White House Approves Three Arms Sales To Taiwan As China's 'Retaliation' Threats Escalate

Multiple sources have told Reuters that the Trump administration is proceeding with the sale of three weapons packages to Taiwan, a move resulting in a formal threat of retaliation based on statements of the Chinese embassy in D.C.

This follows September reports that the US was looking at no less than seven different weapons systems to Taiwan, and now Congress has been officially notified about three of these by the White House.

They include long-range missiles made by Boeing, a Lockheed Martin produced truck-based rocket launcher, and external sensor pods for F-16 fighter jets. These are expected to be the first of more to come.

Reuters further hinted at what may be next for State Department approval:

Notifications for the sale of other weapons systems, including large, sophisticated aerial drones, land-based Harpoon anti-ship missiles and underwater mines, to deter amphibious landings, have yet to reach Capitol Hill, but these were expected soon, the sources said.

Predictably this was immediately met with a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson slamming the arms transfers as a violation of China's sovereignty and security, and a further call for the deals to be immediately canceled, accompanied by a vow of "retaliation" - though without specifying the form that would take.

At last week's annual US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference, which was reported as taking place virtually, US officials had urged the Taipei to approve more for defense spending.

In comments at a separate event last week, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said, “You can’t just spend 1 percent of your GDP [gross domestic product], which the Taiwanese have been doing – 1.2 percent – on defense, and hope to deter a China that’s been engaged in the most massive military build up in 70 years.”

O'Brien proffered a strategy that militarily Taiwan needs to “turn themselves into a porcupine” because ultimately “Lions generally don’t like to eat porcupines.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/white-house-approves-three-arms-sales-taiwan-chinas-retaliation-threats-escalate

FARRELL: Apparent Pitfalls Of Mail-In Voting

From Chris Farrell’s Op-Ed for The Daily Caller:

The pitfalls of radically changing the election system to mass mail-in balloting in the weeks and months leading up to an election are more apparent by the day. Yet the mainstream media keeps telling us there are no problems, have never been problems and never will be. Twitter and Facebook automatically add “context” to legitimate news posts about voting troubles to explain that everything is safe and secure no matter what you just read. News organizations question whether they should call winners on election night or wait days – perhaps weeks – for stray ballots to be counted.

However, more stories emerge daily about voting-related issues that could call into question the legitimacy of the 2020 vote. Some deal with the structural problems of making rapid, complex changes to a system not designed for mass mail-in balloting. There are reports from all over the country of ballots being sent to people who are deceased, who have moved or who are otherwise are ineligible. Often this is because officials are using hopelessly outdated and poorly maintained voting lists. Judicial Watch has been closely following this persistent problem for years, and this week sued the state of Colorado, where forty of sixty-four counties have voter registration rates exceeding 100% of the eligible citizen voting-age population.

Elsewhere the hurry-up mass balloting process has led to significant blunders. Voters in Woodland Hills, CA, were sent ballots with no place to vote for president. Almost a quarter of the ballots mailed to voters in Teaneck, NJ, were printed with the wrong Congressional districts. And Franklin County, OH, election officials are still trying to find out how many of the 250,000 absentee ballots they mailed out went to the wrong people due to an “envelope stuffing” error.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/in-the-news/farrell-mail-in-voting-2/

IMF Urges Governments To "Ensure Corporations Pay Fair Share Of Taxes"

In its latest batch of projections about the global economy, the International Monetary Fund has again projected a "deep recession" in 2020, which would be one of the worst annual plunges since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The report, released Tuesday, shows the agency expects global growth to plunge 4.4% this year, an upward revision of 0.8 percentage points compared with the June estimates in the World Economic Outlook report, said IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath. ​For 2021, the IMF sees world growth at 5.2%, down from June's 5.4% projection.

"The upward revision in the IMF's 2020 growth forecast reflects in particular better-than-projected second-quarter growth in the U.S. and the euro area, a stronger-than-anticipated return to growth in China and signs of a more rapid recovery in the third quarter," said Bloomberg. ​

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/2020-growth-outlook-revised-imf-lowers-next-years-forecast

Hey Rothschild it's nearly time to face God's wraith so why don't you shut the fuck up until then!

U.S. Slams U.N. for Electing China, Russia, Cuba to Human Rights Council

The United States rebuked the United Nations Tuesday for electing several of the world's top human-rights abusers to sit on its Human Rights Council.

The United States withdrew from the council in 2018, citing its anti-Israel bias and decision to welcome countries that violate human rights. It continued those gestures Tuesday, when it elected China, Russia, and Cuba as members.

