5 May, 2023 19:04

Australian PM ‘frustrated’ over ongoing imprisonment of Assange

Anthony Albanese has opposed the persecution of the WikiLeaks founder, but refused to ask the US to release him

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared that “there is nothing to be served” by keeping WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange behind bars. He claimedhe is working behind the scenes with Washington to find a solution to the case, but described the process as “frustrating.”

“This needs to be brought to a conclusion,” Albanese told Australia’s ABC broadcaster from London on Thursday. “It needs to be worked though. We’re working through diplomatic channels, we’re making very clear what our position is on Mr. Assange’s case.”

Assange, an Australian citizen, was arrested in London in 2019 after Ecuador revoked his asylum status and allowed police officers to remove him from the country’s embassy in the British capital. He is currently held in Belmarsh Prison, where his legal team is fighting against his extradition to the US. American authorities have hit Assange with 17 charges under the Espionage Act, which can potentially carry the death penalty.

The charges stem from his publication of classified material obtained by whistleblowers. Most prominent among these was Chelsea Manning, who in 2010 gave WikiLeaks classified materials alleging US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although Assange did not personally hack these materials, he was still charged for his role in publishing them.

Albanese has repeatedly condemned Assange’s detention, but has rebuffed demands from the journalist’s family to make the issue of extradition “non-negotiable” with the US. He declined to say on Thursday whether he would raise the topic with US President Joe Biden during a meeting of ‘Quad’ leaders in Australia next month, explaining that “the way diplomacy works is probably not to forecast the discussions that you will have or have had with leaders of other nations.”

“I know it's frustrating. I share the frustration. I can't do more than make very clear what my position is,” he told ABC.

Assange’s extradition was approved last summer by then-home secretary Priti Patel. However, the WikiLeaks founder’s lawyers are currently appealing that decision, arguing that his health and mental state are deteriorating, andextraditing him to a maximum-security US prison would be tantamout to torture.

https://www.rt.com/news/575862-albanese-australia-assange-case/

US to Control Land Sales to Foreigners near 8 Military Bases

5 May 2023

Associated Press | By Margaret Stafford , Tara Copp and Fatima Hussein

WASHINGTON — Foreign citizens and companies would need U.S. government approval to buy property within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of eight military bases, under a proposed rule change that follows a Chinese firm’s attempt to build a plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.

The Treasury Department's Office of Investment Security is set to propose the rule on Friday. The rule would give expanded powers to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which screens business deals between U.S. firms and foreign investors and can block sales or force the parties to change the terms of an agreement to protect national security.

Controversy arose over plans by the Fufeng Group to build a $700 million wet corn milling plant about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which houses air and space operations. As opposition to the project grew, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, all Republicans, raised questions about the security risks and asked the federal government last July for an expedited review.

CFIUS told Fufeng in September that it was reviewing the proposal and eventually concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to stop the investment. The plans were eventually dropped after the Air Force said the plant would pose a significant threat to national security.

The new rule would affect Grand Forks and seven other bases, including three that are tied to the B-21 Raider, the nation’s future stealth bomber. The Pentagon has taken great pains to protect its new, most-advanced bomber from spying by China. The bomber will carry nuclear weapons and be able to fly manned and unmanned missions.

Six bombers are in various stages of production at Air Force Plant 42, located in Palmdale, California, while the two other bases will serve as future homes for the 100-aircraft stealth bomber fleet: Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.

Also on the list were Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, both training bases. The others selected for greater protection are the Iowa National Guard Joint Force Headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, and Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona.

The locations were selected for a variety of reasons, including the sensitivity of either current or future missions that would be based there, if they were near special use airspace, where military operations would be conducted or whether they were near military training routes, said a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

CFIUS, a committee whose members come from the State, Justice, Energy and Commerce departments among others, already had the power to block property sales within 100 miles of other military bases under a 2018 law. Hoeven said the CFIUS process for reviewing proposed projects needed to be updated.

"Accordingly, China’s investments in the U.S. need to be carefully scrutinized, particularly for facilities like the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is a key national security asset that serves as the lead for all Air Force Global Hawk intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations and has a growing role in U.S. space operations,” he said.

In February, Andrew Hunter, an assistant secretary of the Air Force, said in a letter to North Dakota officials that the military considered the project a security risk but did not elaborate on the kinds of risks Fufeng's project would pose.

The letter prompted Grand Forks officials, who had initially welcomed the milling plant as an economic boon for the region, to withdraw support by denying building permits and refusing to connect the 370-acre (150-hectare) site to public infrastructure.

Fufeng makes products for animal nutrition, the food and beverage industry, pharmaceuticals, health and wellness, oil and gas, and others industries. It’s a leading producer of xanthan gum. It denied that the plant would be used for espionage.

Lawmakers have also called for a review of foreign investments in agricultural lands. Earlier this year, Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced legislation aimed at preventing China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from acquiring U.S. farmland.

“Countries like China who want to undermine America’s status as the world’s leading economic superpower have no business owning property on our own soil — especially near our military bases," Tester said in a statement Thursday.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/05/05/us-control-land-sales-foreigners-near-8-military-bases.html

5 May, 2023 20:32

Liberal university urged to fire fake Native American professor

Anthropology lecturer Elizabeth Hoover admitted tolying about her heritage for “material benefits”

A University of California at Berkeley anthropologist has apologized for falsely claiming to be of indigenous descent, stating that she did so to access funding and academic opportunities that would have been off limits to a white professor. Despite the apology, other academics now want her sacked.

In a letter posted to her personal website on Monday, Elizabeth Hoover admitted that she was “a white person who has incorrectly identified as Native my whole life.” Hoover said that she had been told growing up that she was descended from Mohawk and Mi’kmaq Indians, but chose not to seek out “documented connection to these communities.” (Did she write recipe books like Warren?)

Hired as an associate professor in 2000, Hoover continued to pretend she was Native American. In her letter, she explained that in a liberal university like Berkeley, this allowed her into “programs or funding opportunities that were identity-related,” and granted her “academic fellowships, opportunities, and material benefits” that she wouldn’t have received as a white woman.

In her lengthy apology letter, Hoover said that her lies “hurt Native people who have been my friends, colleagues, students, and family, both directly through fractured trust and through activating historical harms.”

Hoover researched her genealogy last year and discovered no connection to the tribes that she claimed. In a letter last October, the Los Angeles Times reported, she stated that she would no longer “claim to be a scholar of Mohawk / Mi’kmaq descent.” That announcement led to a letter signed by 375 academics and Native American spokespeople calling on her to apologize and “come out as white,” which she finally did on Monday.

She did not, however, offer to resign from her position which according to salary tracking site Glassdoor earns her up to $228,000 per year.

Some of her fellow academics took issue with this. Desi Small-Rodriguez, an assistant professor of sociology and American Indian studies at UCLA, wrote in a tweet that the university should fire her for “professional misconduct, research ethics violations, [and] harming Native students & colleagues.”

Hoover is neither the first nor the most famous white American to masquerade as a racial minority. Former US Senator Elizabeth Warren claimed Cherokee ancestry while teaching at Harvard in the early 1990s, and listed herself as an “American Indian” while practicing law in Texas in the 1980s. However, amid relentless mockery from US President Donald Trump in 2018, Warren took a DNA test that revealed she was only 1/1,024th Native.

Three years earlier, Rachel Dolezal, a white woman, resigned as an African Studies lecturer and president of a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in Washington when her parents publicly stated that she was pretending to be black.

https://www.rt.com/news/575865-berkeley-fake-indian-professor/

Checkmate, Fox News: Why Tucker Carlson Is the Perfect Choice to Host the GOP Presidential Debate

May 5, 2023 (3h ago)1/3

Fox News’ recent firing/sidelining of the number one rated cable news host, Tucker Carlson, sent shockwaves throughout the political and media landscape. Perhaps the only subject of more aggressive speculation than the circumstances surrounding Tucker’s surprising departure from Fox is the question of what comes next for the former number one cable news host. To say that this is the $64,000 question is correct metaphorically, but literally off by close to an order of magnitude.

While we will spare Tucker the unsolicited advice as to what his broader plans should be, a recent piece in the Washington Post of all places suggests that Tucker is already working on a bold and ingenious next step — hosting the upcoming GOP Presidential primary debates:

Lesser-known cable channels are itching to build a new brand around him. Industry experts think he could make a mint in podcasting.

But Tucker Carlson — who was fired by Fox News last week at the height of his popularity and influence in right-wing punditry — has aspirations of moving into a larger role that doesn’t limit him to a single medium, according to people familiar with his thinking. Andhe is willing to walk away from some of the millionsthat Fox is contractually obligated to pay him, if that would give him the flexibility to have a prominent voice in the 2024 election cycle.

Most ambitiously, Carlson wants to moderate his own GOP candidate forum, outside of the usual strictures of the Republican National Committee debate system.

The idea, which he has discussed with Donald Trump, the front-runner for the party nomination, would test his vaunted sway over conservative politics. And it would take a jab at his former employer — Fox is hosting the first official primary debate, which Trump has threatened not to attend — if he can manage to make his grandest plan happen.

Make no mistake: strategically, politically, professionally, hosting a major GOP primary debate or forum is the winning move for Tucker Carlson and for the country.

Let’s start by analyzing the move in relation to Tucker. While we may never know the full story surrounding Tucker’s ouster from Fox, it is inarguable that the decision came from the very top, that is, from Rupert Murdoch. The dramatic decision on the part of Fox to so abruptly and unceremoniously defenestrate their most popular host betrays an underlying sense that fromMurdoch’s perspective, it is ultimately the Fox News platform that is the star, and the talent is ultimately expendable and interchangeable. From the Murdoch’s perspective, this is an especially important message to send to other hosts as the network works to restore the top-down message discipline that prevailed under the Roger Ailes era.

If the fallout from Tucker’s dismissal hasn’t caused Fox to reconsider the expendability of its top talent, it should. The overwhelming deluge of support and good will Tucker has received since his separation from Fox confirms his special status as far more than an incredibly popular cable news host, andsolidifies his position as a rare figure of national significance, whose devoted following and political influence on the right is second only to President Trump. This, and the dismal ratings Fox has to show for itself in Tucker’s absence, is a strong point in favor of the view that Tucker, not the Fox News platform, was the star after all….

https://www.revolver.news/2023/05/checkmate-fox-news-tucker-carlson-host-gop-presidential-debates/

>>18801971

2/3

Here's @megynkelly on the genuinely remarkable, instant collapse of Fox's ratings in the wake of its decision to fire the most popular host in the history of the medium:pic.twitter.com/pJgewdxmlG — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 5, 2023

Be that as it may, we must give the devil its due and concede the special role the Fox News primetime television platform played in force-multiplying Tucker’s unique political influence. However rapidly independent and digital media platforms are growing, and however much we would love to pronounce mainstream television dead, there is simply no denying that primetime cable television retains special magic and legitimacy when it comes to the public. Megyn Kelly put it best in a recent podcast with Glenn Beck, in which she addressed the question of whether and in what way Tucker’s influence might change in his post-Fox career. Kelly and Beck both agreed that Tucker could make more money post-Fox and even expand his reach in many respects. Kelly did, however, acknowledge that there was a special kind of influence Tucker wielded over elected Republican officials that would be difficult to reproduce without the magic of primetime television, and perhaps without the special clout Fox News has with the GOP.

In a sad situation in which GOP elected officials or hopefuls would only do the right thing with a metaphorical gun to their heads, Tucker’s was the one voice capable and willing to hold the politician’s feet to the fire and implement some measure of real accountability before a national audience. Joe Rogan may have the widest reach in terms of his audience, but Rogan couldn’t put the fear of God into GOP politicians and political hopefuls the way Tucker Carlson Tonight could. While this particular sort of influence is a special component of Tucker’s unique brand, it is also the element of influence that will be most difficult to maintain without the assistance of a Fox News primetime television slot.

This is precisely why hosting a GOP primary debate is the perfect next move for Tucker. In general, it is the perfect move for Tucker in terms of preserving his special political influence post-Fox. In particular, there is no better way to humble Fox News and demonstrate that Tucker’s voice and the millions of Americans it represents are more important than Fox News the corporation.

Indeed, imagine the statement it would make for Tucker, rather than his former employer Fox News, to host the first GOP debate.

As things stand, theoverwhelming front-runner for the GOP nomination, President Donald Trump, is reluctant to participate in the Republican debates — and for good reason. Currently, the RNC has announced that Fox News will get the first debate and will likely get more, while CNN and NBC will also likely get debates as well.

According to the New York Times, Trump was hesitant to engage on Fox because “Mr. Trump’s overall relationship with Rupert Murdoch’s television network has deteriorated as the network showered Mr. DeSantis with praise over the past two years while constricting its coverage of Mr. Trump.”This is an understatement. The Murdoch-owned New York Post puts on headlines like “DeFuture” while the network has an official “soft ban” on Trump. This is a repeat from 2015 when Murdoch tried to knee-cap Trump at the first debate, a moveTrump brilliantly deflected with his legendary “Only Rosie O’Donnell” line.

Given Fox’s disgraceful firing of Tucker Carlson, conservatives have more reasons than ever to be concerned about a Fox Debate. And beyond Fox, no America First Republican would want NBC or CNN to dictate the terms of the debate over who gets the GOP nomination. Ron DeSantis has long urged Republicans to stop legitimizing the mainstream media by giving them dominant coverage, saying, “I don’t need to be involved with some of the partisan corporate media.”

Even Tim Scott has said the debates should be on conservative networks, tweeting, “I’m calling for conservatives to hear from our leaders without the media’s biased filter.”

Today’s media is too often an extension of the far Left. I’m calling for conservatives to hear from our leaders without the media’s biased filter. https://t.co/2xOxfrNxOL— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) March 10, 2023

https://www.revolver.news/2023/05/checkmate-fox-news-tucker-carlson-host-gop-presidential-debates/

3/3

In an attempt to preempt this concern, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel has made anagreement with Rumble to stream the First Debate, which is admittedly a great idea.

Less encouragingis Ronna’s decision topick “Conservatism Inc.” institutions to “co-sponsor” each debate. The first co-sponsor is the Young America’s Foundation.

As McDaniel told Fox & Friends, “the Young America’s Foundation…is run by Scott Walker… They’re based in Wisconsin, so they’re going to be a partner as well.”

While YAF works with some solid speakers, it iscorrectly viewed as a establishment and anti-Trump. Its star speaker is Mike Pence. As Steve Bannon wrote on GETTR, “YAF is Never Trump and Pro Pence…How did RNC do this…”

The RNC has chosen a pro-Mike Pence 501c3 to host a debate. Just wait until you hear about the CNN debates they’re lining up….

Didn’t think it could actually get worseby getting out of the commission, but I think this may end upmaking the base hate the RNC even morehttps://t.co/ALU2oPofc0— Tyler Bowyer (@tylerbowyer) April 12, 2023

This all brings us back to the original and brilliant solution:Tucker Carlson should host a debate. Carlson is by far the most popular voice among Republican voters, and he would raise the important questions about foreign policy, civil liberties, and national identity that the other networks would rather avoid. It’s safe to say that this race is pretty much between Trump and DeSantis, and Tucker has been largely positive, with a few criticisms, of both candidates.

We don’t know when Tucker will get out of his Fox contract or exactly what he will do next, but we could imagine thisdebate taking place on a Twitter streamas the company continues to upgrade its video platform, on a conservative network like NewsMax or OAN, or on a new platform if Tucker launches one.

Tucker Carlson is more trusted among GOP voters than Fox News, much less CNN or NBC. Any candidate – whether it’s Trump, DeSantis, or even Tim Scott – who wants to prove they are serious about standing up to the corporate media should call for a Tucker debate. And if the RNC wants to respond to the concerns about letting left-wing media control our nomination, this is a perfect opportunity. Simply put, Tucker hosting a GOP debate would be a win for Tucker, a win for America First, a win for the GOP, and a win for the country. Let’s make it happen.

https://www.revolver.news/2023/05/checkmate-fox-news-tucker-carlson-host-gop-presidential-debates/

>>18801961

Two deranged arrogant pedophiles gloating in the praise they get from the scum of the earth. God is not standing with these two!!!