SOLAR WIND HACK - ISRAEL RUSSIA & CHINA JOIN FORCES TO TAKE DOWN AMERICA
China’s Deepening Interest in Israel
Ties between Jerusalem and Beijing have never been this strong.
With its deepening investment in the Chinese economy, Israel has been watching closely as Shanghai’s stock market enters what appears to be meltdown mode. Indeed, people around the world are wondering if the “Chinese Dream” is turning into a nightmare.
The answer is: Not really. And Israel, in particular, doesn’t have much to worry about. This painful but inevitable correction in Chinese markets is unlikely to have serious effects on Israel’s burgeoning relationship with China. While Israel’s economic ties with Beijing are growing rapidly, Israel isn’t overly exposed to China’s troubles. More importantly, as The Economist noted, “Chinese stocks and economic growth have long had little to do with each other.” For example, while the Shanghai stock market was performing poorly from 2010-2014, China’s economy was the fastest-growing in the world. Goldman Sachs projects that China’s economy will overtake America’s as the biggest in the world in a little more than ten years.
Ironically, it’s thanks to China’s economic challenges that Beijing is seeking a closer relationship with Israel. China faces a number of serious obstacles if it wishes to maintain its high growth rate, a necessity for a country that needs to feed 1.4 billion people. As the Chinese go about restructuring their economy, they need assistance in preventing desertification, refining water desalination, improving their agricultural capacities, and integrating high-tech into their economy.
That’s where Israel, the “Start-Up Nation,” comes in. Israel is a global player in all four areas. Accordingly, the Chinese are paying close attention to the Jewish state. Needless to say, the Israelis are pleased with this, and happy to have access to China’s enormous market. In recent years, economic relations between Israel and China have begun to blossom, and the figures are impressive. As Ohad Cohen, the chief of the Israeli Economy Ministry’s Foreign Trade Administration, noted in a Times of Israel op-ed earlier this year, “Bilateral trade with China has skyrocketed…with volume leaping from $50 million in 1992 to almost $11 billion in 2013. The stage is set for even greater growth in the coming years.”
From Israel’s perspective, strengthened economic relations with China couldn’t come at a better time. The U.S. and European economies are still recovering from the 2008 crisis and growing at anemic rates. At the same time, Europe’s relationship with the Jewish state is becoming increasingly colored by anti-Israel sentiments. In this context, an Asian pivot makes sense.
But it’s important to remember that Israel’s desire to link up with the Far East isn’t new. In fact, it goes back to Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion.
http://www.thetower.org/article/chinas-deepening-interest-in-israel/
The military would put down Michael Flynn’s proposed insurrection
Less than two weeks after being pardoned, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn took to the airwaves to suggest President Trump could impose martial law and deploy the military to re-run the election. Apparently, this proposal intrigued President Trump, who invited Flynn to the White House to hear more. According to most accounts, Trump did not embrace the ideas further, once he heard other advisers and government lawyers argue forcefully against the proposal. But the fact they were ever raised and entertained is extraordinarily alarming.
By expressing these views publicly and in the Oval Office, Flynn tried to give the military the central role in determining the election outcome — a role the Constitution does not assign and that senior military leaders have been at pains to avoid for the past year. Flynn used his own rank and military status to lend credibility to ideas that are manifestly illegal and harmful to the Republic.
Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville quickly responded by issuing a statement that implicitly disavowed both Flynn and his suggestion of martial law. They stated, “There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.” This statement echoed similar ones that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has been making since the summer. A handful of retired generals and admirals have also criticized Flynn, but the overall response from this group has been muted, perhaps out of fear that such criticism could backfire by goading the President into taking this action precisely because he is being told he should not.
That fear is a reasonable one, but it is also worth noting that public shaming from his peers might help reign in Flynn and his irresponsible comments. Criticism from retired generals helped convince Milley to issue a remarkable public apology after his participation in a photo op with Trump at St. John’s Church after police cleared Lafayette Square using pepper spray and force.
Such shaming could also send important signals to the active-duty force. Our research suggests that condemnation by senior military leaders could markedly reduce veteran and military support for calls to invoke the Insurrection Act to overturn the results of the election.
In September and October, NORC conducted a representative survey of 4,500 Americans on our behalf (this data remains proprietary until we complete a book focused on public attitudes about the military). While our questions focused on the use of the Insurrection Act in response to domestic protests in general, they may provide insight to the current situation.
https://www.militarytimes.com/opinion/commentary/2021/01/03/the-military-would-put-down-michael-flynns-proposed-insurrection/
COVID-1984 North of the Border
Liberal journalist Kurt Eichenwald wants to hurt “antimaskers.” The anger is reciprocated by people getting sick of coronavirus Karens, COVID hypocrites, and stories like this:
Gatineau [Quebec, Canada] police said that two people were arrested and fines were given out after they received a call notifying them of a six-person gathering on New Year’s Eve. Both indoor and outdoor private gatherings are banned as part of Quebec’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CTV News. …
The man in the video [see below] … was charged with obstructing an officer and assault, and the home’s owner was arrested and charged for alleged refusal to provide personal information…
Fines of $1,546 were also reportedly levied against all of the people at the gathering.