"These elections only further validate the U.S. decision to withdraw and use other venues and opportunities to protect and promote universal human rights," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. "The United States has urged U.N. member states to take immediate action to reform the council before it became irreparable. Unfortunately, those calls went unheeded."

As U.N. members, authoritarian nations such as China have pushed the international organization to paper over systematic human-rights abuses.

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/u-s-slams-u-n-for-electing-china-russia-cuba-to-human-rights-council/

A Bailout For Hollywood Stars Next? World's Largest Movie Chain Prepares For Bankrutpcy

In what may end up as the most poetic outcome of the covid crisis, one which has seen Hollywood's starved-for-attention C-listers take their clothes off in hopes of attracting attention making a political stand for either wearing masks or supporting the one presidential candidate who has all but assured more nationwide lockdowns are coming (because scientists)…

… Hollywood's movie stars may be next in line for a taxpayer bailout.

What could precipitate such an outcome? Well, if the primary source of revenue for Hollywood - namely billions in annual box office revenue - is indefinitely shuttered, then movie studios and producers would have no choice but to apply a very major haircut to those $20 million checks they hand out to the star du jour.

Ironically, this is the outcome that appears increasingly likely and complies directly with Hollywood's explicit demands for continued social and economic lockdowns. The reason: AMC Entertainment Holdings, also known as AMC Theaters, the largest movie theater chain in the world, is rapidly running out of cash and is considering "a range of options that include a potential bankruptcy to ease its debt load as the pandemic keeps moviegoers from attending and studios from supplying films" Bloomberg reports.

In advance of what may be the biggest movie chain bankruptcy in history, lenders to AMC - who have hired Gibson Dunn as legal advisor and bankruptcy experts Greenhill & Co as bankers - have held preliminary talks among themselves about providing the movie-theater company with financing if it decides to file for Chapter 11 court protection, according to Bloomberg sources. And while the fresh cash would keep AMC in business while it crafts a recovery plan, absent a wholesale return to normalcy - which is unlikely until well into 2021 after there is not only a vaccine but a majority of the population is willing to get vaccinated - any liquidity injection would merely kick the can for a few months.

AMC’s attendance since the resumption of business in the U.S. is down about 85% from the same period a year ago, the company said.

It's not just AMC: last week UK cinema chain Cineworld suspended operations because business is not viable as virus restrictions stand. Indeed, cinema chains are facing a chicken-and-egg problem with no near-term solution: As local capacity restrictions and audience skittishness keep U.S. theaters largely empty, studios are delaying most of their major film releases into 2021 and beyond, which gives consumers still less reason to buy tickets.

In short, as Rabobank's Michael Every said recently, "the movie industry - how we watch them, and so the money for how they are made, if they are made - could be dying, indicative of a whole key slice of the service-sector economy."

And while the situation "remains fluid and plans could change" according to the report, what really matters - at least to Hollywood - is that ticket sales have cratered because state and local officials are urging moviegoers to stay home. Ironically, so do Hollywood's own stars.

But in a delightful moment of poetic justice, this may be one of those times when Hollywood's tiresome, grating virtue signaling finally comes back to bite it in the ass, and cause major monetary harm to the A (and B and C) listers. In fact, we wouldn't be shocked if Hollywood demands a taxpayer bailout next just to keep those $20 million checks to the lead actors coming. Alas, in light of the total collapse in NFL, NBA and MLB viewership now that these organizations have also gone full-retard political activist, something which increasingly disgusts at least half of America, we doubt many, if any, taxpayers will line up to ensure that Hollywood's liberals can afford to pay the property taxes on their $50 million mansions… although we are certain that those who pay no taxes will be most vocal in commiserating with Hollywood's dire plight.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bailout-hollywood-stars-next-worlds-largest-movie-chain-prepares-bankrutpcy

Former NSW MP Daryl Maguire tells ICAC he received thousands in cash in his Parliamentary office

Former NSW MP Daryl Maguire has admitted to a string of corruption allegations during an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearing.

The former Wagga Wagga MP is accused of using his position in Parliament to benefit himself and his related business associates.

Within half an hour of questioning, Mr Maguire admitted to using his parliamentary office and resources to conduct various business dealings, including receiving thousands of dollars in cash at his office as part of a visa scam.

He also admitted to acting as a shadow director for a business known as G8wayInternational, as well as using his parliamentary staff, resources, mailing system and even the parliamentary library for the business.

Mr Maguire said those business interests were not disclosed as they should have been in line with his obligations as an MP.

