actually correspond to the votes that were cast. In some embodiments, a blockchain allows the tracking of the various types of necessary data in a way that is secure and allows others to easily confirm that data has not been altered."

Equally as interesting as the patent itself is the fact that the application was filed before the coronavirus had wreaked total havoc on the country and long before the idea of mail in voting was being tossed around by pundits and the mainstream media on the daily.

Brian Roemmele pointed the discovery out on Twitter:

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/usps-just-filed-patent-blockchain-based-secure-voting-system

Kevin Clinesmith Plea Agreement Set for August 19 Before Obama Appointed FISA Court Judge James Boasberg

Former FBI Attorney Kevin Clinesmith is expected to plead guilty to altering Carter Page evidence to support the FISA warrant used to spy on the Donald Trump campaign in 2016.

38-year-old Clinemsith altered an email from CIA investigators used to request a FISA warrant and renewals on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

Carter Page previously worked as a source for the CIA, however Clinesmith falsely said Page was “never” a CIA source.

According to Durham’s charging document (and also in IG Horowitz’s report), “certain individuals” on the Crossfire Hurricane were told in an August 2016 memorandum that Page was a CIA asset — so who else knew?

Despite members of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team knowing Carter Page was a CIA asset, that information was omitted from the first three FISA warrants on Page.

“Mr. Clinesmith had provided the unchanged C.I.A. email to Crossfire Hurricane agents and the Justice Department lawyer drafting the original [October 2016] wiretap application,” Techno Fog posted from the New York Times report.

Clinesmith’s plea agreement was set today for August 19th — Wednesday — in front of Judge James Boasberg who is currently the presiding judge over the FISA Court.

Judge James Boasberg was appointed by Obama in 2011.

Via Techno_Fog:

In April 2012 Boasberg ruled that the American public had no right to view government photos of deceased terror leader Osama Bin Laden.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/kevin-clinesmith-plea-agreement-set-august-19-obama-appointed-fisa-court-judge-james-boasberg/

US blacklists 38 Huawei affiliates as Pompeo calls on allies to take similar measures to protect ‘international stability’

Washington has added dozens of companies to a list that bars the firms from gaining access to certain US technologies, as part of its ongoing battle against Huawei. Mike Pompeo has urged US allies to adopt similar restrictions.

The secretary of state released a press statement on Monday applauding the Commerce Department’s decision to expand regulations designed to restrict US exports to Huawei, claiming that the Chinese company has “continuously tried to evade” rules first implemented in May. The new restrictions will prevent the telecommunications giant from obtaining chips made by third parties using US software or technology.

The Commerce Department will also add 38 Huawei affiliates to the government’s Entity List, which identifies foreign firms barred from utilizing US technologies.

Describing Huawei as “an arm of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) surveillance state,” Pompeo said that the new measures aimed to protect national security and US citizens’ privacy. He urged US allies to impose similar restrictions on Huawei, claiming they were necessary to help ensure “international stability.”

For months, Washington has pressed its partners to cut business ties with Huawei, claiming that allowing the Chinese firm to help develop their 5G networks would create grave security risks. However, the narrative has received a chilly response from many European states, with countries such as Germany stating that there’s no evidence to support Washington’s concerns.

Last week, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis expressed similar hesitation to cut all ties with Huawei, noting that the issue should be discussed within the EU and that no final decision has yet been made on 5G tenders.

https://www.rt.com/news/498209-pompeo-huawei-blacklist-international-stability/

CBS News Posts Results In Laura Loomer’s Race, DAYS BEFORE ELECTION!

A South Florida CBS affiliate, CBS 12, posted the primary election results for over a half-dozen races last night to their website, days before the final votes are to be counted. Florida’s final absentee ballots and in-person election day voting occurs on Tuesday from 7am to 7pm. Despite this, congressional candidate Laura Loomer, who is running in the Republican primary to take on far-left career politician Lois Frankel, found herself shocked to see that 100% of precincts reporting their tallies late Sunday night.

The “results” showed the establishment candidates facing Loomer with a lion’s share of the votes and the journalist turned candidate barely snagging a few thousand votes. Given the fact that Loomer has built a massive volunteer army and raised over $1,000,000 and spent over $500,000 in the primary, those numbers are statistically impossible. However, if you are looking to suppress excitement among her very dedicated fanbase in the final hours of the election, posting “election results” like this would be one way to demoralize people into staying home and becoming hopeless.

Speaking exclusively to TGP, Loomer blasted CBS12.

