Republicans Recruit 8,000 Poll Watchers for Georgia Runoffs

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/georgia-republicans-pollwatchers-senate/2020/12/31/id/1003859/

More than 8,000 people have volunteered to act as poll watchers for the Republican Party during Georgia’s twin Senate runoff races on Tuesday, double the number who monitored the state’s two-and-a-half-week early voting period which ended Thursday, Fox News reported.

The recruitment is a combined effort of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Republican National Committee, the Georgia Republican Party and the campaigns of incumbent Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are facing off against Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

"Georgians deserve total confidence in the fairness and accuracy of our state's elections, and we're thankful to the thousands of volunteers who will ensure that these runoffs are safe, secure, and that every legal vote is counted," Loeffler and Perdue said in a joint statement quoted by Fox News.

"Georgia Republicans have already mobilized the most robust ground game and poll watching operation in the state's history and are fully prepared to make certain that the integrity of next week's elections will not be cast under a shadow of doubt. Everything is on the line on Election Day — no Georgian should have to question the outcomes."

The control of the U.S. Senate is at stake with Republicans guaranteed to hold 50 seats. Democrats would need to win both races to split the chamber and give Kamala Harris, should she be certified as the vice president-elect, the tie-breaking vote.

Republicans have claimed that the November election in Georgia was tainted with fraud, pointing to video from Atlanta’s State Farm Arena which appeared to show Fulton County poll workers counting ballots on Election Night without poll watchers present — because they were told to go home since ballot counting had been completed for the evening.

27 GOP Pa. Lawmakers Urge McConnell to Contest Electors

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/republican-senate-majority-leader/2020/12/31/id/1003808/

Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania are urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to contest the results of the state's 20 electors.

The request was made in a letter signed by 27 GOP state lawmakers, urging McConnell to "dispute the certification until an investigation is completed" in election irregularities and violations of state election law, Newsweek reported.

"Without a thorough investigation into these allegations, the certification of the Pennsylvania election results is suspect at best," the letter read, per the report.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court and Democrat leaders violated state election law "by eliminating signature verification, postmarks, and due dates while allowing the proliferation of drop boxes with questionable security measures and the unauthorized curing of ballots, as well as the questionable treatment of poll watchers," the letter claimed.

It added allegations that due process was violated by the state courts and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, who declined to address election results that "were so fraught with inconsistencies, improprieties, and irregularities that the results for the office of President of the United States cannot be determined in our state."

Biden's margin of victory was 80,555 votes in Pennsylvania.

A joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 will receive, open, and count the Electoral College votes, officially certifying the election of Democrat Joe Biden.

McConnell has urged Republicans to not challenge the election results, but a group of House Republicans and at least one senator, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have vowed to step forward to challenge the results. Both chambers of Congress will then break off separately for two hours of debate on the electors.

Still, Congress appears to have the votes to certify Biden as the presidential election victor.

"I do not think that he will prevail in his quest, and I question why he is doing it when the courts have unanimously thrown out the suits that the president's team have filed for lack of credible evidence," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a frequent Trump skeptic within the GOP, said, per Newsweek. "And Senator Hawley's a smart attorney who clerked for the Supreme Court, so he clearly understands that. So I don't understand."

In Late Trump Salvo, US Rejects UN Budget Over Israel, Iran

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/united-nations-trump/2020/12/31/id/1003807/

President Donald Trump's outgoing administration on Thursday fired a late salvo against the United Nations by voting against its budget, citing disagreements on Israel and Iran, but it found virtually no international support.

Only Israel voted with the United States, with 167 nations in favor, as the General Assembly closed the year by approving the $3.231 billion U.N. budget for 2021.

Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, voiced objections that the budget would fund a 20th anniversary event for the 2001 U.N. conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, where the United States walked out in solidarity with Israel over what it said was a fixation by Muslim-majority countries against the Jewish state.

The United States, the biggest funder of the U.N., "called for this vote to make clear that we stand by our principles, stand up for what is right and never accept consensus for consensus's sake," Craft said on the General Assembly floor.

"Twenty years on, there remains nothing about the Durban Declaration to celebrate or to endorse. It is poisoned by anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias," she said.

Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, said that the Durban conference "will become another meeting demonizing the Jewish state – it will be used once again to slander us and to launch false accusations of racism against Jewish self-determination."

The General Assembly separately approved a resolution backing follow-up efforts on the Durban conference.

