>>13441178 (pb)
https://archive.is/N58bJ
Reposting in this bread.
Soros association with Marc Elias, the general counsel laywer who is involved in "auditing" the 2020 elections.
https://archive.is/b66UM
Billionaire left-wing donor George Soros gave $5 million to Perkins Coie sometime before 2016 so Elias could challenge what left-wing activists allege to be restrictions that deter Democrats and left-wing constituencies from voting. Some of the laws the Soros funding has been used to challenge include photo identification requirements at polling places, limitations on early voting, and the handling of—and access to—absentee ballots. Cases were opened in Arizona, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas and North Dakota.[26]
In January 2017, Elias joined the board of Priorities USA, a left-wing super PAC that had been used during the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign to support Hillary Clinton. Along with the arrival of Elias on the board it was announced the organization and its non-profit arm – Priorities USA Action – would become the platform to continue Elias’ fight against election laws viewed by the organization as biased against Democratic constituencies. Priorities also stipulated that it would be absorbing another organization named Every Citizen Counts, which had spent $17 million during 2016 on election law challenges led by Elias in North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin – a mission identical to and possibly coordinated with the financing Soros provided to Perkins Coie.[27]
https://archive.is/U7NFk
During the first three months of 2020, progressive donor George Soros donated $5 million to the super PAC. It is part of $28 million spent by Soros towards several left-leaning super PACs and racial justice nonprofits, including Win Justice, during the same period. [49]
Thank you for the note-taking, anon! Soros is trapped.
Soros Group Pledges $20M to Boost Biden Plan
Financier and philanthropist George Soros attends the official opening of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC) at the German Foreign Ministry on June 8, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
By Brian Freeman | Monday, 05 April 2021 11:13 AM
The George Soros-founded Open Society Foundations are pledging $20 million for a campaign to rally progressives to support President Joe Biden's infrastructure proposal, Axios reported on Monday.
Financial support from the group could help spur a vital call to action for Democrat donors and activists who back Biden's initial $2 trillion-plus infrastructure plan but are determined to see the president do more.
Biden is considering revealing later this month a second part of his overall proposal, which would have a broader focus on social welfare proposals — such as health care, the care-giving economy, climate, and community colleges.
The idea of the $20 million pledge is to help jumpstart as much as $100 million in funding to help encourage support for Biden’s overall agenda.
The money is expected to help activate many of the grassroots progressive groups that led the fierce opposition to the agenda of former President Donald Trump.
The $20 million is expected to be funneled to such grassroots organizing — and not be used for paid advertising.
"We hope this effort on the part of organizers and donors will give the Biden administration and Congress the assurance that they need to go as big, bold and fast as possible,” said Leah Hunt-Hendrix, who co-founded Way to Win, a progressive donor network.
Tom Perriello, the executive director of Open Society-U.S., said that "Every initiative proposed by President Biden has broad public support. But we’ve seen popular reforms get demonized before by partisans and special interests, and we are not going to let that happen."
https://archive.is/VMrcn
Nope.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott demands Biden take ‘immediate action’ on Mexican cartels
By Joshua Rhett MillerApril 16, 2021 | 1:36pm |
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants the Biden administration to take “immediate action” against Mexican drug cartels.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants the Biden administration to take "immediate action" against Mexican drug cartels.Joel Martinez/The Monitor via AP
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants the Biden administration to take “immediate action” against Mexican drug cartels by designating them as foreign terrorist organizations.
In a Thursday letter to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Abbott took aim at the “dangerous and deadly” Mexican drug cartels he claims meet all three standards for the designation — including being a threat to US national security and regularly engaging in terrorist acts like kidnappings and assassinations.
“They smuggle narcotics and weapons into the United States to fund their illegal enterprises,” the Republican governor wrote. “They force women and children into human and sex trafficking, enriching themselves on the misery and enslavement of immigrants. They murder innocent people, including women and children.”
Abbott claimed “it is time” for the feds to react appropriately and label Mexican crime syndicates like Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel as foreign terrorist groups under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
https://nypost.com/2021/04/16/texas-governor-demands-biden-take-immediate-action-on-cartels/
WHITE HOUSE
White House border coordinator Jacobson leaving role at end of April
Move puts Vice President Kamala Harris firmly in charge of U.S. diplomatic efforts in Central America.