CBS12, one of the major local news stations here in Palm Beach County where I’m running for Congress is actively engaging in VOTER SUPPRESSION on their website by posting fake election results! The election is on August 18th! Today is August 16th, yet CBS12’s website claims to have 100% reporting of all precinct votes!

IMPOSSIBLE!

My campaign contacted the station tonight and explained how this is voter suppression, we requested for them to take it down, and they are REFUSING to do so. Call CBS12’s news desk ASAP and ask them why they are posting fake election results to suppress voters ahead of the August 18th Florida Primary election!You can reach them at 561-881-0796.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/cbs-news-posts-results-laura-loomers-race-days-election/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/cbs-news-posts-results-laura-loomers-race-days-election/

Beijing ‘will retaliate’ as no Chinese journalist in US has been granted visa extension since May 8

Washington should immediately correct its mistake and stop persisting with escalation against Chinese journalists working in the United States, Beijing has warned.

No Chinese journalist in the US has been granted a visa extension since Washington limited their stay to 90 days, with an option to extend, on May 8, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters on Monday.

China will take a necessary and legitimate response to safeguard its rights, Zhao said, commenting on Washington’s “wrong actions.” It was not immediately clear what retaliation China might consider.

The spokesman cited “the Cold War mentality and ideological biases” while saying that Washington’s actions have seriously interrupted Chinese journalists reporting in the US, harmed the Chinese media’s reputation and normal people-to-people exchange.

The Trump administration announced in February that it would begin treating five major Chinese state-run media entities with US operations the same as foreign embassies. The next month, the number of Chinese journalists allowed to work at the US offices of Chinese media was slashed from 160 to 100.

In June, the US State Department added four more Chinese media outlets to those it treats as foreign embassies.

In response, China has revoked the press credentials for American journalists from three newspapers.

Some Chinese analysts have urged Beijing to impose visa restrictions on American journalists in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as part of countermeasures.

https://www.rt.com/news/498210-china-journalists-retaliate-extension/

Parents say schools have reported them to child services for neglect if their kids miss online class

Punitive

Some parents in Massachusetts told the Boston Globe they were reported to the state's Department of Children and Families for neglect when their children were absent from remote learning sessions too often in the spring, when they were scrambling to adjust to the new realities of COVID-19.

What happened? When schools around the country closed in March and April, parents were forced to figure out a way to facilitate and assist with online learning for their children while working or taking care of other responsibilities. The schools, in many cases, failed to provide a well-coordinated learning plan for the lockdowns.

Still, dozens of parents interviewed by the Globe say schools reported them for potential neglect because of absences, without regard for the obvious difficulties of the situation. From the Globe:

Massachusetts school officials have reported dozens of families to state social workers for possible neglect charges because of issues related to their children's participation in remote learning classes during the pandemic shutdown in the spring, according to interviews with parents, advocates, and reviews of documents.

In most cases, lawyers and family advocates said, the referrals were made solely because students failed to log into class repeatedly. Most of the parents reported were mothers, and several did not have any previous involvement with social services.

The Globe report cites cases where absences were the result of parents not getting information about how to access the necessary technology, or parents who reached out to the school for assistance in balancing the situation and were not given any help.

In one case, a mother of special-needs children was subjected to a three-week DCF investigation and a visit from a police officer after her autistic 6-year-old son jumped naked into view of the camera while another child was participating in online class. DCF told the mother, Christi Brouder, that the school had reported an adult man exposing himself on camera. The case was eventually dropped, but Brouder told the Globe that now her daughter doesn't want to log in to online class for fear of the family getting in trouble.

If charges of neglect are upheld by DCF, parents could be at risk of having their children removed from their homes. In most of the cases cited by the Globe, DCF rather quickly found no signs of neglect after review.

What do the schools say? The school districts in question told the Globe that reports to DCF are not made solely on the basis of absences, but due to patterns of troubling behavior or circumstances observed during online learning. However, they would not comment on the specifics of the cases cited.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/massachusetts-parents-say-schools-have-reported-them-to-child-services-for-neglect-if-their-kids-miss-online-class

Cops Go Undercover to Catch Pedophile, Bust Fellow Cop Trying to Have Sex with a Child

Hillsborough County, FL — Last month, a detective with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, beginning on July 24, began working undercover on a social media app to ensnare pedophiles looking to have sex with children. During the sting, a pedophile responded to the undercover officer pretending to be a little girl. When the HCSO deputy moved to arrest that pedophile, they discovered he was a fellow police officer.