That resolution passed 106-14 with 44 abstentions. The United States and Israel were joined in voting no by Western powers including Britain, France and Germany.

Craft also complained about how the United States received almost no support in the world body in September when it declared that U.N. sanctions against Iran had come back into force.

The Trump administration said it was triggering U.N. sanctions due to alleged Iranian violations of a nuclear deal negotiated by former president Barack Obama, but even US allies scoffed at the argument that Washington remained a participant in an accord that Trump had loudly rejected.

"The U.S. doesn't need a cheering section to validate its moral compass," Craft said.

"We don't find comfort based on the number of nations voting with us, particularly when the majority have found themselves in an uncomfortable position of underwriting terrorism, chaos and conflict."

Craft said that the U.S. vote would not change its U.N. contribution, including 25 percent of peacekeeping expenditures and some $9 billion a year in U.N.-channeled humanitarian relief.

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to seek a more cooperative relationship with the U.N. including stopping a U.S. exit from the World Health Organization, which Trump blamed for not doing more to stop COVID-19 and for its soft approach to China, which the administration blames for the alarming spread of the virus.

KEK! Hurt them any way you can? KEK!

Trump DC Hotel Raises Rates for Biden's Inauguration Dates

https://www.newsmax.com/us/trump-hotel-rates-dc-inauguration/2021/01/01/id/1003885/

Report: GOP, Dissident House Dems Plot to Deny Pelosi Speakership

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/house-pelosi-speaker-republicans/2020/12/31/id/1003835/

A group of House Republicans and 10 Democrats who voted against Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the House in 2019 are engaged in behind-the-scenes discussions to deny the San Francisco liberal from another term as head of the lower chamber of Congress, The Epoch Times reported, citing an unidentified source.

The newspaper quoted a veteran senior congressional aide who advises multiple members of Congress, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A serious effort is underway to prevent Pelosi from becoming speaker, backed by the GOP and Democrats who are disturbed by their party’s embrace of extreme rhetoric and policies like 'defund the police,' The Epoch Times quoted the aide as saying.

The odds of success are less than 50-50, but it’s one of the more intriguing leadership challenges to emerge in recent decades.

The aide did not identify anyone by name in the discussions, for concern over it collapsing the negotiations, and no one from neither Pelosi’s office nor House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly responded to calls for comment, the Times said.

The 10 Democrats who voted against Pelosi two years ago were Reps. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Kathleen Rice of New York, Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Jared Golden of Maine, Jason Crow of Colorado, and Jim Cooper of Tennessee.

Republicans will have 211 members in the House of Representatives that will be sworn in on Jan. 3, up from the 195 at the end of the current Congress. There also is one race unresolved and one seat vacant following the death of Rep.-elect Luke Letlow, R-La., from COVID-19 on Tuesday.

With Democrats controlling 222 seats, Pelosi would need 217 of the 433 member votes to retain the speakership. However, the Times pointed out, nearly two dozen House Democrats have remained out of Washington for the past six months due to the fear of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 and have been voting by proxy.

Proxy voting is not permitted for the speaker of the House and one Democrat, Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington, announced Dec. 23 that he has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and will continue to vote by proxy.

Depending on if any more members do not appear, the number of votes required to win the speakership would be lower, and the Republicans may only need to sway a handful of the 10 Pelosi Democrat defectors from 2019 to defeat her.

The speaker needs a majority of those present and voting to garner a majority, and if a coalition votes 'present' as a protest vote, it is likely that the coalition can either negotiate with Pelosi for concessions on the rules and committee chairs or coalition with Republicans to elect a different speaker, said Brian Darling, former senior counsel to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

The latter is unlikely, but if Pelosi loses on the first ballot, her power will be diluted, and she may just step aside for a new speaker.

>>12266506

U still hung over from lastnight? KEK!

NYSE to Delist Three Chinese Telecom Companies

https://www.newsmax.com/us/stock-exchange-nyse-delist-chinese/2020/12/31/id/1003860/

The New York Stock Exchange announced Thursday it will delist three Chinese companies identified as being affiliated with the Chinese military.

The announcement was made to comply with a U.S. executive order barring American investments in Chinese firms owned or controlled by the military, per Bloomberg. It was signed by President Donald Trump in November.

The three telecommunications companies — China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp Ltd., and China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. — will be suspended from trading sometime between Jan. 7-11.

The three companies generate the entirety of their revenues in China and have no meaningful presence in the U.S. except for their listings on the exchange. They have separate listings in Hong Kong.

