WHAT CONFLICT? Jake Sullivan’s Wife Is Now Overseeing the Durham Probe that Is Looking Into Her Husband’s Potential Wrongdoing in Trump-Russia Attempted Coup

Professionals across the country have to abide by rules surrounding conflict of interest. Accountants, auditors, attorneys, and others must abide by these rules. These rules however do not apply to the corrupt Department of Justice (including the FBI) where conflicts are customary.

We reported on the many material conflicts of interest surrounding the Mueller gang’s attempted coup of President Trump and his Administration.

Citizen Free Press reported on another material conflict of interest in our government going on right now. These conflicts make it clear there is no integrity in our Justice Department anymore.

A top adviser to Merrick Garland is facing calls to recuse herself from the Justice Department’s investigation of the Trump-Russia probe, which has looked into the actions of her husband Jake Sullivan.

Margaret Goodlander serves as counsel to Garland, who oversees Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation. Garland has oversight of Durham’s budget, the scope of the investigation, and the release of a report Durham is believed to be writing. Sullivan, who married Goodlander in 2015, has been referenced in Durham’s indictment of a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for the Clinton campaign.

While there is no indication that Durham is targeting Sullivan, he could be a witness for the investigation given his role as a foreign policy adviser to Hillary’s campaign. Durham’s report could also reveal embarrassing details about Sullivan’s work to dig up dirt on Donald Trump.

Sen. Chuck Grassley and the watchdog group Empower Oversight say Goodlander should be formally recused from the Durham investigation to maintain public trust in the probe.

“The Justice Department’s standing guidance calls for employees to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, especially when it comes to ongoing criminal investigations,” said Grassley.

“It’s in Garland’s best interest—and he’s obligated—to be transparent about whether his department is walling off officials who have a real or even perceived conflict, just as prior administrations have done.”

Goodlander’s husband worked in the corrupt Obama administration where he laughed with others in the Administration about their lies.

Anyone who wants justice in our Justice Department should be concerned Jake Sullivan’s wife is at a high-level position in the DOJ.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/conflict-jake-sullivans-wife-now-overseeing-durham-probe-looking-husbands-wrongdoing-trump-russia-attempted-coup/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/conflict-jake-sullivans-wife-now-overseeing-durham-probe-looking-husbands-wrongdoing-trump-russia-attempted-coup/

BANNON GOES OFF — After News Breaks that Dems will Shelve Build Back Better Bill – Will Move to Federalize Elections – Their Permanent Power Play

This is Breaking News–

The Senate Democrats are expected to shelve their Build Back Better bill and move forward with their national elections bill that gives them permanent power.

They can’t win if they can’t cheat.

Steve Bannon WENT OFF after hearing the news this morning.

Bannon and guest Peter Navarro called for Mitch McConnell to step down following this news. The fool of the US Senate.

Steve Bannon: We told you that this is what Mitch McConnell has brought upon us. I told you this was going to happen. He gave them $3 trillion and now he’s given them a pathway to federalize all of these elections which is the only way they can win and they understand that. They understand. They’ve seen the polls. These are not dumb people. These are cunning and crafty people. You could see this a mile away. Rick Scott and the people of the Senate ought to have a conference today and they ought to take the leadership away from Mitch McConnell!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/breaking-bannon-goes-off-news-breaks-dems-will-shelve-build-back-better-bill-will-move-federalize-elections-permanent-power-play/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/breaking-bannon-goes-off-news-breaks-dems-will-shelve-build-back-better-bill-will-move-federalize-elections-permanent-power-play/

UN nuclear watchdog strikes spy camera deal with Iran

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has agreed a deal with Iran to replace surveillance cameras at a centrifuge-parts workshop in the TESA Karaj complex after they were removed in an apparent sabotage attack in June.

On Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it would soon install new cameras at Iran’s Karaj centrifuge component manufacturing workshop. The agency said that Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi had reached an agreement with the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, to replace the cameras.

“The agreement with Iran on replacing surveillance cameras at the Karaj facility is an important development for the IAEA’s verification and monitoring activities in Iran. It will enable us to resume necessary continuity of knowledge at this facility,” Grossi said in a statement.

The statement noted that the new devices will replace those removed earlier in the year. The Karaj workshop was destroyed in an apparent sabotage attack in June, which Iran blamed on Israel. Tehran removed the surviving cameras and had refused to let the IAEA replace them.

The statement added that Iran and the UN agency will continue to work together to solve outstanding safeguarding issues.

Wednesday’s agreement represents something of a minor breakthrough, as broader nuclear talks to bring Iran and the US back in line with the terms of an Obama-era atomic deal remain deadlocked.

Then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled America out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPOA) in 2018, re-imposing harsh economic sanctions on Iran as part of a maximum pressure campaign against Tehran’s regime. Iran responded by reneging on a series of its commitments previously agreed under the deal.

https://www.rt.com/news/543306-iran-un-body-camera-deal/

63,000 Websites Hit With Outages As Users Report Amazon Web Service Issues

Update (1130ET): A person familiar with today's AWS outage told Bloomberg it's unrelated to last week's outage.

Amazon company had one of its worst outages in its history earlier this month, affecting Netflix, robot vacuums and even ticket sales for Adele's upcoming tour. Amazon attributed the outage to "unexpected behavior" of its automated processes. -Bloomberg

Preliminary reports from Pingdom AB, a Swedish website monitoring company, show more than 63,000 websites are experiencing issues worldwide. At the same time, Downdetector reports users are experiencing problems with Amazon Web Services.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/63000-websites-hit-outages-users-report-amazon-web-service-issues

Dirty Schiff Does It Again! Pencil-Neck Doctors J-6 Text Messages to Build Case Against Trump #IndictLiarSchiff

For years Democrat Adam Schiff pushed the fake, Hillary Clinton-funded Steele Dossier knowing it was a complete lie funded by Democrats.

The Democrats and Deep State attempted a coup of President Trump using the bogus document as their source.

Schiff knew all along there was no proof of Trump-Russia collusion. It was a ridiculous lie and they all knew it was false.

Schiff lied and said he did not know the identity of the Trump-Ukrainian call whistleblower.

Schiff lied and accused President Trump of cheating to win the 2016 election — Now he is investigating Republicans who called the 2020 election a lie.

Schiff went off on a deranged Trump-Russia screed during his opening arguments at the Senate Impeachment Trial of President Trump.

Schiff made up a completely imaginary Trump quote during his opening remarks saying Trump forced Ukrainian President Zelensky to “publicly announce the two political investigations and he should want to do it.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/dirty-schiff-pencil-neck-doctors-j-6-text-messages-build-case-trump-indictliarschiff/

“I Hate to Say It But We’re a Fascist Country at This Time” – Rudy Giuliani Drops a Truth-Bomb in Latest Interview

Former New York City Mayor and personal attorney to President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, joined David Brody on The Water Cooler on Tuesday.

