1298: The Palmist

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 01:14

Mink infected with a mutated strain of COVID-19 in Denmark appear to be rising from the dead, igniting a national frenzy and calls from local officials to cremate mink carcasses.

While the sight itself is certainly terrifying for the residents of West Jutland, a region of the country grappling with confirmed COVID-19 cases connected to mink, there is likely a scientific explanation for the zombie-like reemergence from their graves.

A Danish police spokesman, Thomas Kristensen, told a state broadcaster that gases form while the body decays underground, according to the Guardian.

''In this way, in the worst cases, the mink get pushed out of the ground,'' Kristensen said of the nightmarish sight.

There are many 'zombie' animals. Here's which ones you should actually worry about.

The nation has planned to cull all 15 million mink in the country, which produce 40% of the world's mink fur.

Because of the rushed burial, the animals were placed in shallow graves '' just over three feet deep. Now, officials plan to bury the creatures in graves nearly double the depth. The area will be also monitored nonstop until a fence can be set up, the Guardian reported.

But for some local officials, that may not suffice.

Some have also been concerned about the graves' proximity to rivers and other water sources, which may contaminate water supplies in the region. At least two mayors have suggested burning all the mink corpses in order to prevent further concerns, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported.

Animals infected: North Denmark in lockdown after mutated coronavirus infects mink being farmed for fur

As of Wednesday, Denmark has reported more than 74,000 COVID cases and 800 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Joshua Bote on Twitter: @joshua_bote.

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All Ages8.3 x more likely to die from COVIDYounger than 5 years7.3x more likely to die from car accident5-14 years13.5x more likely to die from car accident15-24 years10.9x more likely to die from car accident25-34 years2.5x more likely to die from car accident35-44 yearsApproximately equal risk45-54 years3.0x more likely to die from COVID55-64 years7.2x more likely to die from COVID65-74 years17.7x more likely to die from COVID75 and older45.9x more likely to die from COVID

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:32

Televisions, computers, radios, and cell phones are blowing up with the media sounding the alarm: ''hospitals are reaching full capacity!'' while governors slide back into their authoritarian lockdowns. Back in March we heard the same panic-stricken message and were flooded with images of people lined up to get into hospitals, shortages of beds and ventilators, freezer trucks lining the allies, graves being dug, and hospital ships swimming their way to the coasts of New York and California. Yet, by April 21, the Comfort ship was leaving the port from New York because Governor Cuomo said he didn't need it. Corey's Digs reported on Inside The Hospitals & Why The Lockdown back in April to show the reality of the situation at that time, and now we have nearly 10 months of data accumulated, and it paints quite a picture.

A Dose of Reality: Don't Let The Numbers Fool YouSome hard numbers:

' Total number of hospitals in the US: 6,146

' Total number of staffed beds in all US hospitals: 924,107

' The total number of Covid-positive hospitalizations on November 17 in the entire US: 76,958

' Throughout all of 2020, since Covid hit, the US neverexceeded 60k hospitalizations on any given day, until November 10th.

' Patients in hospitals for other reasons are counted asCovid hospitalizations if they test positive

' March 31 total cumulative Covid-positive hospitalizations in the US: 23,725

' April 30 total cumulative Covid-positive hospitalizationsin the US: 123,786

' July 31 total cumulative Covid-positive hospitalizationsin the US: 308,088

' September 30 total cumulative Covid-positivehospitalizations in the US: 408,649

' November 17 totalcumulative Covid-positive hospitalizations in the US: 517,471

Does 517,471 hospitalizations for the entire year sound alarming? How about after we remove the fact that over 70% of them recovered? How about after we've assessed their actual cause of death since the CDC has stated that only 6% of death certificates indicate that people died from Covid, and the remaining 94% have on average 2.6 comorbidities? For starters, 49.49% of all Covid-related deaths included pneumonia. Not to mention, 1 in every 4 deaths in the US are due to heart disease, and 40% of all Covid-related deaths took place in hospice, long-term care facilities, and nursing homes due to other causes.

In 2018, there were36,251,159 people admitted to hospitals across the US.

In the 2017-2018 Flu season, 810,000 people were hospitalized over the flu.

Did anyone hear apeep about it? Did they flood the airwaves, scaring the nation with messages ofhospitals being at full capacity, everyone must wear masks to ''save lives,'' orthat they were short on supplies and ventilators, people were dropping deadeverywhere, and the economy needed to shut down? NO. It was near silent. Over61,000 people died that flu season.

Covid-relatedhospitalizations are at 63.85% of the 2017-2018 Flu hospitalizations, comparingnearly 10 months of Covid to the flu season which runs from October to May.

There are currently 1,806,590 new cancer cases with 1,600people dying from cancer each day. Heart disease takes 1 in 4 lives. So whenpeople find out that a virus has a 98% survival rate, and much higher for thoseunder 65, they should be thanking their lucky stars, not masking up, shuttingdown their businesses, hiding in fear, and waiting for instructions on whenthey should jump off a cliff.

Hiding The DataOne of the most incredible things happening right before everyone'seyes, is the subversion of data by the Covid Tracking Project, the CDC, media,and numerous other sources. Why is this and what are they doing? They use trickerywhen revealing numbers, so as to manipulate the numbers, and convince everyonethat things are far worse than they actually are.

Example 1:

When determining the cumulative hospitalizations across the US, Corey's Digs reviewed data from The Covid Tracking Project which was created by journalists from The Atlantic, and is utilized by the CDC, Johns Hopkins, the White House, and most mainstream news sources. For 10 months they have rolled out a cumulative hospitalization column, along with a recovery column. Suddenly, while on day 4 of cross-referencing data points, Corey's Digs noticed that they hid both of those columns on November 17th. Therefore, when the public goes to this source for numbers, they can longer see those columns. Instead, if they wish to see that data, they must download the csv file, which 99% of people won't bother to do. Here is the archive from November 15th against the current column structure.

Example 2:

Google refuses to display the recovery numbers, even thoughthat data can easily be aggregated from the same sources it is pulling thedeath rates from. They prefer to keep the good news hidden. By the way, 12.4million does NOT represent ''cases.'' That is just more trickery. That number reflectspositive test results, in which case millions of people are asymptomatic. Foradditional perspective, only 6.6% of all tests have come back positive. Inother words, millions and millions of people are getting tested because theyare panicking over a sniffle or no symptoms at all, while at the same time establishmentsare making employees test repeatedly in order to continue working. That said,if we were to base the recovery rate solely on these numbers above, screenshoton November 23, the recovery rate would be 97.93%. However, 94% of thoserecorded deaths include people who died with an average of 2.6 comorbiditiesand were not listed as Covid being the cause of death, so in that case, therecovery rate would be 99.99%

There are many more examplesof trickery and hiding data coming up in subsequent articles.

Hacking The DataWho has access to the data that shows hospitalizations? Onlyemployees inside their respective hospital who are working with Covid patients,are able to see how many are hospitalized. Outside of that, the only people whohave access to this data are 800 HHS employees across the country that haveaccess to their state databases, and they keep a lot of that information withinthe department, not even sharing with other hospitals, let alone the public.

What happens when an alleged hack takes place at over 400hospitals across the country, and they lock their computers down? Hospitalstaff have to resort to using paper, and no longer have access to patientrecords and pertinent information.

Coincidentally, just as they were beginning to announce a huge increase in ''Covid cases'' a few days prior to the election, Wired reported that a ransomware attack struck a major US hospital chain consisting of over 400 hospitals across the country. All computers were completely shut down. One nurse told Corey's Digs that computers were still down and they were using the paper system, for over two weeks after this took place.

Just a few days prior to that, a terrifying article was published regarding Utah hospitals preparing to ''ration care to patients, focusing on the young, and letting the elderly die. This was later followed up with an emergency alert to Utah residents letting them know that nearly every county was a high transmission area and ''hospitals were nearly overwhelmed.'' One nurse confirmed to Corey's Digs that there were only 2 patients at her hospital.

The population of Utah is 3.2 million. At that point theyhad only had a total of 614 Covid-related deaths in the entire state. More peoplehave chosen to take their lives by suicide each year. They average 620 suicidesper year.

The hospitalization numbers are fed from HHS to the CDC andother key data trackers, such as The Covid Tracking Project by The Atlantic.Aside from speaking directly to staff at individual hospitals, or walking intohospitals to take a look for yourself, there is no way to verify that the totalnumber of hospitalized Covid patients is in fact legitimate.

Are Hospitals Overwhelmed?After speaking with staff from numerous hospitals throughoutthe year, and more recently, some of them are a little bit overwhelmed, andmany are not. Is it because of Covid patients? The reality is, 22% of hospitalsare understaffed because a lot of them cut staff earlier this year, electivesurgeries were pushed back for months and are now filling up hospitals, and somehave closed off certain wings and only have a limited number of beds setupstrictly for Covid patients. So when the media shouts, ''Oh my God! It's ourworst nightmare! Hospitals are reaching full capacity! Everyone is going to diefrom Covid!'' they are completely misleading people while invoking fear. Thereare currently less than 84k people in hospitals across the entire country, thatthey allege is due to Covid. To provide a little perspective, in 2009 therewere over 4.7 million cancer-related hospitalizations alone.

Just remember, when legacy news media is headlining with, ''newworld record of 100,000 Covid cases today,'' keep in mind that ''cases'' means ''testedpositive,'' with most people having little to no symptoms, some tests beingfalse/positive, and the recovery rate averages 98%, which is must higher forthose under 65.

Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the US. Between 250,000 and 440,000 people die annually from medical errors alone. These are numbers that require attention when it comes to Covid, where they have suppressed treatments and are still using ventilators today, despite the fact they are a death sentence, and many doctors have provided other solutions. They have even held senate hearings on these matters, to no avail.

The 2017-2018 highly contagious flu season resulted in 810,000 hospitalizations and over 61,000 deaths '' that no one heard a peep about. There were no lockdowns, mask mandates, or restrictions. Chew on that for a bit.

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:05

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter

Updated 5:44 AM EST, Thu November 26, 2020

(CNN) In a 5-4 ruling, the US Supreme Court sided with religious organizations in a dispute over Covid-19 restrictions put in place by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo limiting the number of people attending religious services.

The case is the latest pitting religious groups against city and state officials seeking to stop the spread of Covid-19, and it highlights the impact of Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the Court. The decision comes as coronavirus cases surge across the country.

In the late-night decision, Barrett sided with her conservative colleagues in the dispute, while Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent. The ruling underscores Barrett's impact on the bench, reflecting the Court's rightward shift.

Last spring and summer, before the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court split 5-4 on similar cases out of California and Nevada, with Roberts and the liberals in the majority siding against houses of worship. Barrett was confirmed in October to take Ginsburg's seat.

Ruling says houses of worship face 'far more restrictive' regulationsThe ruling, released just before midnight on Thanksgiving eve, contains several separate opinions and some unusually critical language.

In the main, unsigned opinion, the majority ruled in favor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel of America that argued that the restrictions violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment because the regulations treated the houses of worship more harshly than comparable secular facilities.

The majority said that the regulations are "far more restrictive than any Covid-related regulations that have previously come before the Court, much tighter than those adopted by many other jurisdictions hard hit by the pandemic, and far more severe than has been shown to be required to prevent the spread of the virus" at the religious services in question.

The restrictions on attendance are divided up by geographic zones in areas classified as "red" or "orange" zones.

In court papers, lawyers for Cuomo argued that the restrictions were necessary to help stop the spread of Covid-19 and that houses of worship weren't being treated differently than similar secular businesses. They also said that while the dispute was pending, Cuomo had already lifted any restrictions that applied to the organizations.

"Not only is there no evidence that the applicants have contributed to the spread of COVID-19 but there are many other less restrictive rules that could be adopted to minimize the risk to those attending religious services," the Court held.

"Members of this Court are not public health experts, and we should respect the judgment of those with special expertise and responsibility in this area," the Court said. "But even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten."

The Court said that even though Cuomo had lifted some restrictions, the houses of worship "remain under a constant threat" because the restrictions could always be reinstated.

Lower courts had sided with Cuomo.

Lawyers for the diocese had told the justices in court papers that the "pandemic alone cannot justify overbroad, untailored closure orders of indefinite duration directed at all houses of worship, that in another time would plainly be found to violate the Constitution."

And lawyers for the Agudath Israel of America said that the governor has specifically targeted Orthodox Jews who have "violated his prior rules."

"The Governor's guilt-by-religious-association restrictions have made it impossible for Applicants and their members to exercise their religious faith," they argued.

6 opinions in the late-night rulingIn all, the late-night ruling consisted of six different opinions.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote his own concurrence -- joined by no other justice -- to explain his vote.

He said that other businesses such as bicycle repair shops, did not have similar restrictions.

"So, at least according to the Governor, it may be unsafe to go to church, but it is always fine to pick up another bottle of wine" or "shop for a new bike," Gorsuch wrote.

He was critical of the reasoning of a decision penned by Roberts in May rejecting a request from a church in California to block limitations on the number of people who could attend religious services during the pandemic.

Gorsuch said the Court precedent Roberts cited in that decision "hardly supports cutting the Constitution loose during a pandemic."

For his part, Roberts said he was in dissent because while "it may well be that such restrictions violate the Free Exercise Clause," Cuomo had revised the restrictions after the religious organizations had filed their challenge.

"It is a significant matter to override determinations made by public health officials concerning what is necessary for public safety in the midst of a deadly pandemic," Roberts wrote, and said that the houses of worship could have returned to court if Cuomo had reversed himself.

But Roberts -- who often works to keep the Court out of the political fray and divisive atmosphere that has dominated the other branches of government -- had stern words for Gorsuch's criticism of the dissenters' reasoning.

"They simply view the matter differently after careful study and analysis reflecting their best efforts to fulfill their responsibility under the Constitution," he said.

He also pointedly defended his own reasoning in the case from May.

Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, said that the regulations were designed to "fight the rapidly spreading -- and, in many cases, fatal -- COVID-19 virus," and that they allowed the governor to identity hot spots where the virus had spiked. Breyer noted the grisly statistics concerning the virus that has infected more than 12 million Americans and is currently surging. "The Constitution principally entrusts the safety and the health of the people to the politically accountable officials of the States," Breyer wrote.

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 20:05

Public domain photo As Arizona continues to post higher counts of COVID-19 patients, intensive care unit beds are becoming increasingly hard to come by, especially in rural areas of the state.

As of Nov. 22, data provided by the Arizona Department of Health Services showed that only 10% of the state's intensive care unit beds were readily available. That is approximately 175 beds for COVID and non-COVID patients alike.

The lowest this number has gotten to before was 9% on July 7, when over 50% of ICU beds were being used by COVID patients. Currently, 27% are in use by COVID patients, a 17% increase from last week and a 50% increase from 2 weeks ago.

Some doctors in rural parts of the state have reported that no ICU beds are available at all.

Dr. Cleavon Gilman is an emergency room physician who said on Twitter that the rural Arizona hospital he is working at was not able to transfer patients to other hospitals, as they were not accepting ICU patients.

🧵NO ICU BEDS! When our rural Arizona hospital ICU is full, we medevac patients to different hospitals across the state, BUT NOT TONIGHT, because there were NO ACCEPTING HOSPITALS, so for an entire 12 hour shift we managed ICU patients, while treating other emergencies. 1/13

'-- Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) November 23, 2020

''Rather than wait for rooms to be available, my colleague and I circumvented this today by seeing patients in the waiting room,'' Gilman said on Twitter about how the situation has led to longer wait times in the ER and more ER beds in use.

ADHS data shows that ER bed usage is on the rise, with nearly half of all ER beds being currently in use. When COVID cases dropped in September, ER bed usage hovered around the 40% range, only rising when COVID numbers began to rise again in November.

Gilman didn't say on Twitter which hospital he is working at. A request for comment from Gilman was not returned. ADHS also did not respond to requests for comment.

Tucson television station KVOA reported that St. Mary's Hospital had no ICU beds and Tucson Medical Center had one ICU bed remaining.

In light of the recent surge, some hospitals have begun putting new restrictions in place , such as limiting visitations or shutting down visitations entirely.

Over the last week, Arizona has averaged 47.4 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people.

Statewide, Arizona reported a total of 2,659 new cases of COVID-19 Monday with more than half of them coming out of Maricopa County. There have been over 302,000 cases of COVID-19 in Arizona and over 6,400 deaths as of Nov. 23.

Over the past week, there have been 24,229 new cases of COVID-19 reported, only 139 cases shy of the seven-day Arizona record set the week of July 5-11, according to data by researchers at John Hopkins University .

BENSON'S CORNER LATEST STORIES Why face masks belong at your Thanksgiving gatheringImmigration advocates push Biden to not just bring back DACA but expand itArizona nearing ICU capacity, reports that some hospitals have none leftThe End of Stupid? Maybe just a stop along the way.Mayors say 'now is the time' for the statewide mask mandate Ducey opposesX

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:30

November 24, 2020 | 4:38pm | Updated November 25, 2020 | 9:36am

Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic.

California prosecutors say they've uncovered a massive scam that allowed convicted killer Scott Peterson and other death row inmates to receive coronavirus unemployment benefits administered by the state, a report said Tuesday.

It is ''the most significant fraud on taxpayer funds in California history,'' nine local district attorneys said in a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the allegations.

Investigators found that more than $400,000 in state benefits were paid to death row inmates, including Peterson, who is behind bars at San Quentin State Prison for the 2002 murder of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, according to the report.

More than $140 million was sent to other inmates in California's 38 prisons, said Sacramento County DA Anne Marie Schubert, who helped lead a task force that discovered the alleged racket.

The alleged con took many forms: Some claims were submitted directly by inmates or by their family and friends, while other prisoners were unwitting victims, the prosecutors said.

Prison gangs may have also been involved in large-scale organized schemes to game the system.

In total, nearly $1 billion may have been paid out to people who were ineligible for the benefits due to incarceration in Golden State prisons and jails, the prosecutors claim.

''The murderers and rapists and human traffickers should not be getting this money,'' said Schubert. ''It needs to stop.''

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced a task force to tackle the alleged abuse.

''Unemployment fraud across local jails and state and federal prisons is absolutely unacceptable,'' the governor said in a statement.

A lame-duck president takes part in his final turkey pardon.

This might have been the most anticipated White House turkey-pardoning ceremony ever. For starters, President Trump has been scarcely seen without golf clubs since Election Day. So the annual ritual of sparing two turkeys offered a rare chance to glimpse the lame-duck leader in public. "Thanksgiving is a very special day for turkeys," the president said in the Rose Garden on Tuesday afternoon. "Not a very good one, if you think about it." Except for two fortunate feathered recipients of the president's largess. "Corn, I hereby grant you a full pardon," Mr. Trump said as he designated Corn the National Thanksgiving Turkey. "Thank you, Corn." A second lucky bird, Cob, was also saved from becoming dinner. It felt almost normal, refreshingly pro forma. But Mr. Trump's recent reclusiveness had also given the festivities a measure of Groundhog Day drama: Would the Punxsutawney President strike a light and conciliatory tone, signaling a mild period of transition into the Biden administration? Or would he continue with the defiant and rancorous posture he has exhibited in the more than 550 tweets he has unleashed since Nov. 3, ensuring several more disruptive weeks of a presidency in dark winter? The cliffhanger infused the hokey White House tradition with genuine theatrics — just as the maestro relishes. Speculation had swirled in recent days that the president might make incendiary news by pardoning humans like Paul Manafort (his former campaign chairman, convicted of tax and bank fraud) along with his innocent feathered friends Corn and Cob (imported from Iowa, 42 and 41 pounds).

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:14

PARIS (Reuters) - Airlines are on course to lose a total $157 billion this year and next, their main global body warned on Tuesday, further downgrading its industry outlook in response to a second wave of coronavirus infections and shutdowns afflicting major markets.

FILE PHOTO: International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac speaks during the Global Media Day in Geneva, Switzerland December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which in June had forecast $100 billion in losses for the two-year period, said it now projects a $118.5 billion deficit this year alone, and a further $38.7 billion for 2021.

The bleak outlook underscores challenges still facing the sector despite upbeat news on development of COVID-19 vaccines, whose global deployment will continue throughout next year.

''The positive impact it will have on the economy and air traffic will not happen massively before mid-2021,'' IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac told Reuters.

Passenger numbers are expected to drop to 1.8 billion this year from 4.5 billion in 2019, IATA estimates, and will recover only partially to 2.8 billion next year. Passenger revenue for 2020 is expected to have plunged 69% to $191 billion.

''That's by far the biggest shock the industry has experienced in the post-World War Two years,'' IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said.

The forecasts assume significant re-opening of borders by the middle of next year, helped by some combination of COVID-19 testing and vaccine deployment.

IATA reiterated its call for governments to replace travel-stifling quarantine regimes with widespread testing programmes.

''We are seeing states progressively coming to listen to us,'' de Juniac said, citing testing initiatives underway in France, Germany, Italy, Britain, the United States and Singapore.

While some governments and airlines such as Australia's Qantas say passengers are likely to require vaccination for long-haul travel, the approach is unlikely to work everywhere, de Juniac said.

''It would prevent people who are refusing (the vaccine) from travelling,'' the IATA chief said. ''Systematic testing is even more critical to reopen borders than the vaccine.''

Air cargo, a rare bright spot for the industry as the grounding of flights pushes freight prices higher, will likely see global revenue rise 15% to $117.7 billion this year despite an 11.6% decline in volume to 54.2 million tonnes, IATA said.

Some $173 billion in government aid has left recipients with debts that threaten to hobble future investment, it warned, and more bankruptcies are likely. Norwegian Air became the latest casualty on Nov. 18, when it filed for bankruptcy protection in Ireland.

The average airline now has enough liquidity to survive another 8.5 months, while some have just weeks, Pearce said. ''I think we will get consolidation through some airline failures.''

for-phone-only for-tablet-portrait-up for-tablet-landscape-up for-desktop-up for-wide-desktop-up

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 13:35

One or more of Australia's key intelligence and security agencies ''incidentally'' collected data relating to the COVIDSafe contact tracing app in its first six months of operation.

But there is no evidence to suggest that any of the data was decrypted, accessed or used, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) has found.

The finding is contained in IGIS's first report to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on Covid app data [pdf], released on Monday.

The report, which looks at agencies like ASIO and ASD, said the collection occurred ''in the course of lawful collection of other data'', which is permissible under the Privacy Act.

A spokesperson for the IGIS told iTnews that the ''execution of warrants'' was one such instance in which the incidental collection of Covid app data could occur.

''Collection is considered 'incidental' if it is not possible or not practicable to collect the data covered by the warrant without also inadvertently collecting COVIDSafe app data,'' the spokesperson said.

The IGIS would not indicate which of the six agencies within its jurisdiction had "incidentally" collected the data.

The report also said that agencies are taking ''active steps to minimise the risks that they may collect Covid app data'', as well as ensure data ''is not access, used or disclosed'' or decrypted.

It also found agencies were ''taking steps to ensure any Covid app data is deleted as soon as practicable''.

Under the Privacy Act, agencies that incidentally collect COVIDSafe app data during a ''lawful collection of information'' are required to delete it ''as soon as practicable''.

Stict penalities of up to five years jail are in place for the collection, use, disclosure or decryption of COVIDSafe data for any purpose other than contact tracing.

IGIS is now planning to independently verify that COVIDSafe app data has been ''deleted as soon as practicable after an agency becomes aware that it has been collected'' over the next six months.

''IGIS anticipates those inspections being completed prior to the next report to the Information Commissioner,'' the spokesperson added.

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:30

The vehicle with 'Stop Globalisation Politics' and 'You damn killers of children and old people' graffitied rams gate, causing no damage.

A car crashed into the front gate of the building housing German Chancellor Angela Merkel's office on Wednesday morning, causing minor damage, authorities said. The driver was detained.

Police were investigating the crash, which took place at 10am (09:00 GMT) at the German chancellery in Berlin.

The car, a Volkswagen estate car, had the slogan ''You damned murderers of children and old people'' scrawled in white paint on one side. On the other, it said, ''Stop the globalisation policies.''

Police spokesman Thilo Cablitz told reporters the 54-year-old driver was detained from the scene after driving at a slow speed into the gate and was being questioned.

He said police were investigating whether he is psychologically disturbed or had other motivations.

The driver was known to authorities for a similar incident in 2014, a German interior ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

In that incident four years ago, he drove at slow speeds into the same gate, causing no damage. The car also carried a slogan condemning climate change and the man was taken into custody.

Reports at the time said the man had done something similar before.

Merkel's office said there was only minor damage to the security gate on Wednesday.

''For the chancellor, other members of the federal government, and the people employed in the chancellery there was no danger at any time,'' her office said.

It was not clear if Merkel was inside the building, a white post-modernist structure set across a square from the Reichstag building that houses Germany's parliament and well set back from any main roads.

The car had licence plates from the Lippe area in western Germany and was driven away by the Berlin fire department showing little sign of damage beyond a few scratches. The metal gate to the chancellery appeared slightly bent.

The chancellery sits in downtown Berlin next to the Swiss embassy and across from parliamentary offices. The exterior gate that was hit, which is next to a security office outside the main building, opens onto a public street.

There was no immediate indication of what prompted the incident, but it came on the day that Merkel was to meet state governors to talk about extending a partial coronavirus shutdown that started on November 2.

The government's approach towards slowing the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions enjoy widespread support among most Germans but they have also prompted occasionally violent protests in some big cities.

Journalists film the car which crashed into the gate of the main entrance of the chancellery in Berlin, the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Germany [Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters]

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:55

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:44

Protecting Dogs from Airborne ThreatsAir filter mask for dogs to protect them from the health dangers of breathing toxic air from smoke, ash, dust, smog, chemicals, pollen, allergens, ozone, and bacteria.

SHOP K9 MASK®

Sorry, couldn't resist the greeting. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is now having state health departments start the shift from PCR to antigen testing for ALL nursing home patient and staff testing. Our midwest facilities have received hundreds, if not thousands, of the Abbott Binax cards with more shipments coming.

The testing supplies are all being coordinated by the Defense Logistics Agency. Our shipments come directly from the Installation Support Center in Columbus, OH. We still cannot purchase the Binax cards through the large medical suppliers.

We've been using the Binax cards frequently and the kick ass 33 comparator cycle threshold for this "test" has resulted in about a 95% decrease in "positive" cases, compared to the same number of tests being submitted via PCR. This will be the system, combined with the NAVICA app, that is used to walk us back from the COVID cliff while furthering the slave society.

We are also hearing a buzz among state health department leaders that the AstraZeneca vaccine will be the vaccination of choice by CMS and CDC for nursing home staff and patients. Storage of the mRNA vaccination is impossible at our level. Word on the street is that the mRNA vaccines will be geared towards the younger, non-instutionalized populace and targeted to urban areas where tighter living quarters propagate the spread of COVID...i.e. poor brown people's neighborhoods.

In the morning Adam & John!

I just had my very first comment on C-Span but unfortunately it was quickly clipped out of the video recording AND the transcript!

I was quick enough to grab a screencap of the transcript before they clipped it out.

Today, Dutch scientist sceptic Pieter Borger has issued a paper to journals for publication demanding retraction of the paper with the origin of our PCR test. The original paper was submitted January 21st, and published January 23rd – the fastest peer review ever! Keep in mind that the virus was only DNA sequenced on January 7th. That paper apparently is the origin of all PCR tests in Europe. Borger says it is dodgy science and should be retracted.

These are his charges from an earlier unofficial publication (translation courtesy of Google translate):

1. Use is made of non-specific primers and probes. This can be established because the letters with which the primer is indicated are not fully stated. This gives the researcher the opportunity to further specify which primer he will eventually use. The researcher may enter the letters left blank himself.

2. The probes must be specific to detect the gene. In the January 2020 article, one probe is said to be specific for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The other probe is common to SARS-CoV viruses. With the group of scientists I work with, we have determined that in reality those probes are the same. Whether those probes are both specific for SARS-CoV-2 or whether they are both more general for SARS-CoV viruses, I don't know. This test is bad design for this reason alone.

