Israeli Demolitions of Palestinian Homes Reach Four-Year High

Israel also advanced plans for a record number of settlements

A global pandemic did nothing to slow down Israeli demolitions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year, with the number of Palestinians being left homeless reaching a four-year high.

According to data from the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, at least 741 Palestinians have lost their home due to Israeli demolitions between January and September. These numbers are the highest figures since 2016 when Israeli bulldozers left 1,496 Palestinians homeless.

Since January, Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of 99 housing units in the West Bank and 100 in East Jerusalem. Palestinian homes and businesses are destroyed because they do not have building permits, which are virtually impossible for Palestinians to be granted.

The increase in demolitions has come along with a record number of Jewish settlements being advanced. In October, Israel advanced plans for the construction of about 5,000 settler homes in the West Bank. Several hundreds of these homes had already been built and were approved retroactively.

According to the Israeli NGO Peace Now, plans for 12,159 settler homes have been advanced in 2020, the highest number since President Trump took office in 2017. This year marked the most settlements advanced since Peace Now began recording in 2012.

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/11/02/israeli-demolitions-of-palestinian-homes-reach-four-year-high/

Bayer’s Costs to Fight Future Roundup Lawsuits Climb

Bayer AG’s legal bills to contain the fallout over the weedkiller Roundup keep rising with costs to handle future lawsuits expected to surge to $2 billion.

The German drugs and chemicals maker is far enough along in talks with U.S. plaintiff attorneys to realize that the outlay will be higher than anticipated in June, it said in a statement Tuesday. Bayer also reported profit and sales that missed estimates as the pandemic hurt demand for key agriculture and pharmaceutical products. The shares fell as much as 3.2%.

The Roundup litigation continues to vex Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann, who orchestrated the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto that gave Bayer the embattled herbicide. The company failed to settle outstanding Roundup lawsuits by Monday, a deadline set by a judge who has said he’ll resume federal trials over claims the weedkiller caused consumers’ cancer.

Bayer remains committed to settling all the Roundup cases, it said in a separate statement. Given the progress so far and complications posed by the pandemic, the company doesn’t expect trials to occur, if at all, before the third quarter of 2021, it said in the email.

In its earnings report, Bayer also reported non-cash impairment charges of 9.3 billion euros ($10.9 billion) on crop science assets. That’s at the higher end of the range Bayer flagged in September.

The company said Tuesday it has Roundup agreements that are completed, in the process of being finalized or that have been reached “in principle” for 88,500 claims – but that it can’t say with certainty that the total number of existing Roundup suits is 125,000 until the entire settlement process is complete. The company is in talks with a large number of the remaining plaintiffs, Baumann told reporters on a call.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/bayers-costs-to-fight-future-roundup-lawsuits-climb/ar-BB1aDWcd

Understanding the Tri-fold Nature of the Deep State

Not that long ago the United States came close to total dissolution.

The financial system was bankrupt, speculation had run amok, and all infrastructure had fallen into disarray over the course of 30 years of unbroken free trade. To make matters worse, the nation was on the verge of a civil war and international financiers in London and Wall Street gloated over the immanent destruction of the first nation on earth to be established not upon hereditary institutions, but rather on the consent of the governed and mandated to serve the general welfare.

Although one might think that I am referring now to today’s America, I am in fact referring to the United States of 1860.

The Trifold Deep State

In my past two articles in this series, I discussed how a new system of political economy was established by Benjamin Franklin and his disciples in the wake of the war of independence driven by protectionism, national banking and internal improvements.

I also demonstrated that the rise of the thing known as today’s “deep state” can also be understood as a three-headed beast which arose in its earliest incarnation under the leadership of arch traitor Aaron Burr who established Wall Street, killed Alexander Hamilton and devoted his life to the cause of dissolving the union. After having been caught in the act of sabotage, Burr escaped arrest in 1807 by running off to England where he live in Jeremy Bentham’s mansion for 5 years, only to return to oversee a new plot to break up the union that eventually boiled over in 1860.

More

https://theduran.com/understanding-the-tri-fold-nature-of-the-deep-state/

Democrats prep teams of lawyers for 'Election Week'

House Democrats, confident of gaining ground in Tuesday's elections, are also girding for a protracted legal battle over the results of contested races.

President Trump and his Republican allies have voiced heavy doubts about the validity of ballots cast this cycle, particularly in states that have expanded early voting and mail-in options to account for health concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

With that in mind, the House Democrats' campaign arm has teamed up with Democrats in the Senate, the states and within the grass-roots community to field teams of lawyers spread around the country in anticipation of long, litigious fights over the legitimacy of ballots.

