https://www.ntd.com/biden-says-no-obvious-choice-on-attorney-general-nomination-to-lead-doj_544207.html

Biden Says No ‘Obvious Choice’ on Attorney General Nomination to Lead DOJ

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said on Tuesday he hasn’t decided yet who he will nominate as attorney general should he win the presidency.

The former vice president made the announcement during an event in Wilmington, Delaware, saying there’s no “obvious choice” in his mind who to pick from the attorney general contenders to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“There’s not an obvious choice in my mind,” Biden told a reporter after he asked him about the final selections regarding filling the cabinet and why he’s waiting to name an attorney general.

A federal investigation into the finances of his son, Hunter Biden, is expected to be raised during Senate confirmation hearings for Biden’s yet-to-be-named nominee to head up the DOJ.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Jen Psaki, Biden’s choice for White House press secretary, said Biden “will not be discussing an investigation of his son with any attorney general candidates.”

Biden told reporters Tuesday that the attorney general “is not the president’s lawyer,” and that he will appoint someone who will “enforce the law as the law is written,” and will not be guided by him.

“We’re looking for a team that will instill the greatest confidence in the professionals at DOJ to know once again that there is no politics. There’s no politics,” he added.

He added that he expects to make another cabinet announcement Wednesday and another between Christmas and January.

The former vice president has declared victory in the Nov. 3 election and has been naming people he plans to nominate to his prospective cabinet. President Donald Trump is contesting the election results. The Epoch Times won’t declare a winner of the election until all legal challenges are resolved.

Biden has already filled the top spots for his cabinet, including his nominees to lead the departments of Health and Human Services, State, and Treasury, with the nomination of the attorney general being his most significant personnel decision still to be announced.

Those rumored to be front-runners for the job are Judge Merrick Garland, who has served at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1997, and Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), an attorney and politician from Alabama.

Biden’s latest cabinet pick was the nomination of Miguel Cardona to be his education secretary. Cardona is a former public school teacher and the current education commissioner of Connecticut.

As education commissioner, he earlier this year made Connecticut the first U.S. state to purchase some 141,000 laptops for public school students to facilitate for virtual learning amid the ongoing CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus crisis.

In a statement, Biden said that Cardona is “an experienced and dedicated public school teacher” who will support students and teachers and ensure that every school is “on track to reopen safely.”

“He will help us address systemic inequities, tackle the mental health crisis in our education system, give educators a well-deserved raise, ease the burden of education debt, and secure high-quality, universal pre-K for every three- and four-year-old in the country,” Biden said.

The Associated Press and Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/china-based-executive-us-telecommunications-company-charged-disrupting-video-meetings

China-Based Executive at U.S. Telecommunications Company Charged with Disrupting Video Meetings Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre

Defendant Coordinated with the People’s Republic of China to Target Dissidents and Disrupt Meetings

A complaint and arrest warrant were unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Xinjiang Jin, also known as “Julien Jin,” with conspiracy to commit interstate harassment and unlawful conspiracy to transfer a means of identification. Jin, an employee of a U.S.-based telecommunications company (Company-1) who was based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), allegedly participated in a scheme to disrupt a series of meetings in May and June 2020 held to commemorate the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in the PRC. The meetings were conducted using a videoconferencing program provided by Company-1, and were organized and hosted by U.S-based individuals, including individuals residing in the Eastern District of New York. Jin is not in U.S. custody.

“No company with significant business interests in China is immune from the coercive power of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “The Chinese Communist Party will use those within its reach to sap the tree of liberty, stifling free speech in China, the United States and elsewhere about the Party’s repression of the Chinese people. For companies with operations in China, like that here, this reality may mean executives being coopted to further repressive activity at odds with the values that have allowed that company to flourish here.”

“The FBI remains committed to protecting the exercise of free speech for all Americans. As this complaint alleges, that freedom was directly infringed upon by the pernicious activities of Communist China’s Intelligence Services, in support of a regime that neither reflects nor upholds our democratic values,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Americans should understand that the Chinese Government will not hesitate to exploit companies operating in China to further their international agenda, including repression of free speech.”