Image: Press Secretary Jen Psaki Holds Media Briefing With Southern Border Ambassador Roberta Jacobson
Special Assistant to the President & Coordinator for the Southern Border Ambassador Roberta Jacobson speaks as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki listens during a daily press briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on March 10, 2021.Alex Wong / Getty Images file
April 9, 2021, 4:22 PM MST
By Reuters
WASHINGTON - White House border coordinator Roberta Jacobson is leaving her job at the end of April, the White House said on Friday, a surprise move that solidified Vice President Kamala Harris’ control over U.S. diplomatic efforts in Central America.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-border-coordinator-jacobson-leaving-role-end-april-n1263707
China And Russia, Or The West? Latin America Must Choose A Side
The region's democratic states must close ranks and work with the United States to protect the rule of law at home and abroad against "an authoritarian onslaught," Rubén M. Perina* writes in Clarín.
2021-04-15
-OpEd-
The international order features a growing rivalry between the interests and values of the liberal democratic world, and those of an emerging, autocratic world. The first is represented by powers like the United States of America, the European Union (led by France and Germany), Australia, Great Britain, India, Israel, Japan, South Africa and other, lesser powers.
The second bloc of emerging, autocratic if not dictatorial and revisionist powers, consists of states like China, with its starkly rising economic, military and technological power and Russia, with lesser economic capabilities but considerable military and technological reach.
This rivalry is perhaps more specifically evident in the relationship between the U.S. and China, after recent evolutions. Under U.S. leadership, the liberal-democratic world briefly enjoyed, starting in 1989 as the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union began to collapse, a period of hegemony that has gradually waned as the U.S. entered into relative decline. It remains, nevertheless, the premier world power.
Meanwhile, China's dizzying rise to economic preeminence is paving the way for a bipolar rivalry brimming with conflict possibilities. Although for now, at least, it is not a "to the death" fight or a "zero sum game" like the Cold War. Today, the two sides will compete intensely over values and interests, and cooperate in global strategic issues of mutual interest.
As Latin America seeks to adapt to this alignment while preserving its autonomy, experts have proposed approaches variously termed "equidistant diplomacy," "selective collaboration," "strategic autonomy," "active neutrality" or "peripheral realism."
The basic idea to bear in mind, however, is that Latin America belongs to the liberal-democratic world by virtue of history, geography and political culture. That, then, makes it incumbent on certain regional heavyweights to end their "strategic flirting" or fake neutrality between two poles of unequal moral weight. There have been calls for these states to commit themselves, unequivocally, to a strategic alliance of liberal democracies headed by the U.S.
The two sides will compete intensely over values and interests.
Where is the problem in joining an alliance with the world's first power, as most democratic — and mostly the more prosperous — states are doing? The strategic-democratic alliance means a firm commitment to the defense and promotion of democratic values and practices, including an unflinching respect for the rule of law, human rights, freedom, human dignity and the like.
https://worldcrunch.com/opinion-analysis/china-and-russia-or-the-west-latin-america-must-choose-a-side-1
Leaked US intelligence document calls for support of South American countries' fight against Chinese IUU
By
Christian Molinari
April 1, 2021
SHARE
A leaked document originating from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis – part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – has recommended the creation of a multilateral coalition with South American nations led by the U.S. to challenge China's illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and trade practices.
The document was obtained by news service Axios and revealed in an article published 23 March.
https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/environment-sustainability/leaked-us-intelligence-document-calls-for-support-of-south-american-countries-against-chinese-iuu
https://time.com/5955248/qanon-local-elections/
HSBC is moving the heart of the bank back to Hong Kong
By Hanna Ziady, CNN Business
Updated 11:57 AM EDT, Wed April 14, 2021
London(CNN Business)HSBC will move four of its most senior executives to Hong Kong later this year, as the London-based bank focuses more attention on fast-growing markets in Asia.
CEO Noel Quinn said in an internal memo on Wednesday that Barry O'Byrne, head of global commercial banking, Greg Guyett, co-head of global banking and markets, and Nuno Matos, head of wealth and personal banking will relocate to Hong Kong in the second half of the year. They will be joined by Nicolas Moreau, the head of global asset management.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/14/business/hsbc-exec-moves-hong-kong-london/index.html
Ukraine’s anti-corruption effort struggles, but soldiers on
Is political will enough to uproot a deeply engrained culture?
Dan Peleschuk Apr 15, 2021
NABU
Advocates still see hope for Ukraine’s anti-corruption drive and plead for patience in assessing its progress. (photo: National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine)
A Russian troop buildup is boosting anxiety about Ukraine’s sovereignty, but the central threat to Kyiv’s reform ambitions – the corrosive effect of grand corruption – comes from within. And more than seven years into Ukraine’s democracy rebuilding project, few would say Ukraine’s fight against graft is going smoothly.