During their interview Rudy described the current political and cultural climate in America today.

David Brody: Is there a word that describes what American society is today under this Biden regime? How do you see society today under his administration?

Rudy Giuliani: I really hesitate to say this. I hate to say it. I don’t want to say it. And it will make me feel very bad saying it but we’re a fascist country at this point. The administration is using and has been for some time fascist tactics.

Rudy is right. The Biden administration along with Congress, the media elites and Liz Cheney are wielding power like fascist thugs. They have no interest in the truth or justice. Their only intent is to crush their domestic opposition and increase their power.

The Justice System is gone. Foreign policy is a disaster. Innocent Americans and opposition members are held in prison without trial. The corrupt media refuses to report the facts and only reports official lies from the administration.

How else would you describe it?

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/hate-say-fascist-country-time-rudy-giuliani-drops-truth-bomb-latest-interview-video/

Democrat Senator Speaks At Awards Ceremony For The Communist Party

In recent years, Democrats have struggled with the label of socialism. Many of them don’t want to be branded as socialists, but at the same time, they can’t afford to alienate their far left base.

Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut has just raised the stakes, however. He not only attended an awards ceremony hosted by the Communist party, he spoke at it.

Good luck shedding that socialist label, now.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Blumenthal Speaks at Communist Party Awards Ceremony

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) spoke at an awards ceremony over the weekend hosted by a Communist Party affiliate whose leaders used the event to recruit potential members to the organization.

Blumenthal, one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, presented certificates of special recognition from the Senate to three winners of the “Amistad Award,” given annually by the Connecticut People’s World Committee, an affiliate of the Communist Party USA and the Marxist People’s World news site.

Blumenthal appeared even as Democratic leaders have downplayed allegations that many in the party support socialist or communist policies. President Joe Biden distanced himself from the left-wing ideologies during the 2020 presidential campaign, at one point bragging that he defeated a socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), in the primaries. Blumenthal used his speech at the ceremony to tout Democratic legislative policies, including voting rights reform, ending the filibuster and the Build Back Better Act, according to the Yankee Institute, a free market think tank in Connecticut that reported details of the event.

Blumenthal was introduced at the event by Lisa Bergmann, a Communist Party member who blamed corporations for the “imperialism that exists in our world that is undermining the labor and environment.”

You can watch Blumenthal’s remarks below:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/democrat-senator-speaks-awards-ceremony-communist-party-video/

Whistleblowers claim widespread sexual harassment at SpaceX

Five ex-employees have alleged sexual harassment at the iconic SpaceX, claiming the work environment is hostile and unresponsive to women, according to two separate reports about the company’s culture.

The former employees insist that the problem received no solid responses from SpaceX’s HR department.

The initial claim was made in an essay by Ashley Kosak, a former mission integration engineer at the company, saying she couldn’t “stop getting sexually harassed.” Blasting the company’s workplace in a text published on the Lioness website , she declared it’s “in a state of disrepair and dysfunction” that left her with no choice but to leave.

“I reported each incident of sexual harassment I experienced to HR, and nothing was done,” Kosak wrote. Despite stating that, to her knowledge, new SpaceX interns “receive training on how to better report their harassment,” she argued harassers “have still not been held to account.”

The Verge later spoke to four more people who claimed to have been sexually harassed or witnessed cases of such behavior with respect to their colleagues. One whistleblower accused Space X of valuing “the mission over employee wellness,” resulting in the company failing to take “meaningful action taken against individuals who committed acts of sexual harassment.” The former employees also backed a previous comparison of Space X to a “boys’ club”.

SpaceX has not issued a public statement on the allegations. However, The Verge reported a company-wide email sent by Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, reminding employees that harassment will not be tolerated, and encouraging people to inform superiors if they experience any mistreatment in the workplace. The company also promised to conduct an audit into the matter.

The latest allegations come over a year after a former SpaceX intern, Julia Crowley-Farenga, filed a lawsuit claiming that the company retaliated against her following a report she made of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. The lawsuit has since “been resolved,” according to Crowley-Farenga.

Earlier this year, another former employee, a SpaceX engineer called Away Reddy, filed a lawsuit that accused the company of racial discrimination, national origin discrimination, retaliation, and breach of contract. His complaint alleges he suffered “economic loss, mental pain and suffering, extreme emotional stress and loss of ability to lead a normal life” after working at SpaceX.

https://www.rt.com/usa/543285-spacex-whistleblowers-sexual-harassment/

Rand Paul Warns COVID Mandates Are "About Conditioning The American Individual To Submit To Government"

Senator Rand Paul has warned that as long as Americans continue to submit to government on coronavirus restrictions, the mandates and further erosions of freedom will never end.

Speaking with Dan Bongino, Paul responded to comments made last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who compared “anti-vaxxers here in this chamber” to “flat earthers” from 400 years ago.

Paul noted that “Schumer left out one thing, when they were denying that the Earth went around the sun. It was the government denying that and it was an independent scientist trying to set them straight.”

Paul further explained “the danger is when you let science be controlled by government, or by one sort of monolithic individual like Fauci, it really doesn’t have anything to do with science. Science usually discovers the truth eventually. But when science is dictated by the government, that’s when you get, you know, Flat Earthers.”

Paul continued, “I don’t think it’s been about science for a long time,” adding “It’s really the about conditioning the American individual to submit to government. And you’re right, it never ends, the goalposts will continue to change. And ultimately, more and more of your healthcare will be controlled.”

“You know, under socialized medicine, when we centralize all controls, most of these decisions are made by government bureaucrats like Fauci,” the Senator further urged.

The Senator also painted a grim picture of where this could all be heading, stating “If you love the dictates on vaccines, you’ll love it when Fauci is in charge of who can be dialyzed.”

“In England for many years, they wouldn’t dialyze you after age 50 because they thought that you don’t have much left to live and over a 50 year over the hill and I personally resent that now that I’m well past 50,” Paul expanded.

“But the thing is, nobody in government should be making those decisions. And once they do, it gets into rationing and arbitrary decisions by little autocrats like Fauci. And it’s a huge mistake to let this happen and we do need to fight back,” Paul declared.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-rand-paul-warns-covid-mandates-are-about-conditioning-american-individual-submit

FBI agents had sex with prostitutes overseas, then denied it in lie-detector tests

Four FBI officials had sex with prostitutes while posted overseas, while a fifth also tried to — and all but one “lacked candor” about it during interviews and lie-detector tests, the Department of Justice said.

An official probe was launched after the FBI raised the alarm that “multiple then FBI officials solicited, engaged in, and/or procured commercial sex,” a DOJ report said Tuesday.

Two of the officials were also accused of being involved in delivering “a package containing approximately 100 white pills” to a “foreign law enforcement officer,” the report said, without elaboration.

