
Russia and India have taken several significant steps strengthening military ties in recent weeks, in a way that reveals how one major obstacle to forming a pan-Asian military alliance will be overcome.
On February 3, tass news agency reported that around 100 Indian military specialists arrived in Russia to begin training for the operation of the S-400 Triumf missile air defense systems. The highly sophisticated S-400 was described by the Economist recently as “one of the best air-defense systems currently made.” Capable of striking aircraft and incoming missiles midflight, it is the defense system of choice for Russia, Turkey and China.
The United States imposed sanctions on both Turkey and China under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act for purchasing the system from Russia. And despite a warning from the Trump administration in 2018 that a similar purchase may invite U.S. sanctions, India went ahead with a $5 billion deal to purchase five S-400 units.
The U.S. has been determined to foster deeper ties with India, mainly as a means of countering China. And after agreeing to a $3 billion defense deal last year, Indo-U.S. relations appeared to be strengthening. But India’s S-400 purchase, and the recent arrival of Indian specialists in Russia, indicate that India is more committed to its relationship with Russia than with the U.S.
It is not difficult to see why. All together, Russia has supplied some 80 percent of India’s military equipment, and .... READ MORE, click the above link

For the last decade, the German military has been under-financed. Yet at the same time, Germany’s economy and industry have grown every year. Even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Germany has spent a record sum on its military while other nations have had to consider cutbacks.
In its recent report to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Germany stated that its projected defense spending for 2021 amounts to $63.9 billion. This represents 3.2 percent increase over the previous year. As of December 2020, 265,000 men and women, uniformed and civilian, were employed by the Bundeswehr. A total of 183,777 professional, temporary and voluntary soldiers serve in the Bundeswehr.
Yet this boost in Germany’s spending is unique. “All U.S. presidents over the past decades have advocated more defense spending by Europe’s nato partners,” nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with German news agency dpa last year. At a nato summit in Brussels in 2018, then United States President Donald Trump didn’t rule out an American withdrawal from the alliance if members did not reach the goal of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. German defense spending in 2020 was equivalent to 1.6 percent of its gdp, according to the latest nato calculations, up from 1.3 percent in 2019.
But few realize that Germany’s military strength does not lie in its numbers but in innovation.
“Though Germany isn’t a military heavyweight, the overall picture is strong,” we wrote in “Forging a Superpower.” “Its military budget is the seventh highest in the world. This rank could suddenly rise if Germany commits to rearm—for which its capacity is mighty.”
For decades, Germany has been among the world’s leading arms exporters and has established a global arms industry. At the same time, it has maintained a comparatively small core army. Due to these factors, it has been able to invest in military innovation.
For example, on January 28, the Bundeswehr ordered laser weapons from the German arms industry. Very few nations have the ability to order such technology from their own industries.
So while it is true the German military has been under-financed, its arms industry, in close cooperation with European partners, has grown steadily. What’s more, for decades Germany has had strategic insight into nato operations. It has had time to study U.S. weapons technology.
A casual glance at Germany’s military reveals only a ...... READ MORE, click the above link

This could be the year China invades Taiwan. That is the opinion of Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. As the Trumpet reported recently, 2020 was a record year for Chinese incursions into Taiwanese territory. This increased belligerence led Jennings to report to a United States congressional inquiry on China: “This gives rise, in my view, to a possible major crisis on Taiwan or the East China Sea in 2021.”
China’s aggression toward Taiwan strengthened in January 2021. China conducted military exercises near the Taiwan Straits 30 out of 31 days, with multiple incursions into Taiwanese airspace on some days, according to the Taiwan-based Liberty Times. On January 23, during one of those occasions, several Chinese warplanes even simulated an attack on the U.S. aircraft carrier uss Theodore Roosevelt, which was sailing near Taiwan. Although the aircraft remained 250 nautical miles away from the carrier and escort ships at all times, the Financial Times reported, “[p]ilots of H-6 bombers could be heard in cockpit conversations confirming orders for the simulated targeting and release of antiship missiles against the carrier.”
All this comes at the same time China is openly threatening war with Taiwan. On Thursday, January 28, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China—“independence means war.”
The increased provocation is seen by many as China testing America’s new administration. Although U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said there is “no doubt” China poses the greatest threat of any nation to the U.S., only recently has the U.S. begun to show any force in response to China’s actions. Up to now, a handful of statements have been made by the U.S. government calling on China to tone down its aggression. In response, Chinese media mocked the statements, calling them a “joke.”
On January 31, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported that six Chinese fighter aircraft and a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft entered the southwestern corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. This is the first time Taiwan had reported the presence of American military aircraft since September 2020. For the United States to be flying aircraft in the same region is a clear indication of just how serious the threat to Taiwan is.
China is making clear that it intends to control Taiwan, using whatever means necessary. According to a report by NikkeiAsia:
On January 17–18, … Chinese officials in Beijing held a meeting on Taiwan policy. In an apparent warning to the U.S., Wang Yang, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, told the meeting that China “will not allow any individual or force to separate Taiwan from China in any way.”
China has also made some not-so-subtle vocabulary changes. The meeting did not propose a “peaceful unification” with Taiwan or implementing a “one country, two systems” for the island if they were to be unified.
The ditching of the “one country, two systems” comes after the principle became a sham in Hong Kong as Beijing enforced a new national security law on the territory. But the principle was originally proposed by China as a model for its peaceful unification with Taiwan.
The omission of “peaceful unification” in regard to Taiwan naturally hints at something else, unification by force.

BY RUFARO MANYEPA • FEBRUARY 4
India announced on February 1 that its defense budget for 2021 will increase by only 1 percent, surprising analysts who anticipated a sharper increase because of mounting threats. But a closer look shows that India remains deeply concerned about war—and is spending in anticipation of it.
India has been embroiled in a violent dispute with China at the Ladakh border since last June. Thousands of soldiers, tanks and artillery were deployed to the border as a result. This came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared a desire to modernize the military.
However, India’s defense budget only rose from $47 billion last year to $47.4 billion this year. This fractional increase has, according to Bloomberg, cast “doubt” on India’s seriousness about military investment and modernization. But a look at the budget details reveals Delhi’s intent.
The majority of the budget used to be devoted to pensions, personnel, infrastructure and repairs. Now the allocations for these have shrunk, while the portion of the budget allocated for weapons purchases has soared by 18 percent.
This maneuvering is an impressive display of economic nous, allowing India to dramatically advance its weapons program at little extra cost.
India’s defense minister personally thanked Mr. Modi for this massive increase, which marked “the highest ever increase in capital outlay for defense in 15 years.”

BY JEREMIAH JACQUES • FEBRUARY 4
China passed a “game changer” law on January 22 that authorizes its coast guard to open fire on foreign vessels in waters the Chinese illegally claim, in the latest sign that Beijing is edging the world toward conflict.
The bill’s draft wording says the Chinese Coast Guard may “take all necessary measures, including the use of weapons, when national sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction are being illegally infringed upon by foreign organizations or individuals at sea.”
The legislation specifies that handheld, shipborne and airborne weapons can be used. It also allows the Coast Guard to demolish structures built by other nations on features in disputed waters, and to board and inspect foreign vessels.
The law will have the most bearing in the South China Sea, large parts of which, international law says, fall in the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. But China has no regard for international law and claims nearly the entire vast sea as its own.
China claims entire South China Sea and is building islands to enforce it. 5 other countries have overlapping claims pic.twitter.com/8cIDRrxGJc
— Mountaineer (@TehachapiHomes) December 29, 2016
It is notable that the law concerns not China’s navy but its coast guard, which is the largest in the world. In the past, China’s coast guard was already overstepping the bounds of a typical coast guard force by harassing other nations’ vessels in disputed waters. But since the new law gives the Coast Guard a military mandate, we can expect it to behave far more aggressively in such confrontations going forward. Defense analyst Chester Cabalza discussed that aspect of the legislation with the South China Morning Post last week: The law transforms a “white” force intended for search and rescue and policing into a dangerous “gray” arm of the military, he said. Cabalza said that in this way, the new law is a “game changer.”
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The German government has signed a joint venture with mbda Germany and Rheinmetall Waffe Munition to develop a laser weapon for use on boats. Rheinmetall wrote in its press release on January 28: “The contract is a logical continuation of the successfully tested functional laser weapon models of recent years and combines the experience gained to create one of the most ambitious projects in the field of laser weapon development in Europe” (Trumpet translation throughout).
MBDA und Rheinmetall erhalten Auftrag für Hochenergie Laserwaffensystem. Der Demonstrator soll bis Ende 2021 erstellt, getestet und integriert werden. Die Erprobung wird auf der F124 „Sachsen“ der @deutschemarine soll 2022 stattfinden. https://t.co/MsROp1MuDP #Laser pic.twitter.com/0CkmSUSUNa
— MBDA Deutschland (@MBDADeutschland) January 28, 2021
mbda stated in 2019, “Compared to other countries, … our two companies possess extraordinary capabilities. Lasers offer new tactical possibilities on land, at sea and in the air. In partnership with the German Navy, we want to press ahead with this new technology.” In February 2019, Rheinmetall successfully tested a laser weapon station.
“Lasers engage targets at the speed of light, with high precision and the lowest possible collateral damage,” Rheinmetall stated. “[I]t is a new generation of defense systems.” Laser weapons are considered a game-changer, enabling instant, high-precision strikes on specific components of the enemy target, leaving it defenseless yet intact.
A demonstrator with this capability is scheduled to be tested under near-operational conditions by the end of 2021. Doris Laarmann, head of Business Development Laser at mbda Germany, said: “The contract is an important step toward an operational high-energy laser system. Both companies will use their respective strengths to make the project a success for the German Navy. The demonstrator will test important topics such as the interaction of sensors, command/weapon engagement system and the effector, as well as rules of engagement on board the frigate.”
Rheinmetall’s newsletter stated that the company “has been an internationally renowned center of excellence for weapons and ammunition systems since the beginning of its more than 130-year history and has also been active in the field of laser weapon systems for many years.”
German weapons manufacturers indeed have a long history. Most recently, they have been exporting weapons around the world, supplying wars abroad. But within that 130-year history, they have also supplied two world wars. Without companies like Rheinmetall, neither the German kaiser nor Adolf Hitler could have killed millions of people.
Yet Rheinmetall seems proud of that 130-year history.
These developments in Germany’s weapons industry are striking when you consider its history. “Until the last 10 to 15 years, the Bundeswehr couldn’t fire up a tank without being accused of starting World War iii,” we wrote in “Forging a Superpower.”
Many nations have weapons manufacturers. But what other nation has a history of starting massive wars like Germany? Consider that some of the bloodiest conflicts in history centered around Germany: the Thirty Years’ War, the Wars of German Unification, World War i and World War ii.

