US Set To Send Ukraine Patriot Missiles In Major Escalation

CNN's chief Pentagon correspondent is reporting the breaking news based on multiple anonymous US defense officials - including a senor Biden administration official - that the White House is currently finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine.

"The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine that could be announced as soon as this week, according to two US officials and a senior administration official," CNN writes. "The three officials told CNN that approval is expected."

If approved, this could be a tipping point in the conflict leading to direct confrontation between nuclear-armed powers given transfer of Patriots would mark the longest-range missiles sent to Ukraine thus far.

Washington has so far been reluctant, despite Kiev officials since nearly the start of the invasion making repeat pleas for the US to help "close the sky" - as President Zelensky many months ago urged Congress.

As The Guardian reviewed of the dangers involved in sending the Patriot:

"Long sought by the Ukrainians, the missiles have a range of up to 300km, but so far the US and its allies, including the UK, have declined to supply them because they could be used to hit targets inside Russia. Supplying them would help "bring the war to an end as soon as possible", Johnson said.

Patriots have long been deployed in neighboring Poland, but Ukrainian leaders have been persistent in requesting them on their own soil amid a major uptick in recent Russian aerial attacks. Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson this week urged in a Wall Street Journal op-ed for the West to get serious about supplying Patriots and other anti-air systems, even including military aircraft.

It's likely to take some time to deploy the Patriots, given Ukrainians are expected to be trained on operating the sophisticated systems at the US Army base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, per officials cited by CNN. In the meantime Moscow is likely to react fiercely to the news, which could result in more intense and escalatory airstrikes on Ukrainian cities, and command and control bases. Washington, for its part will likely emphasize the purely "defensive" nature of the Patriot systems.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-send-patriot-missile-systems-ukraine-huge-escalation

Don't you love it when the Government pays off a sex crime victim!

Brittany Higgins reaches confidential settlement with the Commonwealth

Brittany Higgins has reached a confidential settlement with the Commonwealth after the former political staffer's claims of sexual assault at Parliament House.

Personal injury lawyer Noor Blumer, acting for Ms Higgins, issued a brief statement on Tuesday.

"At a mediation held today, the Commonwealth and Ms Higgins settled her claims," Ms Blumer said.

"At the request of Ms Higgins, the parties have agreed that the terms of the settlement are confidential."

Earlier in December, Ms Higgins's civil action named three respondents: Senators Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, for whom Ms Higgins worked, as well as the Commonwealth.

Senator Reynolds is since believed to have been removed from the claim.

The documents set out Ms Higgins's intention to sue for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, disability discrimination, negligence, and victimisation.

At the time, the claim was expected to be worth about $3 million, including $2.5 million for future economic loss, past economic loss approaching $100,000 and general damages of $100,000.

None of those figures were mentioned on Tuesday.

"The parties welcome the fact of the settlement," Ms Blumer said.

Ms Higgins alleges she was raped in 2019 by Bruce Lehrmann inside Senator Reynolds' ministerial office, for whom they both worked as staffers.

Mr Lehrmann has consistently denied the allegation. His trial in the ACT Supreme Court was derailed by juror misconduct. Prosecutors decided not to pursue further action.

He is also considering civil actions including a Comcare claim and defamation proceedings against media outlets.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-13/brittany-higgins-settles-compensation-case-with-commonwealth/101769012

UK admits it sent troops to Ukraine

The Royal Marines took part in “discreet operations” several months into the conflict, a senior general stated

British Royal Marines conducted high-risk operations in Ukraine in April, Lieutenant General Robert Magowan wrote in the force’s official journal. Before Magowan’s admission, Russia’s claims that NATO troops were active in Ukraine had been dismissed by Western analysts and media.

Members of 45 Commando Group of the Royal Marines left Ukraine in January after evacuating the British embassy in Kiev to Poland. However, some 300 members of the elite unit were sent back into the country in April to reestablish the British mission in Kiev, before going on to conduct “other discreet operations,” Magowan wrote in the force’s magazine, according to a report by The Times on Tuesday.

These operations took place “in a hugely sensitive environment and with a high level of political and military risk,” Magowan, who formerly served as commandant general of the Royal Marines and is now deputy chief of Defense Staff at the Ministry of Defense, stated.