At the same time, they're warning the public and the media alike that the outcome of any number of close races almost certainly won't be known on Wednesday morning.

"This is an Election Day that may end up looking like an election week," Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), told reporters Tuesday morning. "I hope [it's] not a whole lot longer than that, but if it [is], the goal here is to count every single vote, and we have a whole team leading up to this."

Bustos said Democrats have already dedicated $10 million this cycle to "litigation efforts," and are prepared to spend more post-election if the need arises.

"We will use every legal means necessary to make sure that we count every vote," she said.

For election operatives of both parties, bracing for election challenges is hardly a new phenomenon, particularly since the long fight over ballot-counting in the hotly contested Bush-Gore race of 2000.

But the pre-election warnings of protracted legal fights is unique to this cycle, reflecting both the logistical challenges of voting in the pandemic and a divisive political landscape.

For months, Trump has hammered states that have expanded windows of early voting, mail-in balloting and drop-boxes to accommodate the public health crisis, warning without evidence that they promote voter fraud. And some of Trump's Republican allies have challenged those policy shifts in lawsuits, with mixed results.

In recent days, however, several court rulings have leaned in favor of more lenient voting rules.

On Monday, a federal judge in Texas denied a Republican request to discard almost 127,000 ballots cast at drive-up polling sites in the massive county comprising Houston. And last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against Republicans seeking to prevent the state from counting mail-in ballots post-marked before Election Day but received afterwards.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/524229-democrats-prep-teams-of-lawyers-for-election-week

The New Biden-Burisma Documents

“We have new Burisma documents showing that the anti-Trump state department knew about the shady Biden-Burisma connections and were desperate to monitor conservative critics of the Bidens,” Fitton stated in last week’s Weekly Update.

After a nearly 11 month FOIA battle to obtain documents on Burisma and the Bidens, Judicial Watch has finally received proof of what many have speculated for months: that the Obama State Department knew about the Biden-Burisma connection. Just days before the presidential election, the State Department “finally gave us a briefing memo showing that the Democratic lobbying firm hired by Burisma met with the anti-Trump ambassador, Ambassador Yovanovitch,” Fitton explained on Friday.

The documents outline how the Ambassador met with the Burisma lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies while Hunter Biden was still on the board of Burisma. With Hunter “still on the board of Burisma at the time, it was his lobbying shop,” Fitton argued. Yovanovitch later met with the Foreign Commercial Service Officer to discuss Burisma and it’s lobbying efforts in February of 2019, little less than a year from the beginning of the House impeachment efforts against President Trump.

Blue Star Strategies’ CFO and co-founder, Sally Painter was previously implicated in a scandal during the Clinton Administration in which seats on the U.S. trade commission to China were sold in exchange for a “cozying up to the DNC,” Fitton stated.

What’s more, Ambassador Yovanovitch’s activities in the Ukraine are directly connected to the content of the newly released emails, which “further confirm how she was desperate to monitor all of this.” By “this” Fitton is referring to the monitoring of a number of social media accounts belonging to notable American public figures close to the President who were discussing the Biden-Burisma scandal.

If you’re still unsure about the Biden scandal, “don’t believe the laptop, believe the documents,” Fitton stated. “The Obama state department knew very much about the Burisma scandal.”

https://www.judicialwatch.org/deep-dive/new-docs-biden/

Sheriff: Man Gave 2 Girls Cash As ‘Hush Money’ After Meeting Up With Them For Oral Sex

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Broward Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested Keivon McBride twice within one month on charges related to crimes against children and are asking for anyone who may have fell victim to McBride to come forward.

BSO Special Victims Unit detectives arrested McBride Monday, Sept. 28, on five counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child over the age of 12 and under 16. McBride was arrested again by BSO SVU detectives Wednesday, Oct. 28, on 12 additional charges of lewd and lascivious battery, possession of child pornography and transmission of child pornography over the internet.

McBride has been known to meet young girls between the ages of 12 and 14 through the popular social media app known as Snapchat. Once he meets the young girls via Snapchat he arranges to meet them in person at different locations throughout Broward County.

WPLG reported: According to an arrest affidavit, detectives found photos and a video on McBride’s cellphone of a12-year-old and 14-year-old girl simultaneously performing oral sex on him in the backseat of his car.

Authorities said the video was taken sometime in June or July and the incident occurred in the parking lot of a church in Cooper City.

Both victims told detectives that McBride gave them $50 each as “hush money,” the affidavit stated.

According to the affidavit, McBride posted the video on Instagram, but it was taken down by the website after one of the victims filed a complaint.

Detectives said McBride confessed to the incident involving the two minors, as well as to giving them money.

McBride told detectives that he recorded the sexual acts on his cellphone with the intent to sell the videos to his acquaintances via Snapchat and Instagram, the affidavit stated.

McBride is known to drive a silver Toyota Corolla and is currently out on bail.

Investigators are asking anyone who may have come in contact with McBride to contact BSO SVU Detective Dimos Charoudis at 954-321-4243 or if you wish to remain anonymous, contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477) or online at browardcrimestoppers.org.

https://breaking911.com/sheriff-man-gave-2-girls-cash-as-hush-money-after-meeting-up-with-them-for-oral-sex/

Kamala Harris Blames Trump for Coronavirus Deaths, Compares Number to Lives Lost in WWII

Democrat presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) compared the number of American lives lost to COVID-19 to American lives during WWII.

Harris’s remarks came during a late night campaign stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Monday, the night before Election Day. Harris repeatedly questioned how Americans could have “prepared” if they had known the complications of the virus, a scenario for which she chose to blame President Donald Trump. Harris claimed:

Donald Trump doesn’t think about what’s best for America. He only thinks about what is best for himself. And as a result, we have lost 230,000 lives to COVID. So many people forced to die alone because of the nature of this virus… 230,000 Americans. The last time we experienced loss like this was World War II.

"Donald Trump doesn't think about what is best for America," Sen. Harris says at Philadelphia campaign rally. "He only thinks about what is best for himself. And as a result, we have lost 230,000 lives to Covid…The last time we experienced loss like this was World War II." pic.twitter.com/zZVkW5Q5AD

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 3, 2020

“In addition, we’re looking at over nine million people who have contracted the virus and we know it’s hitting communities of color the hardest.”

Harris then claimed we’re in the “worst economic crisis we have faced since the Great Depression,” failing to note that the economy had record numbers prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

A report released last week found that the U.S. economy is recovering after the coronavirus outbreak and grew at the fastest pace ever recorded in the third quarter, expanding at an annualized pace of 33.1 percent, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Breitbart News’s John Carney noted, “The third-quarter GDP gain was fueled by a record 40.7 percent increase in consumer spending. Business investment surged 20.3 percent during the quarter, reflecting a 70.1 percent jump in investment in equipment. The housing market is booming: residential investment grew at a rate of 59.3 percent.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/02/kamala-harris-blames-trump-for-coronavirus-deaths-compares-number-to-lives-lost-in-wwii/

2020 Sets All-Time Gun Sales Record

Nearly 7 million new gun owners as election looms

With the election looming, 2020 became the all-time best year for gun sales in American history.

More than 16.5 million guns were sold through the month of October, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis of FBI data released on Monday. That's about 1.6 million more than all of 2016—the previous record holder. It also represents four million more sales than in 2019—an increase of over 33 percent. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry's trade group, also estimated nearly seven million people purchased a gun for the first time between January and October.

https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/2020-sets-all-time-gun-sales-record/

CDC says people who test positive for COVID can vote in person

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says people who test positive for COVID-19 can still vote in person, according to a recent advisory on voting safely amid the pandemic.

“Voters who are sick or in quarantine should take steps to protect poll workers and other voters,” the advisory reads.

The instructions will likely raise eyebrows for many Americans living in states where sweeping mail-in voting measures have been adopted to reduce the spread of the novel virus.

“This includes wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet away from others, and washing your hands or using hand sanitizer before and after voting,” it states.”You should also let poll workers know that you are sick or in quarantine when you arrive at the polling location. Check with local authorities for any additional guidance.”

The instructions will likely raise eyebrows for many Americans living in states where sweeping mail-in voting measures have been adopted to reduce the spread of the novel virus.

“It should also raise some eyebrows regarding the extreme measures taken to lockdown businesses and shut down schools to mitigate the spread when according to the CDC wearing a mask and keeping social distance is all you need,” said Sara Carter on Tuesday, when the news came out. “It’s this back and forth that has Americans so confused as to the aimless mandates being imposed on our nation with regard to COVID-19.”

https://saraacarter.com/cdc-says-people-who-test-positive-for-covid-can-vote-in-person/

China Blocks WHO From Investigating Origins of the Coronavirus

This is about what we’d expect from a nation with something to hide.