3. I have explained the importance of a correct primer concentration above. We have found that these concentrations are in many cases four to five times too high.

4. There are six primers in total. We found that the GC content was significantly too low for three primers; the correct GC content should be, as I have explained above, between 40% and 60%. Two of the six primers tested were found to have a GC content of 28% and a 34%. This also means that the PCR test is a bad design.

5. Based on the article from January 2020, I investigated which annealing temperature is used in this PCR test. I have explained to you that within a primer pair the temperature difference may be one or at most two degrees. In this test, the temperature difference in one of the important genes turns out to be about 10 degrees in reality.

I have the impression that RIVM itself has also established that something is wrong here and that this was the reason for RIVM to change the protocol and for that reason removed one gene from the test, namely this gene.

6. Insufficient parts of the virus are detected to determine whether one is indeed dealing with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (corona). I am referring to my imagery from above with regard to the auto parts. With the SARS-CoV-2 virus (corona) it is important to examine the entire RNA strand. Otherwise you will not know whether you are dealing with the whole strand or just some fragments.

7. The coronavirus PCR test has no negative control. The aim is therefore not to rule out the possibility that other coronaviruses have been detected.

8. In the PCR test described in the January 2020 protocol, a number of cycles of 45 is assumed. However, it is not indicated at which number of cycles the test should be read as positive or negative. I would like to point out that at 35 cycles you detect almost no infectious virus anymore. Then you will understand that increasing by more than 35 makes no sense anymore. The test does not indicate when you should start reading and that is a major defect in the test. RIVM first used 30 multiplications as a starting point. You cannot just increase the number of cycles to 35 as the RIVM has done. Then you change the rules during the game. Cycles of between 30 and 35 are also a grey area. Again, after 35 cycles, there is no more infectious virus. This applies to 97% of the cases. This has been scientifically proven.

9. The aforementioned January 2020 publication also shows that the test also gives false positive results. Because the result was negative with retesting. This means that you should always re-test if the test is positive. I do not know if this also happens in practice. I do know, for example, that top athletes in case of a positive test often have themselves re-tested and the test then regularly turns out negative. If I tested positive myself, I would insist that I be retested. If that re-test also turned out positive, I would demand a third test. Only if that third test also turned out positive, then I would like to assume that I have indeed tested positive (aside: that does not mean that I am infected with the virus). Only then will you have reduced the uncertainty about the reliability of the result to minimal proportions.

10. My last but by no means least point of criticism is that the article describing the PCR COVID-19 test is not peer reviewed. Why I think this I have explained above. I find that very bad because the test is used for diagnostics.

He adds: "Incidentally, I also notice that two of the authors of this article are also part of the editorial board. In itself there is nothing wrong with that, but it is an extra reason to be careful with the placement of the article."

I presume the actual scientific retraction demand, when we see it, will be more precisely formulated.

This seems like an important developing story, that no doubt will be ignored/censored elsewhere.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:09

World

By Euronews with AP • last updated: 26/11/2020 - 12:35

AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford's coronavirus vaccine's high efficacy may have been in part due to a dosing error.

In the press release on the vaccine's efficacy released on Monday, the vaccine candidate had a higher efficacy - up to 90% - in the group that received a half dose and then a full dose.

But the candidate vaccine was just 62% effective in the group that received two full doses.

Mene Pangalos, head of biopharmaceuticals research and development at AstraZeneca, admitted to Reuters on Monday that some participants received a half dose and then a full dose due to a dosing error.

Pangalos called it a "useful mistake" in a later interview with the New York Times, published on Wednesday.

Oxford University said in a statement on Wednesday that some of the vials in the trial did not have the right concentration of vaccine. The university said the problem was discussed with regulators and they decided to complete the late-stage trial in two groups, according to the AP.

Experts say the small number of people in the low dose group - some 2,741 - make it difficult to know if the effectiveness is a statistical quirk.

Also, none of the people in the low dose group were over 55 years old and younger people tend to have a stronger immune response than those who are older.

A spokesperson for the University of Oxford told Euronews that "as a result of a difference in the manufacturing process" the phase I trial method was "shown to over-estimate the dose on the new batches of vaccine resulting in a half dose of the vaccine being administered as the first dose".

After discussing with the regulator, the two different concentrations were tested in phase III trials.

David Salisbury, an associate fellow of the global health program at Chatham House said another area of confusion is that the press release pooled results from the two groups to reach an average of 70% efficacy.

''You've taken two studies for which different doses were used and come up with a composite that doesn't represent either of the doses,'" Salisbury told the AP. ''I think many people are having trouble with that.'"

Researchers say a smaller first dose could be more effective because you need just the right amount to get a good immune response.

Some have criticised AstraZeneca and Oxford for a lack of transparency in the results release.

"Astrazeneca/Oxford get a poor grade for transparency and rigor when it comes to the vaccine trial results they have reported. This is not like Pfizer or Moderna where we had the protocols in advance and a pre-specified primary analysis was reported," Natalie Dean, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida.

"If they seek to get the half-dose approved, they should wait until they have a compelling result. Otherwise, we can land in 'evidence limbo.'"

More detailed results from the trials are expected to be provided to regulators who will decide whether to authorise the vaccine.

Moncef Slaoui, who leads the US coronavirus vaccine program, said in a call with reporters that US officials are trying to determine what immune response the vaccine produced.

They may decide to modify the AstraZeneca study in the US to include a half dose: ''But we want it to be based on data and science,'' he said.

Euronews has reached out to AstraZeneca for comment.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:42

Fevers, sweats, migraines and muscle aches that last for days - these are just some of the symptoms reported by various 'Phase 3' trial participants who volunteered for the vaccine trials run by Pfizer, Moderna and others. Though AstraZeneca noted in its preliminary results that its vaccine (which uses the more traditional adenovirus vector) seemed to produce side effects that are less severe than some of its competitors.

As scientists try to ensure the US reaches a 70%+ vaccination rate (the cut-off point at which herd immunity is believed to kick in) a group of doctors just warned that public health officials and drugmakers need to be "transparent" with patients about the potential side effects of vaccination, and ensure precautions are taken to ensure patients don't skip their follow-up visit.

This is a top concern for Dr. Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association, who warned that the side effects might deter many of her patients from receiving the follow-up shot. Dr. Fryhofer expressed her concerns during a virtual meeting on Monday with the CDC and representatives from various vaccine makers

"We really need to make patients aware that this is not going to be a walk in the park," Fryhofer said during a virtual meeting with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, an outside group of medical experts that advise the CDC. She is also a liaison to the committee. "They are going to know they had a vaccine. They are probably not going to feel wonderful. But they've got to come back for that second dose."

During the meeting on Monday, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases who frequently participated in CDC press briefings during the early days of the outbreak, said the agency would work to develop guidance if a health-care worker got a vaccine and then felt unwell the following day, since this could "impact planning on a hospital level in terms of which staff gets vaccinated which day?" she said.

Beyond ensuring hospitals aren't left in the lurch because they decided to vaccinate their entire staff at the same time, the doctors also discussed a novel strategy: using "positive" language to talk about the sideeffects. One example would be referring to side effects as a "response" to the vaccine.

Of course that won't actually do anything to mitigate the side effects.

As one might expect, some patients who participated in the study actually got upset when they didn't experience severe side effects post-vaccination, believing it was a sign they had received the placebo not the actual vaccine.

The doctors apparently brought in a anonymous North Carolina woman who participated in the Moderna study. "If this proves to work, people are going to have to toughen up," she said. "The first dose is no big deal. And then the second dose will definitely put you down for the day for sure...You will need to take a day off after the second dose."

Still, missing one day of work is certainly preferable to missing 14 days, which, as one doctor noted, is an "enormous" amount of time.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:41

| November 25, 2020 03:02 PM

A peer-reviewed study measuring the effectiveness of a controversial drug cocktail that includes hydroxychloroquine concluded that the treatment lowered hospitalizations and mortality rates of coronavirus patients.

The study, set to be published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents in December, determined that ''Low-dose hydroxychloroquine combined with zinc and azithromycin was an effective therapeutic approach against COVID-19.''

A total of 141 patients diagnosed with the coronavirus were treated with the three-drug cocktail over a period of five days and compared to a control group of 377 people who tested positive for the virus but were not given the treatment.

The study found that ''the odds of hospitalisation of treated patients was 84% less than in the untreated patients,'' and only one patient died from the group being treated with the drugs compared to 13 deaths in the untreated group.

Hydroxychloroquine became a controversial issue during the height of the coronavirus pandemic when President Trump championed the drug as an effective coronavirus treatment, which immediately drew criticism from the media and several health experts.

Twitter censored a video over the summer showing doctors touting the effectiveness of the drug.

Additionally, a July study conducted by the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan concluded that patients taking hydroxychloroquine were more likely to survive the coronavirus.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:12

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Home Readouts Prime Minister Trudeau speaks with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and the Commonwealth group of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations June 11, 2020Ottawa, Ontario

Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and the Commonwealth group of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations regarding financing for development and the Great Reset initiative. The Prime Minister thanked His Royal Highness for initiating the discussion at such a critical time and for championing the Great Reset initiative to build a better and more sustainable future for all.

Prime Minister Trudeau highlighted the importance of the Commonwealth as a space for dialogue and collective action on global issues related to sustainable development. He addressed the ongoing challenge posed by COVID-19 and the need to build back stronger, more resilient, and greener economies. The Prime Minister also noted the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society in shaping the future global economy in a way that supports social inclusion, fairness, equality, and sustainability.

The Prime Minister, His Royal Highness, and the Permanent Representatives discussed economic recovery and sustainability initiatives that will support the objectives of the Great Reset. The Prime Minister also underscored Canada's continued commitment to climate action, and announced a new $9.5 million contribution to the Climate Finance Access Network. This contribution will help some of the most climate-vulnerable countries, notably Pacific small island developing states, to more easily access international climate finance. It will complement other recent initiatives supporting partnerships on climate action, including with Caribbean and African states.

The Prime Minister also spoke about the joint initiative he recently launched with the United Nations Secretary-General and the Prime Minister of Jamaica to accelerate the global response to the pandemic. This initiative emphasizes the need to improve access to critical development financing, including by low- and middle-income countries, to help them recover and ''build back better'', creating more prosperous, resilient and inclusive economies and societies.

COVID-19 is a rapidly evolving global challenge. The Government of Canada is working closely with international partners to minimize the economic impact of the virus and to ensure that the global recovery is focused on building back stronger, more sustainable economies.

Associated linksGovernments and international organizations come together to address economic challenges and sustainabilityCanada and international partners launched the Coronavirus Global ResponseCanada's support for international efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemicCanada's international climate finance

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Archived Version

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 21:18

Climate | With John Kerry Pick, Biden Selects a 'Climate Envoy' With StatureMr. Biden said he would name Mr. Kerry to a cabinet-level climate post, giving him the job of persuading global leaders that the United States is prepared to resume a leadership role.

John Kerry has been advocating for action on climate change for decades at state and federal levels. Credit... David Degner for The New York Times Nov. 23, 2020, 2:07 p.m. ET WASHINGTON '-- When John Kerry served as President Barack Obama's secretary of state, he helped steer the negotiation of the Paris Agreement, locking down commitments from nearly 200 nations '-- including his own '-- to begin to reverse the dangerous warming of the planet.

Now his diplomatic task may be even tougher.

On Monday, president-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said he intended to name Mr. Kerry his special presidential envoy for climate, a cabinet-level position in the new administration. In that role, Mr. Kerry will need to persuade skeptical global leaders, burned by the Trump administration's hostility toward climate science, that the United States is prepared to resume its leadership role '-- and will stay the course, regardless of the Biden administration's future.

Those who know him best say Mr. Kerry is well suited to the role. He has been advocating for action on climate change since he attended the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992, where the framework of United Nations climate talks was formed.

He also knows the struggle of persuading his own country to take action, having co-authored climate change legislation as a Massachusetts senator that ultimately failed. Then, after joining the Obama administration, he made climate change a core part of the State Department.

The appointment of Mr. Kerry to sit on the National Security Council as a climate envoy elevates the issue of climate change to the highest echelons of government and marks it as an urgent national security threat. ''America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat that it is,'' Mr. Kerry said in a statement.

In naming Mr. Kerry Mr. Biden has tapped the biggest name in his government so far, a veteran politician adept at drawing attention to himself and his causes since he led opposition to the Vietnam War as a decorated young veteran. ''John Kerry brings unmatched stature, a record of being an effective, tireless and indefatigable negotiator, a record of profound commitment to this issue and an understanding of just what the speed and scale of the transformation needs to be,'' said Todd S. Stern, who served as the State Department's climate envoy under Mr. Obama.

Image Mr. Kerry was joined by his granddaughter during a signing ceremony for the Paris Agreement at the United Nations General Assembly in 2016. Credit... Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse '-- Getty Images As special presidential envoy for climate, Mr. Kerry will participate in ministerial-level meetings with a cabinet rank. He will not have to face Senate confirmation, according to Mr. Biden's transition team.

The move marks the first time the National Security Council will include an official dedicated to climate change, ''reflecting the president-elect's commitment to addressing climate change as an urgent national security issue,'' the transition team said in a statement.

''It's an unusual sign, and certainly one that will grab everybody's attention internationally. Every government from China to the E.U. to India is going to sit up go, 'Wow,''' Mr. Stern said.

Paul Bodnar, managing director at the Rocky Mountain Institute, which works on climate policy, and who served on the climate change negotiating team under Secretary Kerry, called him a ''dream choice for this kind of role'' and ''a powerful signal of the importance of climate to the incoming administration.''

Mr. Bodnar described Mr. Kerry as someone who ''does the homework'' on policy even as he works the room as a negotiator. During the Paris climate talks in 2015, he recalled, Mr. Kerry ''almost alone among climate 'ministers' from other countries, spent the better part of two weeks roaming the halls of the giant conference center day and night, listening and advocating, getting into the details.''

Democratic administrations in the United States have a history of joining climate pacts like the Paris Agreement (and before that, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol) only for them to be abandoned by subsequent Republican presidents. Restoring U.S. credibility once again will be a challenge, but several international leaders said they are eager to see Washington back at the table.

''I think the rest of the world will welcome the U.S. under Biden and Kerry with open arms and huge relief,'' said Saleem Huq, director of the Bangladesh-based International Centre for Climate Change and Development, who works closely with the poorest and most vulnerable countries.

According to Mr. Biden's transition team, the president-elect also will name in December a White House climate policy coordinator who will help streamline domestic climate change policies throughout the various federal agencies.

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Archived Version

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:30

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Archived Version

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 06:02

(CNN) A key Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee is warning President-elect Joe Biden that he should avoid nominating a top contender for the job of CIA director, Mike Morell, because his record as a "torture apologist" makes confirmation a "nonstarter."

Morell, who was a deputy director of the CIA under President Barack Obama and twice served as the agency's acting director, is a contender to be nominated for the full-time role under Biden, according to two sources familiar with the deliberations, who note that others remain in the mix for the job.

In this April 2, 2014, file photo, former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell testifies before the House Select Intelligence Committee in Washington.

But the prospect of Morell leading the CIA has prompted harsh criticism from members of Biden's own party -- namely Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a member of the Intelligence Committee who will ultimately vote on whether any nominee for the job is confirmed.

"No torture apologist can be confirmed as CIA director. It's a nonstarter," Wyden told CNN, referring to Morell's previous suggestions that the agency's so-called "enhanced interrogation" of terrorists was both effective and moral -- claims that go further than those made by other officials who have faced scrutiny over the the agency's handling of detainees at black sites, including former Director John Brennan and current Director Gina Haspel.

The Daily Beast was first to report Wyden's objection to Morell's possible nomination.

Wyden's opposition to Biden nominating Morell could jeopardize his chances of being tapped for the job despite the fact that his name has long been floated as a contender. Multiple sources familiar with the internal transition discussions told CNN that the decision remains up in the air and there is no clear front-runner for the role.

As such, Biden notably did not announce a nominee for CIA director Tuesday despite formally unveiling his picks for several other key national security positions, including his choice for director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, who has faced criticism from progressives who accused her of complicity in the CIA's use of torture or "enhanced interrogation techniques" after 9/11.

Morell's name has repeatedly surfaced in recent weeks as a possible choice for CIA director given his leadership experience at the agency. But while he has long been considered the likely choice by some Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wyden made clear that he would vote against Morell's confirmation due to his public remarks on the issue of torture and resistance to congressional oversight.

A congressional aide said Morell's previous comments on the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques and his previous resistance to congressional oversight are a problem.

A 2015 report produced by the staff of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who was investigating the CIA's enhanced interrogation program, slammed Morell for repeatedly contradicting internal agency cables related to those efforts to extract information from suspected al Qaeda operatives and his references to studies that misconstrued findings about the effectiveness of measures like waterboarding.

"The 6,300-page December 2012 Committee Study to which Morell refers includes the following conclusion: 'The evidence the CIA provided for the effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques was found to be inaccurate.' The Committee Study has never included a conclusion about the effectiveness of the overall program and, in fact, details valuable information provided by CIA detainees, to include Abu Zubaydah and Hassan Ghul, prior to their being subjected to the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques," the fact check produced by Feinstein's office says.

Nick Shapiro, a former CIA deputy chief of staff who currently serves as a spokesperson for Morell, pushed back on Wyden's assertion, telling CNN, "Michael Morell is one of the smartest, most dedicated and hardest-working intelligence officers we have. He has served both Democrats and Republicans for decades. He was by President Bush's side on 9/11 and with President Obama when we removed Osama bin Laden.

"Morell was not in any way involved with the creation of the EIT program and he did not even learn about it until 2006, four years after it started. He publicly stated in a 2013 '60 (Minutes)' interview and wrote in his 2015 book that he believed waterboarding is indeed torture."

"Morell believes there were many mistakes with the EIT program and has written extensively on them," Shapiro said.

Still, involvement and public support for the CIA's enhanced interrogation program remains an issue for Morell and other individuals who have already been nominated to top intelligence posts by Biden.

Some progressives have questioned Haines' record on sensitive issues and accused her of complicity in the CIA torture program.

While serving as deputy CIA director from 2013 to 2014, Haines decided not to punish agency personnel who were accused of improperly accessing the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers during their investigation into the CIA's use of the enhanced interrogation techniques -- a dispute that prompted criticism from Democrats on the panel.

She also voiced support for Haspel when she was nominated for the job in 2018 and faced criticism for her involvement in the execution of the George W. Bush-era CIA interrogation programs, including those carried out at the "black site" prison she reportedly ran.

At the time, Haines' support for Haspel put her at odds with many Democrats on the panel, and it remains a sticking point for some within the party.

"Haines has an unfortunate record of repeatedly covering up for torture and torturers. Her push for maximalist redactions of the torture report, her refusal to discipline the CIA personnel who hacked the Senate and her vociferous support for Gina Haspel -- which was even touted by the Trump White House as Democrats stood in nearly unanimous opposition to the then-nominee to lead the CIA -- should be interrogated during the confirmation process," David Segal, co-founder and executive director of the group Demand Progress, told CNN.

But Morell's comments portraying "torture" as a useful tool may be considered as more severe for some Democrats if he is nominated as CIA director, raising more questions about who Biden will choose to lead the agency in coming days.

To: Danette

Election results (including the scanned ballot images and log files) are stored on the compact flash memory cards and can be stored on local file system or on the NAS. Each file type (result files, ballot images and log files) may be imported together or separately. This allows for the flexible management of results after the election occurs.

flexible management of results after the election occurs

Nothing to see here, move along now. https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/VotingSystems/DVS-DemocracySuite/documentation/EMS_RTR_UserGuide.pdf Page 32

As the Trump team said, this system is designed to control the outcome of an election, not merely record and tally ballots.

In most, if not all States, if you're caught with a slim jim or a lock pick set, you'll be charged with possession of burglary tools. These Dominion systems are nothing but tools for election thievery. They have no place being in the USA.

46 posted on 11/21/2020, 8:38:03 AM by Pollard (Bunch of curmudgeons)

Arizona

Arizona, Philadelphia, & Wisconsin – YouTube video of fraud: https://youtu.be/oaczmYL9dms

Voters Told to Use Sharpies and Not Pens to Insure Their Votes Would Not Count

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-2YZqAzw2A

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vrvagzugl6by2z/123710086_10219056895000428_291030602452571711_n.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d4x38y8oot7phsc/123669205_786112478612590_2104420771591550005_o.jpg

Voters are being given sharpies to vote with – When sharpies are being used ballots aren't counted

https://rumble.com/vaxmzz-nov-3-2020-maricopa-county-arizona-voter-fraud.html?fbclid=IwAR3SepGCjar2WiKXyP5asDMXaWWflrSxJMEPALFDogYqoMbEVnaqtHJpmis

https://www.bitchute.com/video/7jbOdAaohzEs

Arizona – ballots filled in with sharpie: https://youtu.be/YsEkRjxjzqs

NY – people vote, shave heads, try to vote again: https://defconnews.com/2020/10/30/voter-fraud-update-people-vote-shave-their-heads-and-try-to-vote-again-in-nyc/?fbclid=IwAR2efjGRlq6F2Lpy3pLOL2LyHvo0Tt2Xkfho8RNwnbbipwwiGH9zsVkk5eA

Petition to recount votes – https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/recount-arizona-votes

Rep. Paul Gosar Calls on Arizona Officials to Investigate the Accuracy of the Dominion Ballot Software After Reports of Glitches – https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/07/rep-gosar-calls-on-az-officials-investigate-the-accuracy-of-the-dominion-ballot-software-after-reports-of-glitches/

California

Voter Fraud in California – https://twitter.com/VascovichMark/status/1325809122403606531?s=20

This Woman's Service Dog was Listed as a Human, Registered to Vote and Voted – https://www.bitchute.com/video/B7SW5xcCEqsM/

Colorado

BLM activist Dale Harrison on video shredding Trump ballot – https://nationalfile.com/video-soundcloud-rapper-makes-tiktok-video-showing-him-destroy-trump-ballots/

Actual video https://mobile.twitter.com/Airmech86/status/1325938299219841024

Delaware

Video of woman working the election filling out ballots: https://gab.com/DemsFearTruth/posts/105161314454051560

Georgia

Georgia Counties Using Same Software As Michigan Counties Also Encounter "Glitch" – https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/07/georgia-counties-using-same-software-as-michigan-counties-also-encounter-glitch/

Investigators Dispatched After Fulton County Discovers "Issue" with Ballot Reporting – https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/11/08/investigators-dispatched-after-fulton-county-discovers-issue-ballot-reporting/

Military Mail in Ballots Found in Georgia Dumpster – https://twitter.com/KimonaQ/status/1324867267927158786?s=20

Open Records Request Finds No Invoices or Work Orders on Reported Election Day Water Main Break in Atlanta – https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/breaking-exclusive-open-records-request-finds-no-invoices-work-orders-reported-election-day-water-main-break-atlanta-found

Iowa

Iowa Secretary of State Finds "Irregularities" in Iowa Voting and Will Start a Recount – https://www.bitchute.com/video/n9yHDtzj8Dz4/

Maryland

Blatant Voter Fraud Caught on Camera in Maryland – https://rumble.com/vasdih-blatant-voter-fraud-caught-on-camera-in-md-mail-in-ballots-examined-before-.html

Michigan

At 4am, Three Vehicles Showed Up with 130,000 + Ballots for Joe Biden | Detroit Woman Exposes Massive Voter Fraud in Detroit, Michigan – https://rumble.com/vay2tz-voter-fraud-exposed-in-detroit.html?mref=23gga&mrefc=8

Lawsuit filed in Michigan alleges election fraud including backdating of ballots, unverified voters – https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/lawsuit-filed-michigan-alleges-election-fraud-including-backdating

How Dead Voters Can Vote in Michigan – https://rumble.com/vazumx-dead-voter-in-michigan.html

2,800 Instances of Election Fraud Have Been Reported | Detroit Elections Worker Says She Was Instructed to Change Ballot Dates – https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/996212/18

9,000+ Deceased (Dead) Voters Returning Absentee Ballots in 11/3/20 Election – https://controlc.com/c17e91ba

More Than 10,000 Dead People Cast Ballots in Michigan, Analysis Shows – https://www.theepochtimes.com/10000-dead-people-returned-mail-in-ballots-in-michigan-analysis-shows_3573209.html

Lawsuit: Out-of-State Vehicles Brought Tens of Thousands of Unsealed Ballots to Michigan, All for Dems – https://www.westernjournal.com/lawsuit-state-vehicles-brought-tens-thousands-unsealed-ballots-michigan-dems

Michigan officials would not Michigan Republican poll watchers inside voting facilities to count the vote – https://www.facebook.com/rachel.kratz.58/videos/828120741271873/

Detroit Election Workers Cheering Every Time a Michigan GOP Attorney is Removed and Prevented from Watching the Polls – https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/05/reports-of-election-fraud-keep-piling-up-in-michigan-whats-going-on/

Michigan County Flips from Biden to Trump After "Glitch" Fixed – https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/06/michigan-county-flips-from-biden-to-trump-after-glitch-fixed

Detroit Poll Challenger Witnessed Election Workers Counting Ballots For 'Non-eligible' Voters, Then Kicked Out For Noticing – https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/09/detroit-poll-challenger-witnessed-election-workers-counting-ballots-for-non-eligible-voters

MICHIGAN GOP CHAIR: "Ballots Were Counted for Democrats that Were Meant for Republicans" – https://hannity.com/media-room/michigan-gop-chair-ballots-were-counted-for-democrats-that-were-meant-for-republicans

Detroit City Worker Blows Whistle, Claims Ballots Were Ordered Backdated, FBI Probing – https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/detroit-city-worker-blows-whistle-claims-ballots-were-ordered-backdated

The Graveyard Vote: Check Out the MASSIVE List of Joe Biden's Dead Supporters in Michigan – https://charliekirk.com/news/graveyard-vote-check-out-the-massive-list-of-joe-bidens-dead-supporters-in-michigan

RNC Chairwoman Alleges Voting Irregularities in Michigan – https://www.wral.com/rnc-chairwoman-alleges-voting-irregularities-in-michigan/19373684

Detroit woman has box of 500 ballots from people not on voter rolls: https://gellerreport.com/2020/11/watch-woman-at-detroit-counting-facility-says-she-found-one-box-of-ballots-from-people-who-were-not-on-voter-rolls.html

Crowder Election Stream Voter Fraud: https://twitter.com/scrowder/status/1324084077318778887

Crowder Election Stream: https://youtu.be/96-BQaIVOpc

A Victim of Michigan Voter Fraud Speaks Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxtlB5q_ng4&feature=youtu.be

Michigan – 200k ballots for Biden turn up overnight: https://constitutionalrightspac.com/articles/voter-fraud-in-michigan-massive-dump-of-over-200-000-ballots-for-biden-all-the-sudden-appear-overnight

First-Hand Account Of Election Fraud In Detroit: "They Did Not Want Us To See What Was Happening" – https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/06/election-fraud-in-detroit-they-did-not-want-us-to-see-what-was-happening

Michigan Poll Workers Kicked Out and Prevented from Observing the Counting of the Ballots – https://www.bitchute.com/video/2Q1XtPIl5rVz

Voter Fraud in Detroit, Michigan: https://twitter.com/kayleighmcenany/status/1324091940334391298

Voter Fraud in Detroit Michigan: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/04/watch-detroit-absentee-ballot-counting-chaos-as-workers-block-windows-bar-observers

Additional Voter Fraud – Covering Up the Windows: https://www.bitchute.com/video/0ItKCKO2jwei

https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo/status/1324386054254809091

4am ET dump–Wisconsin 65,000 votes, 100% for Biden

4am ET dump–Michigan 138,499 votes, 100% for Biden

AZ poll workers forcing voters to use sharpies thereby invalidating ballots

Trump leading in GA, NC, PA, WI, MI and they stop counting before the "vote fairy" visits overnight.