Here’s the video:
Il faut que ça devienne viral. RT en masse les amis. La lumière doit être fait sur cet événement. pic.twitter.com/nnxsGcQcOn
— Nusakan le récalcitrant (@Nusakan007) January 1, 2021
Translation:
This has got to go viral. Retweet en masse, friends. Light must be shined on this event.
If Canada has its own version of Dr Fauci, he ought to reassure the public by confirming that large contingents of police bursting into people’s homes to yell in their faces and arrest them does not spread WuFlu.
https://moonbattery.com/covid-1984-north-of-the-border/
Travis Air Force Base Is First to Get Drone Sentry for Protection
A Security Forces unit in California now has a new sentry: a small quadcopter that will conduct perimeter security for its 6,000-plus acre facility.
The 60th Security Forces Squadron at Travis Air Force Base received its first drone in December, made by Easy Aerial, that will provide an extra awareness for base security to analyze and relay a potential threat to airmen before they head out to the scene, according to a recent release.
The drone is signaled by a security trigger, such as "a fence alarm, fire alarm or other distress call," the release said. Like a Roomba vacuum cleaner which can leave its docking station, conduct a cleaning sweep and then return to its home port without human interaction the Easy Aerial drone can be programmed to deploy automatically, scour the area, and head back to recharge before its next flight, officials said.
The small unmanned aircraft system, or sUAS, "has the capability to assist civil engineering for fire response, maintenance for tail inspections … and that is just the beginning," Master Sgt. Joshua Hicks, 60th Security Forces instructor for the program, said in the release. "The impact this program is going to have on the Air Force will be seen in many different capacities."
The work was awarded to the Brooklyn, New York-based company through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. According to its website, Easy Aerial has been working on the project since 2018.
Last month, the Air Force announced that Security Forces units at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, will be the first to operate "robot dogs" to patrol alongside airmen. Like the quadcopters, the semi-autonomous droids developed by Ghost Robotics will be used for extra security while guarding the Florida Panhandle base.
The growing initiatives are part of the military's efforts to better safeguard bases amid rising threats from hostile small drones designed to disrupt operations or spy on aircraft.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/01/03/travis-air-force-base-first-get-drone-sentry-protection.html
Here’s How Much More Jeff Bezos And Walmart Heirs Made Than Their Employees During The Pandemic
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the Walmart heirs have made 35 times the amount given to their companies’ roughly 2.5 million workers during the pandemic, according to a Brookings Institution report.
Amazon and Walmart gave employees just $0.99 and $0.71 extra per hour over the course of the pandemic, which was significantly less than competitors Best Buy and Target, the report found.
“The difference between Walmart and Amazon’s generosity and their competitors is especially striking given the companies’ rhetoric,” the Brookings report said.
Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos and the heirs to Walmart have made approximately $116 billion during the pandemic even as their employees have made a fraction of that in hazard pay, according to a Brookings Institution report.
Jeff Bezos and the Walmart heirs, the Walton family, have made 35 times the amount their companies gave to more than 2.5 million workers in pandemic-related hazard pay, according to the December Brookings Institution report. Amazon and Walmart have given significantly less than competitors such as Best Buy, Target and Costco.
“The difference between Walmart and Amazon’s generosity and their competitors is especially striking given the companies’ rhetoric,” the Brookings report said.
Bezos’ personal fortune has increased by more than $75 billion since March, according to Brookings. That is 42 times how much Amazon has paid its 1 million employees in hazard pay in 2020. A December Business Insider analysis found that Bezos’ 2020 wealth increase spiked particularly in April as coronavirus spread around the world and Amazon’s stock price increased significantly.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/12/29/jeff-bezos-walmart-heirs-hundreds-of-billions-during-pandemic/
Paul Ryan Blasts Republicans Challenging Biden Electors: “Joe Biden’s Victory Is Entirely Legitimate.”
Former Speaker of the House and 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan (R-WI) issued a statement Sunday afternoon blasting Republicans who are planning to challenge Biden electors when Congress meets in a joint session on Wednesday to certify the vote of the Electoral College, saying, “Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate.”
One dozen Republican senators and a reported 140 GOP Congressmen have said they will challenge electors when Congress meets Wednesday.
All our basic rights and freedoms flow from a fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law. This principle is not only fundamentally American but a central tenet of conservatism. Under our system, voters determine the president, and this self-governance cannot sustain itself if the whims of Congress replace the will of the people. I urge members to consider the precedent that it would set.
Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic. t is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.
The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence. The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed. The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result. If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/paul-ryan-blasts-republicans-challenging-biden-electors-joe-bidens-victory-entirely-legitimate/
There's Something Peculiar About The Vandalism At Pelosi's House
An ugly story emerged on New Year’s Day: Vandals had attacked Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco house, leaving behind graffiti on her garage complaining about the stimulus bill, along with a pig’s head in a puddle of red paint. People less credulous than the media, though, noticed that the vandals were kind enough to do their dirty deed without touching the brick facing on Pelosi’s house. These may have been polite vandals, or there may be more here than meets the eye.
A local media outlet, KPIX, reported the story:
The new year brought a disturbing discovery at the San Francisco home of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, where, early Friday morning, vandals spray-painted her house and left a severed pig’s head in front of her garage.
The graffiti says “Cancel rent” and “We want everything” — possibly referencing coronavirus stimulus checks. There was also a severed pig’s head in a pool of red paint left in front of the garage door.
The original story made Antifa look simultaneously sympathetic and really bad. The good part was the “cancel rent” statement. The bad part was the vandalism itself. No civilized people want to be victims of ugly graffiti nor do they want it to happen to others, including San Fran Nan, no matter how vile her politics. Moreover, Pelosi’s position may make the vandalism a federal crime.
At first pass, the photo of the damage is very ugly. The garage door is completely covered with graffiti and the pig’s head is disturbing:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/theres_something_peculiar_about_the_vandalism_at_pelosis_house.html
‘Super Spreader’ Speakership Election: Nancy Pelosi Allows Democrats to Break Quarantine to Help Secure Another Term
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is turning the House of Representatives into a potential coronavirus hotspot, allowing Democrats to break quarantine to vote in the speakership election as she faces a tough battle for another term atop the chamber.
At least three members, according to congressional reporter John Bresnahan, are breaking quarantine to attend swearing-in ceremonies and the all-important speakership election Sunday. Two of them are Democrats, he revealed, and one is a Republican. In addition to those three comes Rep. Gwen Moore (D-FL), attending the vote to back Pelosi after testing positive for the deadly virus just six days ago.
A senior GOP congressional aide ripped Pelosi, calling the decision to bring these coronavirus risks into the House solely to secure a second term as Speaker a “speakership election super spreader event.”
“Nancy Pelosi’s grip on the speakership is so tenuous that she is forcing members exposed to coronavirus to break quarantine and come to the Capitol to vote for her and protect her political power,” the senior GOP aide told Breitbart News.
Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, also ripped Pelosi for the matter:
A source familiar with the matter said later on Sunday that House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is likely to criticize Pelosi for it as well.
The speaker’s office provided a statement from the attending physician of the U.S. Congress, Dr. Brian Monahan, to Breitbart News in response to an inquiry on this matter.
It read in part:
Upon the direction of the Office of Attending Physician and the House Sergeant at Arms, a secure enclosure has been erected in Gallery 4 of the House Chamber to allow Members who are in quarantine status to fulfill their Constitutional duties,” Monahan said in the statement. “Under federal guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), essential workers, in order to ensure continuity of operations of essential functions, are permitted to continue work following potential exposure to COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] provided they remain asymptomatic and additional precautions are implemented to protect them and the community. The highest possible safeguards have been implemented including separate, enhanced ventilation in this space and separate holding facilities for any Members utilizing Gallery 4. This step will only be necessary until proxy voting resumes as an option for impacted Members.
In addition, a U.S. Capitol official added that these people are in “quarantine status,” a condition of which is a recent negative coronavirus test.
“The Members using this facility are two Democrats and one Republican all at the direction of the physician,” the U.S. Capitol official said.
Pelosi’s decision to put members of Congress at risk comes after Rep.-elect Luke Letlow (R-LA) died last week of a heart attack during a surgical procedure while hospitalized for the coronavirus. Letlow was 41 years old. It also comes as Rep.-elect Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) was hospitalized just before Christmas with the disease.
Pelosi faces a tough vote to get re-elected as speaker. She needs to win a majority of those present and voting for a person. She will lose at least some Democrats, like Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), in her bid for re-election. But after Democrats lost a significant amount of seats in the 2020 congressional election — something nobody in establishment media saw coming — the Democrat majority has been slimmed down to just a handful of seats.