The report did not identify the five officials, but said two had resigned, two had retired and one was removed during the probe.

A sixth agent accused of breaking policy by failing to report colleagues’ misconduct still works for the bureau, which vowed to “take all appropriate disciplinary actions” against the employee.

The report also did not detail when or where the dalliances occurred. However, the FBI said it involved “employees previously working overseas in various FBI Legal Attaché Offices” and was referred to the DOJ in 2018.

Tuesday’s report said the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) had “substantiated” allegations “that four FBI officials solicited, procured, and accepted commercial sex overseas,” while a fifth “solicited” sex.

Their actions were all “in violation of DOJ and FBI policies.”

The investigation “also found that four of those officials lacked candor about their interactions with prostitutes and other misconduct during OIG compelled interviews and compelled polygraph examinations,” the report said, again in violation of policies.

One of them was outright accused of having “made false statements” when he “denied having engaged in sex acts with a prostitute,” the report said, noting it was “in violation of federal law.”

All five then failed to report the misconduct as well as “contact or relationships with foreign nationals,” both also in violation of FBI policies, the investigation ruled.

One also “lacked candor” when he “denied observing or placing pills in a package to be delivered to a foreign law enforcement officer,” while another “failed to report having been provided such a package.”

The report did not elaborate on what the pills were, nor whom they were given to.

The Inspector General’s Office said it handed its findings to the FBI for “appropriate action.”

The FBI said it “appreciates the Office of Inspector General’s thorough investigation into the reported misconduct by several former employees.”

https://nypost.com/2021/12/15/fbi-agents-had-sex-with-prostitutes-overseas-then-denied-it/

VIRGINIA: CIA Agent-Turned-Democrat House Rep Will Lose Seat After Redistricting

Democrat incumbent Abigail Spanberger, who worked in the CIA before Congress, is poised to lose her 7th District seat on Capitol Hill under new maps released by Virginia’s redistricting committee. Once finalized, the maps are expected to leave at least one Congressional Democrat out in the cold as heavily gerrymandered districts are more evenly redrawn.

The new district lines come from a proposed map drawn by two Special Masters appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court as part of a new redistricting process that eliminates partisan gerrymandering by the General Assembly. The new map, or something very similar, is expected to be approved and in effect for the 2022 midterm elections with a projected five districts leaning Democrat, five districts leaning Republican, and one district appearing to be a true toss-up.

Spanberger’s current 7th District is effectively dissolved under the new maps, leaving her home in Glen Allen within the boundaries of an expanded 1st District, safely represented by Republican Rob Wittman. The 7th District itself goes north, to safe Democrat territory, but far removed from Spanberger.

Republican-leaning areas of the former 7th look poised to be absorbed into the 10th, making that district, currently represented by far-left Democrat Jennifer Wexton of Loudoun County, a true 50-50 toss-up.

Additionally, the new map adds Republican leaning turf to the state’s 2nd District, one of the most competitive in the nation. That seat is currently held by China-tied Democrat and 1/6 committee member Elaine Luria.

Some on the left have bemoaned the new boundaries as a form of sexism, seeming to claim that Spanberger and her female colleagues are victims of a political conspiracy among map makers to remove Democrat women from office.

“It seems to be very hurtful for the three Virginia women,” said 8th District Democrat Don Beyer. “I know we’re not supposed to have elected officials pick their voters, but it is unfortunate the way they’re drawn that incumbents like Abigail Spanberger, who had a difficult district to begin with, is tossed in a completely different district,” Beyer complained.

Despite his crying foul over redistricting having an impact on female Representatives, Beyer has not appeared to offer any of the three affected women his safe Democrat seat in Congress.

While the new district boundaries have not yet been approved, they appear to be the most likely scenario for 2022, when much like in the recent Virginia elections, a red wave is expected to greatly makeover the state’s political landscape.

The Virginia Supreme Court will reportedly make their decision on the maps following sessions of public comment on December 15th and 17th, something Spanberger is encouraging her supporters to participate in to help her stay in Congress, though even if the district lines were to remain exactly the same, her seat would almost surely be in jeopardy.

While the GOP long had a strangle hold on the old 7th District, Spanberger was narrowly elected in 2018 after years of demographic changes to the Richmond suburbs. In 2020, she barely won re-election and only did so after officials miraculously found 15,000 Democrat votes on a thumb drive, giving her the edge over Republican challenger Nick Freitas.

https://nationalfile.com/virginia-cia-agent-turned-democrat-house-rep-will-lose-seat-redistricting/

Louisiana Governor to Add COVID-19 Vaccine to List of Required School Immunizations

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards confirmed he is moving forward with adding COVID-19 vaccines to the required list of school immunizations, despite the state’s House Health and Welfare Committee voting to reject the proposal at a hearing last week.

In a letter (pdf) to the House Committee on Health and Welfare Chairman Larry Bagley on Dec. 14, the governor said he disapproved of the committee’s rejection, and he plans to allow the rule to go into effect because it will “save lives” and help the state emerge from the pandemic.

Under the proposed amendment, SARS-CoV-2 shots would be added to the list of required vaccinations for school entry. Vaccinations and all potential boosters would also be required for school attendance. The rule will go into effect beginning with the 2022–23 school year.

The requirement would only apply to age groups for whom the FDA has given full approval of the vaccine, which is currently ages 16 and up, unless expanded.

Parents will still be able to exempt their children from being vaccinated against COVID-19 by claiming religious, medical, or philosophical reasons via a written dissent. Claims for exemptions due to medical reasons should be done via submission of a written statement from a physician stating that such vaccination is contraindicated for medical reasons.

“I understand that any issue around COVID-19, especially those that involve our children, can be divisive, I ask that you and your colleagues work with me to get more people in Louisiana vaccinated,” Edwards wrote to the committee chair.

“It is worth noting that while many of the diseases on the public health immunization schedule were once both rampant and deadly, they are no longer serious risks for school age children in Louisiana. This is true because almost everyone was vaccinated against these diseases, many as a condition for attending elementary school,” Edwards wrote.

“One can only imagine where we would be as a state if the same overheated rhetoric from last week’s meeting was applied to Polio or Measles. The development of the COVID-19 vaccines in time to help us put this pandemic behind us also requires us to do everything we can to add COVID-19 to the list of diseases that no longer pose a serious threat,” Edwards said.

The governor also pointed to official figures stating that over 770,000 people in Louisiana have tested positive for coronavirus, while almost 15,000 have died from the disease in the last 22 months, 19 of which were under the age of 18.

https://www.ntd.com/louisiana-governor-to-add-covid-19-vaccine-to-list-of-required-school-immunizations_714652.html

Illegal Immigrant Offers Child As Payment For Help Crossing Border

A group of Mexican nationals trying to cross into the U.S. illegally offered Daily Caller reporter Jorge Ventura a “little girl” in exchange for helping them enter the country.