According to the New York Times, China is blocking the World Health Organization (WHO) from investigating the origins of the coronavirus that has swept across the world over the last year. After many months of claiming their full cooperation with world health authorities in investigating how the coronavirus was able to become the threat to the planet that it became, it turns out the Chinese have been stonewalling any independent investigation.

This is critical because finding the origin of the virus may help scientists understand how it originally spread and how to prevent the next pandemic.

National Review:

The coronavirus was first reported to have originated at an animal market in Wuhan, China, however numerous observers have already questioned this account of the virus’s origins. Among other issues, the original host animal—a species of bat—was not sold at the particular animal market, and the city of Wuhan is home to virology labs where coronaviruses were studied.

While an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus could help prevent future pandemics, China is not allowing the W.H.O. to conduct an independent probe of the matter, according to internal documents and interviews by the Times.

It’s a stretch to believe that China deliberately let loose a dangerous pathogen on the world, especially when they had no vaccine, cure, or treatment for the disease. Far more likely is an accidental release from a lab either due to incompetence, stupidity, or both.

Regardless, it appears that the Chinese government believes that the truth would damage their reputation just as they’re beginning to flex their economic and military muscle to try and assume the position as the world’s number one superpower.

“It was an absolute whitewash,” Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, told the Times regarding the agency’s investigation. “But the answer was, that was the best they could negotiate with Xi Jinping.”

The Trump administration has reacted furiously to China’s failure to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. President Trump has moved to cut U.S. funding to the W.H.O., blaming the organization for parroting Chinese propaganda regarding the country’s response.

The coronavirus has killed at least 1.2 million people worldwide and sickened over 46 million, with actual numbers for the sick and dead likely higher due to underreporting.

There should be a question of just how hard the WHO pressed China to open the books and let the inspectors do their jobs. The chumminess of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom and China’s President Xi Jinping has been well documented and in this instance, it may be a case of the WHO not wanting to know too much.

Either way, China is looking more and more guilty, in the eyes of at least some nations, of hiding something they think would be devastating to their international reputation. As it is now, most of the rest of the world can pretend that China is cooperating and there’s no reason for an in-depth investigation.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/11/03/china-blocks-who-from-investigating-origins-of-the-coronavirus-n1119846

Report: Joe Biden Planning to 'Assert Control' If News Organizations Declare Him As Winner

Joe Biden is planning to "address the nation as its new leader" if news organizations preemptively declare him as the winner even if President Trump is fighting the results in court, Axios reports.

Big Tech have said for several weeks now they're planning to censor Donald Trump (and the entire internet) if he dares to do the same!

From Axios:

If news organizations declare Joe Biden the mathematical president-elect, he plans to address the nation as its new leader, even if President Trump continues to fight in court, advisers tell Axios.

Why it matters: Biden advisers learned the lesson of 2000, when Al Gore hung back while George W. Bush declared victory in that contested election, putting the Democrat on the defensive while Bush acted like the winner.

So if Biden is declared the winner, he'll begin forming his government and looking presidential — and won't yield to doubts Trump might try to sow.

This is just more evidence Democrats are plotting a Color Revolution and election night coup!

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=61883

Pelosi Calls Amy Coney Barrett An ‘Illegitimate Supreme Court Justice’

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is an “illegitimate” member of the court Tuesday.

In a press conference with Democratic Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, Pelosi mentioned Barrett’s confirmation, saying, “the president is installing an illegitimate Supreme Court Justice one week before the election, after 60 million Americans have voted, who will dismantle the ACA, and won’t say, by the way, when asked, by Senator Feinstein, do you think Medicare is constitutional? She said she really couldn’t say.”

Every Democrat opposed Barrett’s confirmation. Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was on the fence about how she was going to vote but ended up voting in favor of Barrett’s confirmation.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee boycotted the committee vote on Barrett and instead filled their seats in the committee with life-sized posters of people who could be hurt if the Affordable Care Act were to be repealed.

Democrats have continued to say that if Barrett is confirmed, she will be the one to give the deciding vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Barrett was confirmed in the Senate on a 52-48 vote.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/11/03/pelosi-amy-coney-barrett-illegitimate-supreme-court-justice/

Private Jet Traffic Soars As Elites Panic Exit Cities Amid Virus, Elections

With US new coronavirus cases steadily rising since mid-September, ushering in what some call the second wave of the virus pandemic, private jet traffic has soared as wealthy folks are leaving metro areas for rural communities, according to CNBC.

Data from Tivoli, an online payments platform for jets, collected by Private Jet Card Comparisons, showed private jet flights at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton, New York, jumped 172% in October. Flights at Aspen Airport in Aspen, Colorado, surged 135%, and Vail flights were up 95% over the month.

Inversely, private jet traffic at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport plummeted 52% in October. Teterboro is used by wealthy people to fly into New York City. Private flights at Westchester County Airport, another airport used by elites to fly into New York City, also registered a decline for the month, down 36%.

Chicago's Midway Airport saw private jet flights decrease by as much as 47%, while flights at Dulles International Airport, the second-busiest private jet airport in the country - saw flights nearly halved for the month.

"The coronavirus pandemic is redrawing the flight patterns of America's private jets, as airports in resort towns see big jumps in traffic while flights near cities decline," CNBC noted. The reason is that wealthy folks panic bought homes in rural areas earlier this year to escape the pandemic. Now, as the second virus wave arrives, these folks are "bugging out."

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/78431/private-jet-traffic-soars-as-elites-panic-exit-cities-amid-virus.html

How DHS and FBI Officials Spun a Dubious Russian Election Threat Days Before Voting

A Department of Homeland Security election alert spawning new Russia fears was so incoherent and inconsistent with previous findings, it suggested a state of political panic inside the agency.

Just days before the 2020 election the bureaucratic forces behind the original claim of Russian hacking of state election-related websites in 2016 launched a new drive to spawn fears of Moscow-made political chaos in the wake of the voting.

The new narrative was not consistent with information previously published by the the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), however. It was so incoherent, in fact, that it suggested a state of panic on the part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials worried about a possible transition to a Joe Biden administration.

On October 20, Christopher Krebs, the head of CISA, issued a video statement expressing confidence that “it would be incredibly difficult for them to change the outcome of an election at the national level.” Then he abruptly changed his tone, adding, “But that doesn’t mean various actors won’t try to introduce chaos in our elections and make sensational claims that overstate their capabilities. In fact, the days and weeks just before and after Election Day is the perfect time for our adversaries to launch efforts intended to undermine your confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.”

Krebs’ warning of a possible Russian announcement that hackers had succeeded in disrupting the result of the U.S. election was so removed from reality that it suggested internal panic DHS over the failure of Russian hackers to do anything that could be cited as interfering the election.

Two days after Krebs’ dubious warning, the FBI and the DHS’s new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an “alert” reporting that “a Russian state-sponsored APT [Advanced Persistent Threat] actor” known as “Berserk Bear” had “conducted a campaign against a wide variety of US targets.”

Since “at least September,” according to the DHS alert, the DHS warning claimed that it had targeted “dozens” of “US state, local, territorial and tribal government networks.” It even claimed that the supposed Russian campaign had compromised the network infrastructure of several official organizations and “exfiltrated data from at least two victims servers”. At the same time, it acknowledged there was “no indication” that any government operations had been “intentionally disrupted.”

The report went on to suggest, “[T]here may be some risk to elections information housed on SLTT [state, local territorial and tribal] government networks.” And then it abruptly shifted tone and level of analysis to offer the speculation that the Russian government “may be seeking access to obtain future disruption options, to influence US policies or actions”, or to “delegitimize” the “government entities”.

https://thegrayzone.com/2020/11/02/how-panicked-dhs-and-fbi-officials-spun-a-dubious-russian-election-threat-days-before-voting/

Investigation Begins After Video Appears To Show Two People Having Sex In Voice Of America Office Building

Employees at Health and Human Services captured video appearing to show two people having sex up against the window of the Voice Of America broadcasting group’s office building across the street, video obtained by the Daily Caller shows.

Voice of America has confirmed an investigation into the matter is underway. The video, which the Daily Caller reviewed but will not publish, was allegedly taken Oct. 29 around 3:00 PM by a staffer from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The video appears to show a couple having sex in full view of the public in the window as the people filming laugh behind the camera.

“This is a serious matter currently under investigation by the agency,” a spokesperson from the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the agency that operates VOA, told the Daily Caller. “Appropriate action will be taken when all facts are gathered.”

“Immediately after USAGM Chief of Staff Emily Newman was alerted of the video, she took the appropriate actions,” the spokesperson added. “USAGM’s Office of Labor and Employee Relations is handling the investigation.”

Voice of America is a government-owned, taxpayer-funded international broadcaster that distributes content around the world. They claim to be nonpartisan but faced scrutiny last year when the Daily Caller discovered that multiple reporters posted anti-Trump content on social media. VOA policy requires that employees remain neutral on social media.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/11/02/investigation-begins-video-appears-show-two-people-sex-voice-of-america-office-building/