With vacancies like Letlow’s seat in northern Louisiana, and absences like Salazar, along with some Democrat members who might vote “present” — therefore not voting for a person — it is unclear on Sunday exactly how many votes Pelosi must secure to win another term as Speaker.
But when the House is full, only five or six members — think the “squad” alone, just Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), or from the other side of the Democrat conference members like Spanberger — can stop Pelosi from passing legislation along party lines alone by banding together to vote against a bill or a rule. Similar logic applies to a speakership vote, putting the Democrat leader in a tough position.
https://www.breitbart.com/health/2021/01/03/super-spreader-speakership-election-nancy-pelosi-allows-democrats-break-quarantine-help-secure-another-term/
French Soldiers Killed by Bomb on Anti-Islamist Operation
Two French soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in north-eastern Mali on Saturday, just days after three others died in similar fashion, the French presidency announced.
President Emmanuel Macron “learnt with great sadness” of the deaths of Sergeant Yvonne Huynh and Brigadier Loic Risser in the Menaka region, his office said in a statement.
Huynh, aged 33, was the first woman soldier sent to the Sahel region since the French operation began.
Risser was 24. Both were members of a regiment specialising in intelligence work.
According to the army, the latest deaths bring to 50 the number of French soldiers killed in Mali since France first intervened militarily in January 2013 to help drive back Islamist jihadists who had overrun parts of the west African country.
France’s Barkhane force numbers 5,100 troops spread across the arid Sahel region and has been fighting jihadist groups alongside soldiers from Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, who together make up the G5 Sahel group.
“Their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device during an intelligence mission,” the French presidency said of Saturday’s incident.
Another soldier was injured in the blast but their life is not in danger, it added.
Three French Soldiers Killed on Anti-Islamist Operation https://t.co/PBa4RNAqLm
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 30, 2020
Macron affirmed France’s determination to continue its role in “the battle against terrorism”.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) has claimed responsibility for the earlier attack that killed three French soldiers in the centre of the poor Sahel state. Those deaths were also due to an army vehicle hitting an explosive device.
The group, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, cited a string of reasons for the attack including the continuing French military presence in the region, cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by a French newspaper and Macron’s defence of them in the name of freedom of expression.
Man Spits at French Police Officers, Calls Them ‘Dirty Whites’ https://t.co/BxzxBwTRYt
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 25, 2020
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/03/french-soldiers-killed-bomb-anti-islamist-operation/
Former solicitor general claims new leaked audio of President Trump suggests crime, 'impeachable offense'
'… it sounds like Donald Trump is talking like mafia boss'
President Donald Trump is being accused of committing "truly an impeachable offense" over the weekend after the Washington Post published audio in which Trump appeared to tell a top Georgia official to "find" the votes necessary to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the Peach State.
What did Trump say in the leaked audio?
The Post published a brief, four-minute excerpt of what the newspaper reported was an hour-long phone conversation between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
During the phone call, Trump repeatedly claimed that he won Georgia, which Raffensperger refuted.
"The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry," Trump said. "And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated."
Raffensperger responded, "Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong."
At another point, Trump said, "So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state."
According to the Post, Trump also issued a "vague threat" to Raffensperger and his general counsel, saying that if they did not locate ballots in Fulton County that Trump claimed had been illegally destroyed, the state officials were opening themselves to criminal consequences.
"That's a criminal offense," Trump said. "And you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer."
What was the reaction?
The audio triggered new accusations against Trump, even by former top U.S. officials who suggested that Trump had engaged in criminal behavior during the phone call.
Neal Katyal, who served as acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, claimed on MSNBC that Trump sounded like a "mafia boss" on the call with Raffensperger.
"I've heard the extraordinary excerpts that the Washington Post has and, at least based on those excerpts, it sounds like Donald Trump is talking like mafia boss, and not a particularly smart mafia boss at that. This is the way that people in organized crime rings talk, and you see it there," Katyal said.
Katyal claimed Trump's actions on the call amount to "really, truly an impeachable offense."
"This is, you know, the heart of what the abuse of power that our founders worried about so much — it's, you know, the idea that a government official can use the powers of his office to try and stay in office and try and browbeat other officials that disagree with them," Katyal said.
"So, one question is whether or not a high crime and misdemeanor was committed, certainly the tape makes it sound like it has. The second is whether or not there has been a criminal offense and the federal code 52 U.S.C. 20511 prohibits a federal official from interfering in a state election process," he explained.
According to Katyal, the Department of Justice should take immediate action and open an investigation into Trump.
"This is the way that people in organized crime rings talk," @neal_katyal says of President Trump's language in his… https://t.co/YDi8Ij6nqz
— MSNBC (@MSNBC)1609704015.0
https://www.theblaze.com/news/trump-accused-crime-call-brad-raffensperger