The executive order was an attempt to pressure Beijing over abusive business practices. The order prohibited U.S. investors from buying and selling shares in a list of Chinese companies designated by the Pentagon as having military ties.

The order said the People's Liberation Army is a threat to the U.S. and is "increasingly exploiting United States capital" to gain an edge in its military-industrial complex, per Axios.

Chinese officials have threatened to respond to previous Trump administration actions with their own blacklist of U.S. companies.

The NYSE announcement, late on New Year's Eve when many people are focused elsewhere, could signify the latest escalation in tensions between the U.S. and China.

Stimulus = Universal Paychecks

BLM Demands Monthly Checks for Struggling Families

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/blm-stimulus-relief-payments/2020/12/31/id/1003845/

Black Lives Matter demanded monthly stimulus payments to struggling families on social media Thursday.

The group's Twitter feed included a post saying their demand "isn't about a stimulus. This is about survival," per Fox News.

BLM Tweet:

"Black business ownership: 40% decline.

Eviction risks: 40 mil. people

Black families are struggling to keep roofs over their heads, food in their bellies, and healthcare covered.

This isn't about a stimulus. This is about survival. And $600 aint it. We demand monthly checks."

On Sunday, President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package that included one-time $600 payments to individuals.

House lawmakers passed a stand-alone bill that would raise those payments to $2,000, a move backed by President Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, has pushed back. He included the $2,000 stimulus payments in a bill that also called for the formation of a commission to investigate the 2020 election and a call to repeal big-tech liability protections in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Fox News reached out to BLM to ask if it had approached President-elect Joe Biden’s administration to ask about monthly checks but had not heard back.

Talk about the WRONG STUFF…

FBI Has Stepped Up Efforts to Root Out Foreign Corruption

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/fbi-corruption-overseas/2020/12/31/id/1003818/

The FBI over the last five years has stepped up its efforts to root out foreign corruption and crack down on money laundering and bribes to overseas governments, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The unit was created in 2015 to identify violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. law that makes it illegal to bribe foreign officials, and scored 34 convictions in cases from 2016 until 2018, according to Business Insider. A Miami unit created in 2019 has already brought cases that have resulted in billions of dollars in settlements.

We were perpetually flying down to South America; individuals were transiting through the Miami area, Leslie Backschies, who was head of the FBI’s international corruption team in Los Angeles before leading the national team, told the Journal.

We were seeing assets being procured with illicit proceeds. We were just seeing a lot of bad activity, she said. And everyone was always having to go to Miami to conduct interviews. So, the Miami unit was created, starting operations in March 2019.

The Working Group on Bribery of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international antibribery watchdog, in November commended the group for its work.

Up to July 2019, the United States has brought 156 cases under the FCPA or related offenses, resulting in the conviction or sanctioning of 115 natural persons and 174 legal persons for foreign bribery and related offences, the OECD said in its report. This outstanding achievement results from a combination of enhanced expertise and resources to investigate and prosecute foreign bribery, the enforcement of a broad range of offenses in foreign bribery cases, the effective use of non-trial resolution mechanisms, and the development of published policies to incentivize companies’ cooperation with law enforcement agencies.

This be us, anons! KEK!

Gallup: People With No Trust in News Media Hits Record

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/gallup-media-trust-record/2020/12/31/id/1003814/

Trust in news reporting has sunk to the second-lowest level in a half century, with 60% of the American public expressing little or no trust in the news media, least of all Republicans, according to an annual survey by Gallup.

Only 9% have a great deal of trust while 31% have a fair amount, according to the Gallup poll, which first asked the question in 1972 and has been querying the public annually since 1997.

When asked to quantify how much trust and confidence they had in mass media, 33% had none at all, a record in the 48 years of the poll and four points higher than the previous low-water mark in 2017. Another 27% had not very much.

Republicans were the least trustful of news media, with only 10% expressing a great deal or fair amount, 5% lower than last year, and independents at 36%, the same as last year.

However, 73% of Democrats expressed a great deal or fair amount of trust, just 3% off their previous high in 2018.

Republican trust in news reporting has dropped from 32% in 2015, while independents have averaged below 40% for the past 11 years. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans say they have no trust at all in news reporting, a 10% jump from last year. Likewise, 35% of independents have no trust, a 5% increase from last year.

The poll dovetails with Gallup’s survey released in August that 83% of Americans saw a great deal or fair amount of political bias in news reporting.

The latest weighted random telephone survey regarding trust queried 1,019 adults 18 and older, conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 13 and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4%.