Left-wing extremism reached a record high in Germany last year, according to data released this month by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (bmi). The number of violent crimes motivated by left-wing extremism rose from 1,052 in 2019 to 1,359 in 2020—an increase of 29 percent. In total, 9,973 left-wing, extremist-motivated crimes were recorded in 2020 (9,849 in 2019). The indication is that political movements are becoming increasingly violent. In 2019, left-wing extremist crimes had risen by 40 percent over 2018.
Linda Teuteberg, a Free Democrat in the Interior Ministry, told Welt am Sonntag: “In addition to the dynamic development in right-wing extremism and Islamism, the trend in left-wing extremism toward more and more acts of violence is also worrying. There is no ethical superiority of any variant of violent extremism, and any trivialization of criminal action as activism is forbidden.”
Last year, the intelligence agency BfV observed a change in how the criminal actions are executed. Instead of “mass militancy,” we are seeing more and more “clandestine small group actions.” The hatred is no longer expressed toward institutions only but now also on “a personal level.” The persecution of individuals is becoming increasingly popular.
Months ago, BfV revealed that at least 47 of the more than 100 Antifa groups nationwide are now being observed and classified as “extremist.”
Antifa stands for Anti-Fascist Action. “The members of the Antifa scene are united in their more or less intensive struggle against people and activities they perceive as ‘fascist,’” Die Welt noted. But in “fighting against fascism,” these radical leftists have established their own terror regime.
In 2019, German authorities identified 33,500 people as left-wing extremists; 9,200 of which are considered “violent” left-wing extremists. According to Der Spiegel sources, Germany’s domestic secret service categorized 32,080 people as potential right-wing extremists in 2019, up from 24,100 in 2018. This estimate includes 7,000 supporters of the radical wing of the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). According to the federal office’s annual report, the number of “violent” right-wing extremists was 13,000 in 2019. (The numbers have likely increased in 2020, but reports have not yet been published.)
All over Europe, the mood is intensifying. New movements are starting across ............ Read more, click above link

The Joebama administration is using executive orders to implement its far-left agenda on “racial equity.” During his first week in office, Biden signed, though likely didn’t read, 37 executive orders, the most of any president in recent memory, perhaps in history. In October 2020, before Biden was installed as president, he told voters that there are things you “can’t do by executive order unless you’re a dictator. We’re a democracy. We need consensus.” So far, Biden’s fake presidency is functioning on executive decree alone.
33:00 Inciting Violence (11 minutes)
President Donald Trump is being impeached a second time for encouraging a peaceful march around the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. The president said on January 6: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” If that’s the standard for impeaching an elected official, every politician should be impeached.
44:00 Enshrining Fraud (11 minutes)
Democrats in Congress are trying to pass one of the most extreme and lawless voter reform bills in American history. The resolution will essentially legalize the fraud that was committed during the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, making it possible for Democrats to “lawfully” steal every future election.

Joebama Has Arrived
BY STEPHEN FLURRY • JANUARY 21
Radical Democrats just pulled off the world’s greatest heist! Surrounded by 25,000 National Guardsmen, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn into office yesterday in the most unusual inauguration ceremony in American history.
This patriotic-looking ceremony was the culmination of a massive deep state plot to destroy Donald Trump—and empower Barack Obama.
“We have put together … the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics,” Joe Biden said in an interview in October. He obviously did not intend to say that, but it’s hard to ignore it when extensive, organized voter fraud is exactly what brought him into office.
The following month, Barack Obama told comedian Stephen Colbert that he would consider a third term “if I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front-man or front-woman, and they had an earpiece in, and I was in my basement with my sweats looking through the stuff, and I could deliver the lines, but somebody else was doing all the talking and ceremony, I would be fine with that because I found the work fascinating.”
On December 15, cnn reporter Jeff Zeleny said, “President-elect Joebama.” On Inauguration Day, Fox News reporter John Roberts said, “One of the things that President Obama is going to do this afternoon … is that he is going to reverse the travel ban for Muslim countries that are hotbeds for terrorist activities.”
Press Secretary Jen Psaki had to stop herself mid-word from saying “President Obama.”
Biden, Zelney, Roberts and Psaki misspoke, and Obama was joking. But the reality is what many people refused to say or investigate prior to the election, but now is bubbling to the surface in different ways. As former Gov. Mike Huckabee wrote in an article on Monday, “[T]he main goal of the Democrats was to get the Obama machine back in power.”
Obama didn’t run himself, obviously. Presumably he isn’t literally feeding lines to his former vice president through an earpiece. But you can bet that he and his operatives have been working like mad during the Trump presidency, especially during his reelection bid, and especially during the election itself.
We know there was voter fraud. We know it was extensive. We know it was organized. And we know there was someone behind it who had the power, motive and gall to commit the greatest electoral steal in the history of American politics.
The election of Joe Biden, supposedly with millions more votes than any candidate in history—and 12 million more than Obama—didn’t happen by accident. The most extensive, organized voter fraud organization in the history of American politics wasn’t put together by the man who accidentally told the world he had put together the most extensive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.
There is so much information pouring out about how extensive the voter fraud was, but one of the better sources is the third volume of Dr. Peter Navarro’s investigative study on electoral fraud. It reveals that 3,069,002 “possible illegal votes” were cast just in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Mr. Biden’s margin of victory in these six states was a tenth of that (only 312,992 votes).
No reasonable person can honestly conclude the 2020 presidential election was free and fair. And no observant person can honestly conclude that it doesn’t make that big of a difference.
“At this point, we have moved dangerously, in what seems like a nanosecond, from a full and vibrant American democracy to a Communist Chinese-style, cancel culture, police state guarded by a collusive social media oligopoly that is beyond our control …,” Dr. Navarro wrote. “If the U.S. Congress and state legislatures across the six battleground states ignore this evidence, they will do so not just at their own peril but also at the peril of America’s faith in our elections and the sanctity of our republic.”
This abrupt transformation was not a fluke, but a deliberate strategy enacted by radicals like Obama, deep state operatives like his former spymasters John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey, oligarchs like George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg, politicians like Jocelyn Benson and Kathy Boockvar and operatives like former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Mark Elias. (See the second volume of Dr. Navarro’s study.)
The Democrat-media-big tech-electoral fraud complex knows they got “the Obama machine back in power.” And now the Joebama administration is working fast to dismantle President Trump’s legacy. Joe Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first afternoon in office to sweep aside Trump’s pandemic response, environmental agenda and immigration policies.
Biden also deleted the Trump administration’s “1776 Project” the instant he............. READ MORE, Click the above link

America Prepares for the Most Unusual Inauguration in History
BY ANDREW MIILLER • JANUARY 19
The United States is preparing for the most unusual presidential inauguration in its 245-year history. The Pentagon has authorized up to 25,000 National Guardsmen to help secure the Capitol for the inauguration. That is 10 times more guardsmen than there are U.S. troops fighting terrorism in Afghanistan. These guardsmen have been preauthorized to use lethal force in support of the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is vetting them to militate against potential insider threats.
Participants in an inauguration rehearsal were evacuated from the West Front of the Capitol on Monday after a dumpster fire ignited in a homeless encampment. The area around Capitol Hill now looks like a ghost town. Roads are barricaded, stores are boarded up, troops are stopping people at checkpoints, military vehicles patrol the streets, and high fencing with barbed wire surrounds the Capitol building itself. The whole panorama looks like a scene from a third world country under martial law.
J. Michael Waller, an instructor at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, told the Epoch Times that the military presence was a “psychological show of force to deter and intimidate.”
President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in the U.S. capital from January 11 to January 24. He authorized the National Guard and the Department of Homeland Security to supplement the District of Columbia’s effort “to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety.”
fbi Director Chris Wray announced on January 14 that he was monitoring an “extensive amount of concerning online chatter” about armed protests at the inauguration. His statements come amid growing concerns that the violence at the Capitol on January 6 may repeat. But the Capitol’s heavy military presence seems to be geared toward something more severe than the return of the Q’Anon Shaman.
On January 15, MyPillow ceo Mike Lindell met with President Trump at the White House. He later spoke about this meeting with Right Side Broadcasting, after a Washington Post photographer obtained a close-up of the notes he carried into the White House. Lindell says he delivered evidence from an unnamed attorney that the 2020 presidential election was digitally rigged, and President Trump really won 79 million votes to Joe Biden’s 68 million votes. Lindell also said that he hopes the military presence in Washington, D.C., is a sign that President Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act and declare martial law until this rigging is exposed.
President Trump has not said anything to indicate that he plans to invoke the Insurrection Act. Still, the Defense Department did make a significant staffing change after Lindell met with the president.
Michael Ellis is an attorney who gained notoriety in 2017 when he helped Rep. Devin Nunes obtain classified information showing that the Obama administration spied on Trump Tower when Donald Trump was running for president. Pentagon General Counsel Paul Ney Jr. appointed Michael Ellis as the top lawyer at the National Security Agency on November 9, but this appointment was stonewalled because nsa Director Paul Nakasone does not like him.
Yet this stonewalling ended shortly after Lindell’s January 15 meeting with President Trump. On January 16, acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller ordered General Nakasone to install Ellis at the nsa by 6 p.m. that day. General Nakasone missed his ordered deadline, but on January 17, the nsa finally announced it was “moving forward” with Ellis’s employment.
This unnerved House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Shortly after the nsa’s announcement, Pelosi sent Secretary Miller a letter asking that he “immediately cease plans to improperly install Michael Ellis as the new nsa General Counsel. … Public reporting indicates that Mr. Ellis, a relatively recent law school graduate with a limited resume, was selected due to interference by the White House and was chosen over much more qualified candidates. Moreover, Mr. Ellis has been reportedly involved in highly questionable activities that are disqualifying—including the infamous 2017 ‘midnight run’ to launder intelligence information through Rep. Devin Nunes and with efforts to shield information about President Trump’s July 2019 call with the president of Ukraine.”
Why is Pelosi so unnerved by Ellis’s appointment? The House speaker has no say in government assignments, and Joe Biden will undoubtedly, Read more, click above link

The radical left in America is giving us all a stunning look at what authoritarianism looks like. They are silencing the most powerful man in the world. Their success shows not only that they have amassed remarkable power to silence virtually anyone, but also how eager they are to wield that power.
Starting last Friday, Big Tech and social media companies, in total lockstep with one another, muzzled President Donald Trump. His 88 million Twitter followers can no longer read his messages. Facebook shut down his account. A host of other platforms including Reddit, Twitch, Shopify, YouTube/Google, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Apple, Discord, Pinterest and Stripe have all banned or restricted his messages in some form.
For Mozilla—maker of Firefox, one of the most popular Web browsers—even these stringent measures are not enough. The company’s ceo says President Trump and his movement must be monitored throughout the entire Internet. Essentially, Trump supporters need to be tracked the way Islamic State terrorists are.
As journalist Michael Tracey tweeted, “The new corporate authoritarian liberal-left monoculture is going to be absolutely ruthless—and in 12 days it is merging with the state. This only the beginning.”
This crackdown gives us a vivid picture of why God must step in to save America from the radical left. And we at the Trumpet believe that is exactly what will happen.
The left is insisting that unrestricted speech be blotted out. Even Parler—the leading alternative to Twitter—has been shut down.
Parler is what Twitter once aspired to be: a site where people can post their thoughts without being censored. Basic controls are in place to stop child pornography and other such evils, but there is no political thought police.
For Big Tech today, such open communication poses an unacceptable threat. First Google and Apple blocked Parler from their app stores. Then Amazon announced it would no longer host Parler’s servers. It gave Parler 24 hours to move their entire trove of data to a new provider. That proved impossible, so Parler is now completely offline.
How can President Trump even get a message out now? If he holds a press conference or tries to appear on tv, the major networks have already shown their willingness to turn away.
The radical left believe they can silence the most powerful man in the world and get away with it.
But it goes beyond silencing one man: They also want to punish his supporters. Across mainstream media and politics, Trump supporters are being labeled “domestic terrorists”—to be subject to the full force of America’s vast intelligence networks. Sen. Dick Durbin is introducing legislation to classify maga rallies as “domestic terrorist activity.” Former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan tweeted, “Total denunciation of a despot’s legacy is necessary to eradicate any remaining malignancy.” In a now deleted tweet, abc News’s political director said authorities must begin “cleansing the movement” that President Trump commands.
This is a chilling peek at life under a Biden administration.
And a lot of it has been brought about by agents of the previous administration.
Thursday last week, former First Lady Michelle Obama wrote a letter to America’s tech companies, saying, “Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior—and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the nation’s leaders to fuel insurrection.”
The next day, the bans started.
Nobody voted for Mrs. Obama. For that matter, nobody voted for the tech companies. As we’ve shown before, so many at the top of America’s Big Tech businesses and in the media are linked to the Obama administration.
It is as if Barack Obama is operating a shadow government, calling the shots within these powerful American corporations.
Read More, click the link above...