Sergeant Stephen Utter, 37, with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office was arrested this month for trying to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex. According to investigators, Utter was made immediately aware of the girl’s age before he began to sexually groom her. Luckily, the 14-year-old girl was a cop and not an actual child.

According to authorities, during the conversations online and via text message, Utter sent explicit messages detailing the sexual acts he wished to perform on the juvenile.

Once he’d incriminated himself enough, police moved in to arrest him.

WFLA reports:

When deputies advised the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office of the investigation, MCSO worked with HCSO to arrest Utter.

Utter was arrested and booked on charges of unlawful use of a two-way communications device, transmission of harmful material to a minor and use of computer devices to solicit certain illegal acts.

After his arrest, police issued a canned statement noting how Utter’s actions do not echo the sentiments of other cops in the area.

“The conduct of this sergeant is in no way a reflection of the thousands of deputies across Tampa Bay who are committed to serving their communities with integrity,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister.

“We will not tolerate this predatory behavior from anyone, including a fellow law enforcement officer, as displayed by the quick actions both the Manatee and Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Offices took to arrest this individual.”

Unfortunately, however, cops are caught on a regular basis attempting to or actually committing crimes against children. In fact, TFTP has reported on an officer in this exact same department who committed horrific acts against children. And, thanks to his blue privilege, he avoided jail.

As we reported, a former Manatee County Sheriff’s Lieutenant was sentenced for his sadistic and sickening acts against three children. Officer Dale Couch was arrested after children told authorities what he had done to them — violently sexually abused them.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-go-undercover-to-catch-pedophile-bust-fellow-cop-trying-to-have-sex-with-a-child/

Mexican Judge Drops Child Sex Abuse Charge Since 10-Year-Old ‘Didn’t Enjoy It’

Comments made by a Mexican judge in Jalisco as he dismissed several sex assault charges against a man accused of abusing a 10-year-old are sparking outrage. The suspect, who remains in jail on another charge, is a top police official in Puerto Vallarta.

Jalisco State Judge Jorge Luis Solis Aranda dismissed one charge of corruption of minors filed against Luis Alonso “N” in connection with an alleged sexual assault involving a 10-year-old girl. The judge reportedly claimed that charge did not apply to the case because “the victim did not enjoy” the incident–so she was not “corrupted.” The judge did allow one charge of non-aggravated child abuse to move forward. According to local news outlets, the defendant could request bond since the case now considered less severe.

The case originally began on July 26, when local police officers patrolling the Salitrillo neighborhood in Puerto Vallarta reportedly caught Luis Alonso inside his black VW Golf with a nude 10-year-old girl, Jalisco’s Attorney General’s Office revealed earlier this month. At the time of the initial arrest, the suspect worked as the human resources director of the Puerto Vallarta Municipal Police.

Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro took to social media to address the case. According to Alfaro, he spoke with the head of state courts in Jalisco where he asked that the judge be removed from his post. “He will pay the consequences of his immorality,” Alfaro said regarding the judge.

Alfaro said that the state government would put all the needed resources to keep the suspect in jail and “ensure he gets the punishment he deserves.”

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/08/17/mexican-judge-drops-child-sex-abuse-charge-since-10-year-old-didnt-enjoy-it/

Flu in the Southern Hemisphere has ‘practically disappeared.’

But in the Southern Hemisphere—where winter began to descend nearly two months ago—the annual influx of flu and respiratory virus patients “never came,” the Wall Street Journal’s David Luhnow and Alice Uribe report.

According to Luhnow and Uribe, Chile has recorded 1,134 seasonal respiratory infections so far this year, compared with 20,949 such infections during over the same time period last year. And in the first two weeks of July, which typically is the height of flu season in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile reported no new cases of the flu.

Claudia Cortés, a doctor in Chile, said although physicians “keep checking for the other viruses … all we’re seeing is [Covid-19].” She added, “We were surprised by the decline in the other viruses like influenza. We never dreamed it would practically disappear.”

www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/07/24/coronavirus-restrictions

For the first time in 36 years there will be no flu season in South Africa

www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/investigations/for-the-first-time-in-36-years-there-will-be-no-flu-season-in-south-africa-20200807

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/flu-in-the-southern-hemisphere-has-practically-disappeared/

RFK Jr With Ron Paul: CIA Killed My Father & Uncle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In what is sure to be a historical interview, former Congressman Dr. Ron Paul interviewed attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on his daily Liberty Report program today (Friday August 14, 2020).

While Dr. Paul starts the program by stating that the main reason they were inviting Mr. Kennedy on to program was to discuss vaccines, Dr. Paul gets right into an issue that many Americans have questioned for over 5 decades: What was the truth behind the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the uncle of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, his father, in 1968, and what role did the CIA play in that?

Mr. Kennedy begins by mentioning a book he has written, American Values, which he says documents his family’s almost 75-year battle with the CIA.

He says the fight with the CIA started in the mid 1950s when President Truman asked his grandfather, Joseph Kennedy, to serve on a commission called “The Hoover Commission.”

Their task was to look at the CIA, because the CIA was not originally chartered to engage in paramilitary activities, fixing elections, murdering world leaders, and interfering with the democracies of other countries.

Mr. Kennedy mentioned that the CIA was created with great reluctance by both Democrats and Republicans, because the precursor to the CIA, the “Office of Strategic Services,” a military secret intelligence agency, was liquidated after WWII, because the belief at the time was that secret police organizations were inconsistent with a democracy ruled by a Constitution.

In those days, when Americans thought of secret police, they thought of the “Stasi” (German secret police), or they thought of the “KGB” (Russian secret police), or they thought of the “Gestapo” (Nazi Germany secret police).

So there were debates in Congress when the CIA was being launched, and both Republicans and Democrats did not believe this was something America should be doing.

When the CIA was started, it was supposed to be exclusively an “espionage” program for gathering intelligence. It was not meant to interfere.

But Alan Dulles, the first director of the CIA, apparently had other plans, and soon they were overthrowing democracies in Guatemala, Iran, and all over the world. So when Joseph Kennedy was on the Hoover Commission, he recommended dismantling the CIA.

Mr. Kennedy continues:

Alan Dulles manipulated the law, and did a lot of backroom deals to get these huge secret budgets and began really engaging in all of the mischief. And my grandfather was on a commission that looked at this and saw what they had done.

And when they were overthrowing democracies in Guatemala and Iran and all over the world, he said “we should dismantle it. We should remove the Plans Division,” which was the “dirty tricks” division.

Alan Dulles never forgave him, or my family for that. And when my Uncle came in, and did the Bay of Pigs, he then fired Dulles.

When President Johnson came into the room, in the East Room of the White House, I was standing beside my father when he said to my father that Lee Harvey Oswald had just been killed by Jack Ruby, he told my father and Jackie that, and I said to my father, “Did Jack Ruby love our family?”

And nobody answered that question.

Mr. Kennedy’s father later discovered that Jack Ruby was connected to the Mob and to the CIA. He believed that the CIA killed his brother, President John F. Kennedy.

While Mr. Kennedy states that “you’d be an idiot not to believe that President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy,” he originally did not believe that about his own father’s murder.

He believed that the evidence against Sirhan was overwhelming, until one day Paul Schrade, one of his father’s best friends and who was standing beside his father when he was shot, and took a bullet to his head, told him that his father was not killed by Sirhan, and that he needed to look at the autopsy report.

Mr. Kennedy states that he was reluctant, because he did not want to get into all of the “conspiracy theories” out there regarding his father’s death.

https://healthandmoneynews.wordpress.com/2020/08/16/rfk-jr-with-ron-paul-cia-killed-my-father-uncle/

Google goes to war with Australian press: Web giant launches brazen 'misinformation' campaign warning an end to free internet searches if they are forced to pay for news

Google has launched a brazen attack on the Australian press and threatened to end free web searches after the country's competition watchdog said the tech giant should pay for news content.

Anyone using the search engine in Australia is now confronted by an abrasive yellow

exclamation mark with a link to an 'open letter' which attacks the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The ACCC's draft law - created at the behest of the treasurer Josh Frydenberg - mandates that a sliver of the colossal $6billion ad revenue generated by Google and other tech giants like Facebook, goes to news corporations.

Google has put on hold deals it was negotiating separately with individual publishers as a result of the planned legislation. It suggests the tech company had hoped to avoid being compelled to pay an arbitrary, potentially more expensive sum to media organisations.

The battle between Canberra and Silicon Valley will be watched keenly by governments across the world, not least in London and Washington, which have raised concerns over the 'advertising duopoly' operated by Google and Facebook.