The political polarization that grips the country is reflected in partisans' views of the media, which are now the most divergent in Gallup's history, the company wrote. Recent Gallup/Knight Foundation polling has shown that although Americans increasingly see bias in news coverage, they nonetheless believe that an independent media is key to democracy.

Spate of Suicides in Eastern Colorado Sparks Protest

https://www.newsmax.com/us/suicide-colorado-high-school-students/2021/01/01/id/1003890/

A series of suicides among high school students in northeastern Colorado has young people protesting the restrictions against activities like school clubs and sports put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Colorado Sun reports.

At least seven young people have died by suicide over the last few months in one of the state’s least populated regions. Washington, Yuma, and Logan counties had their first suicides in years.

Merino High School freshman Kaden Piel told the Sun that he began planning a protest after he woke up from a nightmare a few weeks after a classmate of his committed suicide.

“I woke up with a nightmare,” he said. “What if that was my sister or my cousin? What if that was my best friend?”

Piel went on to post on social media that school activities should return to prevent kids from dying. Another high school student in Otis, Cyle Goble, made a similar post asking the governor, “Did you know that these terrible incidents had taken place? Did you grieve for these families? I would assume not. Just because of our smaller population we are being swept under the rug.”

Both posts went viral, and Gov. Jared Polis ended up speaking to both students by phone.

“There is a huge impact on every single student. Every person in our community was affected, like a huge, black cloud hanging over us,” said Piel, who added that he still sometimes think he’ll see his friend back at school. “I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I still haven’t.”

Another killdawg move

Biden's Pick to Lead Treasury Made Over $7M in Speaking Fees

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/biden-nominees-finances/2021/01/01/id/1003891/

President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to be treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, collected more than $7 million in speaking fees in 2019 and 2020 from major financial firms and tech giants including Citi, Goldman Sachs and Google, according to disclosure forms filed as part of her nomination.

Yellen’s was one of three financial disclosures filed by Biden transition officials that were made public on Thursday by the Office of Government Ethics. In a separate filing, Yellen listed firms and banks where she had received speaking fees and said she intended to “seek written authorization” from ethics officials to “participate personally and substantially” in matters involving them.

Yellen was the Federal Reserve chair from 2014 to 2018. Her term was not renewed by President Donald Trump.

Her selection by Biden to lead the Treasury Department has been cheered by progressive Democrats, who support Yellen’s work as a labor economist who has long prioritized combating economic inequality. Since her nomination was announced, Yellen has pledged to work to combat systemic racism and climate change.

But receiving steep payments from Wall Street bankers and other powerful corporations could become an issue as her nomination works its way through a closely divided and potentially contentious Senate. Hillary Clinton faced criticism from the left wing of the Democratic Party while running for president in 2016 for having received past, lucrative speaking fees at Wall Street firms.

Also released Thursday were disclosure forms from Biden’s choice to be secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who detailed advising clients including Bank of America and Facebook as part of a consulting firm he co-founded. Avril Haines, Biden’s choice to be national intelligence director, disclosed being a consultant at the same firm, WestExec Advisors.

McConnell: Jan. 6 Vote 'Most Consequential I Have Ever Cast'

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/mcconnell-election-results/2020/12/31/id/1003844/

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell during a private call with GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber Thursday morning said his vote on Jan. 6 to certify Joe Biden’s election victory will be “the most consequential I have ever cast," according to two sources who spoke with Axios.

McConnell also said the vote is “a vote of conscience.”

The sources who spoke with Axios were on the call. They said the Kentucky senator also asked what Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., planned to do on Jan. 6 when he contests the results of the election.

"The context was McConnell saying we're being asked to overturn the results after a guy didn't get as many electoral votes and lost by 7 million popular votes," the source said.

Hawley is the only senator who has publicly committed to challenging the results, an effort led by incoming Rep-elect Marjory Taylor-Greene of Georgia and Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, both Republicans.

Once an objection is filed each chamber would have to debate for two hours and then vote on whether to disqualify a state’s votes. Both chambers would then have to agree to disqualify the state’s votes, an outcome that is nearly impossible.

Hawley on Wednesday said he couldn’t vote to certify “without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden. At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act," Hawley added.

>>12266883

kek

>>12266928

How do you figure this to be datefagging?

>>12266973

You do realize that vote IS going to happen on the 6th, right?

>>12267057

Ahhh….

>>12267064

[C] before [D]