“The allegations in the complaint lay bare the Faustian bargain that the PRC government demands of U.S. technology companies doing business within the PRC’s borders, and the insider threat that those companies face from their own employees in the PRC,” said Acting United States Attorney Seth D. DuCharme. “As alleged, Jin worked closely with the PRC government and members of PRC intelligence services to help the PRC government silence the political and religious speech of users of the platform of a U.S. technology company. Jin willingly committed crimes, and sought to mislead others at the company, to help PRC authorities censor and punish U.S. users’ core political speech merely for exercising their rights to free expression. The charges announced today make clear that employees working in the PRC for U.S. technology companies make those companies—and their users—vulnerable to the malign influence of the PRC government. This Office will continue working tirelessly to protect against threats to the free expression of political views and religious beliefs, regardless whether those threats come from inside or outside the United States.”

Mr. DuCharme and Mr. Demers also extended their thanks and appreciation to Company-1 for its cooperation in the government’s ongoing investigation.

According to the complaint, Jin served as Company-1’s primary liaison with PRC law enforcement and intelligence services. In that capacity, he regularly responded to requests from the PRC government for information and to terminate video meetings hosted on Company-1’s video communications platform. Part of Jin’s duties included providing information to the PRC government about Company-1’s users and meetings, and in some cases he provided information – such as Internet Protocol addresses, names and email addresses – of users located outside of the PRC. Jin was also responsible for proactively monitoring Company-1’s video communications platform for what the PRC government considers to be “illegal” meetings to discuss political and religious subjects unacceptable to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the PRC government.

>>12147582

As alleged in the complaint, between January 2019 to the present, Jin and others conspired to use Company-1’s systems in the United States to censor the political and religious speech of individuals located in the United States and around the world at the direction and under the control of officials of the PRC government. Among other actions taken at the direction of the PRC government, Jin and others terminated at least four video meetings hosted on Company-1’s networks commemorating the thirty-first anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, most of which were organized and attended by U.S.-based participants, such as dissidents who had participated in and survived the 1989 protests. Some of the participants who were unable to attend these meetings were Company-1 customers in Queens and Long Island, New York who had purchased subscriptions to Company-1’s services, and therefore entered into service agreements with Company-1 governed by its Terms of Service (TOS).

Jin, officials from the PRC government and others allegedly collaborated to identify meeting participants and to disrupt meetings hosted on Company-1’s U.S. servers, at times creating pretextual reasons to justify their actions to other employees and executives of Company-1, as well as Company-1’s users themselves. In particular, in May and June 2020, Jin and others acted to disrupt meetings held on the Company-1 platform to discuss politically sensitive topics unacceptable to the PRC government by infiltrating the meetings to gather evidence about purported misconduct occurring in those meetings. In fact, there was no misconduct; Jin and his co-conspirators fabricated evidence of TOS violations to provide justification for terminating the meetings, as well as certain participants’ accounts. Jin then tasked a high-ranking employee of Company-1 in the United States to effect the termination of meetings and the suspension and cancellation of user accounts.

As detailed in the complaint, Jin’s co-conspirators created fake email accounts and Company-1 accounts in the names of others, including PRC political dissidents, to fabricate evidence that the hosts of and participants in the meetings to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre were supporting terrorist organizations, inciting violence or distributing child pornography. The fabricated evidence falsely asserted that the meetings included discussions of child abuse or exploitation, terrorism, racism or incitements to violence, and sometimes included screenshots of the purported participants’ user profiles featuring, for example, a masked person holding a flag resembling that of the Islamic State terrorist group. Jin used the complaints as evidence to persuade Company-1 executives based in the United States to terminate meetings and suspend or terminate the user accounts of the meeting hosts.

PRC authorities took advantage of information provided by Jin to retaliate against and intimidate participants residing in the PRC, or PRC-based family members of meeting participants. PRC authorities temporarily detained at least one person who planned to speak during a commemoration meeting. In another case, PRC authorities visited family members of a participant in the meetings and directed them to tell the participant to cease speaking out against the PRC government and rather to support socialism and the CCP.

The charges in the complaint are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted of both charged conspiracies, Jin faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.

The investigation into this matter was conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and Cybercrime Section. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander A. Solomon, Richard M. Tucker, David K. Kessler and Ian C. Richardson are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney Scott A. Claffee of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.