For the last three decades, the world has been drawing closer to China. Of all major Western nations, Australia has gotten closer than any other. And now is it realizing the fearsome consequences of that embrace.
It may be too late for the Australians to pull out of the relationship. But their fate is a powerful warning to the rest of the world.
Money, Money, Money
It started with a business relationship.
After growing at an astonishing annual rate of around 10 percent for some 30 years, China is now, by some measures, the world’s largest economy. It takes a massive amount of raw materials to fuel such growth, making Australia a perfect trade partner.
In 2017, one third of Australia’s exports went to China, and nearly a quarter of its imports came from China.
Soon the economic relationship went beyond trade. China started buying up huge tracts of Australia. Chinese companies own more than 1 percent of Australia’s land area, including coal mines, energy companies, cattle farms, tourist resorts and even tens of thousands of private homes.
By the end of 2019, China was officially Australia’s ninth-largest foreign investor. However, much Chinese investment is also funneled through Hong Kong, Australia’s fifth-largest investor.
The flourishing economic relationship affected other areas of Australian life. In 2015, a Chinese company closely tied to China’s Communist government signed a 99-year lease of Australia’s northernmost port in Darwin. The port is vital to the Australian military and also hosts a United States military base. Chinese companies also signed contracts for a 99-year lease on the port of Newcastle, a share in the port of Melbourne, and a 100-year lease on Western Australia’s Merriden airport.
All this trade necessitated a close political relationship. In 2014 the Australian government invited President Xi Jinping to address Parliament.
Undercover
But this political relationship developed a dark side. China is being credibly accused of bribing Australian politicians and interfering with Australian elections.
In 2017, Australia’s public television station, abc, released a report showing that billionaires affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party were donating millions to Australia political parties and building close relationships with Australia’s political elites. In 2018 Charles Sturt University ethics professor Clive Hamilton published an explosive book titled Silent Invasion. It documents the governing Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Australian corporations, universities, government and even religions.
Hamilton warns that China is turning Australia into a puppet state. Australia, he says, has received a wave of “billionaires with shady histories and tight links to the party, media owners creating Beijing mouthpieces, ‘patriotic’ students brainwashed from birth, and professionals marshaled into pro-Beijing associations set up by the Chinese Embassy.” He alleges that Chinese spies coordinated a penetration into all levels of Australian society.
In the aftermath of these allegations, Australian Sen. Sam Dastyari resigned, and the nation had to change its rules on politicians receiving donations from abroad.
Other politicians appear to have received thinly disguised bribes. Special Envoy Andrew Robb, for example, was the man who signed off on China leasing Port Darwin for a century. And what was waiting for him immediately upon leaving political office? An estimated $2 million plus expenses over three years—at the company to whom he had just leased the port.
But Chinese influence on Australian governance has been even more aggressive than all this. Three months prior to Australia’s 2019 elections, someone hacked the computer systems of the Australian Parliament and all major Australian political parties. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at the time that the attack was “sophisticated” and probably the work of a foreign government.
It has since emerged that this sophisticated foreign government was China.
Trade War
Chinese infiltration and aggression has caused Australians to change their position toward their large, wealthy northern neighbor.
The turnaround started gradually. In 2016 the Australian government blocked Chinese investment in the nation’s energy infrastructure over national security concerns. In 2018 they blocked Huawei Technologies from developing Australia’s 5G network.
But the real break came this year. Australia tried to hold China responsible for the spread of covid-19, and conducted investigations into the origins of the virus.
China reacted with fury. The Chinese Communist Party placed tariffs on Australian barley, wheat and coal. They found a sudden increase of “defects” in Australian copper, cotton, lobster, sugar and timber. It blocked imports of Australian lamb for fear of covid contamination, while meat from countries with much higher rates of covid sail on through. About 40 percent of Australian wine exports went to China. In November, the party imposed massive tariffs as high as 200-plus percent on that wine. Week by week, China is ratcheting up the economic damage with more tariffs.
Other strikes by China have been more below-the-belt. On Nov. 30, 2020, an official Twitter account of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a fake photo showing a grinning Australian soldier holding a gory knife at the throat of an Afghan child with the caption, “Don’t be afraid, we are coming to bring you peace!”
Australian inquiries into its troops’ conduct in Afghanistan have found no evidence of Australian soldiers killing children. But China is spreading the lie—an accusation that could easily lead to a terrorist attack against Australia.
As the trade and political skirmish has worsened, China has issued Australia a 14-point ultimatum. Australians can go back to buying and selling with the Chinese the way they used to only if the Australian government opens up the country to Chinese investment and stops criticizing the governing Chinese Communist Party.
How will Australia hold up under this pressure? Chinese infiltration has been so thorough that Australia is sailing into a trade war divided. Some of Australia’s own top politicians actually favor China!
Divided We Fall
Some of this is surely from bribery and other nefarious activity that we don’t even know about. But a lot of it is from the fact that Australia has put itself in the position where one third of its exports go to one country. Engaging in a trade war with that country will affect hundreds of thousands of jobs, with some political districts facing little consequence but others being devastated.
In 2019 the state of Victoria signed an agreement to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative—a group of countries that receive Chinese investment in their transportation and business infrastructure in exchange for being drawn closer into China’s orbit. Thus far, China has avoided industries that would harm Victoria. State Premier Dan Andrews has criticized the national government’s opposition to China—and Beijing seems to have rewarded him for taking its side. Others, such as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, have also urged the government to quickly end hostilities with China for the sake of Australian jobs.
Business leaders also have a lot to lose, and have taken China’s side. Andrew Forrest, a mining billionaire, brought one of China’s top diplomats to speak alongside him at an official event—without informing the Australian government minister who was also attending. Forrest said, “Australia needs to walk that line where we have a best friend in America, a best friend in China, best friends across Southeast Asia.”
Media mogul Kerry Stokes used the front pages of his The West Australian newspaper to call for an end to the conflict, writing, “If we’re going to go into the biggest debt we’ve had in our life and then simultaneously poke our biggest provider of income in the eye it’s not necessarily the smartest thing you can do.” He said China “probably owes the world an explanation on the origins of covid-19,” but “we need to stop making accusations.”
He rightly pointed out the massive economic cost that will come if the confrontation with China continues. Between that and the destruction wrought by Australia’s covid lockdowns, Australia’s economy risks being broken.
This is the choice Australia now faces. Stand up to China and watch it use its power, influence, hackers and economic realities to devastate the Australian economy and more. Or submit to The Chinese Communist Party’s 14 points.
READ MORE, click the above link

United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shocked a lot of people when she named Rep. Eric Swalwell as an impeachment manager in the lead up to today’s vote to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump. An impeachment manager is supposed to reinforce the credibility and integrity of the case against a president. But Swalwell’s reputation has been seriously tarnished by his role in the Russiagate conspiracy alleging that President Trump conspired with the Kremlin to steal the 2016 presidential election. And he continues to face calls for his removal from the House Intelligence Committee due to his past relationship with the Chinese spy Fang Fang. So is Swalwell really one of the nine most qualified people in the House of Representatives to manage impeachment proceedings?
The impeachment articles introduced to Congress on Monday charge President Trump with “Incitement of Insurrection.” They expressly allege that he is guilty of “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States” by calling on his supporters to decry election rigging in Washington, D.C., last week. Yet even the liberal law professor Jonathan Turley has noted that President Trump “never actually called for violence or a riot.” Instead, he expressly told his supporters “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” So, 222 Democrats and 10 Republicans have impeached the president for a crime he did not commit.
In a corrupt justice system, the innocent are punished and the guilty go free. That is what we have witnessed this week. The president has been impeached for “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States”—by people guilty of willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.
In 2018, Pelosi told reporters that she is confused why Americans are not uprising against the Trump administration over conditions on the Mexico border: “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be when people realize that this is a policy that they defend.” That rhetoric is far more of a call to insurrection than anything President Trump said about election rigging.
And Speaker Pelosi is not the only Democrat who has called on Americans to take to the streets in protest!
Rep. Maxine Waters called on supporters to confront and harass members of the Trump administration over conditions on the Mexico border. “[I]f you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” she said in 2018. “And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” That is not “peacefully and patriotically” making your voice heard. It is a call for literal rebellion against the government. And now Waters has voted to impeach President Trump for “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.”
The District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine is even looking into the possibility of arresting Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks with inciting violence at the U.S. Capitol.
How biased and corrupt does law enforcement have to be to consider arresting the president while letting Pelosi and Waters walk free? Read More, click above link

China’s Most Dangerous Maneuver Ever Against America
China has become one of the world’s most aggressive and dangerous powers. Its leaders clearly have the ambition to rule the world! And China’s danger and ambition is multiplied by its remarkably close partnership with Russia.
But the biggest problem China poses is not generally mentioned. This is something that American politicians, especially, want to forget. Perhaps even the American people want to forget it because they share in the blame for letting this maneuver happen. This problem may prove to be the most insidious move by China against America in history. And it will plague the United States in the near future!
I’m talking about China’s takeover of the Panama Canal.
Economic Power
Carving a channel through Central America was a goal for centuries. But it wasn’t until 1880 that France made the first concerted attempt under Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French entrepreneur who had completed the Suez Canal. The French spent the modern equivalent of $6 billion, only to abandon it after disease and accidents killed more than 22,000 laborers. Building an interoceanic canal appeared impossible.
But in 1903, United States President Theodore Roosevelt convinced the Panamanians to declare independence from Colombia and signed a landmark treaty with them. America paid France $40 million for its equipment and excavations and paid the Panamanians an initial payment of $10 million. Then the Americans went down and started digging!
Roosevelt was the first president to really see that America should be a world power. And he governed as if America was a world power, not just a colony of Europe.
After 10 years of innovation and backbreaking toil, hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars, and losing over 5,600 lives themselves, the Americans succeeded where so many others had failed. They turned the 400-year-old dream of slicing apart North America and South America and mingling the waters from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans into reality.
Rather than sailing 8,000 miles around the dangerous cape at the end of South America, sailors could now transit the 51-mile canal in less than half the time.
One of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World,” the..... READ MORE, CLICK THE IMAGE

