BREAKING: White House Splits Over Special Counsel, Martial Law Amid Aftermath Of SolarWinds Breach

Arguments between Senior White House staff and prominent Trump staffers erupted in the Oval Office on Friday, according to CNN.

Andrew White by ANDREW WHITE December 20, 2020

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The rift between members of the Senior White House staff is now as public as it is wide, after CNN reported an Oval Office meeting between top Trump staffers, including Trump Campaign Attorney Matt Morgan, Attorney Sidney, Powell and General Michael Flynn, the de-facto leaders of the grassroots movement fighting for election integrity, that allegedly included arguments over a possible voter fraud Special Counsel investigation and martial law to restore election integrity.

Matt Morgan has previously been blamed for the campaign’s lackluster initial handling of the numerous claims of election fraud in the early hours of Wednesday, November 4.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone were present at the meeting and reportedly pushed back against the notion of naming Powell as special counsel to investigate the widespread evidence of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election.

According to CNN, the conversation also included discussions on the possibility of enacting martial law to ensure election security, an idea that General Flynn suggested earlier this week on Newsmax. Some individuals in the room reportedly argued against it.

The idea of enacting an executive order to access and inspect US voting machines was also discussed in the meeting. This could possibly be a reference to President Trump’s 2018 executive order titled Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election.

“I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the ability of persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States to interfere in or undermine public confidence in United States elections, including through the unauthorized accessing of election and campaign infrastructure or the covert distribution of propaganda and disinformation, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States…”

“…In recent years, the proliferation of digital devices and internet-based communications has created significant vulnerabilities and magnified the scope and intensity of the threat of foreign interference, as illustrated in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with this threat.”

These developments arise amid the aftermath of the devastating SolarWinds cyber attack. As the unprecedented breach made its way into public view, DNI John Ratcliffe announced a delay in the release of the official report on foreign election interference due to new intelligence surrounding Chinese operations information, as National File reported:

https://nationalfile.com/breaking-white-house-splits-over-special-counsel-martial-law-amid-aftermath-of-solarwinds-breach/

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Gateway Pundit reported that the FBI, Texas Rangers, and US Marshals had allegedly raided SolarWinds headquarters in Austin, Texas, but this has not been confirmed, although John Basham clarified later on Twitter that “They Had A Building Full Of Agents, Rangers, & Deputy Marshals (Primarily FBI Agents).”

Hey @gatewaypundit That "Hannity Guest" Was Me & The Only Correction I Have For Your Article…I Did Not Describe The Investigation In Austin At Solarwinds As A "Raid", But They Had A Building Full Of Agents, Rangers, & Deputy Marshals (Primarily FBI Agents) https://t.co/BduyE01R3Q

— John Basham 🇺🇲 (@JohnBasham) December 15, 2020

As the joint statement reads, the agencies issued an Emergency Directive which instructed federal civilian agencies “to immediately disconnect or power down affected SolarWinds Orion products from their network” due to exploitation from “malicious actors.”

It has also been confirmed that Dominion Voting Systems uses products from the breached SolarWinds company, specifically, the Serv-U product. Furthermore DVS removed links and references to SolarWinds off their website, as National File reported.

While many mainstream media outlets and some officials, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have claimed that Russia and/or Russian actors are “believed” to have been behind the SolarWinds breach, National File has reported on questionable financial ties between SolarWinds board members and China.

According to the Washington Post, SolarWinds investors traded a total of $280 million in stock before the official announcement of the breach, raising questions about potential insider trading. Silver Lake sold $158 million in SolarWinds shares six days before the SolarWinds breach was announced.

President Trump suggested that China “may be” behind the SolarWinds breach and that the cyber attack could have impacted US voting machines on Twitter, as National File reported.

President Donald Trump suggested on Twitter that China ‘may be’ responsible for the recently announced SolarWinds cyber attack, adding that “Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant” when anything happens, because mainstream media outlets have “financial reasons” to not cover China’s potential involvement.

President Trump also said that the cyber attack could have impacted “our ridiculous voting machines” during the 2020 US election, adding that the election was a “corrupted embarrassment for the USA.”

Attorney Powell and General Flynn’s grassroots election integrity movement, now known as “Stop the Steal,” aims for a full congressional hearing to address the evidence of mass voter fraud before a joint session of Congress on January 6, the day that the legislature certifies the electoral college votes. In the meantime, Americans await DNI Ratcliffe’s report on foreign election interference and President Trump’s future actions to address the evidence of mass voter fraud in the 2020 US election.

https://nationalfile.com/breaking-white-house-splits-over-special-counsel-martial-law-amid-aftermath-of-solarwinds-breach/

December 20, 2020

2020 Election Integrity – A Snapshot Showing Where We Stand

By R.D. Wedge

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Chief Justice Roberts’s Supreme Court is manifestly reluctant to fulfill its statutory responsibilities, despite overwhelming, and steadily accruing, evidence of significant fraud that the election outcome. However, in 2018, President Trump may have prepared a time bomb that can still save the day.

Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, filed a complaint asserting that election fraud disenfranchised Texas voters. Texas voting was done within the framework of the U.S. Constitution and battleground states strayed beyond legal boundaries, to put it mildly. The legal votes of Texans were nullified by the alleged fraudulent votes of those states.

Article III, section 2, of the Constitution states in relevant part, the Supreme Court “[J]udicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity . . . to Controversies between two or more states. . . .” (Emphasis added.) Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has denied the Texas lawsuit challenging the election outcome in battleground states, asserting “lack of standing.”

Justices Alito and Thomas dissented from the majority opinion and wanted to hear the case. Alito wrote, “In my view, we do not have discretion to deny the filing of the bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction. I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint, but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue.”

Reading between the lines, Texas has standing under the Constitution. Hearing the complaint’s merits is warranted based upon the clearly expressed text. Further, SCOTUS could wisely have avoided picking winners and losers by disqualifying the election based upon malfeasance, which defers the matter to Congress as the Constitution mandates.

The only thing missing from their judgment is courage. To say that this is a disappointment would be an understatement.

The issue of election fraud is not new. The Heritage Foundation’s database on this issue shows 1,302 “proven instances of voter fraud” as of this writing. In 2020, issues of the deceased voting, non-citizens voting, and 120% of registered voter participation in certain counties are just a few examples of election corruption.

The convoluted nature of this election is by design. The progressive ruling class, under the guise of the coronavirus, flooded the country with unsolicited mail-in ballots. What could possibly go wrong?

There are times when the ruling classes show their hand. Remember when Rahm Emanuel said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that, it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Corporate media and Big Tech cover for these people all day long.

Crosscurrents of arrogance, power, and intimidation are at play here. If this corruption were to go unresolved, we would never have a free and fair election again. But, the American Spirit in pursuit of the truth, wherever the facts lead, is shining a light on this mischief.

Forensic Audit of Dominion Machines

The results of a forensic audit of Dominion tabulators in Antrim, Michigan have been released. This is the Republican stronghold that gave Biden a win by a few thousand votes. The 6,000 vote “glitch” was rectified, but further illustrates what appears to be a trend.

Proprietary coding has been redacted but the merits of the substance remain. According to the Washington Examiner, Allied Security Operations Group conducted the analysis. A synopsis of their findings is as follows:

Dominion machines are intentionally designed to create fraud

They are designed to manipulate data with no oversight

liminating transparency is part of their signature

They were intentionally designed to eliminate an audit trail

The observable error rate is 68.05% when the Federal Election Comm. standard is 0.0008%

Republican Clerk did not update software, exacerbating the situation

Dominion Voting System should not be used in Michigan

Audit bottom line: Michigan’s election should not be certified.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/12/2020_election_integrity__a_snapshot_showing_where_we_stand_now.html

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Technology and Foreign Interference

Col. Philip Waldron (US Army Retired) has a 30-year career as an intelligence officer, specializing in cybersecurity relating to election fraud. He reflects the best and brightest of experts in systems analysis. As part of the White House team, he’s been looking into election trends and irregularities since August of 2020.

Our voting system is not supposed to be internet accessible, but he has confirmed that it is. He has identified a dozen different ways these voting machines can be hacked. He says that a top-level DEF CON Defense Readiness Condition: an alert system for national defense hacker (a group of hackers who gather in Las Vegas every year to prove how easily things are to hack) can hack this system in “less than two minutes.”

In his testimony, which is publicly available, he states, “The voting systems in the U.S. and in Pennsylvania were built to be manipulated.” He also states that election equipment like Dominion, ES&S, and many other systems all have similar codes and functions that are compatible with Smartmatic voting software. This would make it easy for a systems analyst or hacker to manipulate votes across multiple platforms and states.

The colonel testified that he personally witnessed a data transfer from a Dominion machine to Frankfurt, Germany, on November 3rd . . . Election Day!

Additional foreign involvement has been confirmed by the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe. He told CBS that China, Iran, and Russia had interfered with our election in November. His forthcoming report is in progress.

What we know, in such a short period of time, may be just the tip of the iceberg. Much needs to be unpacked and revealed.

It is this foreign involvement that sets the table for an ingenious move by the President.

The Trump Card

On September 12, 2018, President Trump issued an Executive Order that got little attention back then. Due to the toxic political environment, with adversaries both foreign and domestic, the president proactively put “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election” in play.

It states in relevant part:

In recent years, the proliferation of digital devices and internet-based communications has created significant vulnerabilities and magnified the scope and intensity of the threat of foreign interference, as illustrated in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with this threat.

Under this EO, the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, is instructed to conduct an assessment of the threat within 45 days from the conclusion of the US Election. As one would imagine, this report requires specificity including means, methods, and principals involved.