138,339 Biden Votes Found and Not One for Trump: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gh6wo8kduhu5nw1/123635090_10102264646138494_4797909069374599873_n.jpg

Bipartisan Denial Video Footage: https://www.facebook.com/100022218632966/videos/828120741271873

Voter Fraud While America Was Sleeping: https://twitter.com/joshubarefield1/status/1324169421561176064

Detroit – Voter Roll Lawsuit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/924lqmg391q5ung/123924829_3603827639678535_7316552115290364314_n.jpg

https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1324347326106882049

118 year old "William Bradley" voted via absentee ballot in Wayne County, Michigan. William Bradley died in 1984.

How long has this been going on?

Try it for yourself: mvic.sos.state.mi.us/Voter/Index

Michigan – Man films himself typing in dead people's names and it shows they voted in 2020:

https://twitter.com/fleccas/status/1324216584219623424

https://twitter.com/fleccas/status/1324237476186202113?fbclid=IwAR2rDGuA4BmgidX-7UvWFKE6LhXg6rOptXPIyUCGWB0C2jFSgja4UcHfRLw

USPS – Michigan Whistleblower:

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel Sends Cease and Desist Order to Journalist Demanding He Erase His #DetroitLeaks Video Showing Voter Fraud Training or FACE CRIMINAL PROSECUTION – https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/huge-exclusive-michigan-ag-dana-nessel-sends-cease-desist-order-journalist-demanding-erase-detroitleaks-video-showing-voter-fraud-training-face-criminal-prosecution

Maryville – Over 500 mail-in ballots for Trump found dumped: https://gellerreport.com/2020/11/voter-fraud-over-500-mail-in-ballots-for-trump-found-dumped-at-marysville-precinct-in-michigan.html

ALG calls for investigation into voter fraud: https://getliberty.org/2020/11/alg-calls-for-justice-department-investigation-into-voter-fraud

WATCH – A Poll Watcher From Michigan on the Eric Metaxas Radio Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sQc0ZZTblQ

In Rochester Hills, 2,000 votes were incorrectly double counted for Democrats – https://twitter.com/kayleighmcenany/status/1324806241638600705

Election workers wore Biden shirts and clapped a GOP poll watchers were removed – https://twitter.com/kayleighmcenany/status/1324806241638600705

Why Does Biden Have So Many More Votes Than Democrat Senators In Swing States? – https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-does-biden-have-so-many-more-votes-democrat-senators-swing-states

One MI county clerk caught a glitch in tabulation software so they hand counted votes and found the glitch caused 6,000 votes to go to Biden/Dems that were meant for Trump/Reps. 47 MI counties used this software. https://t.21AXyJZDZi

State employees train poll workers to lie to voters, destroy ballots, stop challenger – https://www.bitchute.com/video/4X4ThH3QwlTe

Minnesota

Minneapolis – Ilhan Omar Connected Cash-For-Ballots Voter Fraud Scheme Corrupts Elections: https://www.projectveritas.com/news/ilhan-omar-connected-cash-for-ballots-voter-fraud-scheme-corrupts-elections

Minneapolis Police investigating: (This Content Isn't Available Right Now)

When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.

https://www.facebook.com/terrilinnreeder/posts/10221825211530957

New Jersey

Democratic insider, in August, leaks information about the six steps to voter fraud, his personal career of fraud, and the war coming in November: https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/08/30/confessions-of-voter-fraud-dem-operative-whistleblower-shares-secrets-of-how-easy-it-was-966427

Voter Fraud in Millburn, New Jersey – Multiple Ballots Accepted All Day – https://rumble.com/vaxq2i-voter-fraud-in-millburn-nj-multiple-ballots-accepted-all-day.html

How Voter Fraud Works | Confessions of a voter fraud: I was a master at fixing mail-in ballots – https://nypost.com/2020/08/29/political-insider-explains-voter-fraud-with-mail-in-ballots

Nevada

Nevada Poll Worker Confirms Rampant Electoral Fraud for Crucial Battleground County in Sworn Affidavit – https://bigleaguepolitics.com/nevada-poll-worker-alleges-rampant-electoral-fraud-for-crucial-battleground-county-in-sworn-affidavit

Laura Ingraham Interviews Poll Worker in Shocking Segment – https://rumble.com/vb133h-laura-ingraham-interviews-anonymous-poll-worker-in-shocking-segment.html

Nevada – Letter to Clark County about thousands of ineligible voters turning in ballots: https://www.facebook.com/brain.mechanic.9/posts/3076565275782952

Nevada whistleblower describes Biden van vote factory in signed affidavit – https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/nevada-whistleblower-describes-biden-van-vote-factory-in-signed-affidavit

This Man's Dead Wife Voted in Clark County – https://rumble.com/vb120l-next-time-someone-asks-for-proof-of-voter-fraud-show-them-this.html

Nevada GOP Claims to Have Found Over 3,000 Instances of Voter Fraud – https://thegreggjarrett.com/nevada-fraud-a-nevada-gop-claims-to-have-found-over-3000-instances-of-voter-fraud

Documented USPA Fraud in Las Vegas – https://www.bitchute.com/video/hw76aNlemV8F

Whistleblower Saw People in Biden Van Opening, Filing and Sealing Nevada Ballots – https://www.theepochtimes.com/whistleblower-saw-people-in-biden-van-opening-filling-and-sealing-nevada-ballots-trump-campaign-claims_3570956.html

2 Guys At a Wedding in Vegas Find a Bunch of Trump Ballots in the Garbage – https://parler.com/post/d14e946d4bb94f2988dd4b88b6b25e53

Woman's Dead Grandmother Voted in Las Vegas, Nevada – https://rumble.com/vayeag-another-proof-of-the-voter-fraud.html

New Jersey

Vote Fraud Exposed in Millburn, New Jersey – https://rumble.com/vaxq2i-voter-fraud-in-millburn-nj-multiple-ballots-accepted-all-day.html

Oklahoma

Oklahoma – woman received mail-in ballot already opened: https://www.facebook.com/happydave/posts/10221429545020912

Oklahoma – men raise alarms after finding discarded Trump ballots in the trash while cleaning up a church – https://www.newswars.com/watch-trump-ballots-found-in-trash-at-oklahoma-church

Trump Ballots Found in Trash Can at Saint Anne's Church, which is also a polling location. All of the ballots were for Trump. Go figure. – https://twitter.com/OleMurica/status/1325916111368556545

Pennsylvania

Erie, Pennsylvania Postal Worker Richard Hopkins Accused of Being a False Whistleblower – https://www.instagram.com/p/CHbisERBU5r

Researcher Confirms Tens of Thousands of Pennsylvania Ballots Returned Earlier Than Sent Date – https://www.theepochtimes.com/pennsylvania-100000-ballots-with-implausible-return-dates_3572942.html

Military Ballots Found in the Trash in Pennsylvania, Most Were Trump Votes – https://pjmedia.com/election/matt-margolis/2020/09/24/military-ballots-found-in-the-trash-in-pennsylvania-all-were-trump-votes-n964614

Analysis of Votes Cast for Joe Biden and Turnout Itself in Pennsylvania Reveal a Host of Statistical and Historical Anomalies That Favor Democratic Candidates' Chances of Winning the Presidency – https://thenationalpulse.com/politics/pennsylvania-vote-anomalies

Poll Watches Testify That They Were Prevented from Watching the Polls https://youtu.be/7H10wZ4SszM?t=1848

I Was in Philadelphia Watching Fraud Happen. Here's How It Went Down – https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/10/i-was-in-philadelphia-watching-fraud-happen-heres-how-it-went-down

Lawsuit: At Least 21,000 Dead People on Pennsylvania Voter Rolls – https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/05/lawsuit-at-least-21k-dead-people-on-pennsylvania-voter-rolls

Ballot Harvesting in Pennsylvania Involving 25,000 Nursing Home Residents – https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/lindsey-graham-possible-ballot-harvesting-in-pennsylvania-involving-25-000-nursing-home-residents

Bucks County, PA Ballots Thrown in the Trash – https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1325899638092816387

Tens of Thousands of Pennsylvania Ballots Returned Earlier Than Sent Date – https://www.theepochtimes.com/pennsylvania-100000-ballots-with-implausible-return-dates_3572942.html

More "Glitches" in Pennsylvania: Votes for Trump Drop IN THREE DIFFERENT COUNTIES SIMULTANEOUSLY – https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/glitches-pennsylvania-votes-trump-drop-three-different-counties-time-period-almost-coordinated

Philadelphia Voter Admits to Voting Twice – https://www.bitchute.com/video/iCb3m8GGx5Yk

Pro Bono Lawyer for Trump Campaign Shares What He Saw in Pennsylvania – https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/11/06/a-pro-bono-lawyer-for-trump-campaign-shares-what-he-saw-in-pennsylvania

Poll Watching in Philadelphia, PA – https://twitter.com/MatthewTyrmand/status/1324786382733254658

2020 Rejection Rate of Pennsylvania Mail-In Ballots Over 25 Times Lower Than in 2016 – https://bongino.com/2020-rejection-rate-of-pa-mail-in-ballots-over-25-times-lower-than-in-2016

Voter Fraud: Pennsylvania Democrats Caught Throwing Out Trump Votes – https://thenewamerican.com/voter-fraud-pennsylvania-democrats-caught-throwing-out-trump-votes

Using Binoculars to Watch the Polls | How Poll Observation Was Allowed in Philadelphia – https://twitter.com/matthewtyrmand/status/1324786382733254658

BREAKING: Pennsylvania @USPS Whistleblower Richard Hopkins Goes Public; Confirms Federal Investigators Have Spoken With Him About Postmaster Rob Weisenbach's Order To Backdate Ballots To November 3rd, 2020

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1324850528279474176

Ballot worker filling out ballots (tried to be disproven in the article): https://fusion.inquirer.com/politics/election/delaware-county-voter-fraud-video-poll-workers-manipulated-20201106.html

Real Crimes on Camera in Pennsylvania? PA government monitoring videos seem to capture several election poll workers corruptly filling in ballots. The videos were captured from PA Government Election Polling Office Live Streams at: Delcopa.gov/vote/stream.html WATCH: https://twitter.com/FuctupMike/status/1324564128724377600

Democrats stealing the election in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/04/yes-democrats-are-trying-to-steal-the-election-in-michigan-wisconsin-and-pennsylvania

US Supreme Court's decision late last week to allow state election officials to continue counting absentee ballots received by this Friday — three days after Election Day. Ample time to send in more Biden votes.

Additionally, about half of the state's voters voted by absentee ballot.

DUMPED – Pennsylvania Ballots – https://pjmedia.com/election/matt-margolis/2020/09/24/military-ballots-found-in-the-trash-in-pennsylvania-all-were-trump-votes-n964614

Reports two more batches of votes in PA. About 5,300 from Luzerne County, nearly 4,000 were Biden; 23,277 votes in Philadelphia, ALL of them for Biden. Yep, he got 100% of the votes in the late-arriving batch of votes. https://twitter.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/1324381770721144834?s=20

Election workers filling in ballots https://youtu.be/XWLPkuczMHA

Texas

Texas assisted living employee charged with 134 counts of alleged election fraud, report https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/texas-assisted-living-employee-charged-134-counts-alleged-election-fraud

Poll watcher submits affidavit of judge and staff using driver's licenses for illegal votes: https://gellerreport.com/2020/10/democrat-judge-voter-fraud-houston.html

Woman caught on video coercing and bribing voters – Project Veritas – https://www.bitchute.com/video/66eb3MogP6hh

Citizen Journalist Exposing Mass Voter Fraud in Texas – https://www.bitchute.com/video/gYNEx9EIJU91

Filmed flipping ballot votes in person, bribing with gifts, and admitting to illegal actions during the election – https://www.bitchute.com/video/yLmyBXMn5xru

Virginia

Fairfax County – Misrepresents 100K Votes

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2l970ddzuk0bmft/123337290_111608340752029_2960889513393199450_n.jpg

Wisconsin

BREAKING: Wisconsin has more voters than registered to vote – PROOF OF VOTER FRAUD

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jpbcso88css73s0/Screenshot%202020-11-04%20at%2010.16.08%20AM.jpeg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlkkzv4zol0dwaq/123491515_111604790752384_7294986741433546137_n.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/807x6jz6y0h1yvp/123540271_111604880752375_6401053064918245891_n.jpg

2. BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: System "Glitch" Also Uncovered In Wisconsin – Reversal of Swapped Votes Removes Lead from Joe Biden – https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/breaking-exclusive-system-glitch-also-uncovered-wisconsin-reversal-19032-votes-removes-lead-joe-biden

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:01

Holy Radar '' that's the Kraken!!! Who knew it is a Department of Defense Cyber Warfare Program? It Tracks Systems and aquires evidence of nefarious activities and crimes committed by The Deep State!

When Sidney Powell stated she HAS RELEASED THE KRAKEN, most of us thought of Clash of the Titans and cheered her on for her gutsy remark. She never blinked and held a stern, a serious face when she said it. She wasn't joking and now we know why! The ''Kraken'' is a Department of Defense-run cyber warfare program that tracks and hacks various other systems to acquire evidence of nefarious actions by the deep state!President Trump and the loyal patriots in the Military and Space Command now have all the evidence of voter fraud and election related treason. This will be used against the enemies of America!

What we are witnessing with the 2020 elections is NOT an election. We are witnessing the attempt of the overthrow of the United States Government. The CIA, FBI and DOJ are full of Treasonous Swamp Rats that are intent on stealing the Presidential seat, and taking over America for the global order. They are wicked globalist puppets who are boldly pushing their coup to destroy America and implement a global reset and usher in United Nations Agenda 2030 which is the revised version of sustainable development Agenda 21. They are in lockstep throwing all their punches at unsuspecting Americans while nations around the world are doing the very same lockdowns on their citizens. Will they succeed? The answer is NO!

WARNING FROM ACTING SEC. OF DEFENCE CHRIS MILLER:''Should any maligned actors underestimate our resolve or attempt to undermine our efforts, we will not hesitate to restore deterrents and defeat any and all threats. ''

Certain sectors of Special Forces Operations now report directly to Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller. They are aligned with Trump, the Constitution and the defending of America against its enemies, both foreign and domestic. So don't panic and fear not. President Trump is in control and the battle lines are drawn. The Kraken has been released and it has everything. Special Forces assets are now being deployed to take down America's domestic enemies and traitors.

Read full report at this link http://tapnewswire.com/2020/11/intelligence-update-the-great-reset-vs-the-great-awakening-the-grand-battle-taking-place-right-now-for-the-future-of-america-and-the-free-world/

Sidney Powell declared that, ''an algorithm was plugged in to steal votes from President Trump during the election'' '' which is exactly what the truth bearing media has been warning about for over a decade. (Elections have been rigged for at least the last twenty years, and probably longer'...)

Fake news and the entire media cartel continues to lie to America and withhold all the overwhelming evidence of election fraud. This is nothing short of assisting in a government overthrow. Treason is the only way to describe it. However, I'm sure there are some that believe what they are told to read and others who are clueless and just go to work, do their job and collect a paycheck. The same as the grunts committing voter fraud on the front lines by following illegal procedures as though they were authentic and legal. Many just don't know and others simply don't care.

As long as fake news continues to lie to the American public, it is nothing short in a time of war such as we are into, as an act of betrayal and considered enemies of the people. Now I am not shouting for war, it has already been declared and those who resist have been told re-education awaits them along with other horrid ideas the Left has been leaking out daily. It's all really, really bad and not to be laughed at.

Jeffrey Prather explains the ''Kraken'' and describes, ''The Great Reset vs. the Great Awakening'' He has released a bombshell video where he sums up the real war taking place behind the scenes: ''The Great Reset vs. the Great Awakening.''

As he explains it, the CIA, FBI and DOJ are all treasonous swamp creatures who are dedicated to bringing down America, stealing the election, and imprisoning all the real patriots such as Gen. Flynn (and Roger Stone). Meanwhile, certain sectors of special forces operations and now Chris Miller as Acting Defense Secretary, are all aligned with Trump, the Constitution and defending America against its enemies, both foreign and domestic.

The entire video can be viewed at this link: The Great Reset: The Deep State vs the Great Awakening '' YouTube

Read article on ''Army Releases The Kraken To Protect Foreign Fire Bases at this link: Army Releases The Kraken To Protect Foreign Fire Bases; 'I'd Like To See The Taliban Try To Attack This Place' Breaking Defense '' Defense industry news, analysis and commentary

To think that the deep state has infiltrated so deep it had operatives at every stronghold and to consider let alone to know it is a fact that the deep state was so bold to pull a massive government take down on the scale they are attempting is more than disturbing. Wake up people and call these globalists out now and help save the United States of America and the World at large!

Dianne Marshall

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 06:12

Toronto Maple Leaf Farm

Image Source: Verocommunique.comIn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, with public opinion, on election day November 3rd, overwhelmingly in favor of President Trump, the preliminary results from the mainstream media on the morning of November 4th showed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden winning the Presidential contest over President Trump. While Biden's team was celebrating, evidence of ballot fraud was emerging. The Dominion Voting Systems (DVS) ballot-counting system used in 28 states during the election contained Chinese-made hardware components as well as the Smartmatic ballot software. Voter data was illegally transmitted to foreign countries and this led to the seizure of a server by the U.S. military at the offices of Scytl in Frankfurt, Germany. Public discontent reached a climax and finally erupted on November 14 in Washington, D.C., when the Washington D.C. Voters' Association held a rally. Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to demand electoral transparency, and to support Trump's re-election.

The use of high-tech voting systems to process voting results in the U.S. is not new. The DVS machines use software from Smartmatic which describes itself as the global leader in secure, accessible, transparent election technology. Once one of the top-ranked voting systems in the U.S., Smartmatic has a complex background and continues to generate controversy. In the 2020 U.S. election it has been exposed as a real threat to U.S. national security.

Smartmatic Voting Systems in Venezuela

Image Source: ForbesFounded in Venezuela in 1997 by a team of three engineers '' Antonio Mugica, Alfredo Jos(C) Anzola, and Roger Pi±ate, Smartmatic specializes in the design and end-to-end deployment of technology solutions for specific applications. The company's niches are: electronic voting systems, smart city solutions (including public safety and public transportation), identity management systems for civil registration, and authentication products for government applications.

The company's first U.S. entity was incorporated in Delaware in April 2000 and opened its headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida with seven employees in November of that year. The 2000 U.S. presidential election was marred by ''hanging and dimpled chads'' on the Florida ballot cards. After controversy erupted over the mis-counting of ballots, Smartmatic began to target the development of election voting systems.

In April 2003 in Caracas, Venezuela, Smartmatic officially unveiled its prototype for election automation. The testing of the prototype covered all the details of the process necessary for any type of election. During the tests, emphasis was placed on the system's encryption capabilities, which are essential for the confidential storage and transmission of data, as well as the robustness of the software and hardware system's components. The system passed all tests with no shortcomings, said a company spokesperson.

The voting system was developed entirely in-house by Smartmatic. That includes the integration of hardware and software systems from design stage to end-to-end deployment. Such a complex, purpose-built technical solution would require a strong, system-wide R&D capability that would not have been possible in Venezuela without massive technical and financial support. Although Smartmatric established a U.S. presence in 2000, almost all of its products were developed in Venezuela, a country where capital is scarce and scientific research and manufacturing are not sophisticated.

Key conclusion/question #1: where did the financing and R&D knowledge come from?

Smartmatric's voting solution was first implemented in the August 2004 recall referendum against President Hugo Chvez in Venezuela, and was successful in helping Chvez secure 59% of the votes. This result was met with accusations of electoral fraud. At the time questions were only raised about the election process and patterns. Nobody focused on the Smartmatic voting system. The good people of Venezuela had no idea that an invisible hand was manipulating the referendum.

Smartmatic first established a presence in the United States in 2000 in Boca Raton, Florida, then moved its headquarters to Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2004, and opened a new headquarters in London in 2012.

According to Wikipedia: ''although Smartmatic has made different claims about whether they are American or Dutch, the U.S. State Department notes that the owners of the company remain hidden in a network of holding companies in the Netherlands and Barbados''. The New York Times notes that ''the role of the young Venezuelan engineers who founded Smartmatic has become less obvious and that its organization is an elaborate network of offshore companies and foreign trusts.'' BBC News noted that while Smartmatic says the company was founded in the U.S. and ''its roots are firmly fixed in (Venezuela), the ownership structure is opaque.'' Smartmatic maintains that holding companies in multiple countries are used for ''tax efficiency.''

WikiLeaks provides some more detail, '''...they have a list of about 30 anonymous investors '.... the silent partners are mainly upper-class Venezuelans, '.... then Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel '.... the Vice President's daughter Gisela Rangel Avalos, Chvez's political mentor Luis Miquelina is also a shareholder in the company '....'' The true identity of most of Smartmatic's shareholders remains a mystery.

Key conclusion/question #2: who are the true owners of Smartmatic and where is the company resident for tax purposes?

Sequoia Voting Systems of the United States

Image Source: verifiedvoting.orgIn 1984, Sequoia Pacific System Corporation purchased the voting machine business of AVM Corporation (the former Automatic Voting Machine Corporation) and reorganized it as Sequoia Voting Systems. By the time Sequoia bought the AVM voting business, the AVM Automatic Voting Computer (AVC) was ready for market. Under Sequoia's ownership, AVC was certified for use in several states in 1986 and 1987, and it went to market as the 'Sequoia AVC Advantage DRE voting machine' in 1990.

In late 1997, benefiting from an antitrust action by the U.S. Department of Justice, Sequoia Voting System obtained the intellectual property rights of the Optech line of ballot scanners. It proceeded to manufacture scanning voting machines and developed a touch-screen. But the product underperformed after several years of losses. In March 2005, the company was acquired by Smartmatric, which had developed a range of advanced election systems, including voting machines. Since then, Smartmatic has assigned most of its development and management teams to work on retrofitting some of Sequoia's old-fashioned, legacy voting machines and replacing their technology with proprietary features, resulting in new high-tech products. As a result, Sequoia sold many next-generation election products and experienced a healthy financial recovery in fiscal years 2006 and 2007. However, in the 2006 presidential election, Sequoia's voting system was called into question.

1.Cook County, Illinois is the second most populous county in the United States. It had many problems using the Sequoia Voting System. Problems were suspected to be related to a software error of the voting system.

2.Florida replaced the punch card voting system with a touchscreen system after the 2000 election problems, but the touchscreen system purchased from Sequoia had some major problems.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) opened an investigation into Sequoia only after Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who chairs the subcommittee overseeing CFIUS and who co''‹authored the Foreign Investment and National Security Act 2007 (FINSA), wrote a letter to then''‹Treasury Secretary John Snow inquiring whether the Venezuelan government could use Sequoia to manipulate U.S. elections. Maloney cited the fact that the Venezuelan state had invested in Smartmatic's affiliates, the company's current ownership was buried in a labyrinth of offshore trusts, and revelations that Sequoia had flown 15 Venezuelan nationals to Chicago to tabulate votes in a local election. ''There clearly remained doubt surrounding this company, and as long as those doubts lingered, many people would have legitimate questions about the integrity of these voting machines,'' said Maloney. ''When I first raised this case with Treasury, I thought that it was ripe for a CFIUS investigation, because the integrity of our voting machines is vital to national security. At that time, Smartmatic flatly refused to undergo a CFIUS review. But now it seems the company could not overcome the cloud of doubt surrounding this doubt '' had they been able to, we would not be talking about a sale of Sequoia today. As I said in May, it seems that a CFIUS review was in fact the proper course.''

The company replaced its headquarters in Boca Raton in favor of a complex structure with offices in multiple locations. The U.S. State Department said its Venezuelan owners ''remain hidden behind a network of holding companies in the Netherlands and Barbados''; its organization is ''a complex network of offshore companies and foreign trusts.''

Key conclusion/question #3: why did Smartmatic reorganize from a transparent structure with a head office in Florida to an opaque structure with holding companies and trusts in the Netherlands and Barbados?

In November 2007 CFIUS issued a ruling ordering Smartmatic to sell all of its shares in Sequoia Voting Systems in exchange for CFIUS dropping its investigation of Smartmatic. But what followed was far from what one might expect. Following a ruling by the CFIUS, Smartmatic was ordered to sell to Sequoia's management team- SVS Holdings Inc, (Sequoia Holdings). However, Smartmatic still retained some financial control over several aspects of Sequoia, ownership of the intellectual property rights of some of Sequoia's election products deployed in the U.S., and the right to negotiate for overseas business.

It was only in April 2008 that these arrangements were revealed when Hart InterCivic, a competitor of Sequoia, attempted a ''hostile takeover'' of Sequoia Holdings. Through the discovery process made possible by the purchase offer it became evident that Smartmatic had not fully divested itself of Sequoia Holdings. The purchase contract showed several elements of permanent control over Sequoia Holdings.

Smartmatic still retained some financial control of Sequoia Holdings.Smartmatic also retained ownership of intellectual property rights for some of Sequoia's currently deployed election products in the United States.Sequoia Holdings reserved the right to negotiate non-compete contracts overseas.''The secrecy regarding CFIUS investigations is legendary: CFIUS was previously not allowed to tell Congress of the results''or even existence''of security reviews.'' [1]

However, these arrangements were allegedly made with the review and approval of CFIUS. Sequoia Holdings faces substantial legal liability for infringement of intellectual property rights and repeated voting system failures.

Key conclusion/question #4: why did Smartmatic retain this control over finances, intellectual property, and non-compete clauses, and why did CFIUS approve this arrangement?

At the end of April 2008, a shocking event occurred: one of Smartmatic's founders, who was also the founder of the American company, died in a plane crash in Venezuela, along with Smartmatic's finance department and the plane's pilot. The Venezuelan Minister of the Interior (said to be a relative of the founder) was the first to arrive at the hospital, along with Jorge Rodriguez, former President of the Venezuelan Electoral Council and former Vice President of Venezuela.

Sequoia Holdings orchestrated a turnaround in 2010 with the acquisition by Dominion Voting System. On June 4, 2010, Dominion Voting Systems, a previously little-known Canadian company which engaged in the manufacture of electronic voting hardware and optical scanners, acquired Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. Sequoia filed a bankruptcy petition under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in February 2014.''

It is worth taking a closer look at the Sequoia group of companies, Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital China, and their particularly their founder Neil Shen. This is the key to the connection with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Image Source: Isfeed.comMr. Guo Wengui made comments about Sequoia and Neil Nanpeng Shen: '''...Neil Shen is the major partner of Sequoia Capital, and the Shen family is one of the most powerful in the United States. Nine out of eleven families are his partners, and now it is about the White House, I can't say his name anymore. Thomas, the boss of Silicon Valley, Eric Smith, the former CEO of Google, and Zuckerberg, the former CEO of FB, were all speechless when they met Neil Shen, including Hong Kong Superman and Rachel Lee, because Shen is the real godfather of the Internet. '...'... ''

Neil Shen (born 1967) is an entrepreneur and investor based in the province of Zhejiang, China.In 1985, Neil Shen attended Shanghai Jiaotong University in the first class of its newly established program which waived selected students from examination requirements. In 1989, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 1989 he travelled to the United States to study '' initially majoring in Mathematics at Columbia University and later being accepted at Yale University. He received a Master's Degree from Yale University in 1992.

Following graduation from Yale in 1992, Neil Shen accepted a position at Citibank in the United States. In 1994, he returned to China, joining Lehman Brothers, where he handled investment-banking projects in China. From 1996 to 1999, he served as a director at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong, China, responsible for transactions involving China's debt capital markets. In 1999, Neil Shen founded Ctrip, serving as chairman, president and chief financial officer. On December 9, 2003, Ctrip was listed on the NASDAQ. In 2002, he founded the Home Inns hotel chain where he served as the founder and co-chairman. On October 26, 2006, the Home Inns hotel chain was listed on NASDAQ. In 2003 and 2004, Shen personally became the angel investor and board director of E-House China and China Focus Media.