The radical left in America is giving us all a stunning look at what authoritarianism looks like. They are silencing the most powerful man in the world. Their success shows not only that they have amassed remarkable power to silence virtually anyone, but also how eager they are to wield that power.
Starting last Friday, Big Tech and social media companies, in total lockstep with one another, muzzled President Donald Trump. His 88 million Twitter followers can no longer read his messages. Facebook shut down his account. A host of other platforms including Reddit, Twitch, Shopify, YouTube/Google, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Apple, Discord, Pinterest and Stripe have all banned or restricted his messages in some form.
For Mozilla—maker of Firefox, one of the most popular Web browsers—even these stringent measures are not enough. The company’s ceo says President Trump and his movement must be monitored throughout the entire Internet. Essentially, Trump supporters need to be tracked the way Islamic State terrorists are.
As journalist Michael Tracey tweeted, “The new corporate authoritarian liberal-left monoculture is going to be absolutely ruthless—and in 12 days it is merging with the state. This only the beginning.”
This crackdown gives us a vivid picture of why God must step in to save America from the radical left. And we at the Trumpet believe that is exactly what will happen.
The left is insisting that unrestricted speech be blotted out. Even Parler—the leading alternative to Twitter—has been shut down.
Parler is what Twitter once aspired to be: a site where people can post their thoughts without being censored. Basic controls are in place to stop child pornography and other such evils, but there is no political thought police.
For Big Tech today, such open communication poses an unacceptable threat. First Google and Apple blocked Parler from their app stores. Then Amazon announced it would no longer host Parler’s servers. It gave Parler 24 hours to move their entire trove of data to a new provider. That proved impossible, so Parler is now completely offline.
How can President Trump even get a message out now? If he holds a press conference or tries to appear on tv, the major networks have already shown their willingness to turn away. READ MORE, CLICK THE LINK ABOVE

Three years after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the development of the Avangard hypersonic missile, its first regiment will assume full strength in 2021, with three more also scheduled to go on combat alert by the end of the year, according to Russia’s tass news agency.
The Avangard missile is a sophisticated, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with hypersonic boost-glide vehicles. It can fly up to 28 times the speed of sound even in the denser layers of the atmosphere. In addition to its speed, the weapon’s ability to maneuver its flight path and altitude enables it to evade any anti-missile defense system on Earth. Russia successfully tested the Avangard five times in 2020.
Russia is also developing several other missile systems. The Zircon can evade traditional anti-missile defense systems by flying beneath their radar ranges. It flies fast enough for the air pressure at the nose of the missile to become a plasma cloud that absorbs radio waves. Even if an advanced antimissile system like the United States military’s Aegis can detect Zircons, its interceptors simply too slow to overtake them. Six Zircon missile strikes can sink even the most advanced American aircraft carrier, and Russia’s 15 Buyan-class warships can carry up to 25 each.
Although some analysts say it is mostly for show, Russia’s air force is also getting upgraded with a hypersonic strike squadron. It is modifying some twin-engine jets to mount the 27-foot Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
In his 2018 address, Mr. Putin said:
Russia has developed and works continuously to perfect highly effective but modestly priced systems to overcome missile defense. They are installed on all of our intercontinental ballistic missile complexes. … And to those who in the past 15 years have tried to accelerate an arms race and seek unilateral advantage against Russia, have introduced restrictions and sanctions … aiming to restrain our nation’s development, including in the military area, I will say this: Everything you have tried to prevent through such a policy has already happened. No one has managed to restrain Russia.

The past 12 months have delivered a nonstop fury of headlines highlighting the most tumultuous year most of us have ever lived through: The impeachment of a United States president, the assassination of an Iranian terrorist mastermind, trade wars, covid-19 and ruinous economic shutdowns, plummeting oil prices and soaring racial tensions, a nauseating federal deficit record, and of course, a hotly contested American presidential election.
In the frenzy, it may have been easy to overlook other major developments and trends further from home. Here are four important takeaways about Asia in 2020.
Vladimir Putin’s Russia: More Powerful and Brazen
Throughout 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin made numerous bold moves to tighten his grip on power. He increased censorship of the media and the Internet. He passed unprecedented restrictions against holding meaningful political protests. And he sent a blaring message to domestic enemies when his most prominent opposition figure was poisoned by Novichok, a nerve agent possessed only by governments. At the same time, Putin signed legislation that protects former presidents from prosecution, and lets them become senators for life after they leave the presidency. But it looks like he won’t need to use either of those provisions since he also pushed a constitutional amendment through that lets him remain president of Russia for life.
Meanwhile, Putin spent much of the year strengthening Russia’s position in former Soviet states. He threw a vital lifeline to the president of Belarus that let him overcome protests and remain in office. He cleared a path for Uzbekistan to join his Eurasian Economic Union. And he brokered a deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan that placed Russian forces in the latter for the first time. All of these moves increase the leverage Putin has over these nations. It is only a matter of time before he looks for returns on the help he has rendered.
Further afield, Putin militarized the Arctic, made deals to sell a coronavirus vaccine to Latin America that will increase Russian sway there, and clinched an agreement giving Russia a port in Sudan that will considerably boosts its influence over the Red Sea.
All the while, Putin accelerated the buildup of Russia’s military power, making it more capable than at any time since the end of the Cold War. He was also likely behind a major cyberattack on the United States government that breached half a dozen federal departments.
Even as dissatisfaction grew among Russians over their shrinking incomes, Putin spent liberally to dominate Russia’s periphery and to make Russia a force to be feared on the global stage. And he pulled out all the stops to cement his position at the nation’s helm.
Vladimir Putin concludes the year 2020 significantly stronger than he started it.
Xi Jinping’s China: Stronger and More Dangerous...... Read more, click the above link.
Australia: A Warning to the World

BY RICHARD PALMER • DECEMBER 21
For the last three decades, the world has been drawing closer to China. Of all major Western nations, Australia has gotten closer than any other. And now it is realizing the fearsome consequences of that embrace.
It may be too late for Australians to pull out of the relationship. But their fate is a powerful warning to the rest of the world.
Money, Money, Money
It started with a business relationship.
After growing at an astonishing annual rate of around 10 percent for some 30 years, China is now, by some measures, the world’s largest economy. It takes a massive amount of raw materials to fuel such growth, making Australia a perfect trade partner.
In 2017, one third of Australia’s exports went to China, and nearly a quarter of its imports came from China.
Soon the economic relationship went beyond trade. China started buying up huge tracts of Australia. Chinese companies own more than 1 percent of Australia’s land area, including coal mines, energy companies, cattle farms, tourist resorts and even tens of thousands of private homes.
By the end of 2019, China was officially Australia’s ninth-largest foreign investor. However, much Chinese investment is also funneled through Hong Kong, Australia’s fifth-largest investor.
The flourishing economic relationship affected other areas of Australian life. In 2015, a Chinese company closely tied to China’s Communist government signed a 99-year lease of Australia’s northernmost port in Darwin. The port is vital to the Australian military and also hosts a United States military base. Chinese companies also signed contracts for a 99-year lease on the port of Newcastle, a share in the port of Melbourne, and a 100-year lease on Western Australia’s Merriden airport.
All this trade necessitated a close political relationship. In 2014 the Australian government invited President Xi Jinping to address Parliament.
Undercover
But this political relationship developed a dark side. China is being credibly accused of bribing Australian politicians and interfering with Australian elections.
In 2017, Australia’s public television station, abc, released a report showing that billionaires affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party were donating millions to Australia political parties and building close relationships with Australia’s political elites. In 2018 Charles Sturt University ethics professor Clive Hamilton published an explosive book titled Silent Invasion. It documents the governing Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of Australian corporations, universities, government and even religions.
Hamilton warns that China is turning Australia into a puppet state. China, he says, has received a wave of “billionaires with shady histories and tight links to the party, media owners creating Beijing mouthpieces, ‘patriotic’ students brainwashed from birth, and professionals marshalled into pro-Beijing associations set up by the Chinese Embassy.” He alleges that Chinese spies coordinated a penetration into all levels of Chinese society.
In the aftermath of these allegations, Australian Sen. Sam Dastyari resigned, and the nation had to change its rules on politicians receiving donations from abroad.
Other politicians appear to have received thinly disguised bribes. Special Envoy Andrew Robb, for example, was the man who signed off on China leasing Port Darwin for a century. And what was waiting for him immediately upon leaving political office? An estimated $2 million plus expenses over three years—at the company to whom he had just leased the port.
But Chinese influence on Australian governance has been even more aggressive than all this. Three months prior to Australia’s 2019 elections, someone hacked the computer systems of the Australian Parliament and all major Australian political parties. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at the time that the attack was “sophisticated” and probably the work of a foreign government.
It has since emerged that this sophisticated foreign government was China.
Trade War
Chinese infiltration and aggression has caused Australians to change their position toward their large, wealthy northern neighbor.
The turnaround started gradually. In 2016 the Australian government blocked Chinese investment in the nation’s energy infrastructure over national security concerns. In 2018 they blocked Huawei Technologies from developing Australia’s 5G network.
But the real break came this year. Australia tried to hold China responsible for the spread of covid-19, and conducted investigations into the origins of the virus.
China reacted with fury. The Chinese Communist Party placed tariffs on Australian barley, wheat and coal. They found a sudden increase of “defects” in Australian copper, cotton, lobster, sugar and timber. It blocked imports of Australian lamb for fear of covid contamination, while meat from countries with much higher rates of covid sail on through. About 40 percent of Australian wine exports went to China. In November, the party imposed massive tariffs as high as 200-plus percent on that wine. Week by week, China is ratcheting up the economic damage with more tariffs.
Other strikes by China have been more below-the-belt. On Nov. 30, 2020, an official Twitter account of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a fake photo showing a grinning Australian soldier holding a gory knife at the throat of an Afghan child with the caption, “Don’t be afraid, we are coming to bring you peace!”
Australian inquiries into its troops’ conduct in Afghanistan have found no evidence of Australian soldiers killing children. But China is spreading the lie—an accusation that could easily lead to a terrorist attack against Australia.
As the trade and political skirmish has worsened, China has issued Australia a 14-point ultimatum. Australians can go back to buying and selling with the Chinese the way they used to only if the Australian government opens up the country to Chinese investment and stops criticizing the governing Chinese Communist Party.
How will Australia hold up under this pressure? Chinese infiltration has been so thorough that Australia is sailing into a trade war divided. Some of Australia’s own top politicians actually favor China!
Divided We Fall
Some of this is surely from bribery and ..... READ MORE, click the image

The United States Congress approved a colossal $900 billion stimulus for covid-19 relief on December 21. It passed the U.S. House of Representatives that evening 359-53. It then went to the Senate, which approved it 92-6, along with a $1.4 trillion government spending bill. Altogether, the U.S. government authorized $2.3 trillion for spending.
The U.S. federal government is estimated to take in $3.9 trillion in revenue, which—as of the start of Fiscal Year 2021 in October—would have made a $966 billion budget deficit. Now Washington has nearly doubled the deficit—just for covid-19 relief.
The bill itself is 5,593 pages long. It apparently took three hours just to print it. Somehow, the bill had to be pushed through both houses of Congress the same day; none of the legislators—save, perhaps, the authors of the bill—had a chance to read it in its entirety. Yet they still voted on what Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the “second-largest federal input in the history of our country.”
5,600 pages.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) December 21, 2020
Votes are still expected today on this legislation. No one will be able to read it all in its entirety.
Special interests win. Americans lose. https://t.co/zuyrLjez6o
The bill gives $600 to every worker earning less than $75,000 per year. But the combined sum of direct checks, small business stimulus, vaccine research and unemployment benefits only adds up to $666 billion. That is a lot of money in and of itself. But where is the rest of the money going?
The latest bill is not just another relief stimulus. It’s actually a big, fat omnibus bill. And some of the items on the bill are outrageous. For example, even though this is supposed to be a covid-19 relief package, a lot of money is set aside for foreign affairs. And for pretty strange expenses.
Page 1,486 gives $25 million to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. That’s the same country that has a ranking of 145 out of 180 on the 2020 World Press Freedom Index and where you could be imprisoned for blasphemy. That’s the same country that has a problem with a Taliban insurgency. That’s the same country where the military exercises disproportionate power in politics. $15 million is supposed to go to democracy programs, as if American money can magically fix Pakistan’s corruption problems. The other $10 million is supposed to go to “gender programs” (whatever those are).
Do you know who else gets money—$33 million, according to page 1,498—for “democracy programs”? Venezuela. That’s the same country that got voting technology manufacturer SmartMatic up and running. SmartMatic has been in controversy regarding voter fraud in the latest U.S. presidential election.
What about the $74.8 million spent on the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative? The cbsi was an Obama-era program designed so that the security forces of certain Caribbean islands can better combat threats like drug cartels. Sounds good, but where are we getting the money from?
Where are we getting the $132 million of aid to give the country of Georgia? Where are we getting the $453 million worth of foreign aid to Ukraine? Where are we getting the $70 million to, according to page 1,516, pay for “programs to promote Internet freedom globally”? Where are we getting the $50,000,000 to pay for “global health programs”? (page 1,533). Where are we getting the $200 million to pay for the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Fund? (page 1,534). Where are we getting the $950 million for “assistance for basic education” in foreign countries? (page 1,537). What about the $320 million for “biodiversity conservation” (page 1,540) or the $50 million for “higher education in countries impacted by economic crises”? (page 1,539).
READ MORE, click above link.....

Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (pmf) in Iraq launched eight rockets at the United States Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday. Despite the activation of the embassy defenses, one housing area was damaged and at least one local civilian was killed.
These attacks in the fortified Green Zone are relatively rare due to the site’s heavy defenses and location in the capital. The fact that forces were able to successfully carry out the attack speaks of an inside job.
The ongoing hostility of pmfs in Iraq and the tacit approval of the Iraqi government are all part of the legacy established by late Iranian Gen. Qassem Suleimani.
Happy Anniversary
The attack has been interpreted in part as a “welcome” to United States presidential nominee Joe Biden and his assembling foreign-policy team. But more clearly, the attack is a sign of growing unrest in the lead-up to the anniversary of the assassination of Suleimani.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (irgc) Quds Force leader was killed in a U.S. air strike on January 3. In recent weeks some U.S. Embassy personnel were withdrawn as a security measure. Indications are that American forces were preparing for Iran to try some kind of anniversary retaliation. Since the death of the general, the looming threat of reprisals has been hanging over the Middle East.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted in response to the most recent attack: “Our embassy in Baghdad got hit Sunday by several rockets. … Guess where they were from: Iran. Now we hear chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq ….” He then added, “Some friendly advice to Iran: If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.” Rad more.... click the above link

The Japanese cabinet approved fiscal year 2021’s defense budget on December 21, the Japan Times reported. It is Japan’s largest ever at ¥5.3 trillion (us$51.7 billion), a 0.5 percent increase over fiscal year 2020. That may not sound like much, but it represents Japan’s ninth year in a row of increasing its defense budget. It’s actually lower than what the Defense Ministry asked for; it was hoping for a 3.3 percent increase.
This is also the first defense budget approved under Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga. Suga became prime minister in September after his predecessor, Shinzō Abe, stepped down due to ill health. Abe was responsible for Japan’s defense budget increases in recent years. His main ambition was to revise Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution. The article bans Japan from declaring war or having a normal military. Abe wasn’t able to accomplish his goal, but Suga has promised to continue Abe’s legacy.
The bill now has to be approved by the Diet. Approval is expected, given that Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party (ldp) has a large majority.
What is included in this largest defense budget ever?
For starters, $555 million for F-X, a state-of-the-art fighter jet—Japan’s first domestic jet since 1975. The F-X is a joint-project between Mitsubishi and Lockheed Martin. Plans include equipping it with missiles for air, ground and sea targets, a weaponized radar system that can fry enemy missiles, an upgraded stealth system and an information-sharing system synchronized with American jets. Once construction is finished, the F-X is expected to be as sophisticated as the fighters in the Chinese and Russian air forces. It’s already anticipated to outperform America’s F-25. The first prototype is expected to be completed around 2024.
Tokyo also earmarked $323 million for the development of new anti-ship missiles. These “stand-off” missiles will have a range up to 559 miles. Japan intends to base the missiles in Okinawa, in all likelihood to deter Chinese aggression. They are expected to be ready in five years.
$16 million will be reserved for preparations to build two new warships synchronized with America’s Aegis battle system. The actual construction will cost much more.
Japan is also using $1.1 billion for space warfare. One particular piece of technology it is hoping to work on is a telescope capable of detecting hypersonic weapons, like the kinds China and Russia are working on right now. Such weapons are harder to locate and intercept than traditional ballistic missiles.
We’ve covered weapons against land, sea, air and space targets. What’s next? Cyberspace: Click above link to read more

United States President Donald Trump stated in 2017 that North Atlantic Treaty Organization “members must contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations” to defense spending. 2020 seems to be the year Europe took him seriously. Recently, two European military lightweights decided to beef up their armed forces.
Sweden, while not a nato member (though this may change soon), is one of them. Stockholm announced in October that it would increase its defense spending by 40 percent in five years. The Swedish government also plans to double its number of conscripts.
These new developments are the result of Russian provocation. Sweden is a ferry ride away from Russia, and Moscow keeps poking at the Swedish border. Two Russian warships entered Swedish waters without permission in November, and the Russian Air Force regularly enters Swedish air space. Russia doesn’t have the best track record for respecting its neighbors’ territorial integrity. Because of this, Stockholm is urgent to arm itself.
Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hutqvist said this was “the largest investment [in defense] since the 1950s,” all in response to the “new security environment” caused by an aggressive Russia.
The Riksdag (Swedish parliament) also voted to adopt a “nato option.” This doesn’t mean that Sweden is applying for membership. Rather, it is formally expressing interest in potentially joining the alliance in the future. Finland did the same in 1995 and still hasn’t joined the bloc. But it demonstrates how nervous Sweden is becoming.... Read More, click the link above

China’s Dangerous Deal With Papua New Guinea
Fujian Zhonghong Fishery Company, a Chinese fishing company controlled by the Chinese government, signed a $154 million deal last month with Papua New Guinea to build a “comprehensive multifunctional fishery industrial park” on Daru Island. The deal has sparked concerns because the island is close to Australia and not known for commercial fishing. Why is China investing so much in this project?
Though it is a small island, Daru is in a strategic location just 124 miles from Australia. The island lies in the Torres Strait, the narrow stretch of sea between Papua New Guinea and Australia.
“I’m assured by people with a reasonable knowledge of Papua New Guinea’s fisheries that there are no commercial fishing grounds close to Daru,” stated former Papua New Guinean government adviser Jeffrey Wall. “A $200 million ‘fishery’ investment in an area not known for an abundance of fisheries but strategically as close to Australia as you can get, surely raises questions about the real agenda.”
The Daru project is reminiscent of China’s “fishing militia” strategy of the South China Sea. China trains and pays hundreds of fishermen to act as an undercover navy. China’s fisherman militia has played an important part in its conquest of the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. These fishing vessels intimidate other vessels by harassing and surrounding them. They are often bolstered from the rear by Chinese Coast Guard ships. The United States Department of Defense has given China’s fishing militia an official name: the People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (pafmm).
Papua New Guinea joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (bri) in 2018. China said it would invest nearly $4 billion in the poverty-stricken nation, building manufacturing plants and improving roads. It has also invested billions into mining in Papua New Guinea.
Beijing is increasing its territorial power through diplomacy, economic investment and military. Papua New Guinea isn’t the only Pacific country to become a victim of China’s debt-trap diplomacy. Beijing has used coercion to exert its power over Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and beyond.
Australia and the United States have recognized the threat of China’s increasing influence over Papua New Guinea. While visiting Papua New Guinea in 2018, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the U.S. would help Australia and Papua New Guinea upgrade the Manus Island naval base.
China is countering the increased U.S.-Australia involvement on Manus Island by..... Read More, click the above link

jerusalem
In the span of four months, United States President Donald Trump has netted four Middle East peace deals between Israel and Arab states. The latest came last week when Mr. Trump announced that the West African nation of Morocco was ready to formalize ties with the Jewish state. These deals are an incredible feat of diplomacy.
Shockingly, you probably haven’t heard too much about them.
An inward-focused American population coupled with an anti-Trump mainstream media means that the president’s stunning achievements have been covered up and ignored.
The media could not afford to dwell on Trump’s Middle East successes, especially during the election cycle. Support for Israel remains one of the only issues that enjoys broad consensus among all American voters. Airing stories about the president’s pro-Israel moves would be tantamount to lobbying for Trump. And that couldn’t be.
Nevertheless, what President Trump is accomplishing in the Middle East is absolutely staggering. And everyone in the region, both ally and adversary, understands that.
How Did He Do It?
In the space of four years, Mr. Trump has upended the false notion that peace between Arab states and Israel was only possible after a comprehensive peace deal between the Jews and the Palestinians. President Trump correctly demanded that the intransigent Palestinian leadership no longer be allowed to roadblock Israeli peace with Arab states.
Amazingly, the Arab world agreed with him.
President Trump, through his Middle East team headed by son-in-law Jared Kushner, told Arab leaders that they had more to gain by working alongside the Jewish state than against it. Furthermore, Arab leaders were already frustrated with Palestinians after they rejected several serious Israeli overtures toward peace.
They were ready to make a deal.
President Trump also had one other factor that pushed the Arab states to negotiate: the shocking betrayal of America’s Arab allies by Trump’s predecessor.
The Obama administration worked tirelessly to recalibrate the Middle East in favor of America’s archenemy in the region, the Islamic Republic of Iran. This culminated in the Iran nuclear deal which, at best, delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions by a decade, but it secured for Iran the mountains of cash it needed to aid the Assad regime’s war crimes in Syria, take over Iraq through its own fighting militias, and perpetuate civil war in Yemen.
Concurrently, Obama also spoke of Saudi Arabia’s need to “share the neighborhood” with Iran. Sounds pleasant, but Saudi Arabia and other states understood that when you hear a murderous neighbor trying to break down your front door, you don’t unlock it for him.
The treacherous Obama administration proved to America’s Middle East allies that the U.S. could no longer be trusted as a stalwart ally to defend them from Iran’s expansionist goals. And even if there were a change of administration that favored American’s traditional allies, that too would be temporary.
Read Full Story, click link above
US nuclear weapon stockpile targeted
America is faced with a “grave threat” after a major security breach saw the US nuclear weapons stockpile hacked, impacting at least six federal agencies.
FROM:
- world
north america
00:30 Voter Fraud (14 minutes)
The U.S. Senate held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss voter fraud in the November election. More senators are starting to see the fraud in plain sight. Will anyone have the courage to fix it?
14:00 ‘Deep State’ Protects China (15 minutes)
The director of National Intelligence is supposed to provide a classified report on the election 45 days after it occurs. This year, that report is being delayed because members of the intelligence agencies are afraid to disclose China’s role in the election.

BY ANDREW MIILLER • DECEMBER 18
Dominion Voting Systems has been under scrutiny ever since attorney Sidney Powell claimed to have “statistical evidence” that its machines stole votes from United States President Donald Trump. On December 13, Powell told the Epoch Times that every voting machine used in America’s elections should be impounded and reviewed for forensic analysis. And if America’s court system refuses to issue such an order, Powell believes President Trump should use his 2018 executive order on foreign interference to get the job done.
“[G]iven the level of foreign interference we can demonstrate … it’s more than sufficient to trigger the president’s executive order from 2018 that gives him all kinds of power—to do everything from seize assets, to freeze things, demand the impoundment of the machines,” she said on the American Thought Leaders program. “Under the emergency powers, he could even appoint a special prosecutor to look into this, which is exactly what needs to happen. Every voting machine in the country should be impounded right now. There’s frankly more than enough criminal probable cause to justify that. For anybody who’s willing to address the law and the facts purely on the basis of truth, and not politics or corporate greed or global wealth.”
When enacted, the executive order Powell referenced gives the director of national intelligence the power to conduct “an assessment of any information indicating that a foreign government, or any person acting as an agent” of a foreign government tried to interfere in a U.S. election. An increasing amount of evidence is emerging that foreign sponsors used Dominion Voting Systems to shift votes to Joe Biden.