>>12147565

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/6442097/nicola-sturgeon-sorry-mask-covid-breach/

'MY STUPID MISTAKE' Nicola Sturgeon ‘offers no exc­uses’ as she apologises over breaking own Covid law by chatting in pub without mask

NICOLA Sturgeon breaks her own Covid law by chatting to pensioners in a pub without wearing a face mask.

In a photograph supplied by a concerned member of the public, the First Minister was seen chatting to three women as she stood up at an Edinburgh venue after a funeral last Friday.

The photo of Ms Sturgeon was taken in the public part of the venue, not in the function area where the wake was taking place.

The three older women shown in the picture were not funeral guests.

Ms Sturgeon — who repeated rules on covering up during a parly speech today — said of her gaffe: “This was a stupid mistake and I’m really sorry.”

The First Minister admitted she was "kicking herself" and said she was “in the wrong” and had no excuses after breaching her own Covid rules.

It came after The Scottish Sun obtained a photo of the Nats leader standing and chatting to three elderly women following a funeral last week in Mortonhall, Edinburgh.

Under a law passed by SNP ministers, customers in hospitality settings must cover up unless seated at a table.

After we flagged up the snap to the Scottish Government, Ms Sturgeon said: “Last Friday, while attending a funeral wake, I had my mask off briefly. This was a stupid mistake and I’m really sorry.

“I talk every day about the importance of masks, so I’m not going to offer any exc­uses. I was in the wrong, I’m kicking myself and I’m sorry.”

The photograph showing Ms Sturgeon leaning on the back of a chair with her left hand was taken at the Stable Bar and Restaurant.

The First Minister was at the venue following a funeral of a senior Scottish Government civil servant at nearby Mortonhall Crematorium. She is pictured without a mask while looking towards the table of pensioners.

An onlooker at the pub said they were shocked to have spotted the top Nat not covering up.

The mandatory use of face masks for customers in hospitality settings has been law since September 14. It is now set down in the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Regulations 2020.

Schedule 7 of the law det­ails a “requirement to wear face coverings in certain indoor places”, including rest­aurants, cafes, bars and pubs.

An exemption says a mask does not need to be worn if a person is “in a restaurant, cafe, bar or public house and seated at a table”.

The venue’s function room — where the First Minister was said to be before she spoke to the women — is several paces away.

As with other Covid laws, breaches are punishable by a fixed penalty notice of £60, which is reduced to £30 if paid within 28 days. Penalties double for repeat offences, up to £960.

But people can also be prosecuted for breaches, with unlimited fines.

The law states: “A person who commits an offence under this regulation is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum.”

The photo emerged as Ms Sturgeon again underlined the importance of face coverings.

She told MSPs in a Holy­rood statement that the new aggressive strain of corona­virus “seems to transmit more easily but it can still be stopped in its tracks by the FACTS advice we have emphasised so many times before”.

She then listed what each letter of the FACTS acronym stands for — starting with “Face coverings”. The First Minister was seen wearing a mask going into the chamber today.

On September 10, Ms Sturgeon announced in parliament that face coverings would become mandatory in bars, cafes and restaurants four days later.

Hospitality premises had previously been exempt from the law on coverings, which applies in other places such as shops.

At her daily Covid briefing on September 11, the First Minister highlighted the importance of face coverings in hospitality.

She said: “It’s actually an additional protection that hopefully makes it less like­ly we will have to see hospitality close in any area.”

On September 14, Ms Sturgeon said at her media briefing: “It is now mandatory for customers in those settings to wear face coverings when they are not eating or drinking.

“For example, when you go into the premises and go to your table, or when you stand up to move around to go to the bathroom.”

And at the same briefing, she read out her “FACTS rules”, insisting they “can help all of us keep the virus under better control”.

>>12147539

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Military_World_Games

“The Foreign Ministry has decided to remove all Huawei equipment from its buildings, and several other government agencies will follow suit,” Krach said following a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal.

>>12147697

>“The Foreign Ministry has decided to remove all Huawei equipment from its buildings, and several other government agencies will follow suit,” Krach said following a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal.

https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-technology/3159670-derzdep-zaavlae-so-z-budivel-mzs-ukraini-znimut-use-obladnanna-huawei.html

The State Department states that all Huawei equipment will be removed from the buildings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

According to a Ukrinform correspondent, Keith Krach announced this following a meeting with the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to remove all Huawei equipment from its buildings, and several other government agencies have followed suit," said the US diplomat.