In 2005 Neil Shen established Sequoia Capital China (çºæ'‰èµæ'¬ä¸­å›½åŸºé‡‘) as an affiliate to the U.S. firm, with the support of Sequoia Capital's Michael Moritz and Douglas Leone. Sequoia Capital invests in both public and private companies. It specializes in incubation, seed stage, startup stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies. Sequoia Capital has invested in over 1000 companies since 1972, including Apple, Google, Oracle, Nvidia, GitHub, PayPal, LinkedIn, Stripe, Bird, YouTube, Instagram, Yahoo!, PicsArt, Klarna and WhatsApp. The combined current public market value for these companies is over $1.4 trillion, equivalent to 22 percent of the Nasdaq. Its portfolio is mainly in financial services, healthcare, outsourcing, and technology. By 2017, Sequoia Capital had originated 68 initial public offerings and 203 acquisitions.

Following the economic crisis in 2009, Sequoia Capital China, led by Neil Shen, chose to invest in companies with high growth potential. Neil Shen has managed the IPOs of several companies on the NYSE, HKEx, and China A-Share Exchange. He facilitated the merger of Sina Real Estate Channel with E-House China, and successfully listed E-House China on NYSE on August 8, 2007. In December 2009, Neil Shen helped the Cao Guowei team lead the acquisition of the No.1 online portal Sina. Now Sequoia Capital China has offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou, and Shenzhen. Over the past ten years, Sequoia Capital China has built an impressive and diverse portfolio. This group of approximately 300 dynamic companies delivers high returns on investment using differentiated technologies and innovative business models. They include Alibaba, VIPshop, Sina.com, JD.com, Didi, Ourpalm, Qihoo 360, Jumei, Momo, SINNET, Dianping, Meituan, Meilishuo, Toutiaoto, Navi, Ganji.com, DJI, VanceInfo, Noah Private Wealth Management, Wanda Cinemas, Alibaba Pictures, Plateno Hotels Group, Deppon Logistics, ZTO Express, Beta Pharma, Snibe Diagnostic, BGI, WEGO, and Yuwell Medical.

In 2009, Neil Shen endowed the ''Sequoia Xia An'' professorship fund at his undergraduate alma mater Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as well as a scholarship program named ''Zhiyuan College Outstanding Student Scholarship''. As a board member of the Education Development Foundation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Neil Shen has funded the summer exchange program between Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Yale University. He has also made several donations to Yale University. In October 2014 the Yale University China Center was unveiled in Beijing. He participated in the endowment of the Center with the largest donation ever from Yale China Alumni. He is the board chairman of the Yale Leadership Center in China. In November 2015, during COP 21 (United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris), the Breakthrough Energy Coalition was formed led by Bill Gates, Neil Shen, Jack Ma, Mark Zuckerberg and 28 other business leaders who committed to invest significant resources in the next five years to address climate change and clean energy issues. Neil Shen is Director and a long-time benefactor of the Teach For China program

Neil Shen is not only the founding and managing partner of Sequoia Capital China, he also serves as Global Steward of Sequoia Capital. Neil Shen is a Member of the 13th CPPCC National Committee. He is a Vice Chairman, China Securities Investment Fund Association, Venture Capital Fund Committee. He is Co-founder and Chairman of the Hong Kong X Technology Startup Platform. He is a Member of the Advisory Panel on Innovation and Strategic Development for the Chief Executive of the HKSAR.

As a director of the China Entrepreneurs Forum, Neil Shen served as the rotating chairman in 2015. He is the Vice-Chairman of the Venture Capital Committee for Asset Management Association of China. He is also a Trustee of the Asia Society. He is the founding board member and the 2016 rotating President of the Future Forum. He is also the Vice President of Beijing Private Equity Association, and the Vice Chairman of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai. Neil Shen was the top-ranked venture capitalist in China according to Forbes from 2010 to 2013. He topped the Forbes ranking of Top Venture Capitalists in China in 2014 and 2015. He was ranked at No.3 in 2014.The Asian Venture Capital Journal named him the Venture Capitalist of the Year in both 2010 and 2015, and also the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004. In both 2014 and 2015, Neil Shen, as one of the few honored guests, attended the first and second China's World Internet Conference. He is a member of High-level Advisory Council of the Secretariat of the World Internet Conference Organizing Committee. In September 2015, Neil Shen was received by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the China '' U.S. Internet Industry Forum in Seattle, Washington, USA. In 2016, the New York Times reported that Neil Shen was ranked at #9 on the CB Insights listing of the world's top venture capitalists.

Key conclusion/question #5: Neil Shen is the key connection between the CCP, Sequoia, and Dominion Voting Systems and their work in the US elections.

Dominion Voting Systems in Canada

Image Source: Rebelnews.comDominion Voting Systems, founded in 2002 in Toronto, is a company that sells electronic voting hardware and software in the United States and Canada. Dominion Voting Systems is one of the three major voting software products that was used in the 2020 U.S. election, along with systems from Election System & Software (ES&S) and Hart InterCivic.

Key individuals at Dominion are associated with the Carlyle Group, a U.S. multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services firm with more than $203 billion in assets under management.

Who is behind the Carlyle Group?

In April 2003, Carlyle Capital was managed by a team of former U.S. government personnel, including president Frank Carlucci (former Deputy Director of the CIA), former Secretary of Defense James Baker III (who served on George W. Bush's Board of Governors), and James Baker III (who served on the Board of Directors of the National Security Agency).

The financial assets of the Saudi bin Laden Corporation (SBC) were also managed by the Carlyle Group before the 9/11 attack in New York. Many influential individuals have worked for or invested in the group, including John Major, former UK Prime Minister; Fidel Ramos, former Philippines President; Park Tae Joon, former South Korean Prime Minister; Saudi Prince Al-Walid; Colin Powell, former Secretary of State; James Baker III, former Secretary of State; Caspar Weinberger, former Defense Secretary; Richard Darman, former White House Budget Director; the billionaire George Soros; bin Laden family members; Alice Albright, daughter of Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State; Arthur Lewitt, former SEC head; William Kennard, former head of the FCC; Karl Otto P¶hl, former Bundesbank president; Henri Martre, former president of Aerospatiale; and Bilderberg steering committee member Etienne Davignon.

Key conclusion/question #6: key individuals at Dominion are connected with Carlyle Group whose influential investors and employees are members of the swamp that Washington D.C. has been sinking into for over 30 years.

In May 2010, Dominion acquired Premier Election Solutions from Election System & Software; and in June 2010, acquired Sequoia Holdings, which at the time had multiple voting systems controlled by Smartmatic in 16 states and 300 jurisdictions of the U.S. As a result, Dominion grew rapidly and achieved the second largest market share for a voting system in the United States.

Image Source: Frobeschina.comKey conclusion/question #7: who created and developed the software used in the voting machines sold by the merged Dominion/Sequoia entity? Who controls the code?

Image Source: Twitter.com1: Richard Brand and Ilya Shapiro at CATO Institutehttp://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/press/pres20060618.htmlhttps://maloney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/smartmatic-announces-sale-sequoia-voting-systemshttps://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/step-right-directionhttps://www.bradblog.com/?p=5947.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_Voting_Systemshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartmatichttps://www.sequoiacap.comhttps://www.sequoiacap.com/companies/https://gnews.org/zh-hans/566069/https://gnews.org/zh-hans/569830/https://www.thetrustedinsight.com/investment-news/tencent-carlyle-group-sequoia-capital-leads-450m-series-e-round-in-tuhu-china-money-network-20180917631/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-03/carlyle-takes-stake-in-ai-driven-hiring-firm-in-tech-expansionhttps://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sequoia_Capitalhttps://www.wikiwand.com/en/Trip.com_Grouphttps://gnews.org/560854/

https://www.geni.com/people/Neil-Shen/6000000054253093387

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Mon, 23 Nov 2020 14:05

Update: Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday night that Sidney Powell is no longer part of the legal team. Powell had made an appearance alongside Trump's legal team last week in a press conference.

''

Attorney Sidney Powell on Nov. 21 said that the president's lawyers will file a lawsuit of ''biblical'' proportions, alleging that some election officials were embroiled in a pay-to-play scheme with a prominent manufacturer of voting software.

''We've got tons of evidence; it's so much, it's hard to pull it all together,'' Powell told Newsmax. She didn't provide or elaborate on the evidence.

''Hopefully this week we will get it ready to file, and it will be biblical,'' Powell said. ''It's a massive project to pull this fraud claim together with the evidence that I want to put in.''

Powell said the voting system's algorithms provided Democrats 35,000 extra votes. She said Democratic candidate Joe Biden's votes were ''weighted'' at 1.25 times, while President Donald Trump's votes were parsed at 0.75.

The longtime lawyer and former federal prosecutor also alleged that there were modifications to some voting machines after the legal cutoff for changes.

Powell also said that some governors may have engaged in a pay-to-play scheme to use Dominion Voting Systems'--one of the Trump campaign's chief targets in recent days. ''Georgia is probably going to be the first state I'm going to blow up,'' she said, accusing Gov. Brian Kemp of engaging in a pay-to-play scheme.

Kemp's office hasn't responded to a request for comment, although Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has frequently said there were no instances of fraud or irregularities in the state.

Dominion, in several statements to The Epoch Times, has categorically denied allegations of election tampering and voter fraud in recent days, saying that Trump's team has peddled ''falsehoods regarding Dominion'' in recent press conferences and interviews.

''Dominion employees do not have access to the [canvass] adjudication system, nor do they operate it,'' the Toronto-based firm said in a statement. It added that ''access to the adjudication system resides with the election authority using it'' and that ''the system is controlled through secure and verifiable user accounts, and all voter intent adjustments are securely logged in the system and then recorded in the digital image of the ballot.''

Dominion also cited statements made by the secretaries of state in Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, who said they've found no evidence of voter fraud large enough to overturn the election.

However, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Trey Trainor, has repeatedly said there was voter fraud in key states. ''The massive amounts of affidavits that we see in these cases show that there was in fact fraud that took place,'' he said during an interview with ''Just the News AM'' on Nov. 20, while suggesting a lack of transparency.

The questions raised by the Trump campaign in recent days are ''very important for the legitimacy of the presidency,'' Trainor said.

Trump hasn't conceded. The Epoch Times will not declare a winner of the 2020 presidential election until all legal challenges have run their course.

Last week, Powell told Fox Business that she will prove Trump's voter fraud case within the next two weeks or so.

''We have evidence now of information from the systems going to three or four different foreign countries during the time of the election, those countries themselves could have watched the live votes come in and changed the numbers,'' said Powell. ''There's significant evidence of foreign interference from the worst communist countries on the Earth with our election.''

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:55

(Natural News) The sordid details of California Governor Gavin Newsom's unwholesome dealings with communist China continue to emerge, including the shocking revelation that Newsom is quietly funneling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to the communist Chinese regime in exchange for political favors.

Because California is certifiably bankrupt and on the verge of total economic collapse, Newsom appears to have forged a backroom deal with the Chicoms that involves him handing over taxpayer dollars in exchange for political bailouts. These include keeping California artificially afloat, as well as Newsom in office, at least until China can get troops on the ground as part of a planned nationwide takeover.

As it turns out, China fully supports, and is possibly even a financial backer of, Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa, the two most well-known domestic terrorist groups making the rounds destroying property, tearing down statues, burning entire city blocks, and shooting innocent people. The destabilization these groups are causing is all part of the Chinese takeover plan, in other words. Natural News has already established that China is providing full-auto weapons upgrade parts to Black Lives Matter through a smuggling operation that was interdicted by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

How Newsom fits into the picture is that he has turned California into a port of entry for China to smuggle in weapons and other gear for the soon-to-be second civil war that has been planned for America. And the truly sick part is that Newsom is laundering money back and forth with the Chinese under the guise of ''coronavirus aid.''

Back in April, even the mainstream media was questioning what Newsom was up to when it was revealed that he had wired half a billion dollars to an electric car company in China to supposedly purchase ''N-95 masks'' for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). This decision was never voted on or approved by legislators, and when pressed about the details of the deal, Newsom refused to disclose them.

Keep in mind that this half a billion dollars was just the first of two installments amounting to a full billion dollars being sent China to supposedly purchase face masks for Californians '' face masks that never actually arrived, by the way. As of this writing, the Chinese electric car company in question, BYD, still has the money and has yet to send over a single face mask.

''That's because this isn't a billion dollars for 'masks,''' writes Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, in an expos(C) on Newsom's treasonous criminality. ''It's part of a massive money laundering operation to funnel money to China, so that China can funnel money and weapons back to Newsom in preparation for the civil war that they're launching.''

More from Adams on how this type of government corruption has turned America into a ruinous heap and a failed state is available in the following episode of The Health Ranger Report:

This was never about saving people from a virusNone of this is conjecture, by the way. Newsom himself admitted to it personally during a television interview, though he refused to provide any details about the nature of the agreement that was made with BYD.

This massive transfer of taxpayer money to some obscure Chinese vehicle manufacturer was never voted on by the taxpayers from whom the money was stolen, nor has there been any accountability concerning how it was used. In fact, nobody even knows how it was used because the whole thing took place under the table.

Instead of using this money to help actual Californians, many of whom are jobless and barely scraping by, Newsom instead redirected it to his communist buddies across the Pacific under the guise of purchasing face masks.

Even if it was true that all this money went towards masks, which we know it certainly did not, Newsom at the very least could have instead invested it locally to have the masks produced in the state of California by actual Californians. This would have helped the state economy by keeping people employed.

But no, that was never what this was all about. Newsom pretended to spend this pile of taxpayer cash on face masks as cover for a massive money laundering scheme that effectively hands the reins of power over to China in exchange for Newsom's own political protection.

By selling Californians down the river and giving China the beachhead it has been trying to establish on America's western coast, Newsom is ensuring that he will remain on China's good side once the dust settles and the new world order emerges.

As we reported, Newsom is directly facilitating the transfer of weapons and ammunition from China to the United States, where much of it is now being stored at the Easy End Complex in Sacramento. Pallets upon pallets of Chinese munitions are being stockpiled right underneath our noses, and Americans have Newsom the traitor to thank for what is soon to transpire.

''Essentially, Gov. Newsom has been stockpiling weapons and ammo in preparation for a civil war that he's been helping to make reality,'' notes the Health Ranger, who further warns that this all aligns with Barack Obama's infamous vision concerning the future of America:

''We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set '... We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded,'' Obama proclaimed to his cheering worshipers.

To sum it all up, Newsom is quietly paving the way for Obama's civilian national security force to come to fruition by working directly with China to stockpile weapons and ammo. He is also helping to foment the violent division that is tearing apart our country so that China and other new world order players can swoop in when the time is just right and seize control.

Following a series of other preliminary events, many of which we are now witnessing on a daily basis, the eventual outcome will be mass death in America followed by a staged military invasion by China. This will spell the final end of America as we know it, and Americans will have Newsom, among others, to thank.

More news about the treasonous Gavin Newsom is available at NewsomWatch.com.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

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Archived Version

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 17:54

In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced ElectionGuard, a free open-source software development kit (SDK) from our Defending Democracy Program. ElectionGuard is accessible by design and will make voting more secure, verifiable and efficient anywhere it's used in the United States or in democratic nations around the world. Today we're announcing that ElectionGuard is now available on GitHub so that major election technology suppliers can begin integrating ElectionGuard into their voting systems.

The ElectionGuard resources available on GitHub today extend across four GitHub repositories, or storage spaces, each described below.

ElectionGuard specification. The ElectionGuard specification includes both ''informal'' and ''formal'' road maps for how ElectionGuard works. The informal spec is authored by Dr. Josh Benaloh of Microsoft Research and provides the conceptual and mathematical basis for end-to-end verifiable elections with ElectionGuard. The formal spec contains detailed guidance manufacturers will need to incorporate ElectionGuard into their systems, including a full description of the API '' which is the way voting systems communicate with the ElectionGuard software '' and the stages of an end-to-end verifiable election.

Software code. This repository contains the actual source code vendors will use to build their ElectionGuard implementations. It is written in C, a standard language commonly used by open-source software developers and includes a buildable version of the API. This documentation is also viewable here. This code was built together with our development partner Galois.

Reference verifier and specification. As we announced in May, ElectionGuard enables government entities, news organizations, human rights organizations, or anyone else to build additional verifiers that independently can certify election results have been accurately counted and have not been altered. The resources available on GitHub today include a working verifier as well as the specifications necessary to build your own independent verifier.

Ballot marking device reference implementation. Voting system manufacturers will be free to build ElectionGuard into their systems in a variety of ways. At the Aspen Security Forum in July, we demonstrated a sample voting system, built with the help of industrial designer Tucker Viemeister, that we believe showcased a great way the features enabled by ElectionGuard can be used in voting systems. The ballot marking device we demonstrated included accessibility features built under the guidance of the Center for Civic Design, authors of the original ''Anywhere Ballot,'' and incorporated the Xbox Adaptive Controller as an optional device to mark ballots. The ballot marking device open source repository released today includes a variety of tools and visuals necessary to build or augment real-world election systems using the best of ElectionGuard.

These are exciting steps that enable individual voters to confirm their vote was properly counted, and assures those voters using an ElectionGuard system of the most secure and trustworthy vote in the history of the U.S. As we've previously announced, all major manufacturers of voting systems in the United States are working with us to explore ways to incorporate ElectionGuard into their systems including Clear Ballot, Democracy Live, Election Systems & Software, Dominion Voting Systems, Hart InterCivic, BPro, MicroVote, Smartmatic and VotingWorks. We've worked deeply with many of these companies over the summer to prepare them for today's SDK release.

Finally, we've continued progress toward pilot programs, including work with Columbia University's Columbia World Projects, that will put voting systems running ElectionGuard in the hands of voters for the 2020 elections or sooner. We look forward to sharing more on these pilots shortly.

Tags: ElectionGuard, elections

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Archived Version

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 17:54

Every election year, millions of Americans are eligible to cast their ballots to elect officials ranging from members of school boards to the President of the United States. Those millions of voters need to be confident that the democratic process is carried out without interference.

However, in recent years, technology designed to help elections run smoothly has been targeted by those seeking to influence, subvert or sabotage democracy.

That's why Microsoft has been working with governments, NGOs, academics and industry on the Defending Democracy Program. One of the key components is ElectionGuard.

[Read more: Another step in testing ElectionGuard]

What does ElectionGuard do?

ElectionGuard is a way of checking election results are accurate, and that votes have not been altered, suppressed or tampered with in any way. Individual voters can see that their vote has been accurately recorded, and their choice has been correctly added to the final tally. Anyone who wishes to monitor the election can check all votes have been correctly tallied to produce an accurate and fair result.

Why do we need it?

There is overwhelming evidence that attempts have been made to target digital election infrastructure. For example, during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, actors sponsored by the Russian state infiltrated voter registration databases as part of a wider campaign of election interference. Fortunately, there is no evidence of any successful tampering with actual votes.

But, as Josh Benaloh, Senior Principal Cryptographer at Microsoft Research, explains, vote casting and tabulation systems are extremely vulnerable. ''The challenge is asymmetric. In the U.S., elections are run locally '' mostly by counties, sometimes even by townships '' yet the attackers can be nation states. It's simply not reasonable to expect a small county government can withstand an attack from a nation-state attacker.''

How does it work?

Because attacks cannot always be prevented, it is vital that they are detected, so that voters know if the result can be trusted. That requires stringent auditing.

Election monitors carry out spot checks on individual ballots in what is known as risk-limiting audits. But ElectionGuard allows for a much more comprehensive '' and public '' audit, by providing end-to-end verifiability.

Each vote is encrypted and given a unique identifier. The voter is given a tracking code that lets them check that their vote goes through the system unchanged and ends up in the final tally.

Not every voter needs to track their ballot to ensure the system maintains its integrity. In fact, if just 1% of voters nationally check that their ballots are correctly encrypted and tallied, it would be almost impossible for anyone to tamper with more than 100 votes out of 100 million without being caught.

At the same time, the way the encrypted votes are tallied can be checked by anyone to make sure that each candidate gets the correct number of votes.

Will anyone be able to see who I have voted for?

No. The principle of secret ballots means that not only should each person's vote be private, it must be private, so that votes cannot be bought, sold or coerced.

ElectionGuard uses something called homomorphic encryption to ensure that nobody can tell how a person voted. In fact, even the voter cannot use the tracking code to prove to anyone else how they voted '' they will only be able to prove that their vote wasn't changed.

It is also possible to add up encrypted data so that only the final tally can be decrypted. This means that people can check the final tallies without seeing any information about the individual votes.

Will it change the way elections have to be run?

No. ElectionGuard is designed to work with current voting systems, and Microsoft has been working alongside manufacturers and vendors to incorporate it into existing infrastructure (although it won't be available for the Presidential election in November, and won't be widely deployed for some time). Paper ballots can be scanned and voting machines used as they are now. The only difference voters will see is the unique tracking code they are given at the end, which they can choose to use or throw in the trash.

Spot checks and administrative audits can be carried out by the members of the existing canvassing boards who currently decide on whether ballots are eligible or spoiled, with built-in safeguards to make sure no individual can either disrupt or influence the verification process.

[Read more: Protecting democratic elections through secure, verifiable voting]

How can we trust it?

The fundamental principle behind ElectionGuard is that it gives the power to check whether elections are valid to individuals. Every single voter has the ability to verify their own vote '' most likely on public websites set up by election boards or local authorities. And anyone can use a verification program to check the final tallies.

Nobody has to just take Microsoft's word for it '' or anyone else's for that matter. ElectionGuard is a set of open source software components that can be accessed here. Anyone with the programming skills can create their own verification tool. In practice, this means every political party, candidate, news organization or pressure group can run their own checks and make their preferred program publicly available for others.

The first pilot has already been successfully carried out in an election in Fulton, Wisconsin.

Is this just a way of Microsoft making money off elections?

ElectionGuard is not a for-profit enterprise, and Microsoft will make no money from it. The technology is being developed and piloted with multiple stakeholders, and is freely available to anyone who wishes to use it, whether in the U.S. or in democracies around the world.

For more on how technology can be used to protect the integrity of elections, visit Defending Democracy Program And follow @MSFTIssues on Twitter.

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Mon, 23 Nov 2020 15:47

John Poulos, the CEO and founder of Dominion Voting Systems, testified that his machines are composed of parts manufactured in China from the ''screen on the interface down to the chip component level,'' The National Pulse can reveal.The comments came during Poulos's sworn testimony before the House Administration Committee on January 9th, 2020.

The unearthed remarks boost claims that Dominion's voting systems could have been influenced by a foreign actor '' specifically the Biden-backing Chinese Communist Party.

Contained in the nearly three hour-long testimony, Poulos's opening statement revealed how the company relies on parts manufactured in China for its voting machines.

Poulos didn't ''know the exact percentage'' of China-based parts used in his company's machines:

''We do have components in our products that come from China and don't know the exact percentage. I can certainly get that to the committee through my staff '' happy to work with you on getting the exact number.''Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren interrupted, inquiring ''before you go forward, what are the components that are from China.''

Poulos then reveals that ''the actual glass screen on the interface down to the chip component level of capacitors and resistors'' are from China:

''Uh so, for example, LCD components, the actual glass screen on the interface down to the chip component level of capacitors and resistors, several of those components to our knowledge are not even '' there's no option for manufacturing of those in the United States. We would welcome guidelines and best practices from the committee and from the federal government in terms of this is not a problem that is unique to the industry.''The comments follow Lofgren, who spearheaded President Trump's impeachment inquiry for the Democrats, raising concerns about Chinese influence over voting machines:

''In December 2019, a study released by a supply chain monitoring company showed that one-fifth or 20 percent of components in a popular voting machine came from China-based companies. Furthermore, close to 59 percent of suppliers within that machine's supply chain had locations in either China or Russia.''Establishment media outlets, however, have insisted that claims of Dominion being subject to foreign influence are rooted in ''baseless conspiracy.''

Natalie Winters Natalie Winters is a Senior Reporter at the National Pulse and producer of The National Pulse TV show.

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:27

Murray 🇺🇸 : BREAKING: Phill Kline, former Kansas Attorney General & current Director of the Amistad Project: ''We already have s'... https://t.co/a8EUsTQLLv

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 00:13

WHO IS GIVEN ''ACCESS TO THE DATA?''by Sharon Meroni, DefendtheVote.com

(Sep. 1, 2016) '-- On Friday, August 26th, during a meeting at the Illinois State Board of Elections, the Vice President of Engineering for Dominion Voting, Dr. Eric Coomer*, was asked if it was possible to bypass election systems software and go directly to the data tables that manage systems running elections in Illinois. His response was, ''Yes, if they have access.''

Bypassing the election systems software means whoever has access can potentially manipulate the vote without many risks of detection. So the question needs to be asked, who has access to these data tables?

We asked Dr. Coomer that question. Dr. Coomer replied, 'Vendors, election officials, and others who need to be granted access.'

This is explosive information. Dr. Coomer's statement is an admission that various vendors, election officials, and others have access to the back end data tables that permit bypassing the operating system's configuration. It is notable that when someone accesses these systems from a data table, their actions are not logged by the system; thereby making detection much more problematic. This contradicts Dr. Coomer's assurances that the system is secure.

Our letter to the Illinois State Board of Elections on August 17th specifically requested the Board to answer the following questions:

5) At the ISBE level:

Who has access to software produced by vendors?Has the ISBE had an expert examine the computer code?How is access granted and documented?What role does the ISBE play in monitoring the GEMS software used in each election jurisdiction?As is typical for the Board members at the Illinois State Board of Elections, with its rich history in treating citizens concerned about election security with disregard and disrespect, the Board refused to say a single word regarding Defend the Vote's concerns expressed during 'public comments'. Only 4 of the 8 members of the Board bothered to stay to hear our comments. To date, the Board has failed to provide answers to the questions asked in our letter.

And that is not all! The Board asked Dr. Coomer if he had any comments. In direct response to the Illinois State Board, Dr. Coomer made the following statement:

''We are constantly assessing different threat models against all of our systems we have fielded across the US and internationally as well. Due to the certification environment that we are in, no we are not allowed to do routine updates without having to go through re-certification efforts, but we do routinely give guidance on how to best secure systems and also going back again, to the final mitigation against all of this is a robust auditing canvasing process which all of our jurisdictions have implemented.''

Dr. Coomer failed to mention that Illinois does not have any auditing procedure for absentee mail-in ballots. In 2014, mail-in paper balloting was 8% of the vote. Across Illinois, many election jurisdictions are working to increase this percentage! Illinois does not require any justification when audits show a vote discrepancy. They simply correct the total votes that are reported to the new totals found in the audit. Further, it is not a blind audit. Auditors know what vote totals were reported before they begin the post-election re-count. So much for Coomer's robust auditing process'...

Dr. Coomer's statement brings to light a very serious issue all voters should understand. Voting systems must be re-certified each time they make changes to the hardware or software. Recertification is an expensive and time consuming process. What Dr. Coomer told the Board is that Dominion Voting does not go back for recertification of software when threats to their code are discovered. Rather, they rely on post-election audits and providing advice to election jurisdictions about security. I have reviewed all of the recertification documents produced by Dominion, and I do not recall any software adjustments for security purposes.

This is the reality of the security of your vote. Software systems that count and record the vote across Illinois and throughout the USA are not updated to address security problems, and even if they were, the software can be completely bypassed by going to the data tables that drive the systems.

I am not an expert on how other states audit the vote after an election. I do know that in Illinois, at least 8% of the vote never see any post-election audit. At least that amount of the vote is vulnerable to be manipulated without much chance for detection.

*Dr. Coomer has quite a history in election systems. He held senior management roles with both Sequoia and Smartech. Before coming to Dominion Voting, Dr. Coomer was Senior Information Services Manager of Smartmatic Corporation and Vice President of Research and Product Development for Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. Read more about how massive voter irregularities at Sequoia and Smartech were alleged and investigated worldwide '' which included the 2006 elections in Chicago. Wikipedia.