Ventura, reporting from the border in Yuma, Arizona, explained how a group of migrants were trying to cross the border into Yuma while Border Patrol agents were nowhere to be found.

“The two men you see here are actually walking back to the Mexican side. They were actually Mexican nationals that were trying to cross into the country illegally. They saw border patrol so they actually started to walk back. But they actually tried to get me to drive them into Yuma and one of them said that he would offer me a nine-year-old little girl if I did it,” Ventura recounted while showing a video of several Haitian migrants walking toward the U.S. side while the two Mexican nationals returned to Mexico.

Ventura noted the migrants did not have a child with them, but insisted they could get him a child as young as nine.

“My initial reaction was just pure shock that they would say something like that so casually, like as if it was completely normal.”

“They just kept trying to convince me to drive them in my truck into the town of Yuma and they were really concerned about being apprehended by border patrol which is the opposite from other migrants who actually want to be apprehended,” Ventura said.

Ventura said border patrol agents told him they encountered illegal migrants from more than 30 different countries over the weekend.

Republican Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls declared a local emergency Thursday due to “unprecedented numbers of migrants entering the city … resulting in a humanitarian and border crisis.”

https://dailycaller.com/2021/12/15/mexican-nationals-illegal-immigrants-offer-reporter-nine-year-old-girl-smuggling/

Google To Fire All Unvaccinated Employees

Google told its employees that they would lose pay and eventually their jobs if they did not abide by the company’s COVID-19 vaccination policy, according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC.

Employees had until Dec. 3 to state their vaccination status to the company and upload the required documentation or to apply for a medical or religious exemption, according to the memo, CNBC reported.

Those employees who did not comply with the company’s policy by the Jan. 18 deadline would reportedly be placed on “paid administrative leave” for 30 days, according to the memo. Workers who do not meet the company’s requirements after the 30 days of paid leave would be placed on “unpaid personal leave” for up to 6 months.

Employees who still refuse to seek out a vaccine after the six-month deadline would be fired, CNBC reported.

“We expect that almost all roles at Google in the US will fall within the scope of the executive order,” the memo said, according to CNBC. “Anyone entering a Google building must be fully vaccinated or have an approved accommodation that allows them to work or come onsite,” the memo said, adding that “frequent testing is not a valid alternative to vaccination.”

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai announced in July that the tech giant would require vaccines for all those returning to the office, according to CNBC. Google reportedly planned on opening its offices in January, but in early December, executives told employees they could temporarily stay remote.

Google is just one among many large companies recently deciding to enforce strict COVID-19 rules.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced Tuesday that all unvaccinated employees of its Manhattan offices have to work remotely, citing growing COVID-19 cases and fairness to vaccinated employees, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.

Meanwhile, supermarket giant Kroger said Tuesday that it will eliminate paid emergency leave for unvaccinated workers who have COVID-19 in addition to requiring some to pay a monthly $50 health insurance surcharge starting in 2022.

https://dailycaller.com/2021/12/15/google-covid-19-vaccine-fire-employees-administrative-personal-leave/

Walensky on Getting Out of COVID Crisis Mode: ‘We’re Not Where We Want to Be’ and ‘Can’t Be Cavalier’ about Current Death Count

On Tuesday’s “CBS Mornings,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky responded to questions on when we’ll move out of a crisis mode on the coronavirus and whether we’ll just have to live with the virus by saying that we’re “not where we want to be” at the moment, “we can bring down the amount of disease in this country and get much faster to that place.” And “we can’t be cavalier about the fact that we’re losing so many lives from this right now.”

Co-host Tony Dokoupil asked, “From a public health, scientific perspective, where — when do we shift into recovery mode and out of crisis mode?”

Walensky responded, “We all want to get there. We’re not where we want to be right now. But what I’ll say is we have 1,100 deaths every day, still. And we can’t be cavalier about the fact that we’re losing so many lives from this right now.”

Co-host Gayle King then asked, “Shouldn’t the messaging be, though, Rochelle, as we sit here, as we’re going into year two, people think we’re waiting for you to sound the trumpet saying it’s all clear, we’re not really going to get an all clear, are we? We just have to face the fact that we’re going to have to live with this, true?”

Walensky answered, “I think that that’s probably true. But I would say is, we have a lot of control and power to do that as we come together, as we get vaccinated, as we do those prevention things that work to protect one another and ourselves and our family, we can bring down the amount of disease in this country and get much faster to that place.

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/12/14/walensky-on-getting-out-of-covid-crisis-mode-were-not-where-we-want-to-be-and-cant-be-cavalier-about-current-death-count/

Texas Border Police Detective Arrested for Allegedly Harboring Migrants

EAGLE PASS, Texas — Federal law enforcement officials arrested an Eagle Pass, Texas, police detective on charges related to her alleged participation in a conspiracy to harbor migrants. FBI agents executed search and arrest warrants at the home of the detective.

The police detective, 51-year-old Hazel “Sandra” Eileen Diaz, is one of three defendants named in the criminal indictment in connection with the harboring of illegal immigrants in the small border city, a prepared statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office revealed.

Breitbart Texas was present as a special operations unit from the San Antonio Federal Bureau of Investigations carried out the arrest. Streets surrounding the residence were blocked off by Texas Department of Safety Highway Patrol Troopers while FBI agents made arrests and conducted the search operation.

Prosecutors charged Diaz in a superseding indictment accusing her of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants.

The case began in August when federal authorities raided multiple homes in Eagle Pass that were allegedly being used as human smuggling stash houses. The houses reportedly belonged to Detective Diaz, the local newspaper, Eagle Pass News-Leader reported. During those raids, authorities arrested two individuals. The Eagle Pass Police Department suspended Diaz a short time later.

Federal prosecutors revealed that the two individuals arrested in those raids were Tomas Alejandro Mendez, 26, and Paola Nikole Cazares, 20. Both Mendez and Cazares, who have been in custody since their August arrest, are also named in the indictment against Diaz

As Breitbart Texas reported, Eagle Pass has become one of the busiest human smuggling corridors into Texas from Mexico. Cartel-connected human smuggling organizations have been able to profit vastly during the ongoing border crisis.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Ashley C. Hoff and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs made the announcement. The FBI, with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, is investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kam is prosecuting the case. Detective Diaz is expected to appear in federal court in Del Rio, Texas, on Wednesday for an initial hearing before United States Magistrate Judge Collis White.

Eagle Pass is currently experiencing a surge in migrant crossings and is located within the Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector. The sector reports the second-highest level of illegal border crossings on the southwest border. As reported by Breitbart Texas, residents of the community are growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of a federal response to the border crisis.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/12/15/texas-border-police-detective-arrested-for-allegedly-harboring-migrants/

Woman Pleads Guilty to Funneling Cartel Money Through Ohio Banks

A female Mexican national pleaded guilty to laundering large quantities of cash through U.S. banks in Ohio for one of the most violent drug cartels.