While Magowan did not elaborate on what kind of missions the commandos carried out, his statement marks the first time that the UK has admitted its troops conducted special operations in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense refused to confirm earlier accounts of British special forces training Ukrainian troops in Kiev in April.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the conflict in Ukraine as one between Russia and the “entire Western military machine,” and claimed in September that there are entire military units in Ukraine "under the de-facto command of Western advisers.”

Putin’s words were rejected by Western media outlets. "There is no evidence of NATO ground forces participating in Ukraine," Edward Arnold of the Royal United Services Institute think tank told the BBC at the time. "Nor of NATO commanders directing Ukrainian units on the battlefield. There is also a very low likelihood of this happening in the future as Nato seeks to mitigate escalation risks."

Magowan’s admission proves Arnold incorrect, but the UK is not the only NATO country to acknowledge the presence of its forces in Ukraine. An unnamed Pentagon official told reporters in October that an unspecified number of US troops were inspecting American arms shipments somewhere within Ukraine.

https://www.rt.com/russia/568189-uk-troops-ukraine-operations/

>>17936865

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ftx-founder-indicted-fraud-money-laundering-and-campaign-finance-offenses

Five Russian Nationals, Including Suspected FSB Officer, and Two U.S. Nationals Charged with Helping the Russian Military and Intelligence Agencies Evade Sanctions

The Defendants Conspired to Obtain Military-Grade and Dual-Use Technologies from U.S. Companies for Russia’s Defense Sector

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/five-russian-nationals-including-suspected-fsb-officer-and-two-us-nationals-charged

Hunter Biden plans legal, media blitz frustrating White House

House Republicans have pledged to investigate Hunter Biden when the party assumes control of the lower chamber of Congress in January.

Hunter Biden and his legal team are reportedly preparing a public relations and legal campaign to defend the embattled first son amid likely GOP investigations, a move that has many in the White House concerned.

The younger Biden has hired attorney Kevin Morris to help devise his public defense against allegations stemming from materials discovered on his laptop. Morris reportedly wants to take a proactive approach against near-inevitable Republican volleys and has begun to assemble a team to dig up dirt on the first son's major detractors, according to the Washington Post.

Beyond Morris, Hunter Biden has retained attorney Joshua Levy, who will mount the family's defense against accusations that familial business interests have compromised President Joe Biden, and Chris Clark, who is dealing with the ongoing Department of Justice probe into alleged tax violations and the disappearance of Hunter's firearm.

The second matter stems from a 2018 incident in which Hallie Biden, Hunter's sister-in-law, deposited the first son's gun in a dumpster behind a local grocery store but found it was missing when she went to recover it. The dumpster was in close proximity to a school, which triggered the investigation amid concerns the weapon could be used in a crime.

At the White House, however, some worry that the scandal-plagued Biden remaining in the limelight could generate blowback for the commander-in-chief. One source told the Post that "[n]o one thinks this strategy of putting Hunter Biden front and center is smart… No one, including the White House, thinks this is a smart strategy."

House Republicans have pledged to investigate Hunter Biden when the party assumes control of the lower chamber of Congress in January. President Biden, for his part, has largely dismissed GOP scrutiny of his son's activities as political and "almost comedy."

White House spokesman Ian Sams told the Post that "Congressional Republicans' politically motivated partisan attacks on the president and his family are rooted in nonsensical conspiracy theories and do nothing to address the real issues Americans care about."

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/hunter-biden-plans-legal-media-blitz-frustrating-white-house

A Royal Commission into Scott Morrison? He sold off the farm, in secret

Scott Morrison approved tens of billions in foreign takeover deals after secretly being appointed Treasurer last year, compromising Australia’s national interest. Sydney Airport, electricity giants AusNet and Spark Infrastructure. All gone.

The second half of 2021 when Morrison was secretly the treasurer was prolific on the takeover front, featuring 63% of all deals which added up to 78% of aggregate transaction value) for the year. He was literally selling off the farm, and to some notably shady foreign predators at that.

Foreign vulture funds were swooping on the ASX because share prices were bombed out in the wake of the Pandemic. The takeover frenzy share drove the value of corporate transactions from $33bn in 2020 to a record $131bn billion.

In December last year FIRB ticked off on the sale of the essential monopoly and gateway to Australia Sydney Airport after a $24bn takeover bid by a consortium of super funds led by New York private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners.

FIRB gave the green light to a consortium led by controversial US private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and the Ontario Teachers’ pension fund of Canada in 2021 to buy out energy provider Spark Infrastructure, paving the way for the $5.2 billion deal to be closed by year-end.

Then there was electricity juggernaut AusNet which fell to the tax dodgers from Brookfield in a $20bn takeover deal, signed off by FIRB.

The foreign predators have an advantage over local players in any takeover battle because they generally pay little or no corporate income tax. Brookfield is a prime case, taking private hospital group Healthscope and its 42 private hospitals, regulated and publicly subsidised assets to the tax haven of the Cayman Islands.

After the Healthscope deal, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg had approved the sale of nursing home empire Aveo to control by an entity in the tax haven of Bermuda.

Yet once Morrison became secret treasurer the deals, and the size of the deals, escalated. At the time he was ousted in the Election in May, Australia’s largest private hospitals operator Ramsay Health Care group was being sold to a “consortium of financial investors” led by US private equity giant, KKR, in a leveraged buy-out.

The $39bn takeover of Afterpay by Block Inc of the US was cleared by FIRB last November, also when Morrison was secretly Australia’s treasurer.

All this needs investigation.

https://michaelwest.com.au/a-royal-commission-into-scott-morrison-he-sold-off-the-farm-in-secret/

Founder and Creator of Bitchute Has Bank Account FROZEN in Blatant Act of THEFT AND CENSORSHIP!!!

https://www.bitchute.com/video/cMRsZfj0tOAq/

>>17937056

Open Your Eyes by Russ Francis

https://www.bitchute.com/video/Zfaa6LyXI2tc/

>>17937088

Roger Stoned is a perv from way back

The Top 3 Illegal Ballot Harvesting Cases That Should Be Prosecuted

Amid all the postmortem declarations on the right that Republicans have to get good at ballot harvesting so we can beat Democrats at their own game, there is a deafening silence on the matter of illegal ballot harvesting. The omission is as mind-boggling and offensive as a discussion of immigration that doesn’t differentiate between legal and illegal immigration. Yet in too many crucial races, the margin by which the Democrat candidate claims victory is often small enough that a timely crackdown on illegal ballot harvesting could have made the difference.

After senescent basement gimp Joe Biden somehow conjured up 81 million votes in 2020, one would have thought Republicans would get serious about this issue. But now the 2022 midterm elections have come and gone, and with them, a history- and sentiment-defying turnout for Democrats, and I am once again wondering why the matter has been left unaddressed. Especially in states with Republican-controlled state offices — how have there not been investigations, indictments, and trials of illegal ballot harvesters?

Let us first stipulate that, obviously, in every case where it appears there has been large-scale illegal ballot harvesting, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. The problem is that no one is ever brought to trial, where their guilt might be proven.

So now, in order of least to most blatant possible illegal ballot harvesting, here are the top three cases I can’t believe aren’t being prosecuted.

3: Maricopa County, 2022 Midterms

In Arizona, it is a felony to collect other people’s ballots unless the person collecting the ballot is a family member, lives in the same household, or is a caregiver. Yet not long after the 2022 Midterm Elections, a self-proclaimed grassroots group calling itself We the People AZ Alliance posted a video (below). The 8-minute compilation of surveillance camera clips shows car after car after car driving up to a ballot drop box into which the drivers deposit multiple ballots.

Some drop the ballots in one by one, some simply shove in a stack, and some fan out the ballots in front of the box and take a picture before depositing them — an alleged requirement for harvesters who are getting paid by the vote. This goes on day after day, with the earliest clip stamped Oct. 23 through Election Day. And this is only one drop box.

https://youtu.be/OUoIfDJ8fBg

Maybe there’s a perfectly reasonable, legal explanation for all these multi-voters. But we’ll never know unless there’s an investigation. And with Democrats eking out control of the Arizona governor and secretary of state offices in this election, that’s not bloody likely now.

2: Orlando, Fla.

In October — just weeks before the midterm elections — I wrote about jaw-dropping allegations of ballot harvesting in the Orlando, Fla., area:

[The Office of Election Crimes and Security] investigation was launched after Cynthia Harris, a former candidate for Orange County Commissioner, filed a sworn affidavit with the Florida Secretary of State’s office. In her affidavit, Harris described a long-standing, systemic ballot-harvesting operation in the Orlando area’s African-American communities.

As I wrote at the time, Harris’s affidavit, which she swore out in August, “served up plenty of what sure sounds like actionable information and evidence.” In an in-depth report, Just the News noted:

In her sworn affidavit, Harris identifies specific individuals who direct and act as ballot brokers and were paid to collect ballots and provides intricate details on how the system allegedly works, along with emails, receipts, video footage and other evidence.

Sounds like a slam-dunk, right? The matter was referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement… where it sits to this day. In that time, a midterm election has been conducted. How can Florida — a state that has grown crimson red in recent years — account for such inaction, allowing these alleged organized, entrenched, and felonious ballot harvesters to keep doing their thing and compromising the integrity of a major election? One would think that an expedited investigation and arrests would have been a no-brainer under those circumstances. What gives?

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2022/12/13/the-top-3-illegal-ballot-harvesting-cases-that-should-be-prosecuted-n1652922

Karine Jean-Pierre Won’t Say if Biden will Return Millions of Dollars of Campaign Donations Received From Sam Bankman-Fried

https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1602751673692487681

>>17937119

They set a date but said a motion to dismiss has to be filled by Thursday

So I'd imagine it won't see the light of day

>>17937119

Montana Law That Bars COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates In Health Care Settings Is Unconstitutional: Judge

A federal judge in Montana has ruled that parts of the state’s law preventing discrimination against individuals in health care settings based on their COVID-19 vaccination status are unconstitutional.

Republican-backed House Bill 702 was passed in 2021 by the Montana Legislature as an anti-discrimination measure and signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte in May of that same year.

The bill banned employers from mandating that employees get vaccinated or share their vaccine status through an immunity passport.

In a 41-page ruling on Dec. 9, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy stated that the law was unconstitutional as it applies to employers and employees of health care settings.

“No party questions the authority of the Montana Legislature and Governor to exercise their respective legislative or executive authority to enact or modify public health and anti-discrimination laws,” the lawsuit states. “Rather, the challenge, in this case, stems from an ostensibly purposed anti-discrimination statute and its incongruent impact on healthcare providers and patients, hospitals, nursing homes, doctor’s offices.”

Law Fails to Deal Specifically With COVID-19

State Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Department of Labor Commissioner Laurie Esau were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit goes on to state that the law passed in 2021 failed to distinguish between vaccines and did not deal specifically with COVID-19, instead encompassing “all vaccines whether for measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis, or flu.”

This, in turn, plaintiffs argue, “caused critical concerns for health care providers whether hospitals, doctor’s offices or other medical facilities by limiting the ability of such providers to know the vaccination status of patients and employees.”

Plaintiffs also argue that the law “preemptively precludes health care providers and other employers from knowing the vaccination status of employees or patients if the employee or patient refuses to answer any inquiry about vaccination status or immunity passports.”

“That situation, for any number of reasons, creates untoward problems for healthcare providers of any description in trying to protect the environment where services to patients are rendered and to prevent the spread of diseases,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit argues that the law as it pertains to health care settings violated a string of laws.

In his ruling on Friday, Molloy said that plaintiffs had successfully argued that the law violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulations.

Specifically, he said, plaintiffs had successfully argued that the law was preempted by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act which requires employers to consider accommodation to create a safe work environment for workers, including employees who are immunocompromised.

‘A Win for All Montanans’

“Deprived by law of the ability to require vaccination or immunity status of an employee, a health care employer is not able to properly consider possible reasonable accommodations if an employee asks to limit his or her exposure to unvaccinated individuals,” wrote Molloy, a Clinton appointee.

The judge further noted that HB 702 “removes an essential tool from the health care provider’s toolbox to stop or minimize the risk of spreading vaccine-preventable disease.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/montana-law-bars-covid-19-vaccine-mandates-health-care-settings-unconstitutional-judge

NYPD Evidence Warehouse Erupts In Flames

Local media ABC7 New York reported that the warehouse also housed "evidence."

The building is one of five warehouses where the NYPD stores vehicles that are confiscated. They also use the warehouse to store evidence that is too large to fit in normal storage areas.

Social media is a buzz with footage of a massive fire at a waterfront warehouse used by the New York City Police Department.

Local news FOX 5 New York said the Erie Basin Auto Pound warehouse is located in Brooklyn. The NYPD said a vehicle caught fire and spread throughout the facility.

First responders arrived at the auto pound around 1030 ET. The fire is still raging two hours later. There are more than 140 firefighters at the scene.

Here's footage of the fire uploaded on Twitter:

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/massive-fire-rips-through-nypd-auto-yard