The United States Senate voted on December 9 to reject a pair of resolutions aimed at stopping the Trump administration’s $23 billion sale of armaments to the United Arab Emirates. After the Trump administration officially notified Congress of the sale last month, a few Democratic senators and one Republican senator attempted to block the deal, saying that one of America’s newest and most sophisticated warplanes should not be entrusted to the U.A.E.
The four resolutions submitted by senators Chris Murphy, Bob Menendez and Rand Paul, according to the Times of Israel, were rejected by the Senate in a vote that split mostly along party lines. The first resolution aimed at blocking the sale of 18 advanced Reaper drone systems fell 50-46; the measures aimed at stopping the sale of 50 F-35 stealth fighter jets was rejected 49-47.

Russia will form a new motor rifle division within the army corps of its Baltic Fleet early next year, the fleet’s commander, Adm. Alexander Nosatov, announced on December 7. The division will include artillery, motor rifle and tank regiments, and will join the 11th Army Corps of the Baltic Fleet’s coastal defense and ground forces in Kaliningrad, a Russian territory in central Europe.
This is only the latest instance of Russia increasing its militarism on Europe’s doorstep. Over the last two decades, Russia’s military spending has grown by 175 percent, and it has put its forces into action. In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia. In 2014, it annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and pushed eastern parts of the country into a state of frozen war. Since then, it has significantly built up its armaments in Crimea, Kaliningrad, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and beyond.
Analysts often view Russia’s increasing militarism and aggression in the context of a new Russia-United States cold war. But Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has made clear that the most important response to Russia’s growing power will come not from the United States, but from Europe.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin rigged Russia’s 2004 election in a way that brought his authoritarian ambitions to light, Mr. Flurry wrote that such actions would frighten Europe into faster, tighter unification. He wrote:
Russian elections have recently moved President Vladimir Putin much closer to becoming a dictator. This strikes intense fear in Europe. A more dictatorial Russian government is coming fast …. That power will be able to challenge Europe when nobody else can, including the U.S. … The Europeans still remember how violent Russia was in World War ii, and Russia is a close neighbor with massive piles of nuclear weapons. … The Russian election is triggering a fear that will hasten the uniting of the European Union.

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China’s Chang’e-5 probe has completed a lunar mission and is set to return to Earth, as of December 7. Chang’e-5 will be the first operation to bring material from the moon to Earth in the 21st century. The only other countries to have ever done so were the United States and the Soviet Union. Chang’e-5 is bringing with it roughly 2 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil. It is expected to land in the province of Inner Mongolia later this month.
The last mission to bring back samples from the moon was the ussr’s Luna 24 mission in 1976. That was almost 50 years ago.
And China was sure to leave its mark. Chang’e-5 left a Chinese flag made of special material to withstand the lunar environment. The only other country to ever leave flags on the moon was the United States. And experts believe solar radiation would have bleached those star-spangled banners white by now.
Proud to have our national flag unfolded on the moon. The #Change5 probe collected samples and took off from moon. It will contribute to global scientific studies in fields such as the formation and evolution of the moon. pic.twitter.com/1UJskx3d9s
— Mission of China (@ChinaEUMission) December 4, 2020
The U.S. hasn’t sent missions to the moon in decades. America is literally waving the white flag in front of an ascendant China.
Washington is attempting to catch up with Beijing’s new cosmic prowess. U.S. President Donald Trump has recently authorized the Artemis Program, an ambitious attempt to land the first woman on the moon by 2024.

An official military alliance between two of the three most powerful nations on the planet. An alliance containing the world’s largest economy and its second and third most powerful militaries. A Russia-China alliance. That is what Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about at the Valdai Discussion Club on Oct. 22, 2020.
Putin said: “[O]ur relations have reached such a level of cooperation and trust that it is not necessary, but it is certainly imaginable.”
Such an alliance will change the world.
Truly, the level of trust and cooperation between the Russian and Chinese militaries is already astoundingly high.
Russia-China relations did not begin to warm until the end of the Cold War. Over the past two decades, their armies have held more than 30 joint military exercises, in which each military has been trusted with secret highly sensitive information and insight into the command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations of the other.
Also significant is the high volume of direct technology transfers taking place between the two, the coordination of nuclear forces, and China becoming the largest and most reliable customer for the Russian weapons industry. Further, Russia and China maintain long-term strategic dialogue at the highest levels of government, including a close personal relationship between Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The day after Putin called a world-changing alliance “certainly imaginable” and added, “time will tell how it will develop,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian warmly welcomed Putin’s remarks. “Under the strategic guidance of President Xi and President Putin, mutual political trust and strategic coordination between the two countries has been enhanced,” he said, adding that Xi’s government is “ready to work with Russia to comprehensively implement our leaders’ consensus” to develop even closer “strategic communication and coordination.”
How close could the two Asian giants end up? Zhao said there is “no limit.”
This talk of even greater cooperation only adds to what some Asia experts say is already a Russia–China alliance in all but name.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has issued new rules restricting the travel of Chinese Communist Party (ccp) members to the United States. On December 2, the State Department reduced the maximum stay for Communist Party members from up to 10 years to a one-month, single-entry permit.
The restrictions affect the Chinese Communist Party’s 92 million members and their immediate families. They do not affect Chinese citizens who are not part of the party. A State Department spokesman told the New York Times that this is part of “ongoing policy, regulatory and law-enforcement action across the U.S. government to protect our nation from the ccp’s malign influence.” The State Department has already designated the Confucius Institute as a mission of the Chinese government and revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese graduate students with ties to the Chinese military.
Professor Di Dongsheng, an associate dean at the School of International Studies at Renmin University, suggested in a November 28 speech that the ccp helped Joe Biden’s son obtain lucrative business deals. He also confirmed that China had been influencing U.S. policy for decades via a network of sympathizers in the highest levels of the U.S. government.
“Trump waged a trade war with us,” Di said. “Why couldn’t we handle him? Why is it that between 1992 and 2016 we always resolved issues with U.S.? Did you guys know? All the crisis, the Yinhe incident, bombing of the embassy or the mid-air collision, everything was taken care of swiftly, in no more than two months. Why? Now, I’m going to drop a bomb—because we had people up there inside America’s core circle of power; we had our old friends.”
A video of Di’s remarks was posted on his Weibo social media account but has since been removed.
At the Richard Nixon Presidential Library on July 23, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned: “China ripped off our prized intellectual property and trade secrets, costing millions of jobs all across America. It sucked supply chains away from America and then added a widget made of slave labor. It made the world’s key waterways less safe for international commerce. … America can no longer ignore the fundamental political and ideological differences between our countries … securing our freedoms from the Chinese Communist Party is the mission of our time, and America is perfectly positioned to lead it because our founding principles give us that opportunity.”
Yet in many ways, Pompeo’s courageous stand against China comes too little, too late.

BY CALLUM WOOD AND DANIEL GREENE
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The tweet immediately drew condemnation from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison who called the image “repugnant.” The prime minister demanded an apology from the Chinese government.
The image is the latest in a series of tweets from Zhao in response to Australia’s inquiry into the conduct of its soldiers during the Afghan war. Rumors of Australian soldiers killing children were never substantiated in the four-year inquiry or report.
The tweet marks a new low in diplomatic relations between the two nations. China once veiled its criticisms behind state media; now its officials are openly provoking Australia with cheap taunts and jibes. Such antics should not be casually dismissed.
Admit it or not, Australia is in the midst of a trade war with its largest trade partner. And it is losing—badly. This is what happens when doves try to befriend dragons.
The Downfall of the Relationship
Maintaining a cordial relationship with a human-rights-violating nation like China was never going to be easy. The friendship between the Australian dove and the Chinese dragon morphed dramatically when China began gobbling up resources in the 1980s. Urbanization and free-market reform saw the dragon quickly outgrow its dovish neighbor with an average gross domestic product growth of 9.5 percent until 2018. By then, the unequal trading partners were far from eye-to-eye.
The deterioration in the Sino-Australian relationship began in earnest back in 2017. At the time, Australian media blew the lid on a coordinated Chinese campaign to buy influence in the political establishment. The reporting led to the resignation of Australian Sen. Sam Dastyari. Australia also adopted its first rules against accepting political donations from overseas. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia had “stood up.” But the damage was done. Australia had already signed on with China in lucrative 100-year port loans and cheap trade deals. The dragon had what it wanted.
The friendship continued to sour in 2018 when the Australian government blocked China’s Huawei Technologies from bidding on contracts to develop Australia’s 5G network. The company was deemed a “national security threat.” In 2016, Australia had moved to block Chinese investment in Australia’s power supply for similar reasons. Officials have also expressed concern over a reliance on Chinese transformers to maintain the power grid.
China has perceived the moves as an effort to stoke “yellow peril,” a term coined in 19th-century America when Asian immigrants arrived to capitalize on the gold rush. But Australia’s fears are not based in xenophobia. The reality is that China wields a superior economic, political and military arsenal on Australia’s doorstep.
The final act that brought the thin facade of peaceful economic cooperation crashing to the ground came at the start of this year. Australia dared to spearhead an investigation into the origins of covid-19. Canberra had the gumption to call for Beijing to hold itself to account for the spread of the coronavirus.
The dove pecked at the dragon one too many times. Chinese retaliation began in earnest. The world’s most one-sided trade war began.
Total Economic War
First, China discouraged students and tourists from traveling to Australia, a major blow to higher education and the tourism industry. China has supplied over 100,000 students in the past, and a horde of tourists descend from China every year.
Then came a rash of tariffs: barley, wheat and coal. A large number of meat processors were banned from sending meat to China. Then lobster, sugar, copper, cotton and timber were found by Chinese import officials to have “defects.” All were ordered back to Australia or were left to turn fetid on a Chinese runway. Bear in mind that each product represents multimillion-dollar or even billion-dollar industries.
Coal is another trade resource that has been targeted. While China looks to increase its import quota next year, it will not be from Australia. Australian coal has been unofficially banned since October. The Chinese say Australia has failed environmental standards.
Last week, wine was targeted. China concluded that Australian wine-makers had been dumping cheap wine on China since 2015. The result was anti-dumping duties ranging from 107.1 to 212.1 percent. This is an effective killing-blow to the industry’s exporting market. Treasury Wine Estates, for instance, was hit with a 169.3 percent tariff. It had to suspend trading on the share market as share plunged to just 13 percent. China is an $850 million market for wine exporters—taking 40 percent of Australia’s overseas shipments.
All these moves are a convenient sidestepping of the free-trade agreement signed between the two nations and a clear violation of World Trade Organization law.
And it isn’t over yet.
There is talk of iron ore being on Beijing’s hit list. Long considered a necessity for Chinese expansion, Australia’s iron ore could be on the way out. China is currently looking into alternatives in Africa and South America. Eighty percent of Australia’s iron ore currently goes to China. It has long been seen as Australia’s trump card—a way for Australia to punch back in the economic dispute. But China may find a suitable alternative or fall back on its vast stockpiles, making iron ore no longer Australia’s weapon, but China’s.
China buys more than a third of Australia’s exports, and that is why Australia cannot win the current trade war. That is the reason Australia fears Beijing. Australia needs China; China doesn’t need Australia.
China can source its goods elsewhere. Maybe at a lower quality or a higher price, but it is available. Australia, on the other hand, doesn’t have another China, its largest trading partner, a gigantic market. None of Australia’s allies are in any position to fill the void. The United States is crippled with internal division. Self-induced covid-related economic wounds make intervention from any Western nation an impossibility. A hodgepodge of nations in Southeast Asia—many of which are already beholden to China—couldn’t fill the void.
A Silly Dove
Australia is fighting a war it cannot win. In the midst of this lopsided battle, it continues to blunder. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has signed up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is a debt trap for nations throughout Australasia and the South Pacific and a weapon for Chinese expansion. Andrews signed on despite the protests of the federal government.