This week, Susana Ramirez Orozco, pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering in a U.S. federal court in California. The woman is a Mexican national legally able travel to the U.S. before her arrest last summer. Ramirez is expected to be sentenced in March. The case was first reported by Cleveland.com.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. Central District of California, Ramirez spent several years building a network of money laundering brokers who would wire funds from various U.S. cities to Mexico for Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG). An undercover agent infiltrated the network and, through the use of informants, set up meetings and interacted with Ramirez and her bosses in Mexico.

The agent worked to set up multiple cash contracts where he would wire cartel cash through a U.S. bank in exchange for a commission. Ramirez and others in her organization claimed to have several brokers who offered the same services. One of Ramirez’s superiors, Raul Lanegra, claimed to work directly with the leader of CJNG Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes and to receive approximately $417 million in payment for moving billions of the cartel’s money through government contracts.

The agent was given a series of contracts that had her moving funds from Ohio and New York to Mexico using bank accounts set up by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Eventually, the agent was able to lure Orozco to Ohio where authorities arrested her during the summer. Since then, the woman remained in federal custody.

As Breitbart Texas has reported, CJNG is one of the main perpetrators of violence throughout Mexico. The criminal organization clashes with various rivals driving up the violence in once-peaceful resort sites like Cancun, Baja California, and Central Mexico. As part of their tactics in Mexico, CJNG implements the use of IEDs, car bombs, and has even weaponized drones to drop explosives.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/12/15/woman-pleads-guilty-to-funneling-cartel-money-through-ohio-banks/

Japanese study cites under 20s have a 7x higher mortality risk from the #Pfizer vaccine than the Covid virus it is supposed to save them from.

https://www.npojip.org/english/MedCheck/Med%20Check%20Tip-20-2021-08&12.pdf

https://twitter.com/mortweaz/status/1470528208156172297

If you’re not on a government watch list by now you should ashamed of yourself

I don’t have the patience to dig around and find out who the Institute for Strategic Dialogue is (isdglobal.org), but I recognize their perspective and “solutions.” (Clearly The Trillions are behind them.) Even if you’re busy, check out this executive summary of their views of antivaxxers and their implied solutions. Many of you are nasty, dangerous agents of illness, misinformation and violence. 🙄 Oh, and I forgot: you’re racists too.

Beyond its immediate public health impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic

has driven a spectrum of harmful activity both online and offline. One of the most prominent examples of this has been what the World Health Organization has dubbed the ‘infodemic’,1 the mass proliferation of false and misleading information which has led to mistrust in health authorities and undermined the public health response. The spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories has helped fuel anti-vaccine narratives which

have become well established globally over a number of decades,2 and

has manifested in targeted conspiracy theories which have advanced anti- minority hatred.3 Meanwhile, extremist movements have also capitalised on the pandemic, using it as an opportunity to mobilise and call for action.4

Beyond the promotion of disinformation and conspiracy theories, and the advancement of existing violent extremist movements, the pandemic has also ignited protest movements globally. Cohorts of activists have taken to the streets in response to what they see as authoritarian overreach by governments in their response to the pandemic. While concerns about government overreach are reasonable during a pandemic which has seen a range of authoritarian responses globally, individuals associated with these movements have also been involved in a range of harmful activity, including attempted terrorist attacks and killings.

To better understand the nature of these movements ISD has developed a series of briefings analysing the make-up and activities of anti-lockdown activists across Europe and North America. Importantly, this work compares these phenomena across borders, identifying commonalities between these contexts. Our analysis identifies how mobilisation against COVID restrictions has brought together a broad-church of activists, with right-wing extremists rubbing shoulders with New Age spiritualists and alternative health practitioners.

Although there is a lack of ideological coherence across these movements, we have found that across countries they are consistently engaged in harmful activity of different types, including the amplification of disinformation, harassment, hate speech, and threats of violence. This research also demonstrates how the individuals and groups involved in this activity often extend beyond more established extremist movements. By exploring the eclectic, and wide ranging nature of these communities, we frame the challenge in terms of increasingly hybrid threats to public safety, which will require a new generation of responses, going beyond current counter-extremism policy paradigms.

This overview paper introduces these briefings, presents key trends in anti-lockdown activism from across country contexts and explores the policy implications of these trends.

www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Between-Conspiracy-and-Extremism_A-long-COVID-threat_Introductory-Paper.pdf

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/if-youre-not-on-a-government-watch-list-by-now-you-should-ashamed-of-yourself/

Kellogg’s commits to phase out use of wheat, oat products produced with glyphosate by 2025

Kellogg’s has pledged to stop using wheat and oat products that contain glyphosate by the year 2025 in a move that it says is a part of an ongoing commitment to reducing pesticide use and “sustainable agriculture.” The company, which is behind popular cereals such as Raisin Bran, Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes, garnered widespread applause for the move.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the country’s most popular herbicide, Bayer-Monsanto’s roundup. It is often used by farmers to control unwanted plants and dry out crops to facilitate harvesting.

The company claims that the chemical’s use is already somewhat limited in the production of its food, being reserved for occasions when crops need to be harvested quickly due to weather challenges. However, the company said they are aware that some consumers have concerns about its use.

In a statement, Kellogg’s said: “Although this practice is not widespread in our wheat and oat supply chains, we are working with our suppliers to phase out using glyphosate as a pre-harvest drying agent in our wheat and oat supply chain in our major markets, including the US, by the end of 2025.”

The company is working with farmers on phasing out the use of glyphosate for drying out crops in countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Australia and Mexico.

Kellogg’s also plans to expand its grower survey in order to collect better data on pesticide use and make investments in new pesticide reduction efforts that can benefit farmers as well as the environment.

Residues of glyphosate have been found in Kellogg’s cereals such as Fruit Loops, along with popular food products from other companies, such as Nature Valley granola bars and General Mills Cheerios cereal in varying amounts. Although the detected amounts are often below the tolerance levels set by the EPA of 0.1 to 310 parts per million, many consumers are nevertheless alarmed by any trace of glyphosate in the foods and drinks they consume.

Moreover, as more lawsuits make headlines related to glyphosate’s link to cancer, more and more consumers are seeking out products that advertise themselves as being free from chemicals and bear non-glyphosate certifications.

Lawsuits against Bayer, who purchased Monsanto in 2018, continue to be filed, and many are resulting in huge damage awards related to cancer claims. Bayer, for its part denies that glyphosate causes cancer and is appealing many of these multimillion-dollar verdicts.

https://www.cracknewz.com/2021/12/kelloggs-commits-to-phase-out-use-of.html

Tipping Point - Darren Beattie - Julian Assange Is One Step Closer to Extradition

Rick Grenell helped Pompeo sandbag Assange

https://rumble.com/vqpkoo-tipping-point-darren-beattie-julian-assange-is-one-step-closer-to-extraditi.html

Rumble is threatening to sue us over a tweet.

Go ahead, show everyone who you really are.

https://twitter.com/OdyseeTeam/status/1469001301476339713

Iran: Israel root cause of all troubles in Middle East, says foreign minister

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has said that Israel is the root cause of all the problems affecting the Middle East, PressTV has reported. Abdollahian also took aim at the few Arab states that have normalised relations with the occupation state for going against the interests of the Muslim Ummah.

The minister made his comments yesterday during a telephone conversation with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. He congratulated Haniyeh on the 34th anniversary of the movement's establishment. "Hamas is among the pioneers of the Islamic resistance front for the liberation of Holy Al-Quds [Jerusalem]," he pointed out, "and plays a pivotal role in restoring the historical rights of Palestinians."

Referring to the British government's recent plans to proscribe Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organisation, the Iranian diplomat described the move as politically-motivated against the Palestinian people.

Haniyeh expressed his appreciation of Tehran's continued support for the Palestinians and praised the late Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020. "We remember General Soleimani with honour and we appreciate the Islamic Republic of Iran's support for the Palestinian cause and resistance all through the years following the victory of the Islamic Revolution," said the former Palestinian prime minister.

The Hamas official also condemned the UAE for its normalisation with Israel and the historic visit by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to Abu Dhabi this week. "We did not expect Arab countries to embrace Zionist assassins, whose hands are stained with the blood of the Palestinian people," Haniyeh explained.

It has been reported that Bennett's talks with de facto UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed and other Emirati officials focused on mutual security concerns regarding Iran.

Reacting to Bennett's visit, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday, "The acceptance of the prime minister of the illegitimate regime, which has been the cause of insecurity, tension and incitement to war in the Arab and Islamic countries for more than 70 years, will be recorded in the historical memory of the Palestinian people, the people of the region and all freedom fighters."

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211215-iran-israel-root-cause-of-all-troubles-in-middle-east-says-foreign-minister/

Travelers From US, UK sent to quarantine camps in Hong Kong

Hong Kong businessman Sam Wong, 60, has scrapped his holiday plans.

An executive director at China Renewable Energy, Wong was booked to fly to the U.S. to spend Christmas with his two children who are studying there. He hasn’t seen them in six months. One week before his flight, the Hong Kong government declared that travelers returning from the U.S. would have to spend a week of quarantine in spartan isolation camps, before serving out another 14 days in a hotel room they pay for themselves. Travelers from the U.K. face the same prospect, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

The escalation in what were already some of the world’s strictest travel curbs, along with the threat of omicron, difficulties in getting a hotel room and other uncertainties, robbed Wong of his holiday spirit.

“It’s stressful and frustrating to travel,” he said. “My children will have to spend Christmas on their own.”

The new policy, which took effect Monday, is being applied to the U.S. because city authorities found a single traveler with the omicron variant who had flown in from Los Angeles on Dec. 7.

Given the growing number of omicron cases, more countries could well be shifted to the same system, sparking chaos during the busiest travel season as families try to reunite for the holidays.

At a time when the world is progressing in reopening efforts, Hong Kong is pushing in the other direction. The strategy, which has choked off travel to a city once known for its connectedness, is adding to concern in the business community that a COVID-Zero policy even stricter than in parts of mainland China is causing long-term damage to Hong Kong’s status as a financial center.

“It isolates Hong Kong even further as the rest of the world is getting back to business,” Tara Joseph, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, wrote in a text message.

International business groups have warned that draconian quarantine rules jeopardize the city’s competitiveness and may lead companies to move to places like Singapore that have abandoned efforts to eliminate the virus by locking out most of the world.

“Hong Kong had been known as a connected city — it advertised being Asia’s World City,” Joseph said. “That is clearly no longer the case.”

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/12/travelers-from-us-uk-sent-to-quarantine-camps-in-hong-kong/

Senate approves sweeping defense bill

The Senate on Wednesday passed a sweeping defense policy bill on an 89-10 vote, ending a weeks-long standoff that had stalled work on the legislation.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets spending top lines and policy for the Pentagon, passed the House last week and now goes to President Biden’s desk, where he’s expected to sign it.

“For the past six years, Congress worked on a bipartisan basis to pass an annual defense authorization act without fail. … With so many priorities to balance, I thank my colleagues for working hard over these last few months, both in committee and off the floor, to get NDAA done,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

The $768.2 billion bill provides $740 billion for the Department of Defense. Both chambers agreed to add $25 billion more than what President Biden requested for fiscal 2022 for the defense budget.

It also includes $27.8 billion for defense-related activities in the Department of Energy and another $378 million for other defense-related activities.

The defense bill also includes a major overhaul of how the military prosecutes certain crimes, including military sexual assault. The bill strips commanders of most of their authority, but they would still be allowed to conduct trials, pick jury members, approve witnesses and grant immunity.

The changes were not enough for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who had been pressing to completely remove commanders from the chain of command in these instances and let independent military prosecutors handle them.

Gillibrand has called for a vote on her original proposal, arguing that the authority the commander still has under the NDAA does not bring about true independence.

As part of the final agreement, lawmakers dropped a provision from the bill that would have required women to register for the selective service. The provision had garnered pushback from some Republicans, who didn’t want to require women to register, while some progressives pushed for ending the draft altogether.

The bill also does not include a deal to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Iraq War authorizations worked out by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.). A failure to reach a larger agreement on the amendments that would be considered to the legislation torpedoed the Iraq War provisions. The setback effectively punts the issue to 2022, even though the Kaine-Young deal had enough support to get past a filibuster.

An effort to impose sanctions related to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline also didn’t get into the bill. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) had been expected to get an amendment vote, despite opposition from the administration, but the amendment deal was blocked by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who wanted his own proposal in the legislation.

The Senate previously passed bipartisan legislation from Rubio on banning imports from China’s Xinjiang region, where administration officials have accused the government of carrying out genocide against the predominately Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority. But Rubio wanted to get his bill into the defense legislation as an amendment or to force action in the House where it had languished for months.

Though Rubio didn’t work out a deal on his legislation in time for breaking the stalemate on the defense bill, he and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) announced this week that they had cut an agreement.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/585920-senate-approves-sweeping-defense-bill

Israeli tech exits jump 520% to whopping $82.4b in 2021, hit new records

171 M&As and IPOs recorded so far this year, with significant local acquisition activity, says new PwC report

Israel’s tech firms saw exits jump an astonishing 520 percent in 2021 to an unprecedented $81.2 billion in value, shattering all previous funding records and up from $15.4 billion in 2020, according to an annual tech exits report published Wednesday by consultants PwC Israel. Exits are defined as merger and acquisition deals or initial public offerings (IPO) of shares.

The number of tech exits has grown in 2021 so far to 171 deals, compared to 60 last year, including 99 acquisitions totaling $11.5 billion in value, and 72 IPOs (including SPAC — special purpose acquisition companies — mergers), 45 of which were done on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

(IPO processes are long and complicated, and companies have to open their books to prospective investors and regulators and meet minimum revenue and asset requirements. With SPACs, companies can merge with firms that are already listed publicly, allowing them to quickly enter stock exchanges.)

The PwC report recorded transactions between January and mid-December 2021. A separate report released earlier this week by Start-Up Nation Central detailed a record year for funding for Israeli tech firms, with an unprecedented $25 billion in investments from January through November, and 33 companies entering the unicorn club of private firms valued at over $1 billion.

The numbers “are tremendous,” said Yaron Weizenbluth, partner and head of the high-tech cluster at PwC Israel. “Last year was the end of the previous decade and it was the best year on record [for the tech sector]. It was the year of COVID-19, and we started seeing this upward trend in the later quarters of 2020 [that pointed to a strong 2021]. We were optimistic, but to be honest, we couldn’t have expected 2021 to be so unbelievable.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-tech-exits-jump-520-to-whopping-82-4b-in-2021-report/

As trial of Harvard prof opens, Biden faces pressure to end Trump program to catch Chinese spies

Campaign to kill Justice Department’s "China Initiative" intensifies despite Beijing’s continuing espionage activities.

As a high-profile Harvard professor stands trial for hiding his ties to the Chinese government, the Biden administration is coming under intense pressure from a loose coalition of lawmakers, nonprofits, and academics to abandon the so-called China Initiative, a Justice Department effort to preserve America's technological edge by thwarting Chinese spies.

Launched by the Trump administration in 2018 and continued so far by its successor, the China Initiative is designed specifically to identify and prosecute those engaged in hacking, stealing trade secrets, and conducting economic espionage for the Chinese government on U.S. soil. The program has led to several arrests and convictions, including, for example:

Last month, a federal jury convicted Yanjun Xu, deputy division director of China's Sixth Bureau of the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, for attempting to steal trade secrets and commit economic espionage.

In July, three officers in China's Ministry of State Security were charged with participating in a global computer intrusion campaign targeting infectious disease research.

In April, a PhD chemist and U.S. citizen from Michigan was convicted of wire fraud, economic espionage, conspiracy to commit trade secret theft, and possession of stolen trade secrets to help set up a new company in China.

Charles Lieber, a renowned nanotechnology professor who chaired Harvard's Chemistry Department, was arrested and charged nearly two years ago. Federal prosecutors allege he lied about his involvement in China's Thousand Talents Plan, a Chinese government initiative meant to recruit experts in science and technology, and about becoming a "strategic scientist" at Wuhan University of Technology.

Lieber's trial, which began Tuesday, may help determine the fate of the China Initiative.

"It may have a real impact on the future of these cases being brought under the China Initiative," Derek Adams, a partner at the Potomac Law Group, told the Harvard Crimson. "If Lieber ends up being found not guilty on this one, then I think it's just going to increase the pressure of some folks in Congress to shut down the initiative entirely."

The Justice Department's push to shut down Chinese espionage activities seems to have deterred at least some potential spies. More than 1,000 researchers who had hidden their affiliation with the Chinese military fled the United States last summer, according to the department.

However, critics argue any successes are the exception to the rule and part of a witch hunt that's having a chilling effect on scientific research.

Activists are calling for the Biden administration to end the China Initiative, arguing it targets people of Asian descent with racial profiling. These critics also claim the program is mainly focused on innocent academic researchers and has largely yielded charges of fraud — such as lying about links to Chinese entities or accepting foreign money — as opposed to concrete espionage.

https://justthenews.com/government/security/biden-admin-under-pressure-end-trump-program-catch-chinese-spies

'Entire Muslim world' will recognize Israel if it withdraws to 67' line

The Saudi representative to the UN said the "entire Muslim world" will recognize Israel if it withdraws to the Green Line.

The "entire Muslim world" will normalize relations with Israel once it withdraws to the '67 boundary, Saudi Arabia's representative to the United Nations, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, said in an interview with Arab News on Sunday.

"The official and latest Saudi position is that we are prepared to normalize relations with Israel as soon as Israel implements the elements of the Saudi peace initiative that was presented in 2002," said the Saudi representative.

The initiative calls for a return to the boundaries marked by the Green Line up until 1967 and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. "As soon as that happens," said Al-Mouallimi, "not only Saudi Arabia, but the entire Muslim world, all 57 countries of the [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] (OIC), would follow suit in terms of recognizing the State of Israel and establishing relations with her."

The interviewer also asked what Saudi Arabia expected to change with its current policy towards Israel, considering that "it has achieved nothing in decades."

The Saudi representative responded that "Time does not change right or wrong."

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/entire-muslim-world-will-recognize-israel-if-it-withdraws-to-67-line-688794

Russia And Israel – A Double-Standard In International Condemnation

Over the past month, in a break from its usual focus on COVID-19, the Western mainstream media has dedicated a sizeable amount of coverage to unverified claims by unnamed US intelligence officials that the Russian Federation is planning an imminent military invasion of its western neighbour Ukraine – under the rule of the successive US-EU friendly governments of Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky since 2014, when the CIA-orchestrated Euromaidan colour revolution toppled the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych, following his November 2013 decision to suspend an EU trade deal in favour of pursuing closer ties with Moscow.

The coverage, which comes at a time of increased tensions in Eastern Europe amidst a build-up of refugees on the Belarus-Poland border being labelled as an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko to destabilise the European Union, has resulted in widespread condemnation of Moscow by the Western media and political establishment, culminating in the G7 issuing a statement on Saturday threatening massive sanctions should Russia make any incursion into Ukraine – Russia having been a former member of the then-G8 until the successful reunification of the historically Russian peninsula of Crimea with the rest of the country in 2014, the pretext for which being the dangerously high anti-Russian sentiment of the newly-formed Western-backed Poroshenko government, resulted in Moscow’s suspension from the forum, with a later decision being made by the Kremlin in 2017 to formally leave the group altogether.

This widespread condemnation of Russia by the Western establishment however, for claims that Moscow itself has denied, is in stark contrast to the silence of mainstream media pundits and politicians in response to Israel’s open threats to carry out a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities amidst the current Vienna talks regarding the Iran nuclear deal, with Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz announcing less than 24 hours prior to the G7’s Russia statement that he had consulted with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding such a move – one that in a similar vein to any possible Russian incursion into Ukraine, would immediately result in a devastating regional conflict, a conflict that could easily spiral into a full-blown war between East and West.

