Delaware Dem Pardoned Man Charged in Plot to Abduct Governor Whitmer

Delaware's Democratic governor John Carney pardoned one of the men who was allegedly involved in the plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer (D.), Delaware's News Journal reported.

Carney, who once worked in Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's Senate office, pardoned Barry Gordon Croft Jr. in April 2019 for a series of felony charges he received in the mid- to late-1990s. Federal authorities arrested Croft in New Jersey last week. He is one of six men facing federal conspiracy charges after FBI investigators found they had hatched a plan to abduct Whitmer from her summer home.

Though he dismissed older charges against Croft—including those for possessing a firearm while commissioning a felony, assault, and burglary—Carney called the latest charges against Croft "disturbing" and said he should be punished "to the fullest extent of the law."

"The charges brought in Michigan are disturbing, and everyone charged in this plot should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," a statement from Carney's office reads. "This is also another warning sign about the growing threat of violence and radicalization in our politics."

The FBI charged Croft and five others on Oct. 8 for an abduction conspiracy after finding the group had met throughout the summer and planned to abduct Whitmer at her vacation home. The affidavit listing the charges named Croft in particular for allegedly constructing an explosive to use during the nefarious mission. State officials also charged seven others involved in the plot who are associated with the anti-government Wolverine Watchmen group.

Croft served a three-year prison sentence in a Delaware prison from 1997 to 2000 after pleading guilty to a felony firearm charge. He applied to Delaware's Board of Pardons in 2018—the same year the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics released a special report on state prison recidivism rates, which found that 83 percent of those who served time in state prisons were re-arrested within the first nine years of release from their first prison sentence.

Carney approved Croft's pardon in 2019. Mat Marshall, a spokesman for Delaware attorney general Kathy Jennings (D.), said the state Board of Pardons recommended Croft's pardon because the charges against him were more than 20 years old. In a statement, Marshall told the Journal that state prosecutors thought Croft had "gotten himself on the right track" but now regret their decision and said prosecutors would not have pardoned him if they had known "what the future held."

Carney was one of the first to endorse Biden for his 2020 presidential run. Biden has also twice endorsed Carney for his gubernatorial race, first in 2016 and again this week.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/delaware-dem-pardoned-man-charged-in-plot-to-abduct-governor-whitmer/

American Contractor Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Steal Government Equipment from U.S. Military Base in Afghanistan

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/american-contractor-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-steal-government-equipment-us-military-base

Johnson, Grassley to FBI: Deliver all text messages of Andrew McCabe

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, demanding all documents and texts pertaining to the former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

“On October 9, 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) produced 24 pages of text messages from former-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, some of which had already been produced to us years ago,” reads the letter of two senators.

“This stands in stark contrast to the more than 300 pages of McCabe text messages that the FBI made available for review in a reading room at the Department of Justice.”

Johnson and Grassley said the text messages belonging to McCabe that the FBI did produce “include notable information that is highly relevant to several aspects of the Committees’ oversight efforts.”

https://saraacarter.com/johnson-grassley-to-fbi-deliver-all-text-messages-of-andrew-mccabe/

Court to Look into UK Government’s Concealed COVID-19 Spending

Despite a law requiring the U.K. government to publish details on all COVID-19 contracts, roughly £3 billion (US$3.92bn) doled out to private companies remains concealed, according to the Good Law Project, a non-profit organization that takes on public interest legal cases.

Personal Protective EquipmentDetails on billions worth of COVID-19 public procurement contracts have not been released by the U.K. government, according to the Good Law Project (Photo: UK Department for International Development / CC BY 2.0) The organization, along with members of Parliament from multiple parties, launched judicial review proceedings against the government on Sunday for failing to disclose adequate information on its contract recipients within a required 30-day period.

“The Government’s persistent failure to abide by this law makes it impossible for these contracts to be properly scrutinized,” it said in a press release.

“When the Government is deliberately keeping us in the dark during a public health crisis, there’s no option but to press for transparency through the courts,” wrote Caroline Lucas, a MP and former leader of the U.K.’s Green Party. She, along with Labour MP Debby Abrahams and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran issued the judicial review proceedings together with the Good Law Project.