He said he also used his position as chair of the NSW Parliamentary Asia Pacific Friendship Group to promote his own business interests overseas.

Counsel Assisting Scott Robertson asked Mr Maguire if he used public resources for his private interests, despite knowing it was in breach of parliamentary rules.

"Your Parliament House office became a part-time office for the G8wayInternational firm, would you agree?" he asked.

"Occasionally, yes," he answered.

He was asked: "During the period from 2012 to 2018 what you sought to do was to monetize your office as a member of parliament, parliamentary secretary and chair of the NSW Parliament Asia Pacific Friendship Group and the opportunities and resources to which you had access through those offices with the view to making money for you and making money for your associates?"

He answered: "Yes."

The ICAC has previously heard G8wayInternational acted as a go-between to link a variety of Chinese and Australian businesses.

Mr Maguire also admitted to taking a cut of the cash the company received to process visas for Chinese nationals seeking residency in regional NSW.

On Monday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian told the hearing she was in a secret five-year relationship with Mr Maguire, which ended earlier this year.

Ms Berejiklian denied any involvement with and knowledge of Mr Maguire's business interests.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-14/daryl-maguire-admits-string-of-corruption-allegations-at-icac/12765284

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-13/victoria-coronavirus-cases-found-in-shepparton-and-bairnsdale/12763522

WOW

Marine Battalion Landing Team Commander Fired Following Deadly AAV Mishap

The commander of a California-based Marine Corps battalion landing team has been removed from his post in the wake of a tragic July 30 amphibious assault vehicle training mishap that resulted in the deaths of nine troops.

Lt. Col. Michael J. Regner, commanding officer of Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion 4th Marines, attached to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was relieved Tuesday by Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, according to an official announcement. Officials stated that the relief was due to a loss of confidence in Regner's ability to command as a result of the accident.

"Although the Command Investigation has compiled a substantial amount of information and data which formed the basis for Heckl's decision, it is still ongoing as the Marine Corps continues to investigate, assess all relevant information, and take appropriate actions," officials with I Marine Expeditionary Force stated in the release.

Information was not immediately available on Regner's next assignment and who would take command of BLT 1/4.

The deadly mishap took place after an AAV ran into trouble during a routine training exercise near San Clemente Island. BLT 1/4 is the Marine Corps infantry element attached to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which deploys aboard the three-ship Makin Amphibious Ready Group.

Around 5:45 p.m. local time, the amphibious vehicle began taking on water. Eight of the 16 troops in the vehicle escaped; one Marine who got out of the AAV later died. The eight remaining troops were declared lost following an extensive 40-hour search-and-rescue effort.

Regner, the son of retired Maj. Gen. Michael R. Regner, was not immediately reachable for comment.

According to his official biography, Regner earned his commission after graduating from The Citadel in May 2002. An infantry officer, he had previously served as an Infantry Subject Matter Expert with the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory; a war planner focused on Iran with United States Marine Corps Forces Central Command; and aide-de-camp to the commander of U.S. Central Command.

His deployments included tours in Fallujah, Iraq; Oruzgan and Kandahar, Afghanistan; Okinawa and Camp Fuji, Japan; and Camp Mujuk, South Korea.

His awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with gold star, Navy Achievement Medal with gold star, and the Combat Action Ribbon with gold star.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/10/13/marine-battalion-landing-team-commander-fired-following-deadly-aav-mishap.html

California Radicals Believe Their State Is Too 'Moderate'

The state of California prides itself on being a progressive beacon for the rest of the United States. It is, for all practical purposes, a one-party dictatorship with Democrats keeping an iron grip on the state legislature. The Assembly consists of 61 Democrats and 18 Republicans while the Senate is composed of 29 Democrats and 11 Republicans.

The congressional delegation is even more lopsided with 45 Democrats and just seven Republicans. Just 24 percent of California voters are registered Republicans.

So political arguments in Calfornia are between bug-eyed radicals and more establishment radicals. And despite the most radical government in the United States, the activists believe the establishment radicals are too moderate for their tastes.

NBCNews:

“There’s a division between establishment Democrats, who are Democrat partisans first and foremost, and progressives, who are activists first and foremost,” said Eric Schickler, a political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. “On a lot of issues, they’re on the same page, but in terms of how far to push reforms, what your vision of political change is, I think we have both positions represented pretty well in the state and we see some of that reflected in the Legislature.”

“That’s going to limit the extent to which liberals get all of what they want,” Schickler added.

Radicals as establishmentarians? In California, believe it.

Democrats captured two-thirds of the seats in the California Legislature in 2018, creating supermajorities that have the power to raise taxes and override a governor’s veto. Since then, they passed progressive laws mandating access to abortion pills at state colleges, capping rent increases and challenging the Trump administration’s overhaul of how schools deal with sexual misconduct.

But other progressive measures have failed, and this year’s legislative session disappointed many housing and police reform advocates.

In other words, radical but not crazy. It’s small comfort. Dismantling society and refashioning it in the “progressive” image takes time and they appear to have plenty of it. The Republican Party in California is little more than an internal debating society. The media rarely quotes them. If they need an opposing viewpoint, they find a less radical Democrat to give it.

Everyone has an idea of how the GOP can make a comeback in the state. Perhaps they could start by not trying to be Democrat-lite and actually offer serious conservative alternative proposals to the radicals. But for the moment, they are a mere echo of Democrats.

Is this the fate of America if Joe Biden wins the presidency and Democrats capture the House and Senate? And will the national Republican Party meet the fate of the California GOP?

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat who represents San Francisco, said it’s natural for progressives to be impatient, and that they should use their impatience to continue fighting through multiple rounds on issues, as they did before same-sex marriage became a nationwide right.

“What is considered an outlier progressive position today is probably going to be mainstream Democratic thinking in five years, and could be the law of the land in eight or 10 years,” Wiener said.

The activists are not deterred by defeat. They don’t sit there and whine about how unfair it all is. They get up off the canvas and get ready for the next round, vowing to work harder.

Unless conservatives learn this lesson, we won’t recognize the United States of America in 10 years.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/10/13/california-radicals-believe-their-state-is-too-moderate-n1045471

London will enter lockdown as 'one city': Sadiq Khan says Tier Two restrictions banning different households from meeting inside restaurants and pubs are 'inevitable' this week and wants every borough to face the SAME curbs

London Mayor Sadiq Khan warned it is 'inevitable' all of the UK capital will be plunged into Tier Two lockdown

He told Sky News that he wants every borough to face the same coronavirus curbs 'in the next few days'

Hospitality chiefs warned London's pubs, hotels and restaurants could be 'decimated' by lockdown

Irish chef Richard Corrigan said many establishments were already 'fighting' to stay afloat after first lockdown

Guillaume Marly, MD of London's Hotel Cafe Royal, said second lockdown would be 'nail in coffin' for sector

London Mayor Sadiq Khan today warned it is 'inevitable' that London will be plunged into a Tier Two lockdown this week as he admitted he wants every borough to face the same coronavirus restrictions.

The UK capital is currently ranked as a 'medium' risk zone in the Government's three-tier system of local alerts for England, and was expected to remain there when the restrictions come into force tomorrow.

But the Mayor warned today that London will 'inevitably' be moved upwards 'this week', setting off alarm bells among hospitality chiefs who fear their businesses could go to the wall if a second shutdown ensues.

Mr Khan said the city will pass a 'trigger point' to enter the Tier Two restrictions in the 'next few days', and insisted London should move as a whole into higher restrictions despite variable rates across the capital.

The tightening of restrictions, which would ban different households from mixing indoors, is likely to deal a hammer-blow to the hospitality sector, with hoteliers, restaurateurs and landlords all warning that their venues will go under if people are discouraged from socialising in pubs, bars or restaurants.

'All the indicators I have, hospital admissions, ICU occupancy, the numbers of older people with cases, the prevalence of the disease, the positivity are all going the wrong direction,' Mr Khan said.

'Which means, I'm afraid, it's inevitable over the course of the next few days London will have passed a trigger point to be in the second tier.'

'We're keen to go as one as we can see the complexities and the confusion caused by some boroughs having additional restrictions and other boroughs having less. Many Londoners work in one borough, live in another borough, study in another borough, go to a restaurant in another borough so we're really keen to go as one city.'

Downing Street has not ruled out moving London into Tier Two. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'There's a process for considering whether further measures are needed in all parts of the country and I don't think it would be appropriate for me to pre-empt that.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8834579/Coronavirus-UK-Tier-Two-death-knell-Londons-hotels-pubs-restaurants.html

>>11059789

>>11059789

>It has always been the Brits. Not the Jews, the Chinese, the Russians, or other convenient distractions. MI6 / CIA / MOS.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Retarded Rabbi

>>11059831

>decade long

millennia

Lockdown extended until Sunday at midnight - Gantz and Netanyahu agree

Gamzu: ‘Great concern’ over level of infection

Israel will remain in a state of lockdown at least until Sunday at midnight, the coronavirus cabinet decided on Tuesday.