United States Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite warned on December 2 that Russia’s militarization of the Arctic is reaching a level that threatens freedom of the seas in an increasingly important global region.
“Russia has remilitarized the Arctic,” Braithwaite told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a hearing on Navy and Marine Corps preparedness. He added: “It should be an alarm to all of Americans, as an Arctic nation, that we should have a more formidable presence to ensure rule of law and freedom of the seas in that part of the world.”
During the Cold War era, the Soviet Union made significant gains in militarizing the Arctic. But the region was largely inaccessible because of technological limitations and the prevalence of sea ice. In recent years, improving technology and thawing ice have allowed Russia to go beyond even what the Soviet Union established there. The nation now has 10 operational airports or airfields in the Arctic, with six more under construction. It has six operational ports or naval facilities, and six other multipurpose military bases that are either completed or close to it. The facilities are mostly concentrated around Murmansk Oblast, but are beginning to stretch all along the coast.
Alaskan Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan also spoke at the hearing, saying Russia has not just been building up its military in the region, but that it is using that firepower to antagonize Americans. “Russia has accelerated its provocative encounters in the North Pacific,” he said, specifying that its forces are “harassing American fishing vessels in U.S. waters” and “sending bombers toward Alaska’s shores.”

02:00 Georgia Dumpster Fire (22 minutes)
Video footage corroborating witness accounts of illegal ballot stuffing in Fulton County, Georgia, was released yesterday by lawyers working on behalf of President Donald Trump. The details are so stunning that even Fox News is starting to pay attention.
24:00 Nevada Lawsuit (5 minutes)
President Trump’s legal team is contesting tens of thousands of ballots in Nevada after researchers traced back ballots to deceased people, people registered with out-of-state addresses, and ballots that were “undeliverable” by the postal service but were somehow counted anyway.
29:00 Biden Said What? (11 minutes)
Joe Biden said the quiet part out loud again in an interview last night when he said that if he and Kamala ever had a fundamental disagreement, he might come down with a “disease” and just resign. Another Freudian slip?

BY TYREL SCHLOTE • DECEMBER 3
Foreign ministers for the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (asean) met for their annual summit on December 1, where they upgraded their relationship from “dialogue” to “strategic partnership.”
“As close economic partners, we will stand up for safe and open trade routes and a free and fair trade,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said after the meeting. “Together, we represent more than a billion people and almost 25 percent of global economic power. Together, we have a strong voice in this world.” So far, no specific details on what the strategic partnership would entail have been given.
Both parties celebrated the announcement. The German Federal Foreign Office posted that the two blocs have “enjoyed almost 50 years of cooperation, which is now set to take on a new strategic dimension.” Gunner Weigand, managing director for Asia and the Pacific at the European Commission’s European External Action Service, tweeted that it was “not a routine meeting, but a historic step.”
Putin Accelerates Buildup of Russian Military Power
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On November 20, Moscow announced that 2020 set a record for the number of advanced vessels added to the Russian Navy. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of the National Defense Control Center, said the nation has reached a new level of coordination between its various shipyards and military agencies. Their close cooperation has resulted in 35 submarines and warships being “laid down, floated out and accepted for service in the Navy this year.” The massive rollout equates to a 33 percent increase in the amount of advanced naval hardware—accomplished in just one year.
Russia also conducted three missile launches in recent days, showing a dramatic increase in its nuclear strike capacities. On November 23, the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy announced that its 885M Kazan nuclear submarine had struck a coastal target 620 miles away with a Kalibr cruise missile. The successful test marked one of the final hurdles the 64-man submarine needed to clear before officially joining the Russian Navy later this year.
Two days later, Russia’s newest corvette struck a sea target for the first time with a nuclear-capable Uranus missile.

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer wrote in a November 2 article for Politico, titled “Europe Still Needs America,” that demands for an independent European defense structure an “illusion.” French President Emmanuel Macron strongly disagreed, saying the two countries are working together to make the “illusion” a reality.
Kramp-Karrenbauer wrote, “No matter who is in the White House, we are in this together. … Illusions of European strategic autonomy must come to an end: Europeans will not be able to replace America’s crucial role as a security provider.”
Macron responded: “I profoundly disagree … with the opinion piece signed by the German minister of defense in Politico. I think that it is a historical misinterpretation.”

Meet the English Lord Running America’s Voting Systems
BY RICHARD PALMER • NOVEMBER 26
The United States election has shone a bright light on America’s voting system. One company that supplies voting machines is Smartmatic.
Smartmatic’s machines have been used in some of America’s most populous voting centers, including Los Angeles and Chicago. The company is a member of the Election Infrastructure Subsector Coordinating Council, a commission that coordinates with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure election security.
The company is owned by a holding company in the United Kingdom, sgo. For the last six years, chairman of the sgo board has been former Labour politician Lord Mark Malloch-Brown.
Who is the man so influential in a company intrinsic to America’s voting systems? And what are his connections?
Lord Malloch-Brown isn’t the only connection with the left. Peter Neffenger is the chairman of the Smartmatic U.S.A. board of directors—and he advises the Biden campaign.
From 1986 to 1994, Lord Malloch-Brown was the lead international partner for the public relations firm Sawyer-Miller Group. Here he helpd Cory Aquino beat Ferdinand Marcos in a key presidential race.
Describing Malloch-Brown’s contribution to the race, the Philippine Daily Inquirer wrote: “He said his final outstanding accomplishment during the Cory campaign was to produce an exit poll that indicated that she had won. It landed on the front page of the Inquirer and had a profound impact as it planted the idea that Aquino had won over Marcos, 55 percent to 45 percent” (June 29, 2015).

00:30 Georgia (30 minutes)
Georgia’s new Dominion Voting System was an absolute disaster during the June 9 primary. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that “human error, equipment failure and a complicated, multicomputer voting system combined to create chaos that left some voters waiting as long as eight hours to cast ballots.” Then on October 23, the same newspaper warned that the new electronic voting system was “vulnerable to cyberattacks.” The newspaper then exposed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s inexplicable decision to weaken the system’s security measures. The many problems with the U.S. election in Georgia on November are now being exposed.

00:30 The Transition Begins? (20 minutes)
The director of the General Services Administration began the process of transitioning the Biden team into the White House yesterday. Director Emily Murphy explained in a letter to Biden’s campaign that she doesn’t decide who the president is and is simply following procedure. Murphy also told them that she faced threats to her safety because she did not begin the transition earlier. This is all part of the battle plan for the radical left: intimidation, bullying and death threats. According to the media, the election is now over. Will the president fight on?
21:00 New York Times’ Conspiracy Theories (18 minutes)
Commentators have ridiculed and mocked Sidney Powell for raising the issue of foreign involvement in the U.S. voting systems. Powell has drawn attention to connections between U.S. voting companies and socialist countries. A host on Fox Business said this week that Powell was collecting every right-wing conspiracy she could find on the Internet. Where was the mockery when the New York Times ran this headline in 2006: “U.S. Investigates Voting Machines’ Venezuela Ties”?
39:30 A Better-Than-Normal Thanksgiving! (15 minutes)
Democrat leaders are preparing Americans for a better-than-normal Thanksgiving this year, including: eating dinner alone, video calling family members, speaking softly and wearing face masks! One commentator warned that if these rules aren’t followed, the next family gathering will likely be a funeral.
People in East Germany view a dictatorship favorably, according to a study published by the University of Leipzig on November 18. The proportion of people with a clearly established right-wing extremist worldview in East Germany has increased from 8.5 percent in 2018 to 9.5 percent.
Prof. Oliver Decker said: “[A]uthoritarian and anti-democratic attitudes pose a constant threat to our open, liberal society. In addition, certain ideologies are solidifying.”
Although traditional anti-Semitism and the devaluation of Muslims have decreased slightly, “we mustn’t fool ourselves,” reported Elmar Brähler. “We continue to register an alarmingly high level of approval for some issues.” For example, more than a quarter of Germans agreed that “Muslims should be prohibited from immigrating to Germany.” Almost half feel “like a stranger in their own country because of the many Muslims.”
According to the study, 43.9 percent of those in East Germany agree that “foreigners only come here to take advantage of our welfare state.”
In the east, general satisfaction with democracy fell from 95.2 percent to 92.5 percent within two years.
BY MIHAILO S. ZEKIC • NOVEMBER 23
Hungary and Poland vetoed a European Union-wide $887 billion covid-19 relief stimulus on November 16. They objected to a clause demanding that recipients of the stimulus adhere to the “rule of law.” Both countries originally agreed to the provisions of the stimulus in July, including the “rule of law” clause. However, Hungary and Poland claim that it is the EU that isn’t upholding its end of the bargain.
The prime minister of Slovenia, while not vetoing the stimulus, vocally supported Hungary’s and Poland’s stance.
Article 23 puts in place a way to discipline EU states found in violation of “the rule of law.” The problem is that Article 23 is vague; the European Council can deem just about anything it wants to be a violation of the rule of law. It gives a lot of power to the Council of EU leaders.
It could give the Council precedent to operate based on majority rulings. Currently, any decision the Council makes has to be unanimous.
This is making many East European leaders nervous. Many of them sponsor policies criticized by Brussels as being contrary to “European values.” They see this “rule of law” clause as a way for Brussels “eurocrats” to force their will on member states.
Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said, “The question is whether Poland … will be subject to political and institutionalized enslavement.” He called the clause “a pretext, but it is really an institutional, political enslavement, a radical limitation of sovereignty.”
“Some political groups … are openly threatening to use the instrument wrongly called ‘rule of law’ in order to discipline individual EU member states through a majority vote,” said Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa. Jansa is considered a strong ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
00:30 Evidence (14 minutes)
Democrats, Republicans and virtually every media outlet are appalled that President Donald Trump’s legal team would make accusations against companies and public officials without first presenting their evidence to the public. Republican Chris Christie said over the weekend that Trump’s lawyers are a “national embarrassment.” The criticisms are laughable when you consider what has been the Democrat media standard over the past four years. Congressman Adam Schiff, remember, said he saw evidence with his own eyes that proved President Trump was a Russian asset.
14:00 Sidney Powell (25 minutes)
According to media reports, the Trump campaign is distancing itself from attorney Sidney Powell. Apparently, Powell’s allegations of widespread voter fraud are even too crazy for Mr. Trump! In this segment, I talk about the case Powell is bringing to the public and why it has Democrats and Republicans worried. I also provide an update on the Trump campaign’s lawsuit in Pennsylvania.
39:00 Dominion Domination (15 minutes)
Over the past two decades, the largest voting companies in America have been involved in shadowy business dealings—many of which were not disclosed to the public. Official statements made by Dominion Voting Systems today are contradicted by statements it made just a few years ago.