He reminded that the Ukrainian authorities recently refused to cooperate with Huawei in the project of creating a "smart city", preferring the American Cisco. "These are wise decisions," said the US Undersecretary of State.

According to him, Ukraine has also expressed interest in joining the US-supported Clean Network initiative, the participants of which refuse to use the services of Chinese telecommunications companies in the development of 5G networks for information security . "Ukraine understands that it is at stake," Krach said.

As reported, the United States may pay financial compensation to Ukraine for refusing to use 5G systems of the Chinese company Huawei in favor of other manufacturers.

https://twitter.com/BetteMidler/status/1208220525954314240

MALICIOUS CONTENT IS COMING YOUR WAY; BE CAREFUL. MUCH OF WHAT WINDS UP ON YOUR COMPUTER WILL BE GENERATED BY RUSSIANS, CHINESE, KAZAKS, SAUDIS; BOTS GOING 24/7 TO CONFUSE AND FRIGHTEN YOU. IT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA NOT TO LOOK AT ANY OF IT. TAKE ALL WITH A #GRAINOFSALT.

DEC 20, 2019

https://twitter.com/dogfrog/status/1341565531237847041/photo/1

>>12147790

>>12147796

>KAZAKS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhs

>>12147801

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djed

>>12147811

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djed

The djed was an important part of the ceremony called "raising the djed", which was a part of the celebrations of the Sed festival, the Egyptian jubilee celebration. The act of raising the djed has been explained as representing Osiris's triumph over Seth. Ceremonies in Memphis are described where the pharaoh, with the help of the priests, raised a wooden djed column using ropes. The ceremony took place during the period when fields were sown and the year's agricultural season would begin, corresponding to the month of Koiak, the fourth month of the Season of the Inundation. This ceremony was a part of one of the more popular holidays and celebrations of the time, a larger festival dedicated to Osiris conducted from the 13th to 30th day of the Koiak. Celebrated as it was at that time of the year when the soil and climate were most suitable for agriculture, the festival and its ceremonies can be seen as an appeal to Osiris, who was the God of vegetation, to favor the growth of the seeds sown, paralleling his own resurrection and renewal after his murder by Seth.

>>12147842

Hi Ho Silver

>>12147846

>>12147777

>>12147897

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_shock

He left the States 31 months ago. He was wounded in his first campaign. He has had tropical diseases. He half-sleeps at night and gouges Japs out of holes all day. Two-thirds of his company has been killed or wounded. He will return to attack this morning. How much can a human being endure?

When recounting his arrival in Vietnam in 1965, then-Corporal Joe Houle (director of the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas in 2002) said he saw no emotion in the eyes of his new squad: "The look in their eyes was like the life was sucked out of them," later learning that the term for their condition was "the 1,000-yard stare". "After I lost my first friend, I felt it was best to be detached," he explained.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction

>>12147946

>>12147989

>>12148028

>https://twitter.com/LynnFynn3/status/134161311626686

Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!

https://www.justice.gov/news

>>12148086

>MikayesFiona

>>12148125

iBrowse

Ron Raffensperger, the Brother of Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, Works for Huawei in China

>>12148177

>Ron Raffensperger, the Brother of Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, Works for Huawei in China

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Raffensperger

https://e.huawei.com/en/publications/global/ict-new-horizons-podcasts/ICT-Experts/ron-raffensperger

Ron Raffensperger is the CTO of Huawei Enterprise Storage Solutions. Based in Shenzhen, he has demonstrated expertise in marketing, sales, services and development in both large and small technology companies with a particular expertise for developing corporate strategies in emerging markets.

>>12148202

>https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1341827868943368194

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/after-400-years-the-church-in-germany-apologises-for-burning-witches-fw6blbzf2

German church finally says sorry for ‘bleeding wound of witch burning’

The flames of Europe’s persecution of witches blazed fiercely in the Bavarian city of Eichstätt where an estimated 400 innocent people were tortured and executed for consorting with the devil.

The interrogators even devised their own methods to extract confessions and denunciations, including “helmet cutting”, in which a spiked metal band was tightened around the head. About 25,000 people, mainly women but also men and children, were burnt at the stake in German lands between the 15th and 18th centuries. Across Europe, including Britain, about 60,000 died.

>>12148207