"The decision to ease restrictions and allow for a gradual exit from the lockdown will require a constant and certain decrease in morbidity rates, and reaching that will take a few days," the Health Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement following the meeting.

The only changes to the current restrictions are that there will now be exceptions made to allow close relatives to travel more than one kilometer to attend a wedding. In addition, professional athletes will now be able to resume their training.

A debate over the continued lockdown and the exit date broke out at the coronavirus cabinet, which met late into the night on Tuesday to discuss the first stages of Israel’s planned exit strategy. Already before the cabinet convened, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that a final decision would be made on Thursday.

At the heart of the debate is the reopening of small businesses and preschools. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Israel Katz sided with Blue and White and called for the reopening of businesses. Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz first called for the restrictions to be lifted no later than Friday while Netanyahu pushed for an extension of the lockdown through Monday at midnight.

“Small businesses are collapsing,” Katz said, adding that children needed to go back to their frameworks. “Opening them does not hurt health and adds much to the economy.”

Business owners took to the streets Tuesday in protest of the lockdown, with many threatening that if the closure isn’t lifted soon, they would open anyway.

Netanyahu said that if the country opens before the infection rate hits the Health Ministry’s limit for release, it will appear that there are “loopholes in the closure and our decisions will go down the drain… We didn’t reach the goal of 2,000 new cases per day, so we have to wait until Thursday” to decide.

The cabinet meeting, initially scheduled to start in the afternoon, was delayed by several hours after Health Minister Yuli Edelstein stressed that the morbidity rate was still too high to make practical decisions.

"Prof [Ronni] Gamzu expressed great concern that despite the closure, 3,000 people were infected in a single day," a statement by the ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Later, at the cabinet meeting, Edelstein said that “It is difficult to understand the morbidity trend and to assess what happened during the holidays in the red cities. Only in four weeks will we really know what the level of morbidity really is.”

Nonetheless, after pushback from Gantz, Katz and others, the meeting commenced. A statement from the PMO stressed that the meeting was meant solely to discuss the stages of the exit strategy and their approval - not to lift the closure.

On Tuesday, the infection rate continued to decline. The Health Ministry reported 3,112 new cases on Monday, 5% of those screened. 802 patients were in serious condition on Tuesday evening and the Health Ministry reported a total of 2,040 dead.

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/will-israel-exit-lockdown-coronavirus-cabinet-to-convene-tuesday-645539

DoJ Ignores Trump Call to Declassify All Russiagate Docs After Failing to Receive Official Order

Lawyers from the US Department of Justice told a federal judge on Tuesday the department had no intention of totally declassifying documents related to the Russiagate investigation, despite US President Donald Trump’s tweets to that effect, since it hadn’t been given an official order to release unredacted files.

On October 6, Trump tweeted he had “fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to” the FBI’s investigation of alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign and the Russian government. The investigation, which presented its findings in a two-volume March 2019 report, found no evidence a crime had been committed, prompting a counter-investigation by the Department of Justice into why such a probe had been launched to begin with.

I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions! https://t.co/GgnHh9GOiq

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

​The day before Trump’s tweet, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe had declassified a handwritten memo by former CIA Director John Brennan that suggests the existence of a purported plan by Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election, to “tie” Trump to Russia in an attempt to make him lose the race.

However, despite Trump’s Twitter decree, no formal command was given to actually begin the process of declassifying, without redactions, more than 4,000 pages of FBI reports related to Russiagate, DoJ lawyers claimed in court on Tuesday.

“The President’s recent statements on Twitter referencing the ‘declassification’ of information were not an order to the Department of Justice to declassify the materials in this case,” DoJ lawyers said in a Tuesday filing to the District Court for the District of Columbia in response to a lawsuit by BuzzFeed reporter Jason Leopold and CNN to obtain the files.

“The Twitter statements do not constitute a self-executing declassification order,” they said. “Indeed, they provide no more authority to the Department to declassify material that the Presidential Memorandum giving the Attorney General authority to declassify information that the President signed on May 23, 2019. As with that memorandum, the President’s Twitter statements do not require the declassification of any particular documents and have not resulted in the declassification of any FD-302s [FBI interview summaries] at issue in this case.”

The DoJ further notes it “was further informed that the President's statements on Twitter do not require altering any redactions on any record at issue in this case, including but not limited to, any redactions taken pursuant to any discretionary FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] exemptions.”

In other words, ignore what Trump said.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202010131080762595-doj-ignores-trump-call-to-declassify-all-russiagate-docs-after-failing-to-receive-official-order/