The rule of law is under attack in America. Evidence shows politicians are trying to transform the nation by emphasizing ends over means. Former United States federal prosecutor Sidney Powell claims to have evidence exposing large-scale voter fraud. During an interview with Fox Business, Powell said she had “staggering statistical evidence” that a leading voting machine firm, Dominion Voter Systems, stole votes from U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Well, I can hardly wait to put forth all the evidence we have collected on Dominion, starting with the fact it was created to produce altered voting results in Venezuela for Hugo Chávez and then shipped internationally to manipulate votes for purchase in other countries, including this one,” she told Lou Dobbs on November 13. “It was funded by money from Venezuela and Cuba, and China has a role in it also. So, if you want to talk about foreign election interference, we certainly have it now. We have staggering statistical evidence.”

Fifteen Asian countries joined the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (rcep) on November 15. China began forging the pact with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (asean) in 2012. Now, it emerges as the world’s biggest free-trade bloc.
The deal is an indicator of China’s growing influence in the region.
“Under the current global circumstances, the fact the rcep has been signed after eight years of negotiations brings a ray of light and hope amid the clouds,” said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
Members of the pact include the 10 asean members—Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos—other Asia-Pacific countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. The rcep will thus account for 29 percent of the world’s gross domestic product, while also making up nearly a third of the world’s population.
This also means that this new trade bloc is bigger than the nafta trade deal between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, and bigger than the European Union.
Greece has twice sent official requests to Germany, asking that it stop selling arms to Turkey. Thus far, it has received no response.
A classified document revealed in June by the German Press Agency (dpa) said that Turkey has been the number one recipient of German arms exports for the second year in a row.
In October 2019, Turkey invaded Syria with a force that used German-built tanks. In the aftermath, Germany was pressured into denying Turkey weapons of war that could be used in the crisis. But maritime goods are largely exempt from the ban.
These Turkey-bound German arms exports are highly controversial in light of the conflict between Greece and Turkey. “The main focus of the recent criticism is the construction of six Class-214 submarines, which will be assembled in Turkey with the major participation of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems,” Germany’s Handelsblatt noted. “The federal government had already approved the delivery of components in 2009 and secured the export with a so-called Hermes guarantee of $2.9 billion. Back then, relations between the two countries were much more relaxed” (Trumpet translation throughout).
Why is Germany supporting a power that is destabilizing much of the Middle East?

Germany will deploy Navy officers with the Australian Navy and will send a frigate to patrol the Indo-Pacific region, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced on November 5. Germany is becoming more involved in the Indo-Pacific to manage China’s influence in the region.
But should Australia trust Germany for its protection?
“We believe that Germany needs to mark its position in the region,” Kramp-Karrenbauer stated. “China is an important trading partner for Germany and we have strong economic ties which are in the interest of both sides. At the same time, we do not turn a blind eye on unequal investment conditions, aggressive appropriation of intellectual property, state-subsidized distortion of competition, or attempts to exert influence by means of loans and investments.”
The German Navy wants to use its planned collaboration with the Australian Navy to further test the German Navy’s capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as increase its influence in the region. Defence Connect wrote:
The planned Hamburg deployment [of a German frigate] comes as Germany’s defense leaders test the waters for new engagements far from home. The sea service especially is seen by some as a potential harbinger for the type of out-of-area missions that the homeland defence-focused German military wants to expand to underwrite its geopolitical ambitions.
In trusting Germany for protection, Australia would do well to seriously consider the nation’s track record when it comes to “geopolitical ambitions”—after all, it started World Wars i and ii.
BY DANIEL DI SANTO • NOVEMBER 11
The European Union—especially Germany—is joining forces with Russia and China to break the dollar. Russia and China’s search for more independence from the dollar is nothing new. However, the trend continues to experience historic milestones.
The dollar’s share of Russia-China trade fell below 50 percent for the first time ever this year, reaching 46 percent. Just 50 years ago, that figure was 90 percent. Replacing it were the euro, at 30 percent, and the Russian ruble and Chinese yuan, accounting for another 24 percent together. These are new records for all three currencies.
Also, the share of euros in Russian exports to the EU increased from 38 percent at the end of 2019 to 43 percent in the first quarter of 2020.
A longer view shows the same trend. Since the euro was created, the share of dollars held in reserve by central banks around the world has decreased from 70 percent to 60 percent. The euro now accounts for 20 percent of foreign reserves held globally. The yuan comprises a further 5 percent, as does the Japanese yen.
All of this is leading to a “breakthrough moment” for Russia and China on the path toward dedollarization, said Alexey Maslov, director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, speaking to Nikkei Asian Review. “The collaboration between Russia and China in the financial sphere tells us that they are finally finding the parameters for a new alliance with each other,” he stated. “Many expected that this would be a military alliance or a trading alliance, but now the alliance is moving more in the banking and financial direction ….”
All this may be a small start, but it’s clear China wants to move the foundations of the economic world. What can it gain from such a shift?
“If China can win Germany, it can win Europe. It can win the world,” stated an October 14 analysis published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
05:00 Bill Barr Breaks His Silence (12 minutes)
U.S. Attorney General William Barr published a letter to U.S. prosecutors yesterday authorizing them to “pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases, as I have already done in specific instances.” The move is important because prosecutors normally don’t investigate fraud until after an election has been certified. Does Bill Barr know more than he’s letting on?
17:00 Media Censorship the New Normal (27 minutes)
Major media networks continue to silence officials of the Trump administration and deny evidence of wrongdoing in last week’s presidential election. Yesterday, Fox News demonstrated that it now supports the media blackout when host Neil Cavuto abruptly cut off a broadcast of White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany, saying, “Unless she has more details to back this up, I can’t in good countenance continue showing you this.” Why are the media so afraid to examine evidence of voter fraud?
45:30 Listener Feedback (7 minutes)
BY GERALD FLURRY • NOVEMBER 9
This past Friday night, Joe Biden held a big parade and made a victory speech. Saturday, the American news media decided to declare him the winner of the election and the president-elect of the United States.
It does appear strongly that this man will be America’s next president. But I absolutely do not believe that at all. Regardless of how things look right now, I am confident that Donald Trump will remain president.
The radical left in America have done everything in their power for the last four years to discredit and destroy Donald Trump. They have spied. They have lied. They have cheated. They have broken laws too numerous to count. They have committed treason, trying to depose the duly elected government! And somehow, President Trump has weathered all those storms.
What the left is doing now—all this theater aimed at bullying people into accepting Joe Biden as president—is more of the same. It should come as no surprise.
But the election has not been decided. And I am certain you are about to see some of the biggest frauds exposed perhaps ever!
Why? Because a Biden presidency is contrary to.... click image to read more

South Korea’s military alliance with the United States is coming under increasing pressure in a trend that could culminate in a colossal loss of America’s power in East Asia and a massive victory for China.
It came to light on October 27 that the phrase “keeping the current level of U.S. military personnel in Korea” had been omitted from the communiqué published after the latest Security Consultative Meeting between South Korean and American officials. South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook suggested during a parliamentary inspection that the omitted phrase means the 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed in the country may soon be reduced to a smaller number.
“This is the first time,” South Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo wrote, “that the South Korean military authorities have issued a statement indicative of a potential reduction of U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula.”
The news came just two weeks after South Korea’s ambassador to the U.S., Lee Soo-hyuck, addressed the South Korea National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, saying: “Just because Korea chose the U.S. 70 years ago does not mean it has to choose the U.S. for the next 70 years, too.”
00:30 The Coup (25 minutes)
After years of denying of the results of the 2016 presidential election, Democrats are now accusing President Donald Trump of demolishing democracy for questioning the abhorrent and illegal vote counting procedures in Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Atlanta as well as other Democrat-run cities notorious for election fraud. During President Trump’s speech last night, every major network interrupted the president in order to perform live “fact checks.” On Twitter, posts of possible corruption at counting stations have been pulled down for “violating” Twitter’s rules.
America is currently in the midst of a blatant coup attempt. America’s president is being silenced. Tech companies are censoring and removing evidence of corruption. City officials are shielding the post-election voting process after freezing the count on election night.

NOVEMBER 3
Satellite images from Planet Labs Inc. and inspectors from the United Nations’ atomic watchdog confirmed last week that Iran has started building an underground advanced centrifuge assembly facility. This facility in the mountains around Natanz is replacing the one that exploded this summer in what Tehran called a sabotage attack.
Iran announced it would rebuild the destroyed Natanz facility; those plans are now moving forward.
This is the start of a new and dangerous chapter in the nuclear standoff.
Following a June attack that destroyed a facility linked to the production of solid-propellant rockets, a July 2 explosion destroyed the Natanz nuclear complex. This crucial facility in Iran’s nuclear program was constructed in 2012 to develop advanced centrifuges used to produce weapons-grade uranium for use in nuclear warheads. Only recently has Iran mastered the more advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges. These advanced centrifuges enable it to enrich uranium at a much higher rate than the IR-1 and IR-2Ms, which made up nearly all of its approximately 20,000 centrifuges over the past decade. Until the July 2 attack, there was concern that Iran could use these advanced centrifuges to weaponize uranium quickly enough that the United States, Israel and others would not be able to prevent it.
When these centrifuges became operable, they would have been moved deep underground, protected by layers of concrete and steel to make it impossible for Israel (or anyone else) to destroy them by military strike. The centrifuges were vulnerable only while they remained aboveground.
After the July 2 attack, Iran is going underground in Natanz.

As the United States prepares for elections, many Americans are fearful—not just that their candidate may not win, but that their country may not survive the vote.
Fortitude Ranch, a chain of survivalist camps, has opened its premises in case of a “collapse disaster.”
“We consider the risk of violence that could escalate in irrational, unpredictable ways into widespread loss of law and order is real,” said ceo Drew Miller.
A YouGov poll found 52 percent of voters said they believe violence would increase after the election. The New York Post wrote about city residents preparing to move to the country to ensure they’re out of town for the vote and the potentially violent aftermath.
The threat of civil unrest and violence in America is rising; it’s no surprise people are taking precautions.
Other countries are getting ready too. But they’re not preparing for the worst. They see American unrest as an opportunity—and they want to make the most of it.
Extreme members of the radical left are openly planning violence if they don’t get their way in the election. Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Democrats should not concede the election under any circumstances. A massive increase in postal voting has opened the door to a flood of court cases revolving around exactly which votes will be counted.
After nearly two decades of fighting in Iraq, the United States issued an ultimatum to the Iraqi government late last month: Prevent the frequent attacks on our soldiers, bases and convoys, or we will shut down and withdraw from our embassy in Iraq.
But dismantling the militias is proving to be an impossible task for the Baghdad government.
In an October 2 statement, former Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that Baghdad’s Green Zone, where most governmental buildings and foreign ministries are located, “should be cleansed from the militias and the pmu [Popular Mobilization Units] presence.”
On Saturday, October 17, pmu loyalists attacked the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (kdp), burning the building and raising the pmu flag. On the same day, another pro-Iran militia kidnapped 12 and executed at least eight citizens of the Salahuddin province.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 22 that it is possible Russia and China will forge an official military alliance.
During a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, a Russian international affairs organization, Putin was asked whether he and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping might elevate the relationship between their two countries to an official military union. He answered:
It is possible to imagine anything. We have always believed that our relations have reached such a level of cooperation and trust that it is not necessary, but it is certainly imaginable, in theory. …
Undoubtedly, cooperation between Russia and China is boosