China now brazenly sells fentanyl ingredients straight to Mexican cartels

He is a slight, bespectacled man. Colleagues at the industrial materials company where he works describe him as a humorous but diligent employee, known for driving his white Jeep around town in northwestern China's Ningxia region to meet potential clients.

Unbeknownst to them, he goes by Benjamin Chen online, where he has a whole other business: He is a popular seller of the chemicals used to make the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl. NPR has identified him but is not using his real name because of the illegal activity in which he's involved.

Chen is one of more than 100 vendors who market fentanyl or related chemicals out of facilities across China, and his story illustrates how networks are getting around international efforts to crack down on the supply chain of lethal synthetic opioids. In an interview with NPR, however, Chen categorically denied that he manufactures or sells any illegal substances.

For years, China has been a primary source of fentanyl trafficked into the United States. It is a powerful prescription drug for severe pain that's made and sold illegally. It led to more than 37,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2019, part of a national opioid crisis that has worsened this year during the coronavirus pandemic, according to federal health authorities.

Under international pressure, China's government banned the production and sale of fentanyl and many of its variants in May 2019, resulting in a significant reduction in the country's illicit fentanyl trade.

But more than a year later, Chinese vendors have tapped into online networks to brazenly market fentanyl analogs and the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, and ship them directly to customers in the U.S. and Europe as well as to Mexican cartels, according to an NPR investigation and research from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, or C4ADS, a nonprofit data analysis group. (The center receives some of its funds from the U.S. and U.K. governments.)

Some of the substances are outlawed in China and internationally. Others are so new they are not yet banned, are harder to detect and regulate, and they can be used in basic chemical processes to produce illegal drugs.

Chinese vendors are often camouflaged by a complex network of corporate entities registered in far-flung cities along China's interior, where they use sophisticated shipping methods to bypass screening measures and where law enforcement scrutiny is often laxer than in bigger cities such as Beijing or Shanghai. Thousands of doses can be shipped together in small, hidden packages.

"Many Chinese networks involved in the production and advertising of fentanyl quickly adapted to increased legal constraints by modifying their techniques to exploit loopholes in chemical restrictions and disguise their activities," said Michael Lohmuller, a C4ADS analyst and report co-author.

Hard to ban

When China began banning fentanyl-related compounds, it was hailed as a major victory for U.S. narcotics authorities and diplomats, who had lobbied China for years to strictly regulate the substances more broadly as a class. Previously, Chinese narcotics authorities criminalized only specific fentanyl offshoots.

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/916890880/we-are-shipping-to-the-u-s-china-s-fentanyl-sellers-find-new-routes-to-drug-user

Cybersecurity Expert: Easiest Way to Compromise Elections System Is During the Manufacturing Process — And It’s Not Hard at All

In October 2016 James Scott, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastruction Technology, joined a panel of experts in a discussion on cybersecurity threats. During the panel James and the other experts highlighted vulnerabilities of the U.S. election system and specified ways adversaries can compromise voting machines and data.

James Scott told the panel the easiest way to compromise the US election system was during the manufacturing process.

Then entire panel was broadcast on CSPAN.

Here is a clip via M3THODS.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/cybersecurity-expert-says/

Seven Charged in Connection with a COVID-Relief Fraud Scheme Involving more than 80 Fraudulent Loan Applications Worth Approximately $16 Million

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/seven-charged-connection-covid-relief-fraud-scheme-involving-more-80-fraudulent-loan

Elon Musk Just Got $15 Billion Dollars Richer; Here’s How

Elon Musk's personal fortune rose another $15 billion this week following the addition of Tesla, Inc. to the S&P 500 index and the use of a SpaceX rocket to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station

His net worth now totals $117.5 billion, $90 billion of which is from Tesla's stock gains this year despite relatively low production

He also sparked yet more backlash Monday after calling COVID-19 tests "extremely bogus" while using the least accurate option, landing him the monicker "space Karen"

It’s been a profitable week for billionaire Elon Musk, who has seen his net worth shoot up $15 billion following a successful SpaceX launch and the addition of Tesla to the S&P 500.

Tesla’s good news came on Monday, when the popular S&P 500 stock index announced it would be adding Tesla to its roster, the BBC reported. Individuals and portfolios that follow the index will now have some of their money in the electric car company when the change takes effect on Dec. 21.

Tesla's acceptance follows a fifth consecutive quarter of profitability after operating at a loss for years, and its stock has consistently risen despite selling only a fraction of the vehicles as its competitors. Tesla hopes to sell around 500,000 cars this year compared to Toyota’s annual sales of 10 million.

https://www.ibtimes.com/elon-musk-just-got-15-billion-dollars-richer-heres-how-3083988

If Americans Can No Longer Trust Our Elections, We’re In Big Trouble

This is an incredibly dangerous moment for the country and may be a pivotal point in the future of America’s democratic republic. Did we just cross the Rubicon?

The polls from the major networks and universities promised a blue wave. President Trump was down by at least 10 points nationally, and by nearly that much or more in the major swing states. The few pollsters, including Trafalgar, who got 2016 and 2018 right and called 2020 a close race, were widely ridiculed.

Nate Silver, a leftwing poll analyst, was chief among the critics. Silver gave former Vice President Joe Biden a nearly 70 percent chance of winning Florida.

Immediately on Election Day, turnout looked good for the GOP. Trump won Florida decisively and by 8:30 p.m. Central Time, and made huge inroads in urban areas. While Hillary Clinton won Miami-Dade County by 30 points in 2016, the 2020 Trump ticket was down only single digits in the county.

That’s because Trump made significant gains among nonwhite Americans, and according to exit polls had the second-highest nonwhite share of the vote of any Republican since 1976. Cuban Americans are a big reason for Trump decisively winning Florida, but Trump’s gains with minority voters are a nationwide trend. The flipside was lower black and Hispanic turnout for Democrats—except for several major Democratic cities in contested swing states.

In other words, a significant margin of minority voters who didn’t defect to Trump decided not to vote. Indeed, a Bloomberg article days before the election cited anonymous Biden officials who said the campaign was worried about black and Hispanic turnout due to a lack of a ground game in these traditionally Democratic strongholds. But the warnings had gone unheeded.

Instead, the campaign hoped to make up these lost minority votes with gains in the suburbs, particularly among white women. In the end, Trump gained among white women compared to 2016, and only appeared to marginally lose votes from white men—many of which may have been upper-class suburban white men.

Back to Election Night

On election night, Trump’s decisive win in Florida was a bellwether to punters in the betting markets. The Trump campaign also seemed to outperform Election Day voting in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, especially given the turnout seen in Florida. A shy Trump vote did exist, especially in the suburbs among women, and the GOP was morphing into a working-class, increasingly multiracial party. Betting odds swung in Trump’s favor, peaking at around 85 percent.

That’s when things went south for the Trump campaign. In a yet unexplained move, states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin stopped releasing vote counts on election night. Fact-checkers have noted that these states didn’t stop counting—fair enough—but not why they stopped releasing the results of their counting.

Come 4 a.m. the next morning, huge amounts of fresh Biden votes were reported. Trump’s betting odds plummeted, and days later the media declared Biden to be the president-elect.

More

https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/17/if-americans-can-no-longer-trust-our-elections-were-in-big-trouble/

People living in Scotland's toughest tiers could be ARRESTED if they try to leave: Nicola Sturgeon makes it ILLEGAL to travel outside of Level 3 and 4 lockdown areas as she plunges 2.3MILLION people in 11 areas into toughest restrictions from Friday

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today announced 11 council areas are being moved into Level Four

Level Four means a total ban on meeting other households indoors and the closure of all non-essential shops

The 11 areas, which include city of Glasgow, will be moved into Level Four from Friday, lasting for three weeks

Ms Sturgeon also announced guidance banning travel in and out of Level Three and Four areas becoming law

That means it will be illegal from Friday to leave or enter those areas 'except for certain essential purposes'

Nicola Sturgeon today announced parts of Scotland that are home to millions of people will be moved into its toughest coronavirus level at the end of the week as she warned infection rates remain 'stubbornly high'.

The First Minister said 11 council areas, which include the city of Glasgow and have a combined population of approximately 2.3 million people, will be subject to Level Four restrictions from 6pm on Friday.

People living in Level Four areas are banned from meeting with other households indoors while all non-essential shops must close.

In an announcement to the Scottish Parliament Ms Sturgeon told people in those areas is that they 'should not be going out and about' while the measures are place for the three weeks to December 11.

The SNP leader also announced she is making it illegal for people to travel into or out of Level Three and Level Four areas 'except for certain essential purposes'.

There is already guidance in place which urges people not to make such journeys but Ms Sturgeon said the advice will become law from Friday, raising the prospect of rule-breakers facing enforcement action from the police.

The council areas in Scotland moving to Level Four from Friday are the City of Glasgow, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, Stirling and West Lothian.

Ms Sturgeon said there was 'grounds for continued and significant concern' in all of the areas being moved into to Level Four.

As well as the 11 areas being elevated to the top tier, two areas are being moved from Level Three to Level Two while 19 will experience no change.

The tightening of the rules in many areas in Scotland will inevitably lead to increased scrutiny of Boris Johnson's lockdown plans for England.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8958053/Nicola-Sturgeon-announces-11-council-areas-moving-level-four.html

Warren Buffett Bets Big On Pharma After Pulling Back From Apple, Banks

Berkshire Hathaway acquired stake in AbbVie, Merck, Pfizer

Hathaway added to its holdings in Bank of America, General Motors

Hathaway now owns just 3.7% stake in Apple

Warren Buffett’s multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway shed about $4 billion worth of Apple shares and has bet big on major pharma companies, according to the company's latest filing.

In an update filed with the SEC on Monday, the company revealed that it sold 36 million shares of Apple, bringing its stake down to about 3.7%.

Buffett’s company also made major changes in its portfolio, buying massive amounts of shares in drug companies, including 21.3 million shares in AbbVie (1.2% stake), 22.4 million shares in Merck (0.9% stake), 3.7 million shares in Pfizer (less than 0.1% stake) and a substantial number of shares in Bristol Myers Squibb (1.3%). The Pfizer investment is worth $140 million, while the other three are roughly worth $2 billion each.

Wall Street will look at the new pharma investments by Buffett’s company closely. Pfizer's recent announcement that its vaccine against the coronavirus showed more than 90% efficacy rate in its trials had sent the company’s stocks soaring. Similarly, Merck is in the middle of testing its own vaccine.

It is not clear which of these investment decisions were made by Buffett. He handles the biggest investments by the company, including Coca-Cola, Apple and Bank of America, according to a report.

The company pulled out from major bank stocks, including JPMorgan, where Berkshire reduced its holding by 96%. The company also trimmed its holding in PNC Financial by 64%. It also cut stakes in Wells Fargo from 10% to roughly 3.1%, and in M&T Bank.

The conglomerate added to its stake in Bank of America, General Motors and Kroger. Berkshire’s second-largest investment is in BoA, which is now at $28 billion after this investment.

https://www.ibtimes.com/warren-buffett-bets-big-pharma-after-pulling-back-apple-banks-3083770

TIME TO COME HOME: President Trump Bringing Troops Home From Iraq and Afghanistan

>>11682962

Trump Makes It Official with Troop Reductions in Iraq, Afghanistan

President Donald Trump has officially called for a significant reduction of troops across Afghanistan and Iraq, citing no immediate national security threat to the American people, the acting defense secretary said Tuesday.

"By Jan. 15, 2021, our forces, their size in Afghanistan will be 2,500, and our force size in Iraq will also be 2,500 by that same date," Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced from the Pentagon.

"We owe this moment to the many patriots who made the ultimate sacrifices," he said of the 6,900 troops who have died and the 52,000 who've been wounded during the nearly two-decade conflict.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/11/17/trump-makes-it-official-troop-reductions-iraq-afghanistan.html

Mike Stone- What Do You Do?

You're a patriot, a proud American, and a kind and thoughtful person. You strive to always do the right thing and treat others the way you wish to be treated.

So how do you deal with such outright evil, such blatant criminality as the stolen election we are now witnessing? On a personal level, how do you deal with everyone in your life that supports this criminality?

payne.jpeg

How do you deal with your friends, family members, and neighbors who voted for Joe Biden who don't give a hoot about the obvious voter fraud currently taking place?

How do you deal with the fools and cowards in your life who didn't even bother to vote or who tell you that there's no difference between Biden and Donald Trump, that it doesn't matter who wins?

I come home tonight and hear televisions blaring from my neighbors. They're watching Joe Biden's "acceptance speech."

To them, it's a proud moment. To them, it's a wondrous thing.

So what do I do?

If you met my neighbors you'd think they were the nicest people in the world. The Hispanic couple next door is as helpful and friendly as anyone you'd ever meet. I would do anything for them and I'm sure they would do anything for me. Yet they're celebrating this stolen election like it's the greatest thing ever.

I'm reminded of Jesus' words on the cross: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

My neighbors obviously have no idea of the fraud that's taking place. They have no knowledge or conception of Communism. They have no idea how bad things are going to get if Biden actually takes control of the White House.

I have friends and family members who believe what they see on the idiot box and never question authority.

Any attempt to educate them falls on deaf ears.

I have no easy answers. I can tell you that I have no patience for the fools and cowards who believe it makes no difference who wins the election and who are too timid to fight. Nor for those who are fully aware of the criminality taking place and support it.

woman-wearing-medical-mask-car_23-2148510560.jpg

But what about the ignorant masses? What about those who mean no harm, but lack the common sense and critical thinking skills to actually know what's going on? How do I deal with them? How do you deal with them?

Despite the rush by the perpetrators to anoint Creepy Joe the winner, this election is far from over.

We won't know who really won until December at the earliest, and more likely until January. That's plenty of time to decide how you want to deal with the ignorant masses in your life. The one piece of advice I can offer you is to use this time to get right with God. For me, that's traditional Catholicism.

Getting right with God is essential, because no matter who wins, things are going to get far, far worse. If Trump wins, we know his and our enemies will pull out all stops in the coming year. If they are so evil, so twisted in their sinful minds, as to attempt an overthrow of our country's elected President, then there's nothing they will stop at.

If Biden wins, expect the full onslaught of NWO enslavement. In other words, our country is finished. Kaput. Gone forever. Sure, we'll keep fighting, keep doing what we can, but the battle will be a thousand times harder and many will perish, both physically and spiritually. Getting right with God will be your only armor of protection.

As for those ignorant masses, you'll have to choose your own response. I'm praying for guidance on that one.

https://henrymakow.com/2020/11/mike-stone–what-do-you-do.html

Frydenberg to reaffirm trade relations with Beijing

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has claimed the Morrison government is committed to restoring a working relationship with Beijing and is ready to continue a “respectful and beneficial dialogue” amid trade tensions.

The Australian is reporting Mr Frydenberg did warn Australia’s national interests will at no time be compromised, engaging in his first diplomatic intervention which aimed to reassure anxious business owners that trade will continue.

Adoni Media Managing Director Leisa Goddard commented, “I think all of the people across Australian agriculture, certainly in the beef industry, certainly the wine makers, barley, they’ve all been looking to the Australian government for some sort of reassurance and security”.

“It’s good news for them to see the government finally coming out and saying ‘we are wanting to open up dialogue, we are wanting to protect this trade relationship’,” she said.

“I still don’t think that takes away from the point that as a country, we need to look wider and much broader than just China.”

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6210351163001

Israel firster Siding Australia with China

After Election, Facebook Will Now Ban You If You Are ‘Similar Looking’ To Someone They Banned

Facebook will ban conservatives if they are "similar looking" to someone else they banned.

National File has exclusively obtained comment from Facebook representatives who say that the platform will now ban conservative groups and pages if they are look similar to other groups and pages that they have banned for violating their Community Standards.

In the days before the election, National File reported that the once-massive Facebook page, God Emperor Trump, was unceremoniously banned from the platform for the 7th time. While communicating with Facebook Politics and Government Outreach Associate Danielle Cyr, at the direction of Facebook Public Policy Director for Global Elections Katie Harbath, National File was informed of this new policy.

When asked if the God Emperor Trump Facebook page actually violated any of the platform’s Community Standards, Cyr acknowledged that the page did not, and provided a link to Facebook’s updated Community Guidelines, which state:

We’ve long prohibited people from creating new Pages that look similar to those we’ve previously removed for violating our Community Standards. In early 2019, we updated our recidivism enforcement to prevent those who have had Pages removed for violating our Community Standards from using duplicate Pages to continue the same activity.

According to our updated recidivism policy, when we remove a Page for violating our policies, we may remove other Pages and Groups even if that specific Page has not met the threshold to be unpublished on its own. This is determined by looking at a broad set of information, including whether the Page has the same people administering it or has a similar name to the one we’re removing.

Cyr then added additional context to the ban, explaining that “Your page was removed according to these policies and will not be reinstated. Additional similar looking pages and groups can also be removed,” emphasis added by National File.

When National File noted that most posts to the page were simply articles or popular pro-Trump memes, and asked whether this means all pro-Trump Facebook pages and their administrators may be banned from the platform due to this policy, we did not receive a response.

Big tech titans of industry are currently testifying before Congress to determine how they may have interfered in the 2020 election, with Zuckerberg claiming the platform’s post-election censorship of Republicans was an effort to curb political violence.

https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-after-election-facebook-will-now-ban-you-if-you-are-similar-looking-to-someone-else-they-banned/

Roger Stone: Biden to Pardon Keith Raniere!

Political consultant Roger Stone posted on his Parler social media account on Friday the 13th of November: “Breaking – Joe Biden has promised Democrat operatives a pardon for Nexium [sic] Sex cult Guru Keith Ranieri [sic].

In addition to posting on Parler, Stone was heard discussing the proposed pardon with a well known Republican, his famous wife, and a Democrat operative tied to the Biden transition team.

Through them, Frank Report learned the name of one of the Democratic operatives Stone was apparently referring to and contacted him. The operative denied Biden has plans to pardon Raniere, but admitted this is what he would say even if Biden planned to pardon Raniere.

Several other Democrats close to Biden deny the story and claim it is preposterous.

“This is Roger being Roger. He knows it isn’t true. He is just causing mayhem,” said one Democrat source, close to Obama-Biden, who was already familiar with Stone’s claims.

It might indeed be disinformation. CNN has accused Stone of conducting a massive disinformation campaign in connection with the 2020 election. Stop the Steal’s massive disinformation campaign connected to Roger Stone.

Stone was a consultant for NXIVM in 2007 and brought several consultants into the group, including Steve Pigeon and Frank Parlato, the man widely credited with bringing the cult down.

Stone is well known for having told Raniere: “If you guys don’t want to come out looking like a cult, then start by not acting like one.”

Stone said he quit as Nxivm’s consultant after Raniere and his top lieutenant, Nancy Salzman, repeatedly asked him to donate money to elected officials in return for their quid pro quo commitment to indict Nxivm enemies Joe O’Hara, Toni Natalie and Rick Ross.

After he left, Stone helped in the campaign waged by Parlato to take down the cult.

While there’s no verifiable link between Biden and the American players in NXIVM, the same is NOT true regarding the Mexican wing of the organization. Biden has a long, established relationship with former Mexican President Carlos Salinas and his family. The same is true for the Clintons and many other Democrat power brokers.

https://frankreport.com/2020/11/17/roger-stone-biden-to-pardon-keith-raniere/

Lord Malloch Brown Revealed: The British Hand Behind the Coup Shows Its Scales Again

Throughout the four-year drama of Russiagate, the hand of British intelligence has revealed itself continuously.

From the obvious role of Sir Richard Dearlove and his former MI6 underling Christopher Steele who together played a driving role in shaping the dodgy dossier, to their involvement with Oxford Rhodes Scholar Strobe Talbott in composing, promoting and marketing the fraudulent dossier to targeted members of Congress and media, to British Ambassador Sir Darroch caught “flooding the zone” with British intelligence assets to shape Trump’s perception of the world, to the array of British entrapment operations that targeted Michael Flynn as early as 2014 in London… wherever one looks, the hand of British intelligence seems to be everywhere.

While vast effort is made to downplay the British roots of the deep state by the media which tends to portray this problem from a partisan narrative of “democratic party corruption”, this sleight of hand misses the causal nexus and demands we believe that the tail truly wags the dog.

The uncomfortable truth which many are either too afraid, lazy or corrupt to admit is that since the moment John F Kennedy died on November 22, 1963, both the Democratic and Republican Parties have undergone a slow take-over by this foreign parasite. The thing that has come to be known as the “deep state” was never based on one party or another, and never emanated from anything native to the Constitutional traditions of the US government itself as I outlined in my previous article “Understanding the Trifold Nature of the Deep State”.

While the Republican party of George Bush was in power, this deep state had used its controls of computerized vote counting to rig elections in 2000 and 2004 in its favor as showcased brilliantly in the 2006 documentary Hacking Democracy. Later, when it was time for a controlled opposition to take power in 2008, it did the same thing under a different cast of characters.

While one side of the unipolar world government agenda was driven by a view that the USA should forever be the primary global police force governing a zero sum system of perpetual war, with an unelected elite managing the system from above, the other side believed that the USA should surrender its claims to sovereignty to an international global body with unelected technocrats and financiers at the top managing the zero sum system of perpetual war from above.

Notice the common denominator?

https://fort-russ.com/2020/11/lord-malloch-brown-revealed-the-british-hand-behind-the-coup-shows-its-scales-again/

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>>11683196

Additionally five options are developed by Sunstein:

“(1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories. (3) Government might itself engage in counter speech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories. (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counter speech. (5) Government might engage in informal communication with such parties, encouraging them to help”

On August 24, 2020 Sunstein was tapped to chair the World Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group mandated with modifying global behaviour in compliance with the new norms of the pandemic world order. The WHO chief stated “In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are using a range of tools to influence behavior: Information campaigns are one tool, but so are laws, regulations, guidelines and even fines…That’s why behavioral science is so important.”

Lord Brown in the Obama Era

In 2007, Malloch Brown left the UN to head up Soros’ Quantum Hedge Fund- a lucrative post which he soon left to join the British Foreign Office as Minister of State for Africa, Asia and the UN from 2007-2009.

After leaving his position in the UK government in 2009, Lord Malloch Brown went on to consult oil companies and steer his International Crisis Group. By this time, the ICG had a near monopoly on drafting anonymously published reports of international crisis hotspots priding itself on maintaining armies of “on the ground” specialists who could profile all disputing parties and release their assessments on the international market. These reports have been used by governments, NGOs, corporations, and international bodies like the UN and have played a major role in shaping global policy and perceptions of the causes and remedies to conflict.

Utilizing his expertise in vote fraud and perception management, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Malloch Brown soon found himself at the helm of SGO Corporation Ltd in 2014 which serves as a holding company whose main asset is Smartmatic voting technologies. Smartmatic sells itself as having “handled more than 3.7 billion votes over the past 14 years in election projects on five continents” and while it denies having activities directly on US soil, a screenshot from the Way Back Machine demonstrates a very different story.

Since 2010 Smartmatic has been found to have been at the heart of election fraud in Mexico, Venezuela, the USA, and the Philippines where the first Presidential election using this system resulted in the victory of Corazon Aquino’s son Benigno Aquino. After mountains of evidence have come to light of Smartmatic’s role in systemic fraud, the IBON Foundation called out Lord Brown as “a foreigner who has made a career out of influencing elections”.

It is an irony of history that not only did Lord Malloch Brown install a second generation cardboard cutout into power in the Philippines, but deployed his voting system to undermine the popular Ferdinand Marco Jr in favor of the Liberal Party’s Leni Robredo during the 2016 elections. Luckily in the same year that Trump was to beat the system via his landslide popular victory in the USA, a similar victory occurred in opposition to all odds when nationalist President Duterte took office and later demanded the Philippines rid itself of Smartmatic tech.

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Military Situation In Syria On November 17, 2020 (Map Update)

A brief overview of the recent developments in Syria:

On November 16, an IED attack targeted a vehicle of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the town of Shaafah;

On November 16, artillery of Turkish-backed forces shelled positions of the SDF west of Tal Abyadh;

On November 16, Syrian Arab Army (SAA) artillery shelled positions of Turkish-backed forces in Banin;

On November 17, SAA artillery shelled positions of Turkish-backed forces in Fatirah, Kansafra, Safuhen;

On November 16, an explosive device exploded in a car in the village of Al-Hammam.

https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-syria-on-november-17-2020-map-update/

Ohio Gov. DeWine Announces Three-Week COVID Curfew

In an address to the state Tuesday afternoon, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced a three-week curfew effective Thursday that will run from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. in order to slow down transmission of the COVID-19 China coronavirus. Retail business will be ordered closed for those hours and residents should stay home. DeWine said Monday he does not want to order a statewide lockdown.

DeWine said the curfew will have “common sense” exemptions including for people going to work, the hospital, picking up or delivering food. Pharmacies and grocery stores would be exempt. In response to a reporter’s question DeWine said he will not close bars and restaurants for the duration of the curfew to see if that works.

Positive test results and hospitalizations have surged in Ohio in recent weeks. In addition to the curfew, DeWine’s administration has ordered restrictions on banquets and weddings. New daily cases have averaged between 7,000 and 8,000 the past week. Hospitalizations have gone from about 1,000 on October 13 to nearly 4,000 as of Tuesday. Patients in ICU care is at a record of near 900.

DeWine tweeted about the curfew and posted charts on the coronavirus surge in the state.

“We are issuing a curfew in Ohio that will start Thursday. This will run from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for 21 days. We believe this will help reduce #COVID19 spread. I’m also asking each Ohioan every day to do at least one thing that reduces your contact with others. We are #InThisTogetherOhio. Each one of us will make a difference. If we can cut down contacts by 20-25 percent, this will make a difference. Paired with mask-wearing, this will go a long way from stopping our hospitals from being overrun….Exceptions: The curfew does not apply to those who need to be at work, those who have an emergency, or those who need medical care. The curfew is not intended to stop anyone from getting groceries, a carry-out/drive-thru meal, or delivery. A lot of this is common sense.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/ohio-gov-dewine-announces-three-week-covid-curfew/

Bill Gates compares people who refuse to wear masks amid COVID to nudists who won't wear pants in public

Weird

Billionaire Microsoft founder and climate activist Bill Gates has compared people opposed to mask-wearing to nudists who refuse to wear pants in public.

As highlighted by Business Insider, Gates addressed the coronavirus pandemic and the wearing of masks as a prophylactic against infection on his brand-new podcast with actress Rashida Jones.

During the exchange, Gates told Jones that he simply doesn't understand why some people are so opposed to masks.

"The idea that somebody's resisting wearing a mask, that is such a weird thing to me," he told Jones during "Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions."

"What are these, like, nudists?" he added. "I mean, you know, we ask you to wear pants, and no American says, or very few Americans say, that that's, like, some terrible thing."

Jones responded, "If you want to get back to normal life any time sooner, wear a mask, or don't wear a mask, and stay home. But, like, to ask for both things feels like you just want things to be better, and they're not, so you kind of just have to deal with what it is."

Gates and Jones also spoke with Dr. Anthony Fauci during the premiere episode and discussed a potential vaccine rollout.

"One of the things we're dealing with is a degree of essentially fatigue that people have about going through this," Fauci said during the interview. "It's amazing. It's almost like a distortion of time, Rashida."

He continued, "I want to tell people, 'Don't give up. This is going to end. Science is going to help us with a vaccine and therapy, and if we pay attention to the public health measures, we can gain control of it. The thing you don't want to happen is that people said, 'I've done this so long. I'm tired of it. The heck with it. I'm just going to go out there and do what I want to do.'"

https://www.theblaze.com/news/bill-gates-masks-nudists-pants

US State Department to Release ‘Kennan-Style’ Blueprint for Containing China

The position paper builds on shifts in US global strategy in recent years toward what the Pentagon has called “great power competition” with Russia and China, which Washington sees as “revisionists” attempting to rewrite the US-led post-Cold War world order.

On Tuesday, Axios published an unclassified document from the US State Department’s Office of Policy Planning that lays out a series of goals the US must achieve if it wants to forestall the rise of China as a global superpower.

The document, titled “The Elements of the China Challenge,” bears a number of similarities to the 1947 “long telegram” written by George F. Kennan, a senior US diplomat to the Soviet Union, about how the US should address the rise of that socialist superpower. Kennan advised a policy of “containment” through regional alliances and steady undermining of the Soviet socialist system that became the basis of the Cold War that followed.

‘Return to the Fundamentals’

Like Kennan, this new document purports to analyze the psychology of the Chinese people and suggests the socialist government of the Communist Party of China (CPC, sometimes rendered CCP) has fundamentally different values from the Chinese people themselves, presenting a hostile threat to both them and the world.

However, the document isn’t quite the racialized “clash of civilizations” argument it could have been: Kiron Skinner, the policy planning office’s former chief who set in motion the effort to produce the present document, said in April 2019 that the US conflict with China was “a fight with a really different civilization.” She added, “It’s the first time that we will have a great power competitor that is not Caucasian.”

According to the paper, the US has to “return to the fundamentals,” casting aside the petty political squabbles and intrigues of recent years in order to present a more coherent and united vision for tackling China.

It lays out 10 ways this can be achieved, which are:

“preserving constitutional government” at home

maintaining the US military as the world’s strongest fighting force

fortifying the “rules-based international order” the US created after World War II

working to “reevaluate its alliance system and the panoply of international organizations in which it participates” to ensure they support this vision

strengthening existing alliance systems and creating new ones

cooperating with China when possible

inculcating in the US populace the reasons why China must be fought

training a new generation of public servants well-versed in Chinese language and culture, but who also support the vision of constraining China

reforming the US education system to support that goal

and championing “the principles of freedom” with rhetoric, sanctions and military force as necessary.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202011171081196194-us-state-department-to-release-kennan-style-blueprint-for-containing-china/

Full DOC

https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20407448-elements_of_the_china_challenge-20201117

>>11683296

Pretty much

Jack Dorsey says Twitter censored more than 300,000 election-related tweets as ‘misleading’ over two weeks

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says his platform has slapped warning labels on 300,000 election-related tweets, including over 50 from US President Donald Trump, in the course of two weeks.

Dorsey, along with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, returned to Congress on Tuesday to face questions about social media’s role in influencing politics, specifically the 2020 presidential election.

Twitter has arguably faced the most criticism, as the platform continues to label tweets from the president alleging voter fraud as “misleading.”

Dorsey revealed some 300,000 election-related tweets were given the “misleading” label between October 27 through November 11, which amounts to approximately 0.2 percent of election-related tweets. More than 50 of those have been from Trump himself.

“In the lead-up to the 2020 elections, we made significant enhancements to our policies to protect the integrity of the election. Most notably, this year, we updated our civic integrity policy to more comprehensively enforce labeling or removing of false and misleading information,” Dorsey claimed.

Republican lawmakers specifically targeted Twitter over its October decision to suppress a New York Post story about a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, which contained illicit images, as well as emails that insinuated the former vice president was involved in his son’s foreign business deals – something he has long denied. Dorsey admitted the suppression was “wrong.”

“We made a quick interpretation, using no other evidence, that the materials in the article were obtained through hacking, and according to our policy, we blocked them from being spread,” Dorsey said. “Upon further consideration, we admitted this action was wrong and corrected it within 24 hours.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) slammed both Facebook, which also censored the sharing of the story, and Twitter for acting as the “ultimate editor” when it came to the report.

Big Tech leaders are facing equal scrutiny from Democrat lawmakers, though, in this case, the criticism is that they are not going far enough with their policing of posts.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) slammed Facebook during the hearing for not suspending former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, after viral comments saying he wanted Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray’s “heads on pikes.”

“I’m very concerned that, in fact, Facebook seems to have a record of making accommodations and caving to conservative pressure,” Blumenthal said.

Zuckerberg countered that the “content in question” violated Facebook’s policies and was removed, but such a violation does not justify an account being banned.

https://www.rt.com/usa/507009-jack-dorsey-election-tweets-congress/

Acting SECDEF assures end of ‘generational’ Mideast wars in announcement of partial drawdown

Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller announced on Tuesday that the U.S. will draw down its troop levels to 2,500 in both Iraq and Afghanistan in the new year, confirming rumors that have circulated in the week since President Donald Trump fired former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

By Jan. 15, Miller said in a briefing during which he took no questions from reporters, Afghanistan will reduce from 4,500 and Iraq from 3,000.

“Today is another critical step in that direction and a result of President Trump’s bold leadership,” Miller said. “With the blessings of Providence in the coming year, we will finish this generational war and bring our men and women home. We will protect our children from the heavy burden and toll of perpetual war. And we will honor the sacrifices made in service to peace and stability in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world and celebrate all those who helped us secure freedom over oppression.”

Miller did not clarify if or when the number would come down to zero, but the rough plan since June has been to have all troops out of Afghanistan by May 2021, as long as conditions are met.

“Meanwhile, let us remind those who questioned our resolve or may seek to interfere with this prudent, well-planned and coordinated transition: the United States armed forces remain committed to protecting the safety and security for the American people and supporting our like minded allies and partners worldwide,” he said.

Speaking to reporters soon after Miller’s briefing, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien confirmed that Trump wishes to have all troops of out Afghanistan by May.

Those conditions are a bit of a moving target. Pentagon officials have been saying for months that they include a reduction of violence against U.S. troops and a demonstration on the part of the Taliban that they are committed to preventing Afghanistan from becoming an al Qaida safe haven again, in turn assuring that no further terrorist attacks against the U.S. will come out of that country.

“First and foremost, is the national security of America threatened by this maneuver, by this decision? And we do we do not feel that it is,” a senior defense official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told reporters in a call prior to Miller’s announcement. “And second, can we maintain a force posture in Afghanistan that permits us to carry out our mission with our allies and partners?"

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/11/17/acting-secdef-assures-end-of-generational-mideast-wars-in-announcement-of-partial-drawdown/