Under the premise of a national emergency, the government is empowered to freeze bank accounts, impound voting machines, seize assets, etc. There is also language that targets those who would undermine public confidence via “covert distribution of propaganda and disinformation.” Corporate Media & Big Tech, hopefully, some Karma coming your way.

Ratcliffe has been working behind the scenes for the past month on this report. He now says that he will not meet the December 18, 2020 deadline because his work is incomplete. The date for congress to certify the election is January 6.

Ratcliffe should lean on the investigators to complete the report ASAP, without any Deep State delays. The health and future of American elections are at stake.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/12/2020_election_integrity__a_snapshot_showing_where_we_stand_now.html

>>12114168

me neither, I find it and drag it back here.

some of the best moves and countermoves. who knows?

>>12114196

>>12114233

other points of view exist, always know what your enemy is up too

REVEALED: ‘Simple Math’ Shows Biden Claims 13 MILLION More Votes Than There Were Eligible Voters Who Voted in 2020 Election

By Joe Hoft

Published December 20, 2020 at 7:30am

5825 Comments

The 2020 election will go down as the most corrupt US election in history.

The US election was corrupted in so many ways.

When you win a record low 17% of counties, lose Black & Hispanic support, lose 18/19 Bellwether Counties, lose Ohio, Florida, & Iowa — and lose 27/27 House “Toss-Ups” — but you shatter the popular vote record❗️ pic.twitter.com/ceBEoVYf8k

— Kanekoa (@KanekoaTheGreat) December 19, 2020

TRENDING: REVEALED: 'Simple Math' Shows Biden Claims 13 MILLION More Votes Than There Were Eligible Voters Who Voted in 2020 Election

Bill Binney, of US Intel fame tweeted out a message yesterday noting that more people voted in the 2020 election nation-wide than were eligible to vote.

(39)With 212Million registered voters and 66.2% voting,140.344 M voted. Now if Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden. These numbers don’t add up to what we are being told. Lies and more Lies!https://t.co/pY3n6DEWzP https://t.co/5FSNfJw992

— Bill Binney, Constitutional Patriot (@Bill_Binney) December 19, 2020

What Binney points out is that according to the Washington Post, 2020 had the highest voter turnout in over a century:Of course this on its face value implies fraud since no one was excited about voting for Joe Biden, but the WaPo wouldn’t consider going there – not with their far-left extreme bias.

Binney attaches a link to the number of registered voters in the US. We made a copy as of today and added these voters up. When we add up the number of registered voters we obtain 213.8 million registered voters in the US as of this morning.

Using the numbers as of today, which are materially similar to Binney’s, we find a huge issue. If we have 213.8 million registered voters in the US and 66.2% of all voters voted in the 2020 election, that equals 141.5 voters who voted in the 2020 election (Binney shows 140 million which is materially the same).

If President Trump won 74 million votes, then that leaves only 67.5 million votes remaining for Biden. This means 13 million duplicate or made up ballots were created and counted for Biden!

This also supports our observations from the start. Biden committed fraud in every imaginable way, but the big steal was in millions of fraudulent votes that were created to steal the election for Biden. MILLIONS!

The results of the 2020 election at a very high level do not add up. This is math liberals – very simple math that even liberals should be able to understand. At a high level, the Biden camp clearly committed fraud.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/breaking-huge-simple-math-shows-biden-claims-13-million-votes-eligible-voters-voted-2020-election/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons

>>12114254

NYC Restaurant Owners Have the Perfect Response to Governor Cuomo, He's Not Going to Like This

By Nick Arama | Dec 20, 2020 11:00 PM ET

If there was an award for the worst possible response to a pandemic, surely Governor Andrew Cuomo would not only be in the lead, but it would be hard to argue against him winning it.

Cuomo was responsible for an order forcing nursing homes to accept Wuhan coronavirus patients. Thousands of New Yorkers in nursing homes died in the wake of that order. His health department then changed the way nursing home deaths were counted after the scandal hit to cover-up exactly how many deaths were involved, we still don’t know exactly.

Then he tried to blame President Donald Trump for New York leading the nation in deaths, despite the fact that he had previously praised Trump for providing all kinds of help for the city.

Despite his horrible response, he was lauded by the liberal media for his response, who made him into a hero and even spoke about him as a possible presidential candidate at some future point.

Then with absolutely no self-awareness, he wrote a book lauding his response while the pandemic was still ongoing and despite so many deaths in New York.

Not only has he exacerbated nursing home deaths with his order, he’s also exacerbated businesses going under with arbitrary restrictions.

Restaurant owners in New York City have had enough and they’re letting him know in a very direct way. He is no longer welcome in any of their restaurants.

A group of restaurants agitating to reopen indoor dining have joined together to ban him from their restaurants.

From Washington Examiner:

“He can eat at some sh—- roadside diner outside of Albany but he will not be served anywhere in New York City, known universally as the world’s greatest dining destination! If he has to use the restroom he can go pee on my street-corner,” said bar owner Larry Baird.