The Good Law Project estimates that the government has given roughly £11 billion ($14.38bn) to private companies for COVID-19 related tenders, and despite the fact that some of these contracts remain concealed, information that is publicly available has already raised its concern.

“Huge sums of public money have been awarded to companies with no discernible expertise. Sometimes the main qualification seems to be a political connection with key government figures,” said the organization’s director, Jolyon Maugham QC.

The legal action comes following reports last week that PPE Medpro, a company run by a former business associate of Baroness Michelle Mone, a conservative peer, won a £122 million ($159.4m) contract to supply millions of medical gowns to the U.K.’s National Health Service.

The company that received the contract had been set up just 44 days before it was awarded, and the tender was not advertised to other bidders.

This appears to be more than just an isolated incident, as reported by OpenDemocracy, which discovered last Friday that a Conservative Party councillor, Steve Dechan, received a £156 million ($203.8m) no-bid contract to import PPE from China, despite the fact that his small company was unprofitable.

“When one politically-connected company is awarded uncompetitive public contracts it smells a bit off, but when this happens again and again it reeks of cronyism,” Steve Goodrich, a senior research manager at Transparency International told the outlet.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13239-court-to-look-into-uk-government-s-concealed-covid-19-spending

Olive Branches and Nuclear Bombs in Israel

According to the Christian website St Basil’s the olive tree “is a symbol of peace, prosperity, health, wellness, abundance and food.” And Israel Olive Bond concurs, observing that it “has been an important component of Jewish and Israeli culture throughout history” being “mentioned frequently in the Bible in the context of blessings, fruitfulness, and health” and “eventually became linked to the concept of putting down roots in the land.”

Which is no doubt why Israelis continue destroying Palestinian olive trees.

According to independent monitors some 4,000 Palestinian olive trees were destroyed by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the period January-July 2020 and in August an Israeli military officer, Colonel Eitan Abrahams, was reported as saying that the destruction was justified “for the safety of settlers,” because the trees protect Palestinian gunmen or stone-throwers.

The Western media rarely mention anything like this about Israel/Palestine, because it is now generally accepted in America and Europe that any report or comment that might place Israel in a poor light is to be avoided. The influence wielded by pro-Israel organisations and lobbyists in the essentially pro-Israel UK Parliament and the equally supportive U.S. Congress is such that there can be no time allotted to impartial discussion or democratic debate on such matters as destruction of olive trees by illegal Israeli colonisers on Palestinian land.

It is notable that the current British Minister for Home Affairs, Priti Patel, was sacked by former prime minister Theresa May because she told lies about a visit she made to Israel and was promptly appointed to her position of great responsibility by May’s successor, Boris Johnson, he who declares himself to be “a passionate defender of Israel.” Across the Atlantic, the amounts of Israel Lobby money given to U.S. politicians are staggering, and as the independent Clingendael Institute notes, “in August 2019, President Donald Trump declared himself ‘history’s most pro-Israel U.S. president’ while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Trump as ‘the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House’.” Leaping on the Zionist bandwagon, presidential contender Joe Biden announced that “As President, Joe Biden will continue to ensure that the Jewish State, the Jewish people, and Jewish values have the unbreakable support of the United States.”

It cannot be expected that Britain or America will ever withdraw the olive branches of generous backing that they extend to Israel, or that they would ever condemn destruction of Palestinian olive trees or seizure of Palestinian lands; but German and France are not unconditionally supportive of Israeli dominion and in July issued a statement saying that “any annexation of Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 would be a violation of international law and imperil the foundations of the peace process. We would not recognize any changes to the 1967 borders that are not agreed by both parties in the conflict.” They won’t have the slightest effect on Israel’s continuing illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory, but at least there is someone out there who cares a bit about Palestinians.

But nobody cares about Israel’s nuclear weapons.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/13/olive-branches-and-nuclear-bombs-in-israel/

State Department to Crack Down on Foreign Influence at U.S. Think Tanks

The State Department on Tuesday will move to crack down on the foreign funding of American think tanks, which has skyrocketed over the past decade.