In the years since the 2014 Euromaidan uprising prompted Ukraine’s political direction to shift westward, two consecutive Ukrainian presidential administrations have drawn criticism for either failing to adequately tackle graft, or even perpetuating it. Meanwhile, corrupt actors continue to take advantage of the country’s weak judicial system to further their own interests, partly by attacking the fledgling anti-corruption infrastructure that’s earned Kyiv international praise.
Yet advocates still see hope for Ukraine’s anti-corruption drive and plead for patience in assessing its progress. Despite massive pushback against institutions such as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC), experts say a string of measured successes have established an important foundation for the future.
https://eurasianet.org/ukraines-anti-corruption-effort-struggles-but-soldiers-on
'Milk Tea Alliance' brews democracy online among young activists across Asia
From Myanmar to Hong Kong, young people are clashing with increasingly authoritarian regimes and taking their struggles online around a unifying and popular regional drink.
Image: Myanmar migrants in Thailand holds signs relating to the \"Milk Tea Alliance\" as they take part in a protest in Bangko
Myanmar migrants in Thailand hold signs about the "Milk Tea Alliance" as they protest in Bangkok in February.Jack Taylor / AFP - Getty Images file
April 7, 2021, 1:32 AM MST
By Janis Mackey Frayer and Adela Suliman
BEIJING — How do you take your tea?
For many in southeast Asia, the answer is sweet, milky and with a dash of politics.
From Myanmar to Hong Kong, young people hungry for democracy are clashing with increasingly authoritarian regimes and taking their struggles online around a unifying and popular regional drink, milk tea.
Served iced, sweet or with tapioca balls, the beverage has become a symbol for a virtual solidarity movement, said Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, a supporter of the so-called Milk Tea Alliance.
"One of the characteristics of the Milk Tea Alliance is that we are kind of glued by common values — the values of pursuing democracy, the values of pursuing freedom," Law said.
Although it is not a "concrete network," the online campaign has become an amplifier of support, he added, diminishing the distance between people championing democracy across borders.
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The hashtag #MilkTeaAlliance was born when an online spat broke out in April 2020 after nationalistic Chinese internet users criticized a popular Thai actor for sharing comments that referred to Hong Kong as an independent country, offending Chinese sentiments. The actor's fans then charged back, loosely coalescing around the hashtag to defend him.
The online movement has since swelled and been co-opted by millions of pro-democracy activists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Myanmar and even India. Many of them have also popularized the "three-finger salute" from the movie "The Hunger Games" as a symbol in their struggle.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/milk-tea-alliance-brews-democracy-online-among-young-activists-across-n1262253
Beijing official in Hong Kong warns against foreign meddling
Social Sharing
Amid China's clampdown on pro-democracy activism, the West is warned of retaliation for interference
The Associated Press · Posted: Apr 15, 2021 1:42 PM ET | Last Updated: April 15
High school students attend a flag-raising ceremony during the National Security Education Day in Hong Kong on Thursday. (Kin Cheung/The Associated Press)
Beijing's top official in Hong Kong on Thursday warned foreign forces not to interfere with the "bottom line" of national security in the city, threatening retaliation amid tensions between China and Western powers.
Canada, the U.S., Britain and their allies have condemned China's tightening control over Hong Kong's freedoms, including the sweeping national-security law and electoral reforms that have all but silenced the once-vibrant opposition in the semi-autonomous region.
"When it is time, actions must be taken in relation to any external or foreign forces that may interfere in Hong Kong affairs or attempts to use Hong Kong as a pawn," Luo Huining, director of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, said at the opening ceremony for Hong Kong's National Security Education Day.
"We will propose strong objections and teach them a lesson."
Authorities marked the event with a police college open house, where police personnel demonstrated the Chinese military's goose-step march, replacing British-style foot drills from the time Hong Kong was ruled by the U.K. until the 1997 handover to China.
Critics say Beijing's crackdown — aimed at reining in dissent after months of anti-government protests in 2019 — has further eroded freedoms promised to Hong Kong when it was handed over to China's rule. Most of the city's prominent pro-democracy activists and advocates are currently facing charges, are in jail or have fled abroad.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-warning-1.5988767
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/house-republican-warns-john-boehner-not-to-lobby-for-china