Members of a Facebook group by the name of “NYC Restaurant Open,” which is comprised of several restaurant and bar owners from the city, have signaled support for the Cuomo ban.

“Completely schizophrenic behavior,” one group member said. “How are they coming up with these rules is beyond any logical reasoning.”

“He can dine at Gracie Mansion if wants hospitality in Manhattan,” another member added. “He ain’t getting it here!”

Cuomo has banned indoor dining once again in NYC earlier in the month, claiming that “with the rate of transmission, the density and crowding,” it was a “bad situation.”

In fact, the science suggests that the rate of transmission in restaurants in New York City, such as they can assess it, is rare. Only 1.3 percent of COVID 19 infections come from bars and restaurants in the city, according to the statistics. Yet Cuomo is willing to destroy a whole industry with all of the jobs and people’s lives associated with it. Over 1000 restaurants have closed permanently in New York City because of these restrictions.

Little about such restrictions seems truly based on science and statistics, but rather more based upon power and control.

So some like Mac’s Public House owner Danny Presti have gotten inventive when it comes to getting around the restrictions. He’s declared his place an “autonomous zone” where the food and drinks are “free” but people can leave “donations.”

“It doesn’t seem like we can do business,” said Mac’s Public House owner Danny Presti, who was arrested earlier this month in connection to refusing lockdown orders. “So here’s what we’re going to do for everybody: We’re going to give away everything for free. So now you can come to Mac’s Public House, and you can eat for free and you can drink for free. We just ask that you do make a donation toward us so that we can still pay our bills.”

This will hit the narcissistic governor right where he lives. Watch for the ensuing tantrum when he hears this.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2020/12/20/nyc-restaurant-owners-have-the-perfect-response-to-governor-cuomo-hes-not-going-to-like-this-n297842

Law Professor Calls for All Black Votes to Be Double-Counted From Now On

By Alex Parker | Dec 21, 2020 12:30 AM ET

Do you believe your vote counts?

To explain, I mean counts for one.

Or, if you’re black, possibly double that.

Such is the system that works for Brandon Hasbrouck, who recently penned a piece for The Nation magazine.

The Washington and Lee University School of Law assistant professor thinks each lever-pull by a black voter should be tallied twice.

Professor: The Votes Of Black Americans Should Count Twice | The Daily Wire. Brandon Hasbrouck, an assistant professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law, says votes from black Americans should be counted twice. https://t.co/UCClJdslZL

— NicoleMak (@begoodly18) December 21, 2020

In the article, Brandon insists “black voters in this country are worth less than white voters.”

He does state that black people (in Atlanta, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Philadelphia) won Biden the Electoral College; yet, he asserts, despite “overwhelming Black support — 94 percent of Detroit voted for Biden,” Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were still “worryingly close.”

One enemy to the black American’s ballot-casting — says Brandon — is the Electoral College:

One core problem is the Electoral College. Wyoming, which has just 580,000 residents and is 93 percent white, gets three electors because of its two senators and one representative in the House. By comparison, Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District — which includes Atlanta, has 710,000 residents, and is 58 percent Black — has no dedicated electors or senators and can only occasionally overcome the mostly white and conservative votes from elsewhere in the state.

Do black lives matter? Where the government’s concerned, he estimates No:

This devaluation of Black votes allows our political system to ignore Black lives, and the consequences are devastating. Unequal representation has led to unequal health care outcomes, which the Covid-19 pandemic has only worsened.

One thing’s for sure — repeatedly, black voters by and large enlist Democrats to save the day.

The Daily Wire runs some numbers:

Democratic presidential candidates have received an average of nearly 90% of the black vote for more than five decades. George W. Bush got 9% of the black vote in 2000, then made a heavy outreach and soared in 2004 — to 11%. In 2012 Mitt Romney pledged to help the black community more than had President Barack Obama (who got 95% of the 2008 vote). Romney ended up with 8% of the black vote, the same percentage President Trump would get in 2016.

Has it served them well?

Regardless, Brandon argues the Electoral College was set up from the get-go to disadvantage black Americans.

Its foundational purpose, in fact, was to protect slavery:

The Constitution’s framers set up the Electoral College to protect the interests of slave states. Along with the Senate, the Electoral College was critical in the endurance of slavery and its continuation by other means. Abolishing this system would mean that ballots cast by Black voters — or any voters, for that matter — would count the same.”

Therefore, it’s time for reparations, Doublemint Gum style:

We can implement vote reparations by double-counting ballots cast by all Black residents.

The professor points out the idea isn’t only his — in a 2015 op-ed for The Washington Post, Brennan Center for Justice Senior Fellow Theodore Johnson called for roughly the same.

Mr. Johnson endorsed the increase of each black vote to 5/3 — accomplishing “a poetic symmetry with the three-fifths clause of the Constitution.”

That clause, as you may recall, counted each slave as 3/5 of a person.

But Brandon considers a doubling to be closer to right — it “keeps the point clear and provides redress for myriad forms of disenfranchisement deployed against Black voters.”

And if Washington will agree to it, voilà — balance to the Force:

Because white votes currently count more than Black ones, double-counting Black votes would restore electoral balance. Vote reparations would be a giant step toward remedying our nation’s long history of denying and devaluing Black votes.

The university instructor makes clear: Systemic racism is real.

So a solution’s got to be found.

He asks readers to imagine a world where black votes are twice-counted:

To address systemic racism, we must transform how we choose our government. Even if vote reparations aren’t instituted, Black voters will keep tirelessly dragging our states toward a more perfect union. But just imagine our country if our votes counted twice.

Can you envision it?

If so, how ’bout it? Are you down with a doubling?

Or does Brandon’s plan just not add up?

https://redstate.com/alexparker/2020/12/21/brandon-hasbrouck-the-nation-black-votes-counted-double-restore-balance-systemic-racism-n297894

Are We Witnessing the Beginning of the End for Fox News?

By Jeff Charles | Dec 20, 2020 2:30 PM ET

What’s going to happen to Fox News?

After the election, it seems that conservatives and Republicans are gradually looking elsewhere for their news and commentary. But it isn’t just right-leaning consumers of content that are pivoting, the individuals who appear on these networks seem to be noticing the shift.

The Hill recently reported that GOP lawmakers are appearing more frequently on Newsmax than they have in the past. Indeed, Fox News was virtually the only conservative news outlet on which Republican leaders appeared up until recently.

“As President Trump openly feuds with Fox News, conservative lawmakers and loyal Trump officials have increasingly added Newsmax to their rotation of media stops, giving a sheen of credibility to the fledgling network as it seeks to compete for conservative viewers,” according to The Hill.

Newsmax is not yet rivaling Fox in terms of ratings, but it seems feasible that the outlet could close the gap in the next few years. GOP lawmakers told The Hill that the rise in popularity for Newsmax and other right-leaning news organizations has enticed them to appear more frequently on these alternative networks.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) stated that Trump’s feud with Fox contributed to his decision to look at smaller outlets. The Hill noted, “asked whether Trump’s criticism of Fox News is a factor for the small segment of Republicans considering the alternative networks, Harris replied: ‘It is for me.’”

The same seems to hold true for other GOP lawmakers. Newsmax anchor Sean Spicer and his co-host, Lyndsay Keith, recently interviewed newly-elected representatives August Pfluger and Tony Gonzales. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) still appears on Fox but has also made multiple appearances on Spicer’s show.

“Sean Spicer is well respected on Capitol Hill and his show with Lyndsay is both substantive and widely viewed in Congress,” Banks told The Hill. “I enjoy doing it and get feedback from constituents when I do.”

From The Hill:

“Over one 24-hour period last week, Newsmax featured new interviews with Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.).

Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) stopped by to attack elected Republican officials in Georgia for not doing enough to root out fraud. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) hammered Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) for his office having been infiltrated by a Chinese spy. And Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) came on to blame Democrats for stalling COVID-19 relief efforts.”

Other Republican politicians have not yet appeared on Newsmax, but they seem to be taking notice of the trend. “I know back home people are watching Fox less and watching the other outlets,” a GOP lawmaker in the Midwest told The Hill.

Still, Fox News remains the dominant right-leaning news outlet. It is the top-rated network in both daytime and prime time.

Still, Fox can book anyone it wants — including Trump, who sat for an interview with Fox & Friends last week, despite his criticism of the network. Its popularity is declining in the wake of the election, but it still has a ways to go before it has to worry about competition from the likes of Newsmax and OANN. But this does not mean it can afford to rest on its laurels.

Newsmax seems to be doing everything it can to capitalize on conservatives’ dissatisfaction with Fox. Reuters reported that “the network plans to hire more staff in the United States and London, debut a new primetime host and add more weekend programming to capitalize on post-election gains and some viewers’ discontent with Rupert Murdoch’s longtime ratings king Fox News.

Axios noted that Newsmax is making a push to snag some of Fox News’ talent. They reported that the company is “trying to lure away its vital booking agents with promises of higher salaries.”

Fox News might be the outlet of choice for most conservatives currently, but it is entirely possible that this is changing. The network’s handling of the election left a sour taste in many Republicans’ mouths, and it is no surprise that they are seeking out other news sources. While it is unlikely that the outlet will fold completely, it appears to be inevitable that its competitors will grow more popular and could pose a serious challenge to the network’s dominance.

https://redstate.com/jeffc/2020/12/20/are-we-witnessing-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-fox-news-n297658

China aircraft carrier sails through Taiwan Strait raising alarm

The Shandong was accompanied by four other ships and led Taiwan to deploy aircraft and vessels to monitor the convoy.

The Shandong aircraft carrier, which was commissioned a year ago, sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait over the weekend [File: Li Gang/Xinhua via AP Photo]

21 Dec 2020

An aircraft carrier group led by China’s newest carrier, the Shandong, sailed through the Taiwan Strait on its way to routine drills in the South China Sea, China’s navy said on Monday, after Taiwan mobilised its forces to monitor the convoy.

The Shandong sailed through the Taiwan Strait a day after a US warship passed through the same stretch of sea.

The drills are part of “normal arrangements made in accordance with annual plans”, it said. “In the future, we will continue to organise similar operations based on training needs.”

The carrier’s move through the strait comes amid rising tension between China and Taiwan, which Beijing sees as part of its territory. The democratically ruled island says it has recorded almost daily incursions into its airspace by the Chinese armed forces in recent months.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said the Shandong was accompanied by four warships and had set out from the northern Chinese port of Dalian on Thursday. In a statement on its website, it said the convoy continued to move south.

Taiwan said it sent six warships and eight military aircraft to monitor the Chinese ships’ movements.

“The military has the confidence and ability to protect its homeland, ensure national security and maintain regional peace and stability,” the statement said.

Two PLA aircraft (Y-8 EW and Y-8 ASW) entered #Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ on Dec. 20. Please check our official website for more information: https://t.co/SJas2NnQav pic.twitter.com/gGpH6gEe5g

— 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. 🇹🇼 (@MoNDefense) December 20, 2020

The Shandong is China’s second carrier, and was formally commissioned almost exactly a year ago.

Since then, it has successfully completed tasks such as carrier-based aircraft take-off and landing and use of its weapons, the Chinese navy said.

“The combat capability of the formation system has been continuously improved in experimental training,” it added, referring to the group of warships which accompany the Shandong.

China has been working to hone its carrier operations but has little experience compared to the United States, which has operated integrated carrier battle groups with multiple vessels for decades.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/21/alarm-in-taiwan-as-china-aircraft-carriers-sail-through-strait

US to earmark $1.9bn to replace Huawei, ZTE telecoms gear: Report

The $900bn virus relief bill reportedly includes funds to replace telecommunications network equipment that the US says poses a national security risk.

Huawei is one of the Chinese companies caught in the heightened trade tensions between Beijing and Washington [File: Michele Tantussi/Reuters]

21 Dec 2020

US policymakers will back a $1.9bn programme to remove telecommunications network equipment that the US government says could threaten national security as part of a $900bn COVID-19 relief bill, two sources briefed on the matter told the Reuters news agency.

Policymakers will also back $3.2bn for an emergency broadband benefit for low-income Americans, senior congressional aides confirmed.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said in June it had formally designated China’s Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp as threats, a declaration that bars US firms from tapping an $8.3bn government fund to buy equipment from the companies.

Earlier this month, the FCC finalised rules that require carriers with ZTE or Huawei equipment to “rip and replace” that equipment but is awaiting funding from Congress.

Huawei said earlier this month it was disappointed in the FCC’s decision “to force removal of our products from telecommunications networks. This overreach puts US citizens at risk in the largely underserved rural areas – during a pandemic – when reliable communication is essential”.

Rip and replace The bill “establishes a temporary, emergency broadband benefit program at the FCC to help low-income Americans, including those economically challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, get connected or remain connected to broadband,” according to a fact sheet seen by Reuters.

One of the sources also said the programme will supply a $50 monthly subsidy to qualifying households “to help them afford broadband service and an internet-connected device.”

The bill also expands eligibility for the rip-and-replace reimbursement programme to communications providers with 10 million subscribers or less but prioritises reimbursement for providers with two million subscribers or less, the source said, citing a draft fact sheet.

The bill will include $285m for connecting minority communities and will establish an Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

It will also offer funding to “support minority-serving education institutions, including when they partner with minority-owned businesses, to expand broadband capacity and use at the school and in the surrounding community,” the fact sheet seen by Reuters said.

It also includes about $250m for additional FCC support for tele-health and $1bn for an NTIA tribal broadband connectivity grant programme.

There is a separate $300m NTIA grant scheme to promote broadband expansion to Americans who have less connectivity, especially in rural areas, and $65m for better broadband maps.

That fully funds the FCC’s development of new, more accurate broadband availability maps to help the agency better target government funding for broadband deployment.

On Friday, the US Department of Commerce announced it is blacklisting Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co and more than 60 other Chinese companies “to protect US national security”.

Companies including Huawei and SMIC have been caught in the middle of worsening tensions between the world’s two largest economies, which have clashed on issues from trade to the pandemic.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/12/21/us-lays-out-funds-to-replace-telecom-equipment-from-huawei-zte

Which countries have banned UK travel over COVID concerns?

At least 27 countries ban flights and travellers from the UK after the detection of a new coronavirus strain in England.

The new strain could be up to 70 percent more infectious, the United Kingdom has said, prompting its European neighbours and several other countries including Canada and Iran to close their doors to travellers from the country [Remo Casilli/Reuters]

21 Dec 2020

Several countries have banned or will ban flights and travellers from the UK after the British government said on Sunday that the spread of a more-infectious new strain of the coronavirus was now “out of control”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and scientists announced that the new strain had led to spiralling infection numbers.

Here are the countries that have announced travel bans so far:

Argentina has banned flights from the UK. It said the last flight from the UK would arrive in the country on Monday.

Belgium banned flights from the UK for at least 24 hours from midnight on Sunday.

Bulgaria said flights to and from the UK would be suspended from midnight Sunday until January 31.

Canada is banning all UK flights for 72 hours.

Chile announced that it would suspend flights from the UK effective Tuesday.

Colombia will suspend all flights to the UK.

Croatia said it would temporarily suspend passenger air traffic from the UK for 48 hours.

Denmark has suspended flights from the UK for 48 hours starting Monday at 09:00 GMT.

El Salvador‘s President Nayib Bukele said anyone who had been in Britain or South Africa in the past 30 days will not be allowed to enter the country.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have halted flights from the UK.

Finland has barred flights from the UK for two weeks.

France has banned all travel from the UK for 48 hours, including journeys “related to goods transport by road, air, sea or rail”.

Germany halted all air links with the UK from midnight on Sunday, with the ban initially slated to last until December 31. Cargo flights will be exempt.

Hong Kong will ban flights from the UK over new coronavirus strain.

Italy has blocked flights from Great Britain and the “entry into Italy of people who have stayed there during the last 14 days”. The new strain has been found in one person in Italy who recently returned from the UK.

Iran has ordered flights from the UK suspended for two weeks.

Ireland has banned all flights arriving from the UK from midnight Sunday for at least 48 hours.

Israel said it was barring entry to foreign citizens travelling from the UK, Denmark and South Africa.

Kuwait has added the UK to a list of “high-risk” nations and banned flights.

Morocco banned all flights to the UK beginning on Sunday.

Norway will be suspend flights from the UK with immediate effect for a minimum of 48 hour, the Norwegian health minister said in a statement on Monday.

All passenger flights from the UK to the Netherlands have been banned until January 1, the Dutch government said. It later banned ferry passengers as well.

Poland will be suspending flights from the UK starting from midnight on Monday.

Romania has banned all flights to and from the UK for two weeks starting on Monday afternoon.

Switzerland has stopped flights until further notice.

Turkey said flights from the UK, Denmark – where nine cases of the new strain have been detected – the Netherlands and South Africa will be suspended.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/21/which-countries-have-banned-uk-flights-over-new-covid-19-concerns

>>12114453

Donald Trump Jr. Rallies in Georgia: ‘Do Not Squander This Opportunity’; Fight for the Senate

RINGGOLD, Georgia — Donald Trump Jr. told Georgians at a rally Saturday to protect the Republican Senate majority and preserve his father’s accomplishments by voting for Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) in the upcoming Senate runoff election.

Trump Jr. implored the crowd gathered at the Colonnade Center in Catoosa County on Saturday afternoon to not only vote but to vote early, call friends to vote, and speak to fellow constituents about the stakes of the election.

“Do not squander this opportunity,” Trump Jr. said. “Because I promise you, you will regret it. You will wake up one day in January and say, ‘Crap. Should’ve done a little bit more.’ Whatever you would do to reverse that feeling then, do it now.”

Perdue and Loeffler are facing Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock in Senate runoff races on January 5, and at least one of the two Republican candidates must win for the GOP to retain its Senate majority.

“There’s way too much at stake, guys, for ourselves, for our families, for our freedoms, you know, all those things the left doesn’t really believe in. I still do. That’s why I’m doing this,” Trump Jr. said during the third of his three campaign stops scheduled in Georgia for the weekend.

The president’s eldest son also asked the crowd to “continue fighting” for his father. “This isn’t just the Senate, but it’s also my father’s legacy and his accomplishments,” he said. “All of those things that they’ll try to take away, all of the freedoms that he fought for.”

Trump Jr. was joined at the rally by Perdue and Trump campaign senior adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle.

On nationwide economic turmoil resulting from coronavirus-related mandates, Trump Jr. ripped into New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) as an exemplary reason to vote Republican. “You have guys like Bill de Blasio … that destroyed New York City, by the way, minor details,” Trump Jr. said. “He’s saying that New York City’s future depends on this Senate race in Georgia, because he knows that if the leftists win, guess what? You will have the privilege of paying for New York’s incompetence.”

He added, “You notice how those leftist governors— Man, they love taking your freedoms. Not so quick to want to give them back.”

On China, Trump Jr. suggested the communist country favors a Democrat-run U.S. government. “Why does China want the Democrats to win? You think it’s because it’s good for America? Or do you think it’s because if the Democrats win it’s good for China?”

Trump Jr. laid into Democrats who have had run-ins with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including Ossoff, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and Hunter Biden, and lamented that “no one cares.”

Ossoff omitted from his Senate filings a payment from a company directly linked to the CCP. He later corrected his paperwork and attributed the omission to an “oversight,” but questions remain both about whether the omission benefitted Ossoff in his primary run and whether Ossoff has evidence of the amount of the payment.

Trump Jr. also cited the reported relationship between Swalwell, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, and suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, as well as Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China.

During the rally, Trump Jr. also dismissed the notion that Republicans would sit out voting because of concerns with election integrity. “That’s what the Democrats want,” he said.

“That sounds like a Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi talking point. That’s what the Democrats have been hoping and praying and dreaming for years would happen to Republicans,” Trump Jr. continued, “that Republicans would get sick of it, that they’d be dejected, that they’d end up just sitting at home.”

Overall voter participation in the runoff election is expected to be high, with early in-person voting already underway and absentee ballot requests topping one million.

https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/12/19/donald-trump-jr-rallies-in-georgia-do-not-squander-this-opportunity-fight-for-the-senate/

Arnold Schwarzenegger to Biden: Create a New Voting Rights Act to Fight ‘Voter Suppression’

Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging Joe Biden to create a new “Voting Rights Act,” saying that such a law would help combat “voter suppression.”

The Terminator star said in an interview Saturday with CNN’s Michael Smerconish that he wants the president elect and Congress to work on the new legislation.

“I just recommend very strongly that now when Biden is in office that they go and work on a new Voting Rights Act,” he said. “I think it is irresponsible to not have a Voting Rights Act and to have those polling places closed under the auspices of budgets, under the auspices of coronavirus, and all this stuff. I mean, I think that a lot of times, there are excuses because the fact of the matter is that it’s voter suppression.”

In the past, Democrats have frequently blamed “voter suppression” for their losses. Hillary Clinton alleged that ethnic minorities were turned away at the polls in Wisconsin in 2016, thus contributing to her defeat in the presidential election. In Georgia, which has become the center of the fight for control of the U.S. Senate, left-wing politicians including Stacey Abrams have repeatedly alleged that “voter suppression” has hurt them at the polls.

Democrats are now beating the drum for an update to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, after the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that parts of the act are unconstitutional.

Schwarzenegger, who has been trying to make a Hollywood comeback since leaving politics, has been a vocal critic of President Trump. In his CNN interview, the Hollywood actor and former Republican California governor said that Biden appealed to voters because he was seen as centrist. “People like to see a balance in Washington between the Democrats and the Republicans,” he said.

The actor didn’t mention vice president-elect Kamala Harris, whom the non-partisan GovTrack.us rated as the most left-wing member of the Senate, even further left than “democratic socialist” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/12/20/arnold-schwarzenegger-to-biden-create-a-new-voting-rights-act-to-fight-voter-suppression/

>>12114604

every time…

Warships from three navies transit the Taiwan Strait as regional tensions simmer

China recently has been angered by increased U.S. support for Taiwan.

Updated: December 20, 2020 - 10:55pm

International tensions were underscored in the South China Sea over the weekend, as three countries sent military units to transit the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

The U.S. Navy's guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin on Saturday sailed through the channel on a routine mission that drew quick rebuke from Beijing, which claims to have shadowed the American warship. China on Sunday then dispatched a naval strike group featuring its new aircraft carrier, the Shandong, prompting Taiwan to send six warships and eight military aircraft to monitor the Chinese ships.

"That's a lot of maneuvering in a small space in a short amount of time," a Pentagon official told Just the News. "Everyone has been very professional, but they are making their views clearly known."

Beijing and Taipei long have been at odds over Taiwan, an island apart from mainland China. The conflict is rooted in the Chinese Civil War, when Mao Tse Tung's communist forces battled Chiang-kai Shek's nationalists. The nationalists in 1949 fled to the island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan. The Communist Chinese Party, based on the mainland, claims control over the independent Taiwan.

Beijing recently has been angered by increased U.S. support for Taiwan, including new arms sales and visits to Taipei by senior U.S. military officers. Additionally, Beijing is unhappy that the president of Taiwan has bolstered the country's defense forces.

The U.S. Navy has conducted numerous freedom-of-navigation exercises through the Taiwan Strait, the latest occurring Saturday.

China claimed the transit was a provocation.

"Recently, U.S. warships have sailed through the Taiwan Strait from time to time," said Senior Colonel Zhang Chunhui, a spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command. "They have deliberately raised the heat of the Taiwan issue … [and] sent flirtatious glances to Taiwan’s independence forces, severely jeopardizing peace and stability."

The Mustin's journey was a routine operation, the Navy countered.

"The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," the Navy said in a statement. "The United States military will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows."

In June, the PLA's Eastern Theater Command held combat exercises partially in the waters near Taiwan. Zhang at the time reportedly described them as "a necessary move responding to the current security situation in the Taiwan Straits and were meant to safeguard national sovereignty."

Five states have overlapping claims over portions of the South China Sea. They include China, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

https://justthenews.com/government/security/warships-three-navies-transit-taiwan-strait-regional-tensions-simmer