To understand this wildly-differing approach to both Moscow and Tel Aviv by the Western political and media establishment, one must look at the wider geopolitical relationship between the US-NATO hegemony and both Russia and Israel.

Formed in 1948, in line with the 1917 UK-authored Balfour Declaration, which called for the establishment of a Zionist State in the Middle East, Israel has always received military, financial and political support from the United States and its allies – culminating in a US-led coalition invading Iraq on behalf of Israel in 2003, which in turn would lead to Washington and its allies launching a regime-change operation against neighbouring Syria in 2011, with Damascus, like Baghdad, also being a long-time opponent of the Zionist State.

Russia on the other hand, and in particular since the election of Vladimir Putin as President in 2000, has been diametrically opposed to this US-NATO foreign policy carried out in line with Israeli interests – with a Russian military intervention on behalf of the Syrian government in 2015 perhaps playing the most decisive role in ensuring the Presidency of Bashar al-Assad has remained in place despite the decade-long attempt to remove his leadership via a US and Israeli-backed colour revolution.

The aforementioned 2014 reunification of Russia and Crimea also put a halt to the Neocon aim of establishing a US Naval base in the key strategic Crimean port of Sevastopol – a plan that would have surely come to fruition had Crimea remained under the pro-Western rule of the current Kiev administration.

Hence, it is in this successful countering of US-NATO imperialism that Russia finds itself demonised by the West and the target of a current smear campaign accusing Moscow of planning to start a global conflict via a military intervention in Ukraine – in stark contrast to the media silence and tacit political support offered to US-ally Israel in response to its open intentions of carrying out the very same action in Iran.

https://southfront.org/russia-and-israel-a-double-standard-in-international-condemnation/

Austria to Impose 1 year Prison Sentences on The Unvaccinated

According to reports, unvaccinated citizens in Austria could face prison time for failing to comply with the Covid-19 vaccine mandate currently in place.

Susanne Fürst of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), which voted against the amendment to an administrative law, warned that a year’s imprisonment could be introduced to punish the unvaccinated.

The amendment raises fines for failing to comply with the mandate from €726 (£617/$818) to €2,000 (£1,701/$2,255), whilst also increasing prison time for those who refuse to pay from four weeks up to a year.

Not only would Austrians who fail to comply with the vaccine mandate in February face fines of up to €7,200 (£6133), those who fail to pay would face a 12-month prison sentence.

The amendment also requires people who are jailed to pay for their own imprisonment.

The amendment states: “If detention is carried out by the courts, the associated costs shall be recovered by the courts from the obligated party in accordance with the provisions existing for the recovery of the costs of enforcing judicial penalties.”

Despite critics such as Fürst protesting that the amendment could be used to impose harsh punishments to further punish the unvaccinated, the measures were approved anyway.

Just as this was announced, then Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg stated that he would hit the unvaccinated with “penalties” for refusing to get vaccinated, while adding that they should “suffer.”

https://dailyexpose.uk/2021/12/15/austria-to-impose-1-year-prison-sentences-on-the-unvaccinated/

Apple Abandoning Privacy-Busting Child Porn 'CSAM' Scanner for iPhone

No one but the dregs of humanity is in favor of child porn, but Apple has apparently abandoned its plan to build “CSAM” scanning software into its mobile operating systems for iPhone and iPad.

“While nobody less awful than Jeffrey Epstein wants to protect predators, more than a few are wondering what has happened to the world’s most valuable company’s commitment to user privacy,” I wrote back in August when the Cupertino tech giant announced its privacy-busting feature. But a new report indicates that Apple has listened to customer pushback.

AppleInsider reported on Wednesday that the company has in the last few days “removed all signs of its CSAM initiative from the Child Safety webpage on its website.”

That’s a good indication that operating system-level photo scanning will not be coming to a future update to iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 as Apple had promised last summer.

The good parts of Apple’s Child Safety feature set will live on, including on-device detection of sexual materials on the phones of minor children. The data doesn’t go anywhere and isn’t seen by anyone. The detection system merely alerts kids how they can get help.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2021/12/15/apple-abandoning-privacy-busting-child-porn-csam-scanner-for-iphone-n1541502

Southeast Texas operation targeting violent fugitives leads to 351 arrests, seizure of more than $4.3 million

92 of the individuals arrested during the operation were documented gang members

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Corpus Christi, and various other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies recently announced the results of “Operation Triple Beam – Third Coast”, an annual multi-agency law enforcement operation led by the Gulf Coast Violent Offender Task Force.

The operation, which ran from April 7 – Sept. 30, targeted violent fugitives including documented gang members and other firearms-related offenders in Corpus Christi and surrounding areas.

This year’s operation resulted 351 arrests, including the arrest of 92 documented gang members, and the seizure of 86 firearms, 32.971 kilograms of narcotics and more than $4.3 million in U.S. currency.

351 overall arrests

92 gang members arrested

86 firearms seized

32.971 kilograms of narcotics seized

$4,360,968 in U.S. currency seized

Among the notable arrests included 11 individuals wanted for homicide/capital murder, 74 for assault, 68 for weapons offenses, 21 for robbery, 135 for drug offenses, 28 for burglary, 29 for sex offenses, and five for arson.

“The number one priority for all law enforcement agencies is to keep the public safe,” said Brad Scott, assistant special agent in charge of HSI Corpus Christi. “By coming together in a common mission with our law enforcement partners in the Gulf Coast Violent Offender Task Force to achieve this goal, we are able to pool our resources and more efficiently and effectively remove threats to public safety from the community.”

“As violent crime and gang violence continue to rise and plague our cities and counties, those of us in the law enforcement community must be ready and willing to engage,” said U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Texas T. Michael O’Connor. “The goal of Operation Triple Beam is to foster safer communities by providing immediate relief from gang-related violence by investigating and arresting fugitive gang members and the criminal organizations responsible for committing violent crimes. I am extremely proud of all our law enforcement partners who have worked so diligently these past several months.”

Participating agencies in Operation Triple Beam included: USMS; HSI Corpus Christi; Corpus Christi Police Department; Corpus Christi Independent School District Police; Nueces County Sheriff’s Office; Texas Department of Public Safety; Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Office of Inspector General; Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

HSI is a directorate of ICE and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 special agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/southeast-texas-operation-targeting-violent-fugitives-leads-351-arrests-seizure-more

Former Management Consulting Firm Partner Pleads Guilty To Insider Trading

Defendant Was a Lead Consulting Firm Partner Advising an Investment Bank on Its Acquisition of GreenSky, Inc.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-management-consulting-firm-partner-pleads-guilty-insider-trading

Former Analyst Pleads Guilty To Securities Fraud For Committing Insider Trading By Front-Running Employer’s Pending Trades

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-analyst-pleads-guilty-securities-fraud-committing-insider-trading-front-running