In the United Kingdom, 36.7% of all online advertising revenue is earned by Google and 28% by Facebook. The online advertising market was worth £13.5billion in the UK last year.

http://www.hideoutnow.com/2020/08/google-goes-to-war-with-australian.html

Postmaster general agrees to testify before House panel

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to testify before the House Oversight and reform Committee next Monday about recently implemented cost-cutting measures at the U.S. Postal Service that have sparked fears that some mail-in ballots might not be delivered in time for Election Day.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Monday that DeJoy and Robert Duncan, the chairman of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, had agreed to testify in response to her request the day earlier.

"The American people want their mail, medicines, and mail-in ballots delivered in a timely way, and they certainly do not want drastic changes and delays in the midst of a global pandemic just months before the election," Maloney said.

The hearing will come after the expected House vote on Saturday on legislation authored by Maloney to prevent the Postal Service from implementing changes to operations that it had in place as of January while the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing.

The hearing, which is expected to begin at 10 a.m. Monday, will take place on the same day that Republicans begin their convention to formally nominate President Trump as the party's nominee for the White House.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/512351-postmaster-general-agrees-to-testify-before-house-panel

Kushner says US will not agree to Israeli annexation ‘for some time’

President’s senior adviser and son-in-law tells reporters Trump is committed to ‘holding Israel accountable’ and it will refrain from moving forward on annexing West Bank land

WASHINGTON — Senior White House official Jared Kushner said Monday that US President Donald Trump would not allow Israel to reverse its pledge to hold off on annexing West Bank territory in exchange for normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates.

“President Trump is committed to holding them accountable to it, and Israel has agreed with us that they will not move forward without our consent,” Kushner told reporters during a briefing. “We do not plan to give our consent for some time, as right now the focus has to be on getting this new peace agreement implemented.”

Settler leaders and right-wing legislators have heavily criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for putting aside his annexation proposal as part of the UAE deal.

Netanyahu, however, declared shortly after the announcement that he was not abandoning his annexation plans for the West Bank.

“There is no change to our plans to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, in coordination with the US,” Netanyahu said late Thursday. “I remain committed to that.”

Kushner highlighted Monday that Netanyahu had promised Washington that he would not annex West Bank territory without the White House’s permission.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/kushner-says-us-will-not-consent-to-annexation-for-some-time/

Peddling Influence and Stealing Secrets: Foreign Governments and U.S. Universities

Judicial Watch last month sued the U.S. Department of Education for records of money funneled from foreign governments to American colleges and universities. The numbers are big—billions of dollars—and difficult to pin down, despite federal reporting requirements. The foreign governments often are U.S. adversaries. What are they after?

In some instances, professors are pawns in long running games of technological theft. That’s the case of part-time UCLA Professor Yi-Chi Shih, convicted in Los Angeles in 2019 of trying to steal sensitive microchip technology and ship it to China, where it could be used for fighter jets and missiles.

In other cases, foreign governments—and the Chinese government in particular—are playing a subtler game, attempting to absorb intellectual property without outright theft. That appears to be the case of Harvard Professor Charles Lieber, indicted in June for allegedly making false statements about his work for Wuhan University of China. Lieber is the former chair of Harvard’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department; he’s a leader in the revolutionary field of nanotechnology—the ability to manipulate atoms and molecules across a wide variety of scientific and industrial platforms. Wuhan of course lately is famous as the original source of Covid-19, but Lieber’s arrest has no connection to the virus.

But something big was going on at Wuhan. The indictment notes that from 2012 through 2015, Lieber was paid $50,000 per month, plus $158,0000 in living expenses, plus an award of $1.5 million to set up a research lab. At roughly the same time, he was taking in $15 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department for his work at Harvard.

What did the Chinese want for their money? It seems clear: they wanted to know what Lieber knew—what he was producing for the Americans.

The American grants required disclosure of all research support, financial conflicts of interest, and foreign collaboration. The indictment alleges that Lieber lied to U.S. authorities about his affiliation with Wuhan University and the Chinese “Thousand Talents Program.”

The Justice Department noted in charging Lieber that the Thousand Talents Program is “one of the most prominent Chinese talent recruitment plans designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security.” The program seeks “to lure Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts to bring their knowledge and experience to China, and they often reward individuals for stealing proprietary information.”

https://www.judicialwatch.org/investigative-bulletin/peddling-influence-and-stealing-secrets-foreign-governments-and-u-s-universities/

Washington Post columnist questioned on conflict-of-interest after disclosing son works for Biden

The issue arose after the columnist wrote a praise-filled article about Biden's campaign manager, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, in which, the writer disclosed that her son works on the former vice president's campaign

Karen Tumulty, a columnist at the Washington Post, was scrutinized Sunday for a disclosure in her most recent column – a complimentary profile of Joe Biden's campaign manager – that stated her adult son works for the Biden presidential campaign.