Though disclosure is not a legal requirement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is requesting that think tanks reveal their foreign donors, according to prepared remarks obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

"To protect the integrity of civil society institutions, the Department requests henceforth that think tanks and other foreign policy organizations that wish to engage with the Department disclose prominently on their websites funding they receive from foreign governments, including state-owned or state-operated subsidiary entities," Pompeo will say in a statement.

The move from Foggy Bottom comes as some of the country's most prominent think tanks, including the Atlantic Council and the Brookings Institution, have been dogged by reports detailing the influence of foreign money on their scholarship. A Free Beacon report earlier this year detailed the influence of the Turkish government at the Atlantic Council, which has removed experts from panels at the behest of the Erdogan government. A 2014 New York Times report cited experts testifying to the influence that Qatar, the small Middle East nation, had gained at the organization with a $14.8 million donation.

Those reports made clear how foreign governments and state-controlled enterprises use their financial support for American think tanks to gin up favorable news coverage and suppress criticism—and to launder their reputations and those of key business interests through partnerships with well-respected U.S. organizations.

Pompeo is expected to home in on the attempts by American adversaries Russia and China to gain a foothold in the United States through donations to U.S. think tanks, arguing that they "seek to exert influence over U.S. foreign policy through lobbyists, external experts, and think tanks."

"We hope one day soon that U.S. efforts to promote free and open dialogue about economic and personal liberty, equal citizenship, the rule of law, and authentic civil society, will be possible in places such as China and Russia," Pompeo is expected to say.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-department-to-crack-down-on-foreign-influence-at-u-s-think-tanks/

3 Russian Law Enforcement Officers Killed In Anti-Terror Operation In Chechnya’s Grozny

On October 13th, the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) reported the deaths of three law enforcement officers during a special operation in Grozny.

Four militants were eliminated in the operation.

“During the shootout, four militants were neutralized. Unfortunately, it was not possible to avoid losses among the forces of law and order; during the shootout, three law enforcement officers were killed,” the NAC information center said.

According to the report, on October 13th, during the conduct of operational-search activities on the territory of the Oktyabrsky district of the city of Grozny, the security authorities, together with the Rosgvardia special forces and the police, discovered a group of militants

“In order to prevent the commission of terrorist acts and to ensure the safety of citizens, the head of the FSB department for the Chechen Republic made a decision to conduct a counter-terrorist operation and introduce an appropriate legal regime.

The forces of the operational headquarters blocked the militants in a private house,” the NAC information center said.

On an offer to surrender to the authorities, the militants opened fire from automatic weapons.

Currently, the site of the clash is being inspected and the necessary investigative actions are being carried out.

Earlier, an informed source reported to Interfax about the liquidation of four militants during a special operation in Grozny.

There’s been issues in Russia with militants in the past, especially in a region near Chechnya – Kabardino-Balkarian, 15 years ago there were large clashes with militants in the nearby region – in the town of Nalchik.

It even took place on the exact same date – October 13th.

On October 13, 2005, there was an armed attack on the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, the city of Nalchik. The number of militants who attacked the city was at least 250 people.

https://southfront.org/3-russian-law-enforcement-officers-killed-in-anti-terror-operation-in-chechnyas-grozny/

Tycoon with Close Ties to Belarus Dictator Used Time Travel to Evade Sanctions

In December 2010, Alexander Lukashenko celebrated his fourth reelection as the president of Belarus. The fight was far from fair: Lukashenko’s rivals argued that the dictator had abused his power to secure the win. The international community deemed the election flawed, and Belarusians in Minsk and other cities took to the streets demanding Lukashenko step down. The protesters were met with violence by police, and the strongman muscled himself into control of the country.

Fast forward a decade and that scene is being repeated. Western democracies have also replicated their response to the infamous election of 2010, imposing sanctions against officials and efforts against those directly responsible for the bloodshed.

But a review of documentation from the defunct Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and other offshore providers shows how easy it is to evade the financial restrictions. At least one key Lukashenko insider managed to do just that with some creative paperwork courtesy of two now-defunct company service providers, who lied to investigators on his behalf.

The Panama Papers were a trove of documents leaked from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that handled the paperwork for thousands of offshore companies. The files were released by Süddeutsche Zeitung, shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and reported on by media outlets around the world.

OCCRP’s latest investigation, based on the Panama Papers leak, shows how businessman Anatoly Ternavsky, a close Lukashenko ally, used secret offshore jurisdictions and proxies to maintain his assets in the U.K. despite the fact that he was sanctioned by the European Union between 2012 and 2014.

Ternavsky did not respond to questions from reporters.

🔗

Lukashenko-Style Democracy

In September, Lukashenko held a secret inauguration for himself, even though the results of the August election were still disputed. The dictator — derisively called Bat’ka, or “father” in Belarusian — has long employed suppression and violence against opponents and activists.

During Lukashenko’s 2020 re-election bid, two of his main opponents, Viktor Babariko and Sergei Tikhanovsky, were arrested in a move that was condemned by the European Commission.

Lukashenko then claimed a landslide victory against Tikhanovsky’s wife, Svetlana, who took up her husband's mantle as the leading opposition candidate following his arrest. Another prominent opposition figure, Valery Tsepkalo, fled the country fearing arrest.

Lukashenko claimed that he won 80 percent of the vote, but independent exit polls showed that Tikhanovskaya was actually outpolling the longtime strongman.

Tens of thousands took to the streets to protest the suspicious outcome and were met with a brutal crackdown. Belarusian citizens, who have held daily demonstrations since the election, continue to face widespread arrests and beatings.

Show

Beating the Clock

investigations/Cascade-Minsk.jpg

Credit: Belsat

Anatoly Ternavsky's "Cascade" development project in Minsk, Belarus.

Anatoly Ternavsky, a Ukraine-born Russian citizen, worked in the petroleum extraction industry in the Soviet Union. In the late 1990s, when Belarus got access to cheap Russian oil that it could process and re-export as part of a trade union treaty with its resource-rich neighbor, Ternavsky was quick to see the potential. By 2006, his company Univest-M, which started off as the exclusive dealer for Russian state oil company Rosneft, was Belarus’ third largest taxpayer. Today, Univest-M estimates its own investment portfolio — which includes production of building materials, construction, and hospitality industry investments — at $1 billion.

Both Ternavsky and Univest-M were targets of EU sanctions in March 2012, with additional details added in January 2014. The decisions described the businessman, who until 2011 had employed Lukashenko’s daughter-in-law, as “close to family members” of the Belarusian dictator, who was increasingly becoming an international pariah for his crackdowns on opposition.

Ternavsky was accused of financing Belarus’ problematic Interior Ministry, as well as state television and radio, while his company was named as a partner of Lukashenko’s President’s Sports Club. These close connections gave Ternavsky access to the country’s oil and real estate development sectors, according to the EU’s resolution. “Business activities on this scale would not be possible in Belarus without the approval of the Lukashenka regime,” the decision concluded.

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/tycoon-with-close-ties-to-belarus-dictator-used-time-travel-to-evade-sanctions

Kamala Harris lied on her Financial Disclosures and is connected to multiple campaign finance violations

Kamala Harris neglected to include all her financial information in her Financial Disclosure Reports(FDR) required by the Senate. Since her first day in the Senate until 7/8/2019 she neglected to disclose one of her pension plans. That plan is named “Legislatures Retirement System”.

It wasn’t until 7/8/2019 when she finally decided to disclose the pension plan.

While filing her FDR that was required of her at the time, she filed amended FDR’s for the years of 2015. 2016, 2017, 2018. The amended version filed far past the allowed deadlines. Years past.

The new amended versions now include the pension plan.

If a Senator makes a error or mistakenly leaves something out of their FDR’s, they are allowed to amend their disclosure report. They are expected to have the amendment filed that same year with a reasonable excuse.

This isn’t the case with Harris. Each year she made amendments to her FDR’s she neglected to include the Pension plan. She filed at least 8 times in 4 years and didn’t include the pension plan. She really doesn’t have an excuse for her negligence.

The following images are screenshots of pages from three current amended FDR’s.

Because of the size of the files I’ve only included pages from the reports that show the pension plan. For the same reason I’ve also left out the original FDR’s. Not to worry because I”ve included links to the original FDR’s, amended FDR’s along with sources to everything mentioned here today. These can be found at the bottom of the page.

As you can see all of these were filed at the same time and day in 2019.

It’s important to understand that a Senator can be charged with a crime if they fail to report any required information.

Having to amend the FDR every year makes a person question her motives. Withholding information then adding it on 4 years later is criminal.

The following is a basic overview of some of the Financial Disclosure rules.

“Public disclosure of a public official’s personal financial interest is often considered the key component to an effective code of conduct. The drafters of the original Senate Code of Official Conduct in the 95th Congress considered “full and complete disclosure” to be the heart of the Code of Conduct. Pursuant to statute and Senate rules, Members, officers, certain employees of the Senate (including fellows and government employees detailed to the Senate), and Senate candidates are required to file comprehensive public financial disclosure reports. The Senate has required public reporting by statute and by Senate Rule since 1978.”

https://www.dcclothesline.com/2020/10/13/kamala-harris-lied-on-her-financial-disclosures-and-is-connected-to-multiple-campaign-finance-violations/

Proposed Reform to US Espionage Act Would Create Public Interest Defense

Legislation proposed in Congress would amend the United States Espionage Act and create a public interest defense for those prosecuted under the law.

“A defendant charged with an offense under section 793 or 798 [in the U.S. legal code] shall be permitted to testify about their purpose for engaging in the prohibited conduct,” according to a draft of the bill Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard introduced.

Such a reform would make it possible for whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Reality Winner, Terry Albury and Daniel Hale to inform the public why they disclosed information without authorization to the press.

The legislation called the Protect Brave Whistleblowers Act is supported by Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.

“If this long-overdue revision of the 1917 Espionage Act had been law half a century ago, I myself could have had a fair trial for releasing the Pentagon Papers in 1971: justice under law unavailable to me and to every other national security whistleblower indicted and prosecuted since then,” Ellsberg declared.

Defending Rights And Dissent (DRD), a group committed to the freedom of political expression, backs the legislation as well.

According to DRD Policy Director Chip Gibbons, there have only ever been three proposals for reforming the 1917 law for the better.

In fact, this bill is the second Espionage Act reform legislation to be proposed in Congress this year, but the previous proposal introduced in March by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and California Representative Ro Khanna included no public interest defense for whistleblowers.

A bill summary stated, “Every single person convicted to date under the Espionage Act would still have been convicted had this bill been law at the time they were prosecuted.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/10/12/proposed-reform-to-us-espionage-act-would-create-public-interest-defense/

Tesla Cuts Prices In China For The Seventh Time This Year

Tesla has once again cut prices for cars in China. This time, the company slashed prices for its longer-range and performance Model S by 23,000 yuan for each model, according to Bloomberg. Including today's cuts, it is the seventh price cut for Tesla in China alone this year, according to GLJ Research's Gordon Johnson.

Perhaps the company's newly released September sales numbers in China were the driving force behind the cuts. As Johnson notes in his latest report on the company from Tuesday, October 13, Tesla actually lost market share in China and unsold inventory doubled. Johnson writes:

TSLA sold 11,329 made in China (“MIC”) Model 3 cars in Sep. 2020, bringing quarterly totals to 34,333. This compares to 30,494 in 2Q20, a growth of +12.6%, while production grew 13.2%, and unsold inventory roughly doubled q/q (i.e., up +75.5% q/q). Interestingly, while the Chinese NEV market grew 26% m/m in Sep. 2020 (link), TSLA’s MIC M3 sales were down -2% over the same time frame (TSLA’s Model 3 MIC market share fell from 10.5% in Aug. to 8.3% in Sep.).

As Johnson notes, the company did stop production the last 10 days of September in China, but still saw its inventory nearly double. Johnson says this could be why the company plans on exporting cars it has made in China to the Asia Pacific and Europe.

Meanwhile as Tesla looks to stoke demand in Asia, and while the market continues to ascribe a valuation to Tesla as though it is not a traditional auto manufacturer, people can't help pointing out the obvious: that they are still behind legacy automakers like GM. For example, GM has sold more than 2x the amount of EVs in China than Tesla did last month:

Johnson concluded, stating about the price cuts: "That’s quite a few price cuts for a company that is said to be supply constrained (by definition, if you continuously have to lower the price of the item you’re selling, and have failed to sell out production for three straight months and running, you have a demand problem… not a supply problem)."

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/demand-hell-tesla-cuts-prices-china-seventh-time-year

The Correlation Between U.S. Democracy and CIA-Sponsored Terror in Cuba’s Case

Fidel Castro had chartered a course for Cuba to ensure the island’s complete liberation from U.S. colonial influence and interference. Participating at the UN’s Sixth Committee during a debate on “Ways to Eliminate International Terrorism”, Cuban Ambassador to the UN Ana Rodriguez reminded that the island has been a target for U.S. terror as a result; the latter sponsoring Cuban dissidents such as Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, to carry out attacks against Cuba.

October marks the 44th anniversary since the explosion of a Cubana Airlines flight off the West Coast of Barbados, in which 73 people from Cuba, North Korea and Guyana lost their lives. Only the terrorists who planted the bombs, Freddy Lugo and Hernan Ricardo Lozano who were both Venezuelan, were arrested and prosecuted in Trinidad, implicating both Bosch and Carriles in their testimony.

The Venezuelan government was aware of Bosch’s activities in Venezuela and allowed him to fundraise for terror activities, on condition that such activities would not take place in the country. While in Venezuela, Bosch also alluded to his involvement in the killing of Chilean economist and diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington – a crime which forced the U.S. to rethink its overt support for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Protected by the CIA, Bosch and Carriles savoured their impunity. The terror attack was communicated to Bosch by Lozano, who telephoned the former, saying, “A bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff.”

Declassified CIA documents reveal the CIA had knowledge of the plan to blow up a Cubana aircraft as early as June 1976, and that despite knowledge of the plan, the agency did not alert the Cuban government. Carriles had joined the CIA in 1961 and was trained by the agency in demolitions, while also becoming a paramilitary trainer in the same decade. By 1974, the CIA had terminated Carriles’s recruitment, although he retained a role as informant until 1976.

U.S. double standards when it comes to terrorism has much to do with its interpretation of democracy, and how the concept can be used to facilitate exploitation and power. A country deemed undemocratic merely for following a different system of politics and governance, such as Cuba, is subject to U.S.-backed terror in the name of democracy. In this way, the U.S. government exempts itself and its actions from the terror classification.

The Cubana Airlines explosion took place within a context of perpetual U.S. sabotage against Cuba. Since 1959, the U.S. applied different tactics to defeat the Cuban Revolution – 5,780 terror actions against Cuba were carried out by the imperialist power between 1959 and 1997, which include bombings, biological warfare, economic sanctions, and support for paramilitary groups. While the Bay of Pigs invasion will remain known as the most overt CIA-backed operation to bring down Fidel Castro, the U.S. is embroiled in a process of destroying a revolution in a country which has also revolutionised education and which will not willingly subjugate itself to external pressure.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/13/correlation-between-us-democracy-and-cia-sponsored-terror-in-cuba-case/

Military Situation In Syria On October 13, 2020 (Map Update)

A brief overview of recent developments in Syria:

SDF carried out a security operation in the Dhiban and Hawaiyj towns arresting 19 ISIS members;

An explosive device has detonated in an SDF military vehicle in the vicinity of the town of Dhiban;

SAA artillery shelled Turkish-backed forces positions in the villages of Ziyara and Tal Wasit;

Turkish-backed forces artillery shelled SAA positions in the Kafr Nubl;

A member of the SAA Military Security Branch in Daraa was assassinated by unknown gunmen in the town of Jaleen in the western countryside of Daraa;

SDF and US-led Coalition forces stormed Al-Madinah village in eastern Al-Shaddadi town, arresting 4 persons.

https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-syria-on-october-13-2020-map-update/

>>11054174

Israel, DS and the bankers are being exposed!

"now they suck"

namefag bakers are SAD

Chuck Schumer Demands Amy Coney Barrett Pledge to Recuse Herself from ‘Any Cases Involving the 2020 Election’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday demanded that Judge Amy Coney Barrett pledge to recuse herself from “any cases involving the 2020 election.”

During the second day of confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nominee, Schumer took to social media, demanding that Barrett “immediately pledge to recuse herself from any cases involving the 2020 election.”

“She is refusing to stand up to President [Donald] Trump,” he concluded:

Judge Barrett must immediately pledge to recuse herself from any cases involving the 2020 election.

She is refusing to stand up to President Trump.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 13, 2020

Barrett told lawmakers that she has not made any commitments to the White House on how she would rule on certain cases and stressed that she never had a conversation with Trump on potential disputes, particularly involving the upcoming presidential election.

During a line of questioning from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Barrett explained that she would not comment on pending cases on both Obamacare and voter fraud, because it would effectively make her a “legal pundit”:

Barrett refused to articulate her view on the president having unilateral authority to delay an election, triggering many on the left.

“If that question ever came before me, I would need to hear arguments from the litigants and read briefs and consult with my law clerks and talk to my colleagues and go through the opinion-writing process,” Barrett said, adding that judges should approach cases “thoughtfully and with an open mind.”

“If I gave off-the-cuff answers then I would be basically a legal pundit, and I don’t think we want judges to be legal pundits,” Barrett said.

Schumer continued to push his party’s narratives on social media throughout Tuesday’s hearing, warning that a vote for Barrett is “a vote to take health care from millions.”

“It’s a vote to vastly curtail women’s reproductive freedoms,” he added:

Judge Barrett’s record clearly shows that she would vote to strike down the ACA and overturn Roe.

A vote for Judge Barrett is a vote to take health care from millions.

It’s a vote to vastly curtail women’s reproductive freedoms.#WhatsAtStake

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 13, 2020

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/13/chuck-schumer-demands-amy-coney-barrett-pledge-recuse-herself-any-cases-involving-2020-election/

Chuck is PANICKING

Sean Spicer Book Excerpt: Revealed: All the Family Ties Between the Elite and the Establishment Press

Just before the 2020 Democratic primary debate season kicked off, the Democratic National Committee announced its decision to bar Fox News from hosting a primary debate. DNC chair Tom Perez had the audacity to point to “the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration, and Fox News.”

This was laughable at best. Have you ever noticed that the left tends to accuse the right of the very crimes they themselves are most guilty of committing? Those on the left are always keen to point out relationships that exist between politicians, their families, the media, and corporations. Interestingly enough, it’s very rare that they do it themselves.

If you listen to many in the media, every politician is supposedly influenced by every donation they take. Most reporters and pundits are quick to point out the connection between a donor, a donation, and a vote passed or an action taken; however, they will swear that their editorials, op-eds, and advertisements have no influence on them. Does anyone actually buy that? Ask your- self this: If you see that some industry or association is buying a $10,000+ ad in the middle of a newsletter or story, wouldn’t you be skeptical of whether or not it has some bearing on current or future topics the outlet will cover? It’s amazing that we’re supposed to assume that politicians have to be corrupt but media outlets are as pure as the driven snow.

The media frequently calls out conflicts of interest with respect to politicians as well as politicians’ families and personal friends. However, they certainly ignore the giant revolving door that exists within their circles. It’s a perfect illustration of “do as I say, not as I do.”

We’re supposed to think it’s cute when CNN’s Chris Cuomo has his brother, New York Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo, on his weeknight show. The relationship between the brothers undoubtedly influences the network’s coverage of Governor Cuomo and the crisis. During the height of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, the younger Cuomo would have his brother on his show almost daily. Rarely did he challenge him on the accusations regarding his brother’s poor handling of the soaring number of deaths in New York’s nursing homes. At one point, Chris even admitted on-air he could not be objective when it came to covering his brother. He was simply amazing. But let’s make sure we are clear, Fox and President Trump have an “inappropriate relationship” but Cuomo on Cuomo is nothing but straight-up news for the very network that defines itself as “the most trusted name in news.”

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/10/13/exclusive-sean-spicer-book-excerpt-revealed-all-the-family-ties-between-the-elite-and-the-establishment-press/

WTO OKs $4B In EU Tariffs In Boeing Subsidies Dispute

The U.S. won a parallel case that granted permission to impose $7.5 billion in tariffs on EU goods because of subsidies to Airbus

The WTO decisions are expected to serve as a basis for renewed trade talks

The EU had sought $8.5 billion in annual tariffs

The World Trade Organization on Tuesday gave the European Union the go-ahead to impose as much as $4 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods in the dispute over subsidies given to Boeing.

The retaliatory tariffs stem from a complaint filed 16 years ago and follows a parallel case the U.S. filed against the EU over tariffs to Airbus subsidies that resulted in permission to the U.S. to impose as much as $7.5 billion in tariffs on European planes, wine, cheese and other products.

Tuesday’s decision, however, does not go into effect immediately. The EU still needs to ask for the authority to impose the levies and submit a list of products to be affected.

The Boeing subsidies – a tax break granted by the state of Washington – have since been rescinded. The break was worth $100 million a year. Airbus, however, contends Boeing still is receiving preferential tax treatment.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU will work with the U.S. to decide on the next steps.

“Our strong preference is for a negotiated settlement,” Dombrovskis said.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said the company would support the negotiating process.

“It is time to find a solution now so that tariffs can be removed on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said in a press release.

The EU had sought $8.5 billion in annual tariffs while the U.S. argued tariffs should be kept to less than $412 billion.

“The arbitrator determined that the level of countermeasures ‘commensurate with the degree and nature of the adverse effects determined to exist’ amounts to $3.99 million per annum,” the WTO ruled. “Therefore, the arbitrator concluded that the European Union may request authorization from the DSB [Dispute Settlement Body] to take countermeasures with respect to the United States … at a level not exceeding, in total, $3.99 million annually.”

https://www.ibtimes.com/wto-oks-4b-eu-tariffs-boeing-subsidies-dispute-3061455

How to Secure Your Vote and Minimize the Impact of Zombie Voters

I didn’t mean to fall off the edge of the world, but in my personal life, September started weird and continued strange, and so far October has continued the wild ride. Which pretty much defines 2020, right?

And speaking of 2020, and it being an election year, I’ve been feeling a bit hopeless about November.

Sure, I think we, the non-Marxists, have a good chance at winning by a historic margin. However, allowing mail-in ballots to trickle in means a win by almost any margin is meaningless.

Heck, they’ve told us what they intend to do in no uncertain terms by proclaiming the “red mirage” theory: at first, it will look like Trump won in a landslide, and then as votes trickle in, it will be obvious that Biden won.

People are amused with this theory because they think this means the Democrats consider their own followers too incompetent to vote properly and on time.

I’m going to assume these people aren’t from Colorado and never took a close look at Boulder, where voting irregularities proliferate.

So, we get to 2020 and we have the Democrats – after instigating, with the help of their pet media, lockdowns that destroyed the economy – running their spokes-zombie Biden as a stalking horse for the unhinged left of the party who are not ashamed to call themselves communists.

And they’re not even campaigning, not really, nor are they bothering to publish even halfway credible polls. What they’re doing instead is planning what they’ll do once they fraud themselves in: open the borders, finance Iran’s terrorists, become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the PRC, all the while making sure what we can never again vote ourselves in—by any means necessary.

If that future appeals to you, carry on. This post is not for you.

However, if you have that sick feeling in your stomach, like you’re tied to the train tracks and the train is coming in… read on.

Sure. It might be inevitable, and no one is saying to let the boot stamp the human face forever. However, isn’t it worth at the very least to push to not let it come to that?

I mean, having seen what Trump did—in four years despite fierce opposition—there’s a good chance he cleans things up enough in the next four years that every election isn’t a Flight 93 Election, where we must once more attempt to save our Republic from the terrorists who highjacked it.

How to get there is the problem, of course. To say the deck is stacked against us by the least secure system of elections in the civilized world (not making this up. Research it) is an understatement.

So, what can we do to secure our votes, as much as we can, against the hordes of zombie voters?

So at least we have a clear conscience in terms of having done all we could?

https://pjmedia.com/election/sarah-hoyt/2020/10/12/how-to-secure-your-vote-and-minimize-the-impact-of-zombie-voters-n1041830