See the video and read the rest here.

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Archived Version

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 05:15

CLINTON FOUNDATION

A Clinton Foundation website item states:

In 2014, Dominion Voting committed to providing emerging and post-conflict democracies with access to voting technology through its philanthropic support to the DELIAN Project, as many emerging democracies suffer from post-electoral violence due to the delay in the publishing of election results. Over the next three years, Dominion Voting will support election technology pilots with donated Automated Voting Machines (AVM), providing an improved electoral process, and therefore safer elections. As a large number of election staff are women, there will be an emphasis on training women, who will be the first to benefit from the skills transfer training and use of AVMs. It is estimated that 100 women will directly benefit from election technology skills training per pilot election.

Dominion Voting Systems shares an office floor with the George Soros-funded left-wing Tides Foundation in Toronto, NATIONAL FILE has learned. Our tipster makes clear that ''Soros people'' are very close with Dominion, which has partnered with a voting technology company chaired by one of left-wing billionaire George Soros' best friends and associates. Dominion was caught flipping votes from President Donald Trump to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and Trump has cited data to accuse Dominion of widespread vote-flipping and vote-losing in key states. Dominion is headquartered in Toronto and has a U.S. office in Denver.The Robertson Building's Directory of Tenants shows that Dominion Voting is listed at both Suite 200 (the suite Dominion lists publicly) and also Suite 370, which places it in neighborly range of the Tides Canada Foundation in suite 360. Tides Foundation in America, based in San Francisco, created and financially supports Tides Canada Foundation. The Tides Foundation has reportedly received more than $20 million in donations from George Soros' groups, and Tides shares Soros' vision for a radical left-wing makeover of Western civilization and the world. Tides has given out money to numerous left-wing groups including ACORN and Project Vote and recently created the Black Lives Matter Support Fund.

More evidence is here:

This is just one link between Dominion Voting Systems and George Soros. Access Wire reported that ''Dominion entered into a 2009 contract with Smartmatic and provided Smartmatic with the PCOS machines (optical scanners) that were used in the 2010 Philippine election, the biggest automated election run by a private company.''

Smartmatic is chaired by Mark Malloch-Brown, who is good friends with George Soros and even called Soros his landlord at a five-bedroom house in Westchester County, New York. Malloch-Brown has worked with Soros on various projects including as vice chairman of the Open Society Institute and also Soros Fund Management. Mark Malloch-Brown is listed as a Global Board Member of George Soros' Open Society Foundations. Here is Malloch-Brown photographed with his friend George Soros:

Nancy Pelosi-linked Dominion Voting Systems is under harsh condemnation from President Donald Trump and his supporters after reported vote-counting malfunctions in many of the key states.President Trump cited data reported by OANN's Chanel Rion to state that Dominion flipped votes from Trump to Biden or lost Trump votes in massive margins in states including Pennsylvania and Georgia, where the flipped/lost vote total is higher than Joe Biden's supposed ''leads.'' Dominion raised flags when officials were forced to admit that the system flipped 6,000 votes in Michigan from Trump over to his Democrat counterpart Biden. But data shows the problem to be much worse and more widespread. NOQ Report has a deep dive into the Dominion data cited by President Trump.

Bloomberg reported that Dominion ''hired '... a high-powered firm that includes a longtime aide to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. '... Dominion's first-ever lobbying firm is Brownstein Farber Hyatt and Schreck. Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi's former chief of staff, is one of the lobbyists on the account.''

Dominion Voting Systems also hired the notorious Democrat political organizing operation Act Blue.

Even Democrats harshly investigated Dominion Voting Systems for its well-documented lack of security and for using Chinese parts.An Elizabeth Warren press release dated December 10, 2019 documents that Warren and fellow Democrat senators Amy Klobuchar and Ron Wyden investigated and exposed Dominion Voting Systems among two other election software systems owned by private equity.

''The three vendors '-- Election Systems & Software, Dominion Voting Systems, and Hart InterCivic '-- collectively distribute voting machines and software that facilitate voting for over 90% of all eligible voters in the United States. Private equity firms reportedly own or control each of these vendors, which ''have long skimped on security in favor of convenience,'' leaving voting systems across the country ''prone to security problems,''' the press release stated, citing election security experts.

Even NBC News reported: ''The source of the nation's voting machines has become an urgent issue because of real fears that hackers, whether foreign or domestic, might tamper with the mechanics of the voting system. That has led to calls for ES&S and its competitors, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic, to reveal details about their ownership and the origins of the parts, some of which come from China, that make up their machines.''

House Democrats then went after Dominion Voting Systems in a 2020 hearing, with Rep. Zoe Lofgren blowing the lid off the Chinese parts used by Dominion.

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Archived Version

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 19:08

ZARI, Afghanistan: On March 3, 2008, a Taliban suicide bomber driving a green truck packed with explosives barreled through the front gate of a small U.S. outpost in Sabari district, Afghanistan, and blew himself up next to the dining facility where American soldiers were just sitting down to dinner.

Taliban foot soldiers streamed in, firing their AK-47s. It took the intervention of a Special Forces A Team to push them back. Two Americans died. Around a dozen were wounded. The Sabari attack was one of several catastrophic attacks on U.S. bases in Afghanistan in recent years. As U.S. forces draw down, there are fewer and fewer troops to spare for guard duty. That's why, bruised by these attacks, the Pentagon has scrambled to equip its frontline bases with better defenses.

The Combat Outpost Surveillance and Force Protection System, nicknamed ''Kraken'' after the mythological sea monster because of its many tentacle-like technological extensions, is the latest. Combining tower-mounted cameras, radar, sonic shot-detection and remote-controlled guns and deployable in a single shipping container, the first operational Kraken was recently installed at Forward Operation Base Pashmul South in Zari district, near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

Kraken, which cost $30 million to develop, is ''designed to be airlifted into place and setup by a squad of soldiers in two to three hours,'' according to an Army release. Along with walls, razor wire and guard posts, Kraken has helped make Pashmul South one of the best-defended U.S. bases '... well, ever.

''I'd like to see the Taliban try to attack this place,'' 1st Sgt. Jason Pitman, who oversees the base, says rhetorically. Pitman, a six-tour veteran of the Afghanistan war, has seen his share of complex attacks on American outposts. Kraken has many eyes, including an Elta Ground Master vehicle-tracking radar, an additional STS-1400 radar, plus AN/PRS-9 Unattended Ground Sensors built by L3 and five sonic sensors that can detect incoming fire and triangulate the shooter's location. The system has 11 daylight, infrared and thermal cameras, two of them mounted on a 30-foot mast alongside a laser rangefinder. The rest of the cameras, wired into the central unit, can be positioned around the base perimeter. The main sensors have an approximately 15-mile range.

Kraken can relay its video to deployed ground troops via an overhead Puma Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, although this is apparently rarely practiced. Two PRI Trap 250 remote-controlled 7.62-millimeter guns are included with Kraken but, at present, are operated separately rather than being slaved to the sensors '-- though integration seems to be the Army's aim. The whole system and its sensors, minus the guns, can be monitored by a few soldiers with two laptops '-- and requires very little human intervention.

''The key is the integration standard, fusion and automation,'' said Tom O'Neill, the Integrated Base Defense Product director at the military's Joint Project Manager Guardian, which developed Kraken alongside the Army's Rapid Equipping Force. If the radar, ground sensors or shot detector spot a viable target, the cameras will automatically slew to it. As the target moves, one camera will automatically hand off to the next.

Kraken is a product of the Army's controversial Network Integration Exercises, held semiannually at Ft. Bliss, Texas. At the NIEs the Army invites industry to provide new, unproven technologies that are put through realistic combat tests by a dedicated experimentation brigade, many of whose soldiers are veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan. Some of the systems tested at the NIEs have proved too flimsy or complex or simply unnecessary for frontline troops '-- in particular many of the handheld tablet computers meant to be carried by every soldier in a squad. By contrast Kraken, which drew rave reviews at an NIE in 2011, has arrived in Afghanistan essentially unchanged and to loud applause.

Sgt. Nicholas Pensivy, the resident Kraken expert at Pashmul South, praises the system's flexibility. With a few taps at his laptop, he can instruct the Kraken to ignore certain kinds of targets that appear on its radars and instead focus on others, automatically slewing its guns and cameras.

''For instance, vehicles driving past the [outpost] are of interest, but vehicles leaving aren't,'' Pensivy says. If there's a drawback, it's that Kraken, at present, is self-contained. It does not tie into the military's vast network of blimp- and tower- mounted cameras and aerial drones that covers much of Afghanistan, relaying imagery from one base to many others. Strangely for base-defense systems, the Army has not been shy about publicizing Kraken, perhaps owing to the possible deterrent effect. If the Taliban know Pashmul South is heavily defended by a smart robotic killer, they might be less likely to attempt an attack. Pashmul South has been untouched this year and Kraken has not yet fired a shot in anger. That could be the best possible evidence that the new system works.

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Archived Version

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 19:47

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. (Army News Service, Aug. 31, 2011) -- The Army is evaluating a cutting-edge force-protection system which combines radar, surveillance cameras, unmanned sensors, gunshot detection and remote-controlled weapons.The sensors and weapons are combined into a single, integrated system that can scan surrounding terrain for threats, alert Soldiers of potential imminent danger and provide them fires to respond, service officials said.The Combat Outpost Surveillance and Force Protection System, or COSFPS, nicknamed "Kraken" after the mythological sea creature with many heads, was evaluated in July as part of the Army's 3,800-Soldier-strong Network Integration Evaluation, or NIE at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The exercise was designed to assess and integrate a host of technologies.The individual technologies assembled for the Kraken are integrated through a government-owned, scalable and open architecture software called Joint Force Protection Advanced Security System, or JFPASS, said Tom O'Neill, Integrated Base Defense Product director, Joint Project Manager Guardian."While the sensor and device payload is impressive and probably offers the most force protection per cubic foot compared to any other system, the key is the integration standard, fusion and automation which reduces troop to task and provides increased situational awareness -- thus resulting in more reaction time for the warfighter," said O'Neill.The JFPASS software enables data from all of Kraken's system components to be integrated via a standard protocol, fused and conditionally automated, O'Neill explained; the information is displayed on screens showing a Common Operating Picture, referred to as COP."We've been able to positively identify targets before they got in range with weapons on our COP. They have tried to raid us multiple times, but we have been able to positively identify them and engage them before they got close. This is great for tracking the people coming in and out of your AO," said Pvt. James Benham, a forward observer who has been evaluating Kraken/COSFPS in a series of mock-combat exercises at a WSMR "Mountain Village" outpost.Kraken -- which represents a partnership between the Army's Rapid Equipping Force and JPMG -- is an ISU-90 containerized system and includes the following hardware devices for detection: an Elta Ground Master Ground Systems Radar, or GSR, an STS-1400 GSR, L3 AN/PRS-9 BAIS Unattended Ground Sensors and five "Shot Spotters," sensors designed to detect direct or indirect enemy gunfire, O'Neill said.For assessment and identification, a series of 11 cameras are strategically aligned to cover a 360-degree view, including electro-optical/infra-red, low-light perimeter and Forward-Looking Infra-Red, or FLIR, HRC-X all-weather day and night thermal cameras; two of the cameras, a laser rangefinder and a GSR are rotatable atop a 10-meter mast, Benham and O'Neill explained.Eight white and infra-red perimeter lights are included for night operations, two PRI Trap 250s are employed for defending and two laptops with two larger displays are included for command and control, O'Neill described.The radar on top of the mast can detect people at distances up to 10 kilometers and vehicles out to 20 kilometers. Also, Kraken has a second mid-range GSR which scans a full 360 degrees every second and is engineered to interface with video cameras, ground sensors and remote weapons applications. Kraken also contains a laser pointer/illuminator."Kraken's six-kilometer continuous sweep can detect anything the size of a head -- including rabbits, deer or birds," Benham said. "The system also has an option where you can emplace sensor overlays. If I get a hit on a sensor, I am able to instantly slew my cameras to that location."The cameras, radar and lights are fortified by seismic/acoustic sensors, infra-red or magnetic sensors engineered with sophisticated algorithms designed to identify targets such as enemy personnel or vehicles based on combined seismic and acoustic signatures."We currently have 22 UGS [Unattended Ground Sensors] right now. They are located on the roads and on the avenues of approach. If there are blind spots in the radar, I am able to track targets seismically," Benham said.Powered by a 10-kilowatt Tactical Quiet Generator, Kraken's two remote weapons stations can accommodate an M249 Semi-Automatic Weapon or an M240 machine gun, Benham said."The remote weapon's stations have night capabilities with a thermal digital zoom," he added.Kraken -- which is described as an instantiation of the JFPASS software -- was begun as part of a $30-million Joint Capability Technology Demonstration, O'Neill explained.It was co-developed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Physical Security Equipment Action Group and the Joint Program Executive Office-Chemical and Biological Defense, with oversight by the Rapid Fielding Directorate, Director Defense Research & Engineering to address the issue of forces being at risk because current technologies, concept of operations, and policies do not provide a comprehensive, effective, and sustainable force-protection capability, he added."Fielded force-protection systems do not interoperate and integrate effectively, nor do they provide comprehensive and integrated situational awareness," O'Neill said.The JFPASS JCTD has matured its technical capabilities through a series of demonstrations over the years, O'Neill explained."JFPASS demonstrated fusion, automation, and integration of information among mature systems, sensors, tools, and processes to provide a more effective, automated, layered, and comprehensive joint force protection capability at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in 2009 and Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, in August of last year," O'Neill added.The JFPASS JCTD is part of an overall Joint Force Protection Roadmap; the JFPASS JCTD is aligned with the Integrated, Unit, Base, and Installation Protection Capabilities Based Assessment chartered by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Requirements Oversight Council, Protection Functional Capability Board and has provided a basis for the Integrated Ground Security Surveillance and Response Capability, O'Neill said.One Kraken system is at White Sands Missile Range for the NIE while another is being refurbished from its use at Joint Forces Command's Empire Challenge11, an ISR event at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., in June. Two more systems are being purchased by the Army for integration with its Entry Control Point program, O'Neill said.Initial fielding of the Kraken by the REF is planned for the first quarter of fiscal year 12, O'Neill added. Also -- based on operator requests -- a refined Kraken system will be part of the next NIE, planned for this fall, he said."Kraken is showing quantitatively-significant operational utility to the warfighter," O'Neill said.

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Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 05:21

A Pennsylvania judge on Nov. 25 ordered state officials to not certify the results of the 2020 election until her court holds a hearing on an election contest on Nov. 27.

Commonwealth Judge Patricia McCullough ordered the state to not take any further steps to complete the certification of the presidential race, which the state announced on Nov. 24. She also blocked the certification of all the other election results.

''To the extent that there remains any further action to perfect the certification of the results of the 2020 General Election for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States of America, respondents are preliminarily enjoined from doing so, pending an evidentiary hearing to be held on Friday,'' the judge wrote in her order (pdf).

''Respondents are preliminarily enjoined from certifying the remaining results of the election, pending the evidentiary hearing.''

McCullough is presiding over a lawsuit brought by Republican lawmakers and candidates against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, and the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

The plaintiffs allege that Pennsylvania's vote-by-mail statute'--Act 77'--is in violation of the state's constitution.

''Act 77 is the most expansive and fundamental change to the Pennsylvania voting code, implemented illegally, to date,'' the lawsuit, filed in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, states.

''As with prior historical attempts to illegally expand mail-in voting by statute, which have been struck down going as far back as the Military Absentee Ballot Act of 1839, Act 77 is another illegal attempt to override the limitations on absentee voting prescribed in the Pennsylvania Constitution, without first following the necessary procedure to amend the constitution to allow for the expansion.''

The plaintiffs include Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Republican congressional candidate Sean Parnell, and Pennsylvania House of Representatives candidate Wanda Logan.

The office of Gov. Wolf didn't immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment. It's unclear what steps remained as of Nov. 25 to ''perfect'' the certification of the presidential and vice-presidential races.

After the Keystone State announced the certification of the presidential election results on Nov. 24, the plaintiffs filed an emergency request (pdf) just before midnight, arguing that there was no need to act so fast. In 2016, Pennsylvania certified the presidential election on Dec. 12.

''It appears that respondents' actions may have been accelerated in response to the application for emergency relief '... in an effort to preclude any remedial action by this court faster than this court was able to evaluate the application for emergency relief and the answers to it,'' the plaintiffs wrote.

The emergency request underlined that while Pennsylvania completed vote-counting and submitted the signed certification to the U.S. archivist, a number of steps still remain for the formal certification process to be completed.

''While Respondents may have proactively attempted to avoid potential injunctive relief granted by this Court, Respondents duties with regard to finalization of the full election results are far from complete,'' the filing states.

Marc Elias, one of the top attorneys leading the Democrats' post-election legal battles, called the lawsuit frivolous.

''Republican Congressman Mike Kelly has filed a new frivolous lawsuit in Pennsylvania seeking to block the state from certifying the election results and having the state legislature choose electors,'' Elias wrote on Twitter on Nov. 21. ''This is absolutely shameful.''

President Donald Trump responded to Elias, writing: ''This is not at all frivolous. It is brought on behalf of one of the most respected members of the United States Congress who is disgusted, like so many others, by an Election that is a fraudulent mess. Fake ballots, dead people voting, no Republican Poll Watchers allowed, & more!''

Wolf signed Act 77 into law on Oct. 31, 2019. Eight of the nine sponsors of the bill in the Pennsylvania Senate were Republicans.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro responded to the order, saying that it doesn't affect the Nov. 24 appointment of electors.

Boockvar and other state officials filed a notice of appeal on Nov. 25 informing the court that they were appealing McCullough's decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (pdf).

Janita Kan contributed to this report.

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Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:25

The Kraken is released on Georgia!The Kraken is released on Michigan!

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Defending the Republic was established by Sidney Powell to defend and to protect the integrity of elections in the United States. Please contribute below, using our secure system. Your donation will support our mission and the welfare of the American Republic.

If you prefer to send a check, please make payable to: Sidney Powell, PC. Address: 10130 Northlake Blvd. #214342, West Palm Beach, Florida 33412

Memo: Defending The Republic Election Integrity

MISSION

To protect and defend the lawful votes of American citizens, ensure election integrity, educate the world on what it means to be a constitutional Republic, and pursue legal action to preserve the vision of our Founders and to maintain this great Republic.

Sidney Powell

Attorney Sidney Powell needs your immediate support to halt the certification of ballots in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

To contact Sidney Powell directly, please visit her website: https://www.sidneypowell.com

Millions of dollars must be raised to defend the Republic as these lawsuits continue to be filed to ensure victory.

In Bush v. Gore the Supreme Court recognized that once vested in the people, the right to vote is fundamental, and one source of its fundamental nature lies in the equal weight of each vote.

This fundamental right to equal weight was not defended or actualized in this election. There is evidence of ballots being discarded, hundreds of thousands of ballots appearing out of thin air, ballot harvesting, and a lower standard of verification for some mail-in ballots. This is voter fraud and has infringed upon Americans'‚¬' sacred right to vote and for their votes to carry equal weight.

The case will seek to block the certification of the election results so that justice can be done. We need to stop the steal in its tracks.

The future of our Republic is at stake. The left, the media, and a complicit Republican Establishment are attempting to steal this election through a staggering voter fraud operation. The time to fight is now!

''A Republic'...if you can keep it.''

Benjamin Franklin

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Archived Version

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 01:54

Ezra Asa Cohen-Watnick (born May 18, 1986)[1] is the current Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He previously served as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, national security adviser to the United States Attorney General and as a former Senior Director for Intelligence Programs for the United States National Security Council (NSC).[2]

Early life and career Edit Cohen-Watnick gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 before taking a position at the Office of Naval Intelligence after graduation.[3][4] Before joining the White House, Cohen-Watnick worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), beginning in 2010, where he served in Miami, Haiti, Virginia and Afghanistan.[5] Cohen-Watnick was accepted into the training program for the Defense Clandestine Service.

Cohen-Watnick underwent training at Camp Peary (commonly known as "The Farm"), where he was trained by the Central Intelligence Agency.[5] He was assigned to Afghanistan, with a GS-13 rank.[5][6] He was temporarily assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency Headquarters in 2014.[5] Cohen-Watnick left the DIA for the National Security Council on January 20, 2017.[5]

Tenure on the National Security Council Edit Cohen-Watnick was brought into the United States National Security Council by Michael T. Flynn, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and President Donald Trump's first National Security Advisor. He was named the NSC's Senior Director for Intelligence Programs.[7] This directorship was intermittently held by detailed CIA officers. Like Cohen-Watnick, the immediate preceding Senior Director from the Obama Administration was a political appointee.[8][9] Some viewed Cohen-Watnick's appointment as a sign of Trump's mistrust of the CIA.[10]

Following Flynn's resignation in February 2017, the new National Security Advisor, H. R. McMaster, attempted to remove Cohen-Watnick, but he was overruled by Trump.[5] McMaster attempted to replace Cohen-Watnick with veteran CIA official Linda Weissgold.[11]

It is alleged that Cohen-Watnick inadvertently identified reports suggesting that members of Trump's campaign team had been subjected to incidental surveillance by the United States intelligence community, as part of an unrelated review of privacy procedures.[12][13] This information was passed on to Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes by Assistant White House Counsel Michael Ellis.[14][12]

It has been reported that Cohen-Watnick has advocated using the American intelligence community to overthrow the current Iranian government.[5][15]

The White House announced Cohen-Watnick's dismissal on August 2, 2017, following policy disagreements with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster over Afghanistan, Iran, and Intelligence Oversight.[16][17][18] According to The Washington Post, Cohen-Watnick resigned following a power shift under McMaster.[19] Upon Cohen-Watnick's departure, the White House commented that "General McMaster appreciates the good work accomplished in the NSC's Intelligence directorate under Ezra Cohen's leadership... General McMaster is confident that Ezra will make many further significant contributions to national security in another position in the administration."[20]

In late September 2017, Cohen-Watnick was reportedly succeeded by Michael Barry.[21]

Support for Counterintelligence Initiatives Edit In May 2017, Cohen-Watnick and the FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence reportedly advocated for strong law enforcement actions against Chinese government officials conducting operations targeting Chinese dissidents and asylum seekers inside the United States, against objections from Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton. Cohen-Watnick reportedly charged Thornton with "improperly hindering law-enforcement efforts to address China's repeated violations of U.S. sovereignty and law."[22]

On December 25, 2017, The Washington Post reported that in the weeks before Trump's inauguration, Brett Holmgren, Cohen-Watnick's predecessor in the Obama White House, briefed Cohen-Watnick on the actions the Obama Administration had taken to counter Russian active measures. Once in the job, Cohen-Watnick sent out memos identifying counterintelligence threats, including Russia's, as his top priority, officials said. He convened regular meetings in the White House Situation Room at which he pressed counterintelligence officials in other government agencies, including the CIA, to finalize plans for Russia, including those left behind by the Obama team, according to officials in attendance. By spring, national security adviser H. R. McMaster, senior White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill and Cohen-Watnick began advocating measures to counter Russian disinformation using covert influence and cyber-operations, according to officials.[23]

Justice Department Edit In April 2018, he rejoined the Trump administration in the Department of Justice, advising Attorney General Sessions on counterterrorism and counterintelligence.[24]

Defense Department Edit In May 2020, Cohen-Watnick was appointed as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Global Threats.[25][26] By September 2020, he had been promoted to acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict.[27][28] On November 10, 2020, President Trump relieved a number of senior defense officials including Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Joseph Kernen resigned in anticipation of the shakeup.[29] Trump appointed Cohen-Watnick to fill the role as Acting Undersecretary.[30]

Personal life Edit Cohen-Watnick is a member of the Union League of Philadelphia, a Republican-leaning Patriotic Society.[31] He married Rebecca Miller in November 2016.[6][32][33]

References Edit ^ "Ezra Asa Cohen- Watnick". VoterRecords.com . Retrieved March 30, 2017 . ^ "Ezra Cohen > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > Biography". www.defense.gov . Retrieved October 31, 2020 . ^ "2008 Commencement Program" (PDF) . University of Pennsylvania University Archives. p. 21. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 26, 2010 . Retrieved March 30, 2017 . Bachelor of Arts [...] Ezra A. Cohen-Watnick ^ "Office of Naval Intelligence | Penn in Washington". University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences. The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on April 6, 2017 . Retrieved April 6, 2017 . Office of Naval Intelligence: S'08 Burr, Kyle; Fleming; Kate; Mendel, Jordan; Stewart, Jessica; Tavana, Daniel; S'07 Cohen, Ezra; Hsu, Kimberly ^ a b c d e f g Gray, Rosie (July 23, 2017). "The Man McMaster Couldn't Fire". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on July 24, 2017. ^ a b Stein, Jeff (April 13, 2017). "Cohen-Watnick: Inside the Rise of Trump's Invisible Man in the White House". Newsweek. Archived from the original on April 21, 2017. ^ Warren, Michael. "McMaster Interviewed CIA Operative to Replace Trump NSC Official". The Weekly Standard. The current NSC official is Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a 30-year-old former intelligence operations officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency who was brought into the Trump White House by the former DIA director, Mike Flynn. Flynn resigned as national security advisor last month. Like Flynn, Cohen-Watnick has been critical of the CIA's perceived politicization during the Obama administration. ^ "Brett Holmgren". trumanproject.org . Retrieved May 29, 2017 . ^ "Donilon out, Rice in; POGO releases draft IG report on Panetta, ZD30; Well, that went well: chiefs exasperate senators during sexual assault hearing; Brett Holmgren is a TSA for Ash; PowerPoints gone wild; And a bit more". Foreign Policy . Retrieved May 29, 2017 . ^ Moran, Christopher R.; Aldrich, Richard J. (April 24, 2017). "Trump and the CIA". Foreign Affairs . Retrieved April 24, 2017 . (subscription required) ^ "McMaster Interviewed CIA Operative to Replace Trump NSC Official". The Weekly Standard. March 16, 2017 . Retrieved May 29, 2017 . ^ a b Miller, Greg; DeYoung, Karen (March 30, 2017). "Three White House officials tied to files shared with House intelligence chairman". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 31, 2017. ^ "Obama aide denies using intel to spy on Trump advisers". AP News. Associated Press. April 4, 2017 . Retrieved May 29, 2017 . ^ "Trump removes Bannon from National Security Council". AP News. Associated Press. April 5, 2017 . Retrieved February 13, 2018 . ^ Rosenberg, Matthew; Goldman, Adam (June 2, 2017). "C.I.A. Names New Iran Chief in a Sign of Trump's Hard Line". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 2, 2017. And Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the council's senior director for intelligence '-- the main White House liaison to intelligence agencies '-- has told other administration officials that he wants to use American spies to help oust the Iranian government, according to multiple defense and intelligence officials. ^ Groll, Elias; McLaughlin, Jenna (August 2, 2017). "Top Intelligence Official on National Security Council Is Out". Foreign Policy. ^ "H.R. McMaster Cleans House at the National Security Council". The Atlantic. August 2, 2017. ^ "Flynn holdover Cohen-Watnick removed from Nat'l Security Council". United Press International. August 3, 2017. ^ Bump, Philip (February 8, 2018). "Analysis | Thirty-seven administration officials who've resigned or been fired under Trump". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286 . Retrieved February 13, 2018 . ^ "Trump loyalist Ezra Cohen-Watnick fired from NSC, sources say". Conservative Review. August 2, 2017. ^ "CIA Officer Joins NSC Staff As Agency Vows To Be More "Vicious " ". BuzzFeed . Retrieved January 3, 2018 . ^ O'Keeffe, Kate; Viswanatha, Aruna; Podkul, Cezary (October 23, 2017). "China's Pursuit of Fugitive Businessman Guo Wengui Kicks Off Manhattan Caper Worthy of Spy Thriller". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved December 17, 2017 . ^ Entous, Adam; Nakashima, Ellen; Jaffe, Greg (December 25, 2017). "Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286 . Retrieved January 3, 2018 . ^ Goldman, Adam (April 11, 2018). "Trump National Security Aide Ousted From White House Re-emerges at Justice Dept". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved April 11, 2018 . ^ Cooper, Helene (May 11, 2020). "Aide Ousted From White House Reappears Again in Administration Job". The New York Times. ^ Jacobs, Jennifer; Capaccio, Anthony (May 11, 2020). "Ex-Trump Security Aide Who Left in Controversy Rejoins Pentagon". Bloomberg . Retrieved May 13, 2020 . ^ "Agenda". National Defense Industrial Association. Archived from the original on October 2, 2020 . Retrieved October 1, 2020 . ^ McLeary, Paul [@paulmcleary] (September 26, 2020). "Remember Ezra Cohen-Watnick? He landed as DoD's acting (unconfirmed) secretary for Special Operations, and he's speaking at a Special Ops conference Friday. ndia.org/events/2020/10/2/2020-virtual-solic/agenda" (Tweet) '' via Twitter. ^ Macias, Amanda (November 10, 2020). "Trump loyalists elevated to powerful roles at the Pentagon after firing of Defense Secretary Esper". CNBC . Retrieved November 11, 2020 . ^ Mehta, Aaron (November 10, 2020). "Top policy, intelligence civilians resign amid Pentagon shakeup". Defense News . Retrieved November 11, 2020 . ^ "Banner" (PDF) . Union League of Philadelphia. June 2012. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 30, 2017. Ezra A. Cohen-Watnick ^ "Report: Trump overrules national security adviser in order to keep NSC aide Cohen-Watnick". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. March 15, 2017. Archived from the original on March 30, 2017 . Retrieved March 30, 2017 . Cohen-Watnick celebrated his engagement to Rebecca Miller in November at Ohr Kodesh Congregation, a Conservative synagogue outside Washington, D.C., according to a synagogue newsletter. ^ Guttman, Nathan (March 30, 2017). "Meet Ezra Cohen-Watnick, The Secret Source At The Center Of Trump Russia Probe". The Forward. Archived from the original on March 30, 2017. Cohen-Watnick grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, just outside the nation's capital and attended the nearby Conservative synagogue Ohr Kodesh. Last November he celebrated his engagement to Rebecca Miller at the synagogue.