In the third paragraph of the profile, Tumulty wrote Jennifer "O’Malley Dillon, 43, has been transforming what had been an underfinanced, undisciplined and dysfunctional Democratic primary operation into a general-election machine capable of carrying Biden through to the November election. (Disclosure: My adult son works for the Biden campaign.)"

When pressed on social media about the disclosure and questioned about the potential for a conflict-of-interest, Tumulty tweeted, "Fuller disclosure: My adult son has been working for the Biden campaign for a week as a research assistant. I have been covering politics for 40 years. Should I give up covering politics? Or tell my adult son not to pursue a career he wants? Would love advice from other parents."

Tumulty also maintained that her coverage of the Biden campaign over the last year has been "consistent" in both their "criticism" and "praise." Prior to her role as a columnist, Tumulty spent years as a reporter at the newspaper.

Former Politico reporter Meredith Shiner tweeted in defense of Tumulty, "honestly a research assistant is not an important or powerful enough position to give any sort of access or favor. Also if it’s oppo research, we all see it said out loud every day. And if it’s policy research, we all see what’s failing. Call us back when he’s running a campaign."

https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/washington-post-columnist-questioned-conflict-interest-after-disclosing-son

Ex-IDF Intelligence official: Russian cyber, disinformation trends converge with vaccine

Russian President Vladimir Putin is interested in depicting his country as winning the vaccine race.

Russia is using cyber and disinformation to bolster its standing regarding everything surrounding the issue of a coronavirus vaccine, former IDF Intelligence officer Lt.-Col. (ret.) Daniel Rakov said at a recent cyber and intelligence conference.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is interested in depicting his country as winning the vaccine race and is using hacking and social-media campaigns to discredit competing vaccines, he said during the video conference organized by the Israeli Intelligence and Heritage Commemoration Center (IICC).

Russia is hacking vaccine research from the US, Canada and England while acting as if it is ahead, said Rakov, who is an Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) fellow. All three countries have accused Moscow of hacking.

“Russia does not view cyber as a sphere that stands on its own, but rather as a part of the information realm” where it is operating to achieve broader aims, he said.

Moscow’s declaration that it was the first to produce a vaccine was “an attempt to present itself as the victor in the vaccine race,” Rakov said. “There is significant criticism worldwide regarding the registration of the vaccine, which it appears does not meet the accepted standards.”

Part of Russia’s need to present itself as the vaccine victor is actually to cover up that it is “viewed as lacking technologically domestically and globally” in this arena, he said.

Regarding the hacking, Putin was not after vaccine research to move his scientists along, but rather after embarrassing information about competing vaccines, Rakov said.

The idea was to roll out information about other countries’ vaccines violating their own standards and failures in early trials to discredit them during periods where those states would be presenting their vaccines as more reliable than Moscow’s rushed solution, he said.

Russia’s hacking was likely “an attempt to obtain information about insufficiencies in other vaccines in order to weaken their credibility for when there is a competition,” Rakov said. “It seems only information about failures was stolen, and they did not actively undermine” development of competing vaccines.

https://www.jpost.com/international/ex-idf-intelligence-official-russian-cyber-disinformation-trends-converge-with-vaccine-638977

Puerto Rico Legislator Indicted for Theft, Bribery, and Fraud

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/puerto-rico-legislator-indicted-theft-bribery-and-fraud

Department of Justice Publishes Proposed Regulations Articulating the Registration Requirements for Sex Offenders under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-publishes-proposed-regulations-articulating-registration-requirements-sex

DNI Ratcliffe: China interfering in our upcoming election

“China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation – economically, militarily and technologically. That includes threats of election influence and interference,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told Fox News in a statement.

“China is concerned that President Trump’s reelection would lead to a continuation of policies that they perceive to be ‘anti-China,’” Ratcliffe explained, noting that the intelligence community has briefed “hundreds of members of Congress” to raise their concerns about China “and its increased efforts to impact the U.S. policy climate in its favor.”

“Fair and free elections are a bedrock of American democracy, and the IC remains vigilant against the various activities by China, as well as other threat countries and actors, which seek to affect our electoral process,” Ratcliffe said.

https://saraacarter.com/dni-ratcliffe-china-interfering-in-our-upcoming-election/