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 01:00

A remarkable announcement was made by the acting secretary of defense Christopher Miller, on Wednesday, about a reform of the positioning for the special forces that was full of reminders of President John F. Kennedy.

''Miller, a former Green Beret who took part in a secret mission in Afghanistan immediately following the 9/11 attacks, announced the new policy while at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the historic home of Army Special Forces,'' John Solomon for Just the News, reported.

''''I am here today to announce that I have directed the Special Operations civilian leadership to report directly to me, instead of through the current bureaucratic channels,'' Miller said.

''I am here today to announce that I have directed the Special Operations civilian leadership to report directly to me, instead of through the current bureaucratic channels.'' A/SD Chris Miller pic.twitter.com/GOPtWsEcR9

'-- Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) November 18, 2020In their article, In Shake-Up, Acting SecDef Elevates Special Operations to Be 'On Par' with Service Branches,Richard Sisk wrote for Military.com:

''Acting Defense Secretary Christoper Miller announced Wednesday that U.S. Special Operations Command will now report directly to him, putting it on par with the service branches.''

Miller had been named acting Defense Secretary recently, after the firing of Mark Esper.

I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately..

'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020Miller said the move for Special Ops comes in recognition of the nation's increasing reliance on its covert forces.

''I have directed the special operations civilian leadership to report directly to me,'' Miller said. ''It will put Special Operations Command on par with the military services for the first time. This reform will immediately improve agility for the department and the command and will enable us to streamline decision flow; enhance decision-making; and more adeptly support our commanders and their superb soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines.''

With the support of President Donald Trump, ''We are forging the next chapter in the history of U.S. Special Operations forces and formalizing a watershed reform,'' Miller added. ''Right now, we start the transition to provide greater civilian oversight of and, critically, advocacy for our special operators.''

''The new policy eliminates bureaucratic layers that have existed between the Pentagon chief and the head of Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict. It also gives Special Operations Command, which is based in Tampa, Florida, a more direct line to the defense secretary.

The move is a ''watershed reform,'' said Miller, who described U.S. Special Operations Command as ''a national treasure unparalleled in the world.''

The new move likely is pegged to the coming drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Pentagon official told Just the News. It also hints at current bureaucratic logjams within the Department of Defense,'' Solomon reported.

Miller delivered remarks at the Special Operations Memorial Plaza during a visit to Fort Bragg, N.C. on Wednesday, join by Ezra Cohen-Watnick.

Former President John F. Kennedy was invoked at the announcement.

''Ezra Cohen-Watnick just delivered a speech regarding the move to place civilian SpecOps directly underneath the Acting Sec of Defense. Listen closely,'' one poster wrote.

''The Department of Defense has started the process of formalizing what we have long known the fundamental role of US Special operations in defense of the foreign policy, and by elevating special operations forces to a level on par with Military Departments as authorized and erected by Congress. As we enact these reforms, we follow these reforms; we enact the vision of President John F. Kennedy, who predicted the rise of special operations nearly 60 years ago. He foresaw ''another type of war, new in its intensity, ancient in its origin that would require a whole new kind of strategy, a wholly different kind of force, and forces which are too unconventional.

President Kennedy gave these remarks at the nuclear age opening when the Pentagon was primarily organized to plan and direct large conventional operations against superpowers, not special operations short of overt declared conflicts. The Global demands for special operations forces, then and now, have confirmed his foresight. Under President Trump's leadership, we fully realize President Kennedy's view of Special Operations. We should be again entering of great power competitions as we will affirm the importance of the special operations committee and then, as now I know the special operations will play a vital role and by historical reforms that we have enacted today, will give us civilian forces commemorate to the secretary's other military departments. I am honored to serve as your service secretary,'' Cohen-Watnick said.

WATCH:

Ezra Cohen-Watnick just delivered a speech regarding the move to place civilian SpecOps directly underneath the Acting Sec of Defense. Listen closely.1000 pieces. pic.twitter.com/CxAhody62Y

'-- [OnReady] '­¸'­¸'­¸ (@HuberHammerQ_) November 18, 2020Speculation on social media drew connection to John F. Kennedy's National Security Action Memo 57

Here is President Kennedy's NSAM 57 which gives the Special Operations authority back to the Pentagon demoting the CIA. Acting Defense Secretary Miller activated this authority in his Special Ops order today: pic.twitter.com/klzTcXPXqd

'-- Dark Journalist (@darkjournalist) November 18, 2020The reference to the quote by JFK about 100 Pieces has an interesting background.

The news of the sweeping reform comes at the same time Miller is ordering the reduction of troops in Afghanistan, where he personally served.

''We are now bringing these conflicts to their successful and responsible conclusion under the bold leadership of President Trump,'' Miller said.

Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced plans to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. Miller said the plan will cut the number of troops in Afghanistan from more than 4,500 to 2,500, and in Iraq from about 3,000 to 2,500. https://t.co/2eJwlEgdVl

'-- The Associated Press (@AP) November 17, 2020God rest the soul of President Kennedy. We never forgot him.

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 18:05

(Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)The first time I ever wrote about WikiLeaks was back in early 2010, when the group was still largely unknown. What prompted my attention was a small article in The New York Times which began this way:

To the list of the enemies threatening the security of the United States, the Pentagon has added WikiLeaks.org, a tiny online source of information and documents that governments and corporations around the world would prefer to keep secret.

The NYT explained that the Pentagon had prepared a secret 2008 plan in which they plotted how to destroy WikiLeaks, including by purposely leaking to it false documents with the hope that the group would publish the fakes and forever obliterate their credibility '-- a dastardly scheme which was ironically leaked to WikiLeaks, which promptly posted the document on its website.

Any group that the U.S. security state includes on its ''list of enemies'' by virtue of publishing its secrets is one that is going to attract my interest, and likely my support. As a result '-- months before they made international headlines with publication of the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs and diplomatic cables from Hillary Clinton's State Department '-- I immediately investigated everything I could about the group's founding and mission; interviewed its founder Julian Assange; and urged readers to help support the fledging group, concluding that ''one of the last avenues to uncover government and other elite secrets are whistle blowers and organizations that enable them. WikiLeaks is one of the world's most effective such groups, and it's thus no surprise that they're under such sustained attacks.''

The reason for my conclusion was that WikiLeaks had been exposing incriminating secrets of corrupt power centers for years. The technology they pioneered '-- enabling sources to leak to them troves of documents without anyone, including WikiLeaks itself, knowing the source's identity '-- was a major innovation in enabling greater transparency for the world's most powerful factions.

But it was one WikiLeaks document that particularly caught my attention at first: a classified 2010 CIA ''Red Cell Memorandum,'' named after the highly secretive unit created by Bush/Cheney CIA Director George Tenet in the wake of the 9/11 attack.

What made this document so fascinating, so revealing, is the CIA's discussion of how to manipulate public opinion to ensure it remains at least tolerant if not supportive of Endless War and, specifically, the vital role President Obama played for the CIA in packaging and selling U.S. wars around the world. In this classified analysis, one learns a great deal about how the ''military industrial complex,'' also known as the ''Blob'' or ''Deep State,'' reasons; how the Agency exploits humanitarian impulses to ensure continuation of its wars; and what the real function is of the U.S. President when it comes to foreign policy.

What prompted the memo was the CIA's growing fears that the population of Western Europe was rapidly turning against the War on Terror generally and the war in Afghanistan specifically '-- as evidenced by the fall of the Dutch Government driven in large part by the electorate's anger over involvement in Afghanistan. The CIA was desperate to figure out how to stem the tide of anti-war sentiment growing throughout that region, particularly to shield France and Germany from it, by manipulating public opinion.

The Agency concluded: its best and only asset for doing that was President Obama and his popularity in Western European cities.

Classified CIA document published by WikiLeaks on March 26, 2010The premise of the CIA memo was that the populations of NATO countries participating in the War in Afghanistan did not support that war. What those allied governments and the CIA relied upon '-- as the above headline notes '-- was what the agency called ''public apathy'': meaning that the war's ''low public salience has allowed French and German leaders to disregard popular opposition and steadily increase their troop contributions to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).''

In other words, as long as the public stayed sufficiently inattentive, their democratically leaders were free to ignore their wishes and stay fighting in a war that the citizens of that country opposed. But what concerned the CIA most was that simmering dislike for the war in Western Europe would turn into active, concentrated opposition '-- as had just happened in Holland '-- forcing the worst of all outcomes: that the governments fighting with the U.S. in Afghanistan for close to a decade would actually have to honor the beliefs of their citizens that the war was not worth it, and pull out, leaving the U.S. to shoulder the burden alone:

Whatever happens, the one thing the CIA cannot not tolerate is having the leaders of allied countries ''listening to the voters'' (that's why the CIA has long preferred its ''partner'' countries be ruled by tyrannies: no need to accommodate bothersome public opinion). But even in western democracies, as long as the population remains sufficiently inattentive, the CIA reasoned, then their anti-war sentiments could be safely ignored.

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The problem in 2010 was that there was an increasing awareness in western Europe of how anathema the War in Afghanistan was to their values, how wasteful were the resources expended, and how little any of it had to do with the quality of their own lives. That public opinion problem '-- or, one might say, the nuisance of democracy '-- was where, as usual, the CIA came in.

To solve the problem of growing anti-war sentiment in Western Europe, the agency devised two primary solutions: 1) exploit the plight of Afghan women to tug on the heartstrings of the Germans and French and try to persuade them '-- particularly European women '-- that the war in Afghanistan was really some sort of humanitarian project to help people, not a geo-strategic effort to control the region and its resources; and 2) use the popularity among Europeans of President Obama, now a Nobel Peace Prize winner, to put a pretty, sophisticated, cosmopolitan face on the war in place of the hardened Evangelical Texan swagger that George W. Bush represented.

But none of this would have worked, in the CIA's estimation, without having a President who could effectively use his popularity abroad to sell the war not as a barbaric act of endless aggression but as a humanitarian gesture that '-- like the President himself '-- was benevolent, noble, and kind. As a result of their positive views of Obama, the agency concluded, the French and Germans would not only ''be receptive to [Obama's] direct affirmation of their importance to the [Afghanistan] mission'' '-- that would be the positive reinforcement '-- but would also be ''sensitive to [his] direct expressions of disappointment in allies who do not help.''

In other words, Obama was like a kind but righteous father whose nobility you believed in even when it came to bombing villages and shooting up schoolyards, and whose moral disappointment (you're not living up to your duties as an ally) you were eager to avoid. Polling data thus showed that when Europeans were reminded that Obama supported the war in Afghanistan, support increased significantly:

It is hard to overstate how revealing this document is. Just months before the CIA heralded Obama's unique ability to sell the war and ensure its continuation, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded Obama its highest honor for what it called ''his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,'' adding: ''for 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman.''

Yet the CIA, as it so often does, knew the hidden truth: that Obama's most important value was in prettifying, marketing and prolonging wars, not ending them. They saw him for what U.S. Presidents really are: instruments to create a brand and image about the U.S. role in the world that can be effectively peddled to both the domestic population in the U.S. and then on the global stage, and specifically to pretend that endless barbaric U.S. wars are really humanitarian projects benevolently designed to help people '-- the pretext used to justify every war by every country in history.

Many have questioned why the CIA would be so vehemently opposed to Donald Trump's candidacy, and then his presidency. Though he did question many of their most prized pieties '-- from regime change wars such as in Syria to the ongoing viability of NATO after the fall of the Soviet Union '-- and did harshly criticize their intelligence failures (which is what prompted Chuck Schumer's pre-inauguration warning that they would exact revenge on him for doing so), it's not as if Trump were some sort of peacenik President. He made good on his campaign promise to escalate bombing campaigns in the name of fighting terrorism with fewer constraints than before.

But one major reason for the contempt harbored for Trump among security state operatives was his inability and unwillingness to prettify barbaric U.S. actions and to pretend that the U.S. is something other than it is. Recall the fury and rage provoked in 2017 when, in response to a question by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly about Putin's use of violence against journalists and others, Trump responded: "There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent?"

The rage from that comment was obviously not driven by any doubts about the truth of Trump's statement. No sentient person would recognize it as anything other than true. The anger was due to the fact that presidents are not supposed to tell the truth about the U.S. and what it does in the world (just as Presidents are supposed to pretend they hate despots even as they support them in every conceivable way). As the 2010 CIA memo reflects, useful presidents are those, like Obama, skilled at deceiving the world and propagandizing them to view U.S. aggression as benign, so as to allow even democratically elected leaders to act in contradiction to public opinion when doing so suits U.S. interests.

As I wrote in 2017 when the foreign policy community and pundit class feigned anger over Trump's embrace of the Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as if support for tyranny was a violation of U.S. values rather than a staple of post-World-War-II U.S. policy:

What Trump is achieving by opening the White House doors to Sisi is not ushering in a new policy but rather clarifying and illuminating a very old one. This Trumpian effect '-- unmasking in all its naked ugliness what D.C. mavens prefer to keep hidden '-- is visible in multiple other areas'.....

That's the reason so many in Washington '-- who never met a pro-U.S. dictator they weren't willing to arm and fund '-- are so upset by all this. Sisi isn't someone you invite over to your house for dinner; he's someone you send money and weapons to in secret after you give your pretty speeches in front of American flags about human rights and freedom. What Trump is violating is not any Washington principles or ethics but Washington propaganda tactics.

It's not just Trump who infuriated powerful U.S. actors by revealing the true face of the U.S. to the world. It's also Julian Assange who did so, by founding an organization that published documents like this one that revealed such vital truths.

For that exposure, the CIA relentlessly attacked Trump starting from before he was even elected, and for the same reason, Assange is sitting in a British prison on espionage charges from the U.S. Department of Justice. Few things infuriate U.S. foreign policy elites more than those who, unwittingly or otherwise, show the true face of the U.S. security state to the world.

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 05:19

The federal General Services Administration notified President-elect Joe Biden on Monday that the Trump administration is ready to start the transition of power.

A letter from GSA Administrator Emily Murphy detailed the development '-- which President Trump acknowledged on Twitter.

''I want to thank Emily Murphy at GSA for her steadfast dedication and loyalty to our Country. She has been harassed, threatened, and abused '' and I do not want to see this happen to her, her family, or employees of GSA,'' Trump tweeted.

''Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good '... fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same,'' the president wrote.

The decision comes as the Michigan Board of Canvassers on Monday voted to certify the state's election results, which were in Biden's favor.

The GSA's move frees up ''post-election resources and services'' for a ''presidential transition,'' according to Murphy's letter to Biden.''Because of recent developments involving legal challenges and certifications of election results, [I] am transmitting this letter today to make those resources and services available to you,'' the GSA chief wrote.

Joe Biden Getty Images''I have dedicated much of my adult life to public service, and I have always strived to do what is right. Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts,'' she said.

''I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official'--including those who work at the White House or GSA'--with regard to the substance or timing of my decision.

''To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination,'' Murphy wrote.

''I did, however, receive threats online, by phone, and by mail directed at my safety, my family, my staff, and even my pets in an effort to coerce me into making this determination prematurely.''

The GSA official added, ''As stated, because of recent developments involving legal challenges and certifications of election results, I have determined that you may access the post-election resources and services described in Section 3 of the Act upon request.

''The actual winner of the presidential election will be determined by the electoral process detailed in the Constitution,'' Murphy wrote.She said a total of $7.3 million would be provided to Biden for the transition.

The head of Biden's transition team said in a statement, ''The GSA Administrator has ascertained President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the apparent winners of the election, providing the incoming Administration with the resources and support necessary to carry out a smooth and peaceful transfer of power.

''This final decision is a definitive administrative action to formally begin the transition process with federal agencies.

''In the days ahead, transition officials will begin meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response, have a full accounting of our national security interests, and gain complete understanding of the Trump administration's efforts to hollow out government agencies.''

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:10

Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Drake has come to the defense of The Weeknd amid his Grammys snub, saying the awards show ''may no longer matter.''

In a post to the rapper's Instagram story on Wednesday, Drake sided with The Weeknd '-- who received zero nominations this year for his album ''After Hours'' '-- and suggested that there is a ''disconnect'' between the Grammys and the music making waves in the industry.

''I think we should stop allowing ourselves to be shocked every year by the disconnect between impactful music and these awards and just accept that what once was the highest form of recognition may no longer matter to the artists that exist now and the ones that come after,'' Drake wrote. ''It's like a relative you keep expecting to fix up but they just can't change their ways.''

He then mentioned his surprise when The Weeknd was snubbed, writing: ''The other day I said @theweeknd was a lock for either album or song of the year along with countless other reasonable assumptions and it just never goes that way.''

Drake also called on future generations to make a change, suggesting that an alternative awards show is created. ''This is a great time for somebody to start something new that we can build up over time and pass on to the generations to come.''

Popular on Variety

In a separate story, Drake tagged Lil Baby, Pop Smoke, Party Next Door and Popcaan as artists who were not nominated but he believes should have been. ''Too many missing names to even name'...'' Drake wrote.

After he received zero nominations on Tuesday, The Weeknd publicly accused the Grammys of corruption on Twitter.

''The Grammys remain corrupt,'' he wrote. ''You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency'...''

Recording Academy chief Harvey Mason, jr. later responded to his claims, telling Variety: ''Unfortunately, every year, there are fewer nominations than the number of deserving artists. But as the only peer-voted music award, we will continue to recognize and celebrate excellence in music while shining a light on the many amazing artists that make up our global community.''

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 16:15

YouTube is temporarily banning One America News Network for breaking rules about COVID-19 claims, shuttering the right-wing cable outlet on the world's largest video site for a week.

''After careful review, we removed a video from OANN and issued a strike on the channel for violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content claiming there's a guaranteed cure,'' Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokeswoman, said in a statement. After a channel receives three strikes, YouTube terminates it altogether.

YouTube, part of Alphabet Inc.'s Google, is also suspending advertisements from the network for violating other unspecified policies.

One America News, or OAN, is a favorite of President Donald Trump, and its online audience rose this month after some Trump allies turned against Fox News, the conservative cable standard-bearer. Several OAN clips on YouTube falsely told viewers Trump won the Nov. 3 presidential election. YouTube removed ads on some of those clips, citing rules against ''undermining trust in the electoral process.'' But the company kept the footage up, an approach now facing criticism in Congress.

YouTube says it does not consider OAN one of the authoritative news sources it surfaces to viewers. The network had more than 8 million views on YouTube the week of Nov. 9-13, more than its viewership in all of October, according to the analytics firm SocialBlade.

In March, YouTube outlawed videos that promoted medically unsubstantiated advice about the coronavirus. Axios earlier reported YouTube's decision about OAN.

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 14:58

Facebook Inc. is offering millions of dollars in credits to some advertisers after discovering a glitch in a tool that tells advertisers how effective their ads may be in driving results, such as getting consumers to download an app or purchase a product.

Facebook's ''conversion lift'' tool overestimated some campaign results for 12 months, the company quietly told its advertisers this month. The glitch skewed data that advertisers use to decide how much money to spend with the company.

It isn't the first problem Facebook has discovered in its systems to measure advertisers' campaigns, and it is not likely to dent Facebook's ad revenue. But some ad buyers said the latest gaffe has hurt confidence in the company's metrics at a time when many businesses are navigating the pandemic by trying to cut costs and make sure their ad spending performs.

Omnicom Group Inc. media agency OMD Worldwide is looking into how the error has affected some clients' investments before accepting credits, said Florian Adamski, OMD's global chief executive.

''This is not an easy fix,'' he said. ''It's not like, pay a couple thousand or million bucks and it's over. This goes a lot deeper and we need to find out how to rectify the damage done and make sure it doesn't happen again.''

''If there is no governance or third neutral party looking at our investment tools, I can't sleep well at night and my clients can't sleep,'' he added.

The issue is particularly acute for certain categories such as retail, where marketers are spending as much as 5% to 10% more on Facebook and other performance-centric advertising channels to recover business lost during the early stages of the pandemic, said the chief executive of one digital agency that spends hundred of millions of dollars advertising on Facebook every year.

''Being able to attribute where sales are coming from is hugely important right now,'' the executive said. ''Every dollar spent has got to map back to data points and performance. If we can't map that back, it becomes more difficult to justify spending dollars when clients are trying to manage their costs as effectively as possible'--and media spend is a cost that needs to generate revenue.''

Facebook's offer of credits extends to some advertisers that used the tool when the error went undetected, from August 2019 through August 2020.

''While making improvements to our measurement products, we found a technical issue that impacted some conversion lift tests,'' said a Facebook spokesperson in an email. ''We've fixed this and are working with advertisers that have impacted studies.''

At one large buying agency, the size of ad credits will be around 0.5% of affected clients' annual budgets around the time of the glitch, according to a memo that the agency sent to clients that was obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

''More so than past measurement problems with Facebook's ad platform, this error has the potential to be extremely serious,'' the agency wrote in the note to clients. ''The fact that it led to a systematic overstatement of ad performance, combined with the yearlong duration of the error, likely misinformed media budget allocations. These misallocations came at the expense of both advertiser media efficiency and Facebook's competitors.''

Facebook, which said it fixed the error in September, told advertisers about it this month, according to a memo that Facebook sent clients. The company is basing the amount of credits it is issuing to advertisers on an analysis that shows how much the error may have affected their actual investments during the period following the lift study.

Some ad buyers are also questioning the analysis Facebook is using to determine advertisers' compensation'--criticizing the tech giant for not being transparent enough in how it determined who receives ad credits and how, exactly, compensation was calculated, as well as details on steps Facebook is taking to ensure such errors don't occur again.

''This can't just be covered with a one-time compensation in credits,'' said OMD's Mr. Adamski. ''It needs that reconciliation for every single client on how did it influence the investment decisions we made.''

Marketers aren't likely to turn away from Facebook despite the incident, said Kevin Simonson, vice president of social for digital marketing agency Wpromote LLC, which spends more than $100 million a year on Facebook ads on behalf of clients.

''This particular error would impact strategy regarding what creative to use and what audiences to spend against, which could be significant to some extent, but it's not going to be significant to a degree that's going to cause any brand (in this day and age) to not do Facebook,'' Mr. Simonson said in an email. ''It's more like to what degree.''

News of the glitch was reported last week by industry publication AdExchanger.

Write to Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com and Sahil Patel at sahil.patel@wsj.com

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Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:16

Sinterklaas heeft dinsdag in het Sinterklaasjournaal zijn excuses aangeboden voor het feit dat hij vroeger kinderen meenam in de zak naar Spanje. In de aflevering van dinsdag bleek in een bewegende zak 'Bernhard het Stoute Kind' te zitten.

Lees ook: Meer dan 2 miljoen mensen keken op tv naar intocht Sinterklaas

Vandaag werd duidelijk hoe Bernhard in het Pietenhuis terechtkwam. In gesprek met presentatrice Dieuwertje Blok laat de Sint weten dat er vroeger kinderen werden meegenomen in de zak naar Spanje. Hij zegt dat dat inmiddels al tientallen jaren niet meer gebeurt en dat alle kinderen weer met hun ouders zijn herenigd.

Sint heeft spijtDe goedheiligman excuseert zich. ''Ik heb er spijt van. Daarom wil ik ook als Sinterklaas mijn oprechte excuses aanbieden voor dat verleden.'' De sint belooft dat er nooit meer kinderen in de zak meegenomen zullen worden naar Spanje.

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Archived Version

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 13:07

ROME '-- Pope Francis met with a delegation of NBA players in the Vatican Monday to discuss economic equality and other ''social justice issues.''

According to a report by ESPN, at the pope's behest, the Vatican reached out to the basketball players' association last week because the pontiff wished to know more about how players ''had recently brought attention to pressing social justice issues and economic inequality,'' in reference to players' taking a knee to protest ''systemic racism'' and other issues.

The delegation meeting with Francis included Kyle Korver and Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks; Jonathan Isaac of the Orlando Magic; Anthony Tolliver of the Memphis Grizzlies; Marco Belinelli of the San Antonio Spurs; and Michele Roberts, executive director of the players' union.

The players' union scheduled an overnight flight Sunday so that the delegation could make it to a private meeting with the pope Monday morning, which took place in the papal library at the Apostolic Palace.

BLM-NBA Woke Update: The Sacramento Kings fired an announcer who said, ''all lives matter,'' only to replace him by hiring someone who claimed that Donald Trump is a ''white supremacist terrorist.'' https://t.co/mD41nnDUue

'-- Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 18, 2020

The NBA players and the union ''used their stage at the NBA's 2020 season restart in Orlando to place a spotlight on police brutality, racial injustice and other issues,'' ESPN noted, and many players decorated the backs of their jerseys with slogans. The league and union also agreed to paint ''Black Lives Matter'' along one sideline in support of the Marxist-inspired movement of the same name.

Brown, whose annual salary of $1.27 million was the lowest of the group, signed a new contract with the Houston Rockets over the weekend for an unspecified sum. All of the players make more per year than 99.9 percent of Americans, making them particularly well qualified to discuss economic inequality.

When the NBA relaunched its season this summer after a five-month hiatus due to the coronavirus, it made social justice messaging and imagery a hallmark of its television broadcasts, a decision that caused viewership to plummet.

The 2020 finals in early October became the least watched final series in NBA history, with less that a third of the number of viewers from 2019.

Fans credited their diminished interest in NBA basketball to dissatisfaction with the overtly political nature of the games.

According to a September 2 Harris poll, 39 percent of respondents felt that the league had become too political. And another 19 percent said that they had turned off pro basketball because of the NBA's deep ties to China.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said it was a disgrace the NBA continued to cater to China despite their known human rights abuses. https://t.co/uOBBak4xrG

'-- Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) August 11, 2020

When Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted a message in support of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists in October 2019, the league denounced the Rockets' boss and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver quickly apologized to China.

The NBA has a deal with Chinese Internet provider Tencent worth $1.5 billion, and the Chinese basketball leagues working in cooperation with the NBA are providing the league with an additional $4 billion.

According to Fox Business, LeBron James ''holds a lifetime deal valued at $1 billion with sports retail giant Nike, which saw its sales in China surge 27 percent to nearly $1.7 billion in its most recent fiscal quarter alone.''

''James' standing in China could also impact the future efforts of his media production company, SpringHill Entertainment,'' Fox Business noted. ''The firm is producing Space Jam 2, the highly anticipated sequel to NBA legend Michael Jordan's original film, which will seek a massive return from Chinese audiences.''

In October, the Vatican renewed a controversial 2018 secret agreement with the Chinese Communist Party regarding the naming of Catholic bishops in the country.

Follow @tdwilliamsrome

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Archived Version

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 13:15

During a tense town hall, staff cried and expressed dismay with the publishing giant's decision to publish 'Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life.'

by Manisha Krishnan

Nov 24 2020, 9:16pm Snap

Several Penguin Random House Canada employees confronted management about the company's decision to publish a new book by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson at an emotional town hall Monday, and dozens more have filed anonymous complaints, according to four workers who spoke to VICE World News.

On Monday, Penguin Random House Canada, Canada's largest book publisher and a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, announced it will be publishing Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Peterson, to be released in March 2021. The book will be published by Portfolio in the U.S. and Penguin Press in the U.K., both part of the Penguin Random House empire.

Four Penguin Random House Canada employees, who did not want to be named due to concerns over their employment, said the company held a town hall about the book Monday, during which executives defended the decision to publish Peterson while employees cited their concerns about platforming someone who is popular in far-right circles.

''He is an icon of hate speech and transphobia and the fact that he's an icon of white supremacy, regardless of the content of his book, I'm not proud to work for a company that publishes him,'' a junior employee who is a member of the LGBTQ community and who attended the town hall told VICE World News.

Another employee said ''people were crying in the meeting about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives.'' They said one co-worker discussed how Peterson had radicalized their father and another talked about how publishing the book will negatively affect their non-binary friend.

''The company since June has been doing all these anti-racist and allyship things and them publishing Peterson's book completely goes against this. It just makes all of their previous efforts seem completely performative,'' the employee added.

A third employee told VICE World News the company's diversity and inclusion committee received at least 70 anonymous messages about Peterson's book, and only a couple are in favour of the decision to publish it.

In an email statement, Penguin Random House Canada said it is open to its employees' feedback.

''We announced yesterday that we will publish Jordan Peterson's new book Beyond Order this coming March. Immediately following the announcement, we held a forum and provided a space for our employees to express their views and offer feedback. Our employees have started an anonymous feedback channel, which we fully support. We are open to hearing our employees' feedback and answering all of their questions. We remain committed to publishing a range of voices and viewpoints,'' the statement said.

The company did not answer any of the specific questions sent by VICE World News.

Peterson, 58, a University of Toronto professor of psychology turned anti-political correctness crusader, first ignited international controversy in September 2016, when he posted a lecture to YouTube stating he refused to use gender neutral pronouns for students and condemning Bill C-16, legislation that increased protections for trans and non-binary Canadians.

He quickly became popular in right-wing and libertarian circles across the globe, becoming a regular guest on Joe Rogan's podcast. He amassed 3.25 million YouTube followers, who tuned into his lectures on why white privilege isn't real, and how masculinity is under attack. At one point he was making $80,000 a month on Patreon. His book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, included instructions like ''stand up straight with your shoulders back'' and ''set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world,'' and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide, according to Penguin Random House.

The Penguin Random House Canada employees said the company was secretive about releasing Peterson's new book; one said the title didn't appear in an internal database that normally includes all future books.

''I feel it was deliberately hidden and dropped on us once it was too late to change course,'' said the junior employee who is a member of the LGBTQ community. The employee said workers would have otherwise considered a walkout, similar to what Hachette employees did when the publisher announced it would be publishing Woody Allen's memoir; Hachette later dropped the book.

In an email viewed by VICE World News, Kristin Cochrane, chief executive officer of Penguin Random House Canada, invited staff to discuss the announcement with Anne Collins, publisher of Knopf Random Canada Publishing Group, the imprint under which Peterson's book will be published.

''How we think about our publishing'--and the range of books and authors that we publish'--is an evolving process and part of an ever-changing conversation, and one I'm eager to have in a bigger way with all of you,'' Cochrane said in the email, referencing a larger meeting planned for the new year.

''In the meantime, though, I realize some of you might have thoughts to share on this particular publication, and so shortly following this note you will receive an invitation from Anne Collins'...where she will share more information about this new book and, more importantly, our reasons for publishing it.''

Collins opened the meeting by talking about how Peterson has ''helped millions of people who are on the fringes of society who would otherwise be radicalized by alt-right groups,'' according to one of the four employees who spoke to VICE World News.

''She was trying to kind of spin it as a positive to be publishing this book,'' the employee said.

''(But) he's the one who's responsible for radicalizing and causing this surge of alt-right groups, especially on university campuses.''

The employee said Collins noted her background in journalism and that it's important to be publishing ''a variety of voices.''

The employee said Scott Sellers, director of marketing strategy, spoke about how the company has to work with writers whose views ''we don't necessarily support,'' but that Sellers also defended Peterson by stating that he supports same-sex marriage.

The employee said when Peterson previously came into the office to talk about 12 Rules for Life, ''they would kind of do it secretly.''

''They knew what they were doing wasn't right and they knew so many people in the company were upset about him.''

The employee said they believe Penguin Random House Canada is publishing Peterson's new book because 12 Rules for Life was incredibly successful'--but that wasn't a part of Monday's conversation.

''They're not going to acknowledge the reason they're doing it is for money. I feel that would be the more honest route to go rather than making up excuses for Jordan Peterson,'' they said.

The employee said the company's diversity and inclusion committee aired concerns about how this will affect other authors.

''We publish a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community and what is the company going to do about making sure these authors are still feeling supported by a company that is supporting somebody who denies their existence,'' the employee said.

According to the employee, another person said they were instructed not to post anything critical of Peterson on their social media feeds when 12 Rules for Life was published; the employee said Cochrane said she didn't recall that policy.

All of the workers who spoke to VICE World News said if the book isn't cancelled, they would like Penguin Random House Canada to consider donating the profits from the book to LGBTQ organizations.

They said the company has not elaborated on how it will respond to the critical feedback, but as the book is being published in March, it will likely go to print soon.

Peterson has maintained a very low-profile over the past year, as he has been dealing with serious health issues, which, according to his daughter, included a medically induced coma as he attempted to detox in Russia for a benzo dependence. In a subdued YouTube video released Monday, Peterson said he had been working on his 12 Rules sequel for the past three years.

Correction: A previous version of this story said a non-binary employee spoke about how Peterson's new book will negatively impact them. In fact, the employee was speaking about their non-binary friend.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:55

(Natural News) We have bombshell new intel to share with you today that connects some recent dots on the emerging violence (and civil war attempt) from Black Lives Matter, the militant terrorism wing of the Democrat party.

Summary of what you'll find in this article:

Communist China is supplying full auto AR-15 ''mods'' to Black Lives Matter militants in America, and a shipment was recently interdicted by Customer and Border Protection (CBP).California Gov. Newsom is involved in a trillion-dollar money laundering operation with communist China to keep him in power. He's funneling taxpayer money to China, and they are laundering it and funneling money back to him. (See Los Angeles Times link below.)Using the laundered money, Gov. Newsom is stockpiling automatic weapons, ammunition and gold in the underground storage complex at 1616 Capitol Ave. in Sacramento, the East End Complex building '' block 174. (Sourced from a former employee who worked there.)Gov. Newsom is plotting with China to have communist troops invade America (via California and other states) and to overrun and occupy the United States, turning it over to communist Chinese rule.China's EMP weapons, developed using technology stolen from the USA, are planned to be the first wave ''Pearl Harbor'' event that sets it all off. (Official report to the White House, see link below, or visit https://emptaskforce.us ).Obama helped set up a civilian military force using Operation Fast and Furious gun smuggling to arm the narcos. (Full timeline link below.)Those same narcos are now trained by communist Chinese military instructors and are prepared to invade America with the aid of heavy weapons. (DHS sources via Hodges, link below.)The civil war America is facing won't be lightly-armed ''soy boys,'' but rather heavily armed, full-auto wielding Black Lives Matter militants, Mexican narco gangs and communist Chinese troops operating under the protection of Gov. Newsom.Hundreds of companies across corporate America are now directly funding or overtly supporting Black Lives Matter terrorists as part of this civil war effort to destroy America. See the full list of 269 companies here.We begin with the recent news that China was caught attempting to smuggle ''10,800 assault weapons parts'' into Louisville, Kentucky. This news was announced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on June 26, 2020:

At the Express Consignment Operations hubs in Louisville U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized a shipment from China that contained over 10,000 Assault Weapons parts being smuggled into the country.

The shipment was seized on May 22. Officers inspected the item, which was arriving from Shenzhen, China, destined for a residence in Melbourne, Florida. The parcel was manifested as containing 100 Steel Pin Samples. This is a common practice of smugglers manifesting the contraband as a harmless or a legitimate commodity in hopes of eluding further examination.

The official CBP announcement did not offer any specifics on what exactly the ''assault weapons parts'' were, but we have since learned from another source that the parts were drop-in full-auto mods for AR-15 rifles.

Full auto drop-in parts are very simple but highly illegal parts which turn a semi-auto AR-15 into a full-auto AR-15, which is illegal for civilians to own. Such parts replace a small number of existing parts in the AR-15 trigger mechanism and safety selector. Because the parts are very small, a high number of them '-- such as 10,800 '-- can be hidden in shipments that claim to be other things such as machinery parts or samples.

This means China was sending 10,800 full-auto rifle mods to Melbourne, Florida, which no doubt serves as a distribution hub for moving those pieces nationwide.

You might reasonably wonder, then, why China would be sending full-auto rifle mods to the USA. The answer is that China supports the civil war attempt by Black Lives Matter, and China is coordinating with BLM terrorists to arm up their militant troops across the country, upgrading their legally-acquired AR-15 weapons to ''full auto'' status, which makes them far more formidable in a kinetic assault.

Melbourne, Florida, is known as a human trafficking, drug trafficking and weapons trafficking mecca, with smuggling routes that are well established across both land and water. With easy access to both Orlando and Miami airports, contraband that comes into Melbourne is easy to distribute across the USA within days. The human trafficking is so bad in Melbourne that every law enforcement officer working the area has had contact with human trafficking operations there.

We now believe that some of these full-auto weapons mods end up under the control of Democrat governors like Newsom, the California Governor who actively seeks to see America destroyed.

Weapons, ammo and gold storage: East End Complex '' Block 174 '' Capitol building, Sacramento, CaliforniaSeveral weeks ago, we learned from a source in California that the East End Complex '' Block 174 '' of the Capitol building in Sacramento, California, has a vast underground storage complex that consists of multiple floors, much like a giant underground parking garage. The construction alone cost a quarter of a billion dollars:

From JohnsonFain.com, the firm that designed the facility:

'...this project is an ambitious multi-block mixed-use development to consolidate the headquarters operations of three major departments of California State government. 6,400 employees of the Departments of Health Services, Education and General Services are housed in the five-building, 1.5 million square foot development, along with 1,500 parking spaces'...

The Department of Health Services and General Services are housed in the second portion of the Capitol Area East End Complex, known as Blocks 171-174. This design-build team is made up of Clark Construction and Gruen Architects who completed this $225.6 million complex.

Here's a link to the official web page for this building.

And here's a satellite map of its location:

Our source, who served as an employee inside the building complex for several years, tells us that the underground storage facility in this building houses ''vehicles, firearms, ammunition and gold bullion.'' You'll hear more from this source below'...

Governor Newsom send half a billion dollars to China for completely fabricated ''covid-19 mask'' dealGovernor Newsom is fully aware of this operation and has been bought off by China, which is covertly providing loans to Newsom to keep him in power and prevent California from defaulting in an epic financial collapse. As Paul Preston reported on Agenda21Radio.news:

(Washington DC)-Sources in Washington DC speaking under condition of anonymity have revealed to AENN that California Governor Gavin Newsom has entered into discussions with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to loan the state of California $1 trillion dollars by way of a collateralized loan.

Newsom is making ''payments'' on the loans from China by funneling money to China through other corrupt means, such as this recent bombshell that finds Newsom helping communist China receive $1 billion in coronavirus aid. Via WesternJournal.com:

California announced a $1,000,000,000 outlay to purchase N95 respirator masks'... ''The governor's advisors have so far declined requests for information about the agreement with BYD, the Chinese electric car manufacturer hired to produce the masks, though the state has already wired the company the first installment of $495 million,'' the Times reported.

''Newsom, who has been praised for his efforts to slow the spread of the disease, bristled on Saturday at suggestions that his administration has been too slow to explain a deal that will cost California taxpayers 30% more than his January budget would spend on infectious disease prevention for an entire fiscal year.''

Furthermore, he hasn't bothered to brief the California Legislature on what, exactly, he agreed to.

That's because this isn't a billion dollars for ''masks.'' It's part of a massive money laundering operation to funnel money to China, so that China can funnel money and weapons back to Newsom in preparation for the civil war that they're launching. (Nobody believes Gov. Newsom is spending a billion dollars on N95 masks'... it's absurd. Just a cover story.)

Even the Los Angeles Times was shocked by Gov. Newsom agreeing to send a billion dollars to China for N95 masks. As reported by the LA Times:

Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision to spend almost $1 billion in taxpayer funds to buy protective masks drew national attention as an aggressive move by California to solve one of the most nagging problems of the coronavirus crisis.

But almost two weeks after he announced the deal during a cable TV interview, very few details have been disclosed. The governor's advisors have so far declined requests for information about the agreement with BYD, the Chinese electric car manufacturer hired to produce the masks, though the state has already wired the company the first installment of $495 million.

Seriously? An electric car company in China? Folks, this is as corrupt and dirty as it gets. But it's all part of the money laundering operation that sends money to China, so that Chine can send ''clean'' money back to Newsom, which he diverts and uses to buy weapons, ammunition and gold.

Gov. Newsom is stockpiling weapons, ammunition and gold at the Capitol building in SacramentoBack to the Easy End Complex in Sacramento, our source says they personally witnessed ''insane amounts'' of ammunition '-- pallets at a time '-- being delivered and stored there, harkening back to the DOJ purchases of 2 billion rounds of ammunition under President Barack Obama, who also said that he wanted to build a civilian army that was just as powerful as the U.S. military, by the way. Obama called this his, ''Civilian National Security Force,'' as AmericanThinker.com explains, Barack Obama said:

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set'... We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

One pallet of 5.56 ammo is well over 50,000 rounds, by the way. So the ammo stockpiling by Gov. Newsom is off the charts, and it appears he got ammo from the DOJ under Obama as well as new ammo funded by communist China. Essentially, Gov. Newsom has been stockpiling weapons and ammo in preparation for a civil war that he's been helping to make reality.

Back to Obama, how do you create a civilian military force? You stockpile weapons in Democrat-controlled cities like Sacramento. You work with communist China to import full-auto weapon mod parts to upgrade your civilian forces to military-grade automatic weapons. And you put more weapons into the hands of your loyalists through legalized gun-running operations like Operation Fast and Furious.

Listen to this bombshell interview between Dave Hodges and Bob Griswold, start playing at 17:15

Brighteon.com/f4dc71c2-944b-4bc0-a719-e3858607469f

Griswold: If you look closely at CHAZ, they were passing out AR-15s, where did they get those AR-15s from? They were in a closed area'... where did all these AR-15s just miraculously appear from?

Hodges: Well I can tell you what my intelligence sources tell me: Pre-stashed weaponry'... suspected courtesy of communist Chinese money and backing.

Griswold: Of course! We've mentioned this many times, that Long Beach, California was the Chinese way of bringing it into the country, the Southern border was [also] the way of bringing it in, and they funded these people'... I was wondering why the FBI and the ATF didn't go in when they were passing out AR-15s to minors [in CHAZ].

Obama's ''Fast and Furious'' gun-running operationBarack Obama, a ''sleeper cell'' president who had been meticulously plotting to see American overthrown and destroyed, launched Operation Fast and Furious in 2009, under the control of DOJ AG Eric Holder, a treasonous criminal who continues to work to undermine America today. Under operation Fast and Furious, the ATF was ordered to allow Mexican drug gangs to purchase high-caliber weapons from U.S. gun dealers in Arizona. These guns, Obama and Holder knew, would later be used in gun crimes in the United States, allowing President Obama to decry ''gun violence'' and call for new restrictions on the Second Amendment.

CNS News publishes the full timeline of Operations Fast and Furious at this link.

In essence, this operation was a way for Barack Obama to put heavy weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. We have since learned that the narcos are being trained by communist Chinese military instructors, completing the circle of anti-America warfare tactics that involve both China and Mexico.

Remember that China has, for many years, been engaged in chemical warfare against the United States of America through the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, a highly toxic drug that is right now killing over 60,000 Americans a year (that's more than all the U.S. casualties of the Vietnam War combined). But how is fentanyl brought into the United States? Mexican drug cartels and smuggling routes which are protected by Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom as part of their ''open borders'' policies. (The narcos pay tens of millions of dollars each year to California Democrats to maintain the open borders policy for drug smuggling and human trafficking.)

Importantly, these same routes will be used by the communist Chinese to invade the United States of America once the civil war achieves sufficient destabilization. That's why China is dumping full-auto weapon mods into the continental United States '-- because it's a destabilizing vector that will lead to mass chaos, death and blood in the streets. This will set the stage for Chinese-trained narcos to invade Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, aided by the guns they acquired via Obama's Operation Fast and Furious.

At the same time, Democrat-controlled areas like Sacramento will activate their stored weapons and ammunition, handing out guns and ammo to left-wing loyalists like Antifa and Black Lives Matter, urging them to kill conservatives, Christians, Whites and Trump supporters.

The multi-faceted attack that's about to hit the United States while 99% of Americans are totally oblivious to realityDave Hodges at TheCommonsenseShow.com has extensively documented the interactions between Mexican drug cartels and Chinese military troops. See some of his analysis in stories like, ''Mexican Oil Official Says UN-Mexican Cartels and Chinese Are Provoking a Border War'' or, ''Leaked Document Shows Chinese Intent to Commit Mass American Genocide Followed the Occupation of America.''

In effect, America is about to be hit with a multi-faceted attack that has been largely funded by communist China, consisting of:

A domestic civil war uprising of Black Lives Matter militants who have been heavily armed with automatic weapons and are intent on killing Whites, Christians, conservatives and Trump supporters. In addition, Black Lives Matter is already receiving enormous funding through U.S. corporations such as McDonald's, Netflix, Google and others who have pledged almost half a billion dollars so far.A border invasion consisting of armed Mexican narcos who have been trained by Chinese military instructions and given heavy weapons paid for by China.The release of financial weapons against America, including China selling off U.S. Treasury debt and announcing its own gold-backed currency.The unleashing of emotionally charged, drooling left-wing ''zombies'' who have been whipped up into a frenzy by the treasonous left-wing media pushing deliberately fake news such as claiming that America is a ''racist'' nation or that Trump himself is racist.The continued chemical warfare against America via fentanyl, heroin and other drugs that are devastating America's young males who might otherwise be capable of serving in a military draft, if not for the fact that they are now trembling drug addicts.The likely deployment of EMP weapons against America, using stolen technology, unleashing a ''Pearl Harbor'' attack that could kill 90% of the American population. This was the subject of a recent bombshell authored by Dr. Peter Vincent Pry and filed under the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security. You can read my coverage of this at this link on NationalSecurity.news. See the official website of this task force at https://emptaskforce.us '' from that article:The EMP weapons that China is perfecting would destroy the power grid, collapsing the United States of America into mass starvation, chaos and economic collapse. Although this seems to be exactly what Democrats want for America, it's obviously a very dangerous scenario. This achieves China's goal of eliminating the American people without destroying the natural resources and farmland through the use of nuclear weapons, which contaminate soils for three centuries with radioisotopes.

As Pry explains in the report, ''a highly computerized open society like the United States is extremely vulnerable to electronic attacks from all sides. This is because the U.S. economy, from banks to telephone systems and from power plants to iron and steel works, relies entirely on computer network.''

Once the American people begin to die off in large numbers, China will stage a military invasion to occupy America and kill any remaining resistance. At that point, China will claim America for itself and begin a mass migration effort to colonize America with communist Chinese.

All this has been meticulously documented by people like J.R. Nyquist (JYquist.blog) and Dave Hodges (TheCommonsenseShow.com), both of whom I have interviewed about these critical issues:

And here's a recent interview with Hodges about the coming invasion of America by Chinese troops:

I've also just posted an interview with ''Scout'' from BrushBeater, who warns of the coming civil war and makes specific recommendations about communications gear, night vision, training protocols and much more. If you have any desire at all to survive the civil war that has already begun, you need to listen to this interview:

Now you know why this website is blacklisted by Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter: Because Big Tech is in on the plan to destroy America, and they are all working with communist China to achieve this end game.

That's why you need to immediately move to alternative platforms such as Parler.com, Spreely.com, Gab.com, Brighteon.com, etc., where you can share critical stories without censorship.

Also, subscribe to our email newsletter at this link to be alerted via email to breaking stories.

My channel on Parler.com is:https://parler.com/profile/HealthRanger/posts

My channel on Brighteon.com is:https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport

Share this important story everywhere you can, and get geared up for the coming war, because you will literally be fighting for your own survival.

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Archived Version

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:25

Citi has joined Mastercard in the ''True Name'' initiative, allowing transgender individuals to have their desired name printed on their credit card even without a legal name change.

As reported by CNBC, the ''True Name'' initiative aims ''to help members in the LGBTQ+ community, particularly trans and non-binary people, by allowing them to have financial products with their self-identified chosen first name.'' Proponents of it claim that it will help reduce the discrimination such individuals face when choosing a card.

''In fact, nearly one third (32%) of individuals who have shown IDs with a name or gender that did not match their presentation reported negative experiences, including being harassed, denied services and/or attacked, according to a report from the National Center for Transgender Equality,'' reported the outlet.

In a press release, Carla Hassan, CMO at Citi, said the company believes that people should be able to express who they are by way of their financial cards.

''We're incredibly proud to launch the True Name feature, through our relationship with Mastercard, because we strongly believe that our customers should have the opportunity to be called by the name that represents who they really are,'' said Hassan.

Cheryl Guerin, EVP of marketing and communications at Mastercard said the transgender community has responded positively to the feature.

''Since introducing the True Name feature, we've received incredible feedback from our partners and allies within the transgender and non-binary communities on how the capability has eased a major pain point in their lives,'' said Guerin.

Mastercard launched the ''True Name'' initiative in 2019, lamenting the pain and sensitivity that transgender individuals feel when using a credit card that does not match their desired identity.

''For many in the LGBTQIA+ community, the name on their credit, debit or prepaid card does not reflect their true identity,'' the company said of the program. ''As a result, for the transgender and non-binary communities in particular, the card in their pocket can serve as a source of sensitivity, misrepresenting their true identity when shopping and going about daily life.

''Today, Mastercard is making a commitment to address this challenge by introducing the True Name' card,'' it continued. ''We are working with partners to create a product, as well as a sensitive and private process free of personal questions, that will allow for true names, not deadnames, to appear on cards without the requirement of a legal name change. This will ease a major pain point for the transgender and non-binary community. Mastercard calls on the industry to apply these standards for everyone, ensuring a way for people's financial products to reflect their true identity.''

Transgender activist and actor Laverne Cox will be partnering with the True Name identity, telling HuffPost that that other banks should follow Citi's lead.

''When I changed my name legally 20 years ago and received my new ID with my chosen name reflected, it was so empowering,'' Cox said. ''I know as a trans person, having ID documents that don't match who we are can also be a safety issue.''

The Daily Wire is one of America's fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member .

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:58

Amazon is close to launching Sidewalk '' its ad-hoc wireless network for smart-home devices that taps into people's Wi-Fi '' and it is pretty much an opt-out affair.

The gist of Sidewalk is this: nearby Amazon gadgets, regardless of who owns them, can automatically organize themselves into their own private wireless network mesh, communicating primarily using Bluetooth Low Energy over short distances, and 900MHz LoRa over longer ranges.

At least one device in a mesh will likely be connected to the internet via someone's Wi-Fi, and so, every gadget in the mesh can reach the 'net via that bridging device. This means all the gadgets within a mesh can be remotely controlled via an app or digital assistant, either through their owners' internet-connected Wi-Fi or by going through a suitable bridge in the mesh. If your internet goes down, your Amazon home security gizmo should still be reachable, and send out alerts, via the mesh.

Amazon tells ISPs: I can be your Eero, baby. I can ease your Wi-Fi pain. I will block bad sites forever... READ MORE It also means if your neighbor loses broadband connectivity, their devices in the Sidewalk mesh can still work over the 'net by routing through your Sidewalk bridging device and using your home ISP connection.

The range is also said to be greater than that of Wi-Fi, meaning you can place Sidewalk-capable smart-home devices where Wi-Fi can't reach them yet where they can join a nearby Sidewalk mesh. And it's hoped the mesh can be used to locate missing items or pets: fit them with a Sidewalk-capable widget, such as a Tile, and they can be found within the range of a mesh.

Amazon Echoes, Ring Floodlight Cams, and Ring Spotlight Cams will be the first Sidewalk bridging devices as well as Sidewalk endpoints. The internet giant hopes to encourage third-party manufacturers to produce equipment that is also Sidewalk compatible, extending meshes everywhere.

Crucially, it appears Sidewalk is opt-out for those who already have the hardware, and will be opt-in for those buying new gear. From Amazon's privacy whitepaper [PDF] on this new, proprietary technology:

In other words, if you already have, say, an Amazon Ring, it will soon get a software update that will automatically enable Sidewalk connectivity, and you'll get an email explaining how to switch that off. When powering up a new gizmo, you'll at least get the chance to opt in or out.

Amazon says it employs encryption and related techniques so that owners of Sidewalk bridges "have no idea what types of endpoints are connected, times in which they are connected, or information about the owner of the endpoint." These gateways can't inspect packets between endpoints in the mesh and Amazon's back-end servers. Similarly, we're told, endpoints can't discern information about the gateways they are using.

There are more technical details on the design of the cryptography involved in the above PDF.

We're told Sidewalk will only sip your internet connection rather than hog it, limiting itself to half a gigabyte a month. This policy appears to live in hope that people aren't on stingy monthly data caps.

"The maximum bandwidth of a Sidewalk bridge to the Sidewalk server is 80Kbps, which is about 1/40th of the bandwidth used to stream a typical high definition video," Amazon claimed.

"Today, when you share your bridge's connection with Sidewalk, total monthly data used by Sidewalk, per account, is capped at 500MB, which is equivalent to streaming about 10 minutes of high definition video."

US not UK at launch Amazon sent out emails this week to folks in the United States, alerting them to a launch of Sidewalk expected this year. Confusingly, some people in the UK got the messages, too, though Amazon has stressed the service will kick off solely in America first. Software updates switching on the functionality will be rolled out, and it's up to you to read the email and opt out. One way to do that is to open your Amazon Alexa app and disable Sidewalk from the account settings screen.

We previously wrote about Sidewalk in September, and noted that, opt-outs aside, the idea behind it '' community-sized resilient meshes of devices '' wasn't necessarily a bad one.

Just don't forget that Ring and the police, in the US at least, have a rather cosy relationship. While Amazon stresses that Ring owners are in control of the footage recorded by their camera-fitted doorbells, homeowners are often pressured into turning their equipment into surveillance systems for the cops. ®

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 05:48

Bitcoin is Henry Ford's Energy CurrencyThe New-York Tribune article in 192199 years ago, Henry Ford, one of the greatest businessmen of all time, planned the development of an ''Energy Currency'' to replace gold. Ford's goal was to end wars which he argued were centered around the control of money:

''The essential evil of gold in its relation to war is the fact that it can be controlled. Break the control and you stop war.'' New-York Tribune, 1921

Ford proposed an energy backed currency would stop wars because every country could issue currency backed by their ''imperishable natural wealth'' of energy resources, such as the US Muscle Shoals Dam.

Henry Ford at Wilson Dam, Muscle Shoals 1921When asked ''Have you worked out a standard of value?'', Ford responded:

''Under the energy currency system the standard would be a certain amount of energy exerted for one hour that would be equal to $1.''

Ford suggested a currency backed in kilowatt hours (kWh) and this is exactly what was found for Bitcoin in Bitcoin's Energy-Value Equivalence - Bitcoin is ''backed'' by energy input.

For the last 10 years, 80% of Bitcoin's price history is explained by a 1-to-1 constant value against energy input. Like all markets, price fluctuates around value. But price and value are intrinsically linked and mean-revert. Bitcoin has a fixed value through time based on the mining energy exerted and its supply growth rate.

Ford also envisaged a fully backed currency:

''Mr Ford proposes that this currency be issued only to a certain definite amount and for a specific purpose.''

In other words, you could only issue more energy currency if you put more energy-in, and this is exactly what Bitcoin does. All else equal, the more energy you put in as an individual miner, the more freshly minted Bitcoin you will receive. On the other hand, the more energy that all other miners put into mining Bitcoin the more difficult, and costly, it is for you to mine Bitcoin.

In Bitcoins Energy-Value Equivalence, Bitcoin's value is expressed in ''Joules'' of energy, but it can just as readily be expressed in ''kWh'' as dreamed of by Ford.

As 1 kWh = 3.6 million Joules, if energy input and supply growth rate are measured in kilowatts and hours respectively, Bitcoin's Fiat Factor ($/kWh) becomes:

7.2E''9

Given today's (20 January 2020) supply growth rate, Bitcoin's Energy Value can be expressed in kWh as:

Bitcoin's Energy Value in ''$/kWh''Today, the Bitcoin network is consuming approximately 6.9 million kWh of energy, so one Bitcoin is worth almost $12,000.

Said equivalently, 1 Bitcoin today is backed by 1.66 trillion kWh of energy and growing.

Bitcoin is unique as it has an exponentially decreasing inflation rate. Under constant conditions, for any individual Bitcoin Miner more energy is required in the future to produce the same amount of Bitcoin as today. This makes the Supply Growth Rate a critical component of Bitcoin's Energy Value.

Because Bitcoin's Supply Growth Rate is decreasing, and will drop substantially with the halving in May 2020, the above ''V-today'' value will effectively double over the next year. Some simple math will tell you what that means for Bitcoin's intrinsic value.

Bitcoin's energy ''backing'' is growing exponentially. As a result, it is likely we continue to see the hyperinflation of the US Dollar, and all fiat currencies, against Bitcoin until this trend stops.

In the 20th century, there was no way to accountably and immutably link the value of energy to a unit of currency. Further, there was no motivation for the establishment to even consider a ''energy currency'' system which could make their existing sources of wealth and power redundant and would certainly remove their ability to pull the levers of monetary policy.

We know that Ford's plans didn't eventuate. After three years of unsuccessfully bidding for the Muscle Shoals Dam to kick start the project, he abandoned the plans in 1924 stating:

''A simple affair of business which should have been decided by anyone within a week has become a complicated political affair.''

This is not surprising. Many years later in 1984, Austrian economist Friedrick Hayek noted:

''I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government. That is, we can't take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop.''

Friedrick HayekHayek pled for the denationalization of money, believing monetary policy has not done any good, only harm. The full interview with Hayek is well worth a watch.

Today, an energy backed currency run by the people, which is immutable by any individual organization, can make Ford's ''Energy Currency'' and Hayek's ''Good Money'' a reality.

To date, Bitcoin has found a way around politics. It has predominantly evaded it and continued to grow in distribution, security and adoption. The longer this journey continues, the harder it becomes for any individual country to stand against Bitcoin '-- enhancing its ''Lindy effect'':

''The Lindy effect is a theory that the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things like a technology or an idea is proportional to their current age, so that every additional period of survival implies a longer remaining life expectancy.'' Wikipedia

Of course, there are many risks facing Bitcoin. These have been discussed at length in the past. The market has weighed the risks and opportunities, and the current decision is reflected by a growing Bitcoin Energy Value.

As long as mining energy continues to increase, Bitcoin is executing a silent takeover of fiat currencies. In fact, despite a 2-year bear market, Bitcoin's energy value, and hence the network's security and intrinsic value, is at a new all-time high as of 20 January 2020.

Bitcoin has never been worth more than today (20 January 2020) [Live metric available on TradingView here]Ford was a century ahead of his time. We now know that an energy backed currency can work.

In 1921, Ford posits some advice for the skeptical:

''It's simply a case of thinking and calculating in terms different from those laid down to us by the international banking group to which we have grown so accustomed that we think there is no other desirable standard.''

Bitcoin is money backed by energy. Welcome to The Energy Standard.

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:36

Tom Elliott : PBS's @Yamiche: Biden's cabinet picks was like "The Avengers" '-- "It felt like we are being rescued from the crazi'... https://t.co/EXucExvJhk

Tue Nov 24 21:15:04 +0000 2020

lisa : @tomselliott @Yamiche So biased

Thu Nov 26 12:54:50 +0000 2020

Frick Astley : @tomselliott @Yamiche What. https://t.co/9HlAFoeEIQ

Thu Nov 26 12:47:02 +0000 2020

Wil777 : @tomselliott @Yamiche _WE BEAT YOU TO THE PUNCH WITH THE FANTASTIC FOUR AND AS USUAL YOUR THEFT OF IDEAS FALLS SHOR'... https://t.co/9cfvf4m06S

Thu Nov 26 12:42:05 +0000 2020

DonWinslow19 : @tomselliott @Yamiche Following

Thu Nov 26 12:29:14 +0000 2020

Bugsy of CLE : @tomselliott @Yamiche She's an idiot. About has real those eyebrows!

Thu Nov 26 12:18:23 +0000 2020

Rodney Latstetter 🌹 #LaborParty : @tomselliott @Yamiche https://t.co/vFK8btAsTp

Thu Nov 26 12:06:30 +0000 2020

Rodney Latstetter 🌹 #LaborParty : @tomselliott @Yamiche OH, FFS IT'S THE BOARDROOM FROM A HEDGE FUND!

Thu Nov 26 12:05:56 +0000 2020

harry : @tomselliott @ScoonTv @Yamiche His security team features a bunch of failures, from obumble . Failure s glad you as'... https://t.co/SvWI1UGSQK

Thu Nov 26 12:05:44 +0000 2020

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:30

For the next two weeks in Oregon, and four weeks in Multnomah County, new restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus are in place.

PORTLAND, Ore. '-- Days before Thanksgiving, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said she believes residents who know their neighbors are violating the most recent round of COVID-19 protocols, which includes capping the number of people allowed in your home at six, should call the police.

''This is no different than what happens if there's a party down the street and it's keeping everyone awake,'' Brown said in an interview Friday. ''What do neighbors do [in that case]? They call law enforcement because it's too noisy. This is just like that. It's like a violation of a noise ordinance.''

The restrictions, known as a freeze, were implemented this week via an executive order by the governor. For the next two weeks in Oregon, and four weeks in Multnomah County, residents are banned from eating out at restaurants and going to the gym, among other restrictions. Social gatherings in our homes are also limited to no more than six people. Violators could face up to 30 days in jail, $1,250 in fines or both.

Critics of the freeze have called it unconstitutional. Clackamas County Chair-elect Tootie Smith said on FOX News the freeze made Oregonians ''second-rate slaves'' in their own homes.

On Friday, the Marion County Sheriff's office said in a statement, ''We recognize that we cannot arrest or enforce our way out of the pandemic, and we believe both are counterproductive to public health goals."

''Look, all of this is irresponsible,'' Brown said in response to those criticisms. ''These are politicians seeking headlines, not public servants, trying to save lives. My top priority as governor is to keep Oregonians healthy and safe. That's where I'm focused.''

The governor said Friday she's promoting an ''education-first'' model, and she hopes enforcement won't be needed. But she is employing the option in Oregon.

''This is about saving lives and it's about protecting our fellow Oregonians,'' she said. ''We have too many sporadic cases in Oregon. We can't trace these cases to a particular source. We have to limit gatherings and social interactions.''

In its daily COVID-19 briefing Friday, the Oregon Health Authority reported a record-high 1,306 new cases of the virus statewide.

Watch the full 10-minute interview with Gov. Brown:

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:28

OAN NewsroomUPDATED 6:48 AM PT '' Tuesday, November 24, 2020One America's Chief White House Correspondent Chanel Rion spoke with the founder of FEC United, Joe Oltmann, who made a bombshell discovery about a key member of Dominion's leadership.

Here's more.

RELATED: Dominion Voting Systems under scrutiny for security

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:26

Michelle Malkin : "Now, tell me if this is statistically improbable?!" Attorney Glenn Chong exposes how Smartmatic machines reported'... https://t.co/DOfJR9bVj1

Wed Nov 25 03:19:01 +0000 2020

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:15

Chris : No fraud or tampering here. #DonaldTrump check this out https://t.co/k0i7r8IegA

Mon Nov 09 23:08:19 +0000 2020

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:09

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:07

OAN NewsroomUPDATED 4:45 PM PT '' Tuesday, November 24, 2020As the media continues to ignore claims of election fraud, one millionaire has set out to prove their cover-up in support of the truth. One America's Chanel Rion has more.

MORE NEWS: Election Results Could Have Been Altered Without Being Hacked

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:36

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Just in time for Thanksgiving, Southern California Edison is considering shutting off power to more than 73,000 customers as forecasts call for increased fire danger on the holiday.

The utility's Public Safety Power Shutoff program is designed to lower the risk of fires caused by damage to electrical equipment when strong winds are expected.

Edison said it is monitoring conditions for a possible shutdown starting around noon on Thanksgiving Day until 3 p.m. Friday.

A map of communities from Oxnard to Banning that could be affected is available here.

The National Weather Service says fire weather watches took effect Tuesday afternoon in many communities throughout Southern California and are expected to last through Friday night. Strong Santa Ana winds are expected, with possible gusts of 35 mph to 45 mph, although temperatures will remain in the 60s.

SCE has 5 million customers in the region. Here's how many could be affected by county if the power is shut off:

Los Angeles County: 13,111 customers.Riverside County: 4,422 customers.San Bernardino County: 42,147 customers.Ventura County: 12,380 customers.Kern County: 1,570 customers.

"Turning off our customers' power is not something we take lightly, but PSPS events are one of the ways we can better ensure the safety of the public, our customers, and our employees," SCE says on its website.

SCE customers can

sign up for alerts to let them know if the power will be shut off.

Some of the largest, most devastating wildfires in California history have been linked to electrical equipment.

Bobcat Fire possibly caused by tree branches hitting SoCal Edison equipmentEasy Fire: SoCal Edison equipment failure caused blaze that burned 1,860 acres in Ventura CountySilverado Fire: SCE equipment under investigation as a possible source

Copyright (C) 2020 KABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:30

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:17

Eli Klein : NY Gov Cuomo today on vaccinations His failure to command even the most basic Covid science is stunning https://t.co/blMI5L8P0O

Wed Nov 25 16:49:06 +0000 2020

albert paoli : @TheEliKlein https://t.co/VYwhxHxDFp

Thu Nov 26 12:13:18 +0000 2020

Jez_ter : @TheEliKlein My God! The man's an utter fucking moron!ðŸ¤ðŸŒ

Thu Nov 26 11:56:49 +0000 2020

cherese : @TheEliKlein I can't listenðŸ(C)btw I don't want the vaccine so his math problem is a problem

Thu Nov 26 11:45:37 +0000 2020

Ross Jackson : @TheEliKlein BElieVe tHe SciENcE!!!

Thu Nov 26 11:10:02 +0000 2020

Peter Maltha : @TheEliKlein Liaer

Thu Nov 26 10:58:58 +0000 2020

HellcatCowboy : @TheEliKlein ''You do the math because I'm too stupid''

Thu Nov 26 10:35:58 +0000 2020

Alice : @TheEliKlein It's called a booster moron

Thu Nov 26 09:49:43 +0000 2020

TerribleTom : @TheEliKlein He murdered 10's of thousands in ole folks homes .

Thu Nov 26 09:48:35 +0000 2020

David Badgley : @TheEliKlein https://t.co/VNIPj7Tx0U

Thu Nov 26 07:53:24 +0000 2020

President Elect Milo and Ava : @TheEliKlein https://t.co/Wyp4qhMdi9

Thu Nov 26 07:24:13 +0000 2020

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 12:07

Television | Trump Brought Back Michael Flynn for the Finale, Fallon SaysBest of Late Night

''Seriously, there's a name from the past,'' Jimmy Fallon said of Flynn on Wednesday. ''Even Michael Flynn was like, 'Damn, I totally forgot about Michael Flynn.'''

''On one hand, Flynn is thrilled,'' Jimmy Fallon said. ''On the other, he's like, 'You pardoned the turkey before me?''' Credit... NBC Nov. 26, 2020, 2:13 a.m. ET

''When people heard the name Michael Flynn, they were like, 'Wow, they brought back a character from Season 1 for the finale '-- cool. That's how you do it.''' '-- JIMMY FALLON

''Seriously, there's a name from the past. Even Michael Flynn was like, 'Damn, I totally forgot about Michael Flynn.''' '-- JIMMY FALLON

''But Thanksgiving is a perfect day to pardon Flynn. After all, it's all about turkey.'' '-- STEPHEN COLBERT

''I can't believe this, but I guess I should have known. Kind of suspicious about yesterday's turkey pardon.'' '-- STEPHEN COLBERT

''The country he was being paid to represent secretly while he was supposed to be working for America. Still, it's in keeping with tradition with the first Thanksgiving, when the pilgrims and Native Americans came together in harmony to establish a secret back channel with the Russian ambassador and then lie about it to the F.B.I. '-- or as they called it, maize.'' '-- STEPHEN COLBERT

The Punchiest Punchlines (Daily Briefs Edition)''Well, that's going to be a nice change of pace for the briefers to give a list of national security threats to a president who's not on it.'' '-- STEPHEN COLBERT, on Joe Biden's receiving President Trump's daily intelligence briefs

''It's OK, Trump doesn't need the daily brief anymore. He gets all his intelligence from Randy Quaid's tweets.'' '-- JIMMY FALLON

''Thanks to Trump's daily brief, Biden will now be well versed in foreign and domestic threats and who got eliminated on 'The Bachelorette.''' '-- JIMMY FALLON

''Actually, it does turn out that the brief they give Biden is a little different than the one they give Trump. I'll show you what I mean. For instance, Biden's brief says, 'Iran building nuclear arsenal,' while Trump's brief says, 'Iran make big fireworks that go boom-boom.''' '-- JIMMY FALLON

''Next up, Biden's brief says, 'Norway experiencing harsh climate change,' while Trump's says, 'Soon Olaf will be a puddle.''' '-- JIMMY FALLON

''And finally, Biden's brief says, 'Canada extends border restrictions with U.S.,' while Trump's says, 'Americans betrayed by Beliebers.''' '-- JIMMY FALLON

The Bits Worth WatchingAmy Adams told Seth Meyers about trying (and failing) to learn a Billie Eilish song on the ukulele during quarantine.

What We're Excited About on Thursday NightJimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers will host Thanksgiving shows with Jerry Seinfeld and the Meyers family, respectively.

Also, Check This Out Image Melissa McCarthy joins Tilda Swinton, Viola Davis and Denzel Washington on this list of the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century.

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 05:21

WORK WITH YOU AS WELL. THANK YOU. A PENNSYLVANIA APPEALS COURT JUDGE HAS ORDERED THE STATE TO STOP FURTHER STEPS TOWARD CERTIFYING ELECTION RESULTS. THE RULING COMES A DAY AFTER THE STATE CERTIFIED DEMOCRAT JOE BIDEN AS THE WINNER OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE MIKE KELLY AND OTHERS ARE CHALLENGING APPROXIMATELY 2.5 MILLION MAIL IN BALLOTS THAT WERE -- MAIL-IN BALLOTS THAT WERE PREDOMINANTLY CAST BY DEMOCRATS. THEY WILL BE A HEARING ON FRIDAY IN COMMONWEALTH COURT TO HEAR EVIDENCE IN THAT CASE. ATTORNEY GENERAL JOSH SHAPIRO TWEETED SAYING THIS ORDER DOES NOT IMPACT YESTERDAY'S APPOINTMENT OF ELECTORS. WE WILL BE FILING AN APPEAL WITH THE PENNSYLVANIA SUPREME COURT MOMENT

Pennsylvania appeals court judge orders halt to further vote certification

A Pennsylvania appeals court judge ordered state officials on Wednesday to halt any further steps toward certifying election results, a day after Gov. Tom Wolf said he had certified Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania.Wolf's administration quickly asked the state Supreme Court to block the ruling from taking effect, saying there was no ''conceivable justification'' for it.''Since the birth of our nation nearly 250 years ago, no court has ever issued an order purporting to interfere with a state's ascertainment of its presidential electors '-- until today,'' the administration said in its motion.Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, a Republican, had issued the order and set a hearing for Friday, but canceled it amid the appeal. It wasn't immediately clear if she intended to hold up the certification of state and local contests on the ballot or interrupt the scheduled Dec. 14 meeting of the state's 20 electors.Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly and others filed suit Saturday to challenge approximately 2.5 million mail-in ballots that were predominantly cast by Democrats. They said the GOP-controlled state Legislature had failed to follow proper procedure when they voted last year to expand mail-in voting.The state Supreme Court has twice this month overturned Commonwealth Court decisions involving Republican election challenges.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) '--A Pennsylvania appeals court judge ordered state officials on Wednesday to halt any further steps toward certifying election results, a day after Gov. Tom Wolf said he had certified Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election in Pennsylvania.

Wolf's administration quickly asked the state Supreme Court to block the ruling from taking effect, saying there was no ''conceivable justification'' for it.

''Since the birth of our nation nearly 250 years ago, no court has ever issued an order purporting to interfere with a state's ascertainment of its presidential electors '-- until today,'' the administration said in its motion.

Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough, a Republican, had issued the order and set a hearing for Friday, but canceled it amid the appeal. It wasn't immediately clear if she intended to hold up the certification of state and local contests on the ballot or interrupt the scheduled Dec. 14 meeting of the state's 20 electors.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly and others filed suit Saturday to challenge approximately 2.5 million mail-in ballots that were predominantly cast by Democrats. They said the GOP-controlled state Legislature had failed to follow proper procedure when they voted last year to expand mail-in voting.

The state Supreme Court has twice this month overturned Commonwealth Court decisions involving Republican election challenges.

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Thu, 26 Nov 2020 05:08

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 16:04

BitChute is a peer-to-peer content sharing platform. Creators are allowed to post content they produce to the platform, so long as they comply with our

policies. The content posted to the platform is not reflective or representative of the views of Bit Chute Limited, its staff or owners. (C) 2017-2020 Bit Chute Limited, Oxford House, 12-20 Oxford Street, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 1JB. United Kingdom. Company number 10637289.

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 15:42

bielconn : 1. Start waking up Americans, think about it ... Biden in 2013 stating that he will really create a "new world orde'... https://t.co/vfKwU7rINA

Mon Nov 23 14:13:54 +0000 2020

msoleil : @bielconn The Kurdish people are very important in Biblical prophecy, they help stand up against the Anti Christ,'... https://t.co/q1BI7invf3

Wed Nov 25 13:47:54 +0000 2020

Urban Paradise' : @bielconn The intellectual decline is real. Wow

Wed Nov 25 12:42:21 +0000 2020

Jason Rhoades : @bielconn Sir, you have a koolaid stain on your upper lip.

Wed Nov 25 08:17:54 +0000 2020

Lawren K : @bielconn You've just summarized the Republican Playbook~Project Blitz. lol

Wed Nov 25 08:05:36 +0000 2020

Trixiebelle : @bielconn Uh ... Ronald Reagan was the first to speak of "a new world order."

Wed Nov 25 07:07:02 +0000 2020

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 14:47

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 13:38

TheSharpEdge : Former Overstock CEO, Patrick Byrne, is apparently funding research of a cyber security team that has uncovered dat'... https://t.co/iU1RqKsSQz

Tue Nov 24 18:38:05 +0000 2020

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 13:18

C.EkongJr 🇺🇸 : CNN got the brutha up outta there, as soon as he brought up Rahm Emanuel and laquan McDonald. ðŸ‚ðŸ‚'... https://t.co/oosgAIvjOe

Tue Nov 24 17:54:12 +0000 2020

electrik : @CEkongjr @Barack_McBush If only people knew what LBJ said about making N****** vote for democrats for the next 200'... https://t.co/NlcfPfhZxN

Wed Nov 25 13:14:50 +0000 2020

don't blame me, i voted for hillary : @CEkongjr oops probably just a solar flare

Wed Nov 25 13:14:49 +0000 2020

NNT631 : @CEkongjr The conteol room during the interview https://t.co/yCXxYL7BfK

Wed Nov 25 13:13:26 +0000 2020

Mark Ortiz : @CEkongjr @CNN is this you?

Wed Nov 25 13:11:59 +0000 2020

Is it 2021 yet? : @CEkongjr Wow, they didn't hesitate to shut him down

Wed Nov 25 13:03:57 +0000 2020

Ellias J Williams : @CEkongjr Poof

Wed Nov 25 12:57:56 +0000 2020

vjbk1 : @CEkongjr The kicker will be when you see Bowman on Fox News actually getting his say in. Would not be 2020 if we d'... https://t.co/0oqsLHUTKu

Wed Nov 25 12:57:19 +0000 2020

Jefro Katai : @CEkongjr @Mwafreeka Your ppl at CNN can't handle Truth. Can't believe this is where you get ur solid `news` from.'... https://t.co/RrixgMMsz3

Wed Nov 25 12:56:02 +0000 2020

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Wed, 25 Nov 2020 06:00

Purdue Pharma, the company that invented the painkiller OxyContin, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three federal criminal charges and admitted its role in fueling the decades-long opioid epidemic that has taken hundreds of thousands of American lives.

Steve Miller, chairperson for Purdue's Board of Directors, admitted via video conference to a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, that the company had not run an effective program to avoid the illegal diversion of prescription drugs to the black market, had reported misleading information to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to boost its manufacturing quotas and had impeded that agency's effort to fight the burgeoning epidemic.

Miller also admitted on behalf of the company that it had, over the course of nine years, paid doctors through its speaker program to induce them to prescribe more of Purdue's opioids.

The pleas are part of a government settlement that was announced in October by the federal Department of Justice. It's the government's most visible attempt to hold drug makers responsible for the plague of addiction that has caused more than 470,000 deaths in the United States in the last 20 years.

''This resolution closes a particularly sad chapter in the ongoing battle against opioid addiction,'' Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Administrator Tim McDermott said last month in a statement that accompanied the settlement. ''Purdue Pharma actively thwarted the United States' efforts to ensure compliance and prevent diversion. The devastating ripple effect of Purdue's actions left lives lost and others addicted."

As a condition of the settlement, Purdue agreed to pay fines of more than $8 billion. But the company will likely only pay about $225 million to the federal government '' provided it complies with a settlement moving through federal bankruptcy court.

Purdue will also be effectively dissolved and converted into a public benefit company overseen by a trust.

The Sackler family, which owns the company, would not be involved in the new organization. Tuesday's plea does not absolve the Sacklers of future criminal liability, according to the settlement.

In a statement last month, the Sacklers maintained family members who served on Purdue's board of directors acted ethically and lawfully. The agreement, they said, was meant to avoid years of legal wrangling while sending funds to communities in need.

"We have deep compassion for people who suffer from opioid addiction and abuse and hope the proposal will be implemented as swiftly as possible to help address their critical needs," the family said.

Not everyone was left satisfied, however.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, whose office has filed several claims against Purdue and the Sacklers over the last three years, said they must be held accountable for their actions.

"A company like Purdue that has so egregiously violated the public trust should not be allowed to continue forward as a public trust corporation," Grewal said in a statement after the plea. "The Sacklers should not be allowed to buy their way out of liability for so much less than they extracted from the company that they used as their personal piggy bank. And we should not pursue corporate executives who peddle dangerous, addictive drugs with less vigor than we pursue those who sling drugs on street corners."

Grewal's office said the state will continue to aggressively pursue its claims, which are now part of a pending case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York.

Contributing: The Associated Press.

Follow reporter Steve Janoski on Twitter: @stevejanoski

Election 2020 live updates: Pennsylvania, Nevada certify election results finding Joe Biden the winner

More: Scotland becomes world's first country to make pads and tampons free

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 20:36

A mysterious metal monolith was discovered in Utah after public safety officers spotted the object while conducting a routine wildlife mission.

A helicopter crew with the Utah Department of Public Safety Aero Bureau was assisting Wildlife Resources on Wednesday to count bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah, the department said.

The mysterious metal monolith was discovered in a remote area of red rock in Utah. Utah Department of Public SafetyPilot Bret Hutchings said one of the officers spotted the object in a remote area of red rock '-- something that appeared to be a scene right out of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

"He was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!' And I was like, 'What.' And he's like, 'There's this thing back there '-- we've got to go look at it!'" Hutchings told CNN affiliate KSL. "We just happened to fly directly over the top of it.''

Hutchings said the origins of the silver metal monolith still remained a mystery, but it appeared to be a ''new wave'' art installation that stood ''between 10 and 12 feet high.''

''It is illegal to install structures or art without authorization on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from,'' the Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement released Monday.

The department said it was unclear who, or what, installed the monolith, and that they would not disclose the exact location of the object out of safety concerns.

They added that the Bureau of Land Management will determine whether further investigation is warranted.

Wilson Wong is a breaking news reporter with NBC News.

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 18:18

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 15:37

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:57

After taking on Rudy Giuliani's literal meltdown last week, Seth Meyers moved on to the ''craziest addition'' to President Donald Trump's legal team on Monday: Sidney Powell. ''And if you thought Rudy was bonkers, this lady is crazier than a cereal mascot,'' the Late Night host joked.

Before her newest turn in the spotlight, Powell was perhaps best known for making appearances on Fox News that were ''too insane even for Lou Dobbs,'' who once attempted to fact-check her wild allegations about supposedly diseased immigrants during a live interview.

Meyers proceeded to break down Powell's bizarre conspiracy theories that somehow link late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to the Republican governor of Georgia. ''And yet curiously, she kept refusing to provide evidence of this vast scheme when pressed,'' he said, ''even by friendly Fox News hosts who were basically desperate to agree with her as long as she could provide a shred of evidence.''

Among those Fox hosts was Tucker Carlson, who explained to viewers last week that Powell, who is also an avowed QAnon conspiracy theorist, told him to stop contacting her after he requested evidence for her outlandish claims. ''Wow, you know you're in full loony territory when even Tucker Carlson won't go along with what you're selling.''

Ultimately, Powell was deemed ''too insane'' (Meyers' words) for the Trump campaign itself, which issued a statement disavowing her over the weekend. ''It's both insane that they're trying to pretend that she was never part of the legal team when she was literally standing at an official Trump press conference,'' Meyers said, ''and also believable that someone could wander into a Trump press conference and say they're his lawyer.''

For more, listen and subscribe to The Last Laugh podcast.

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Tue, 24 Nov 2020 01:39

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Mon, 23 Nov 2020 21:31

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Mon, 23 Nov 2020 17:53

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Mon, 23 Nov 2020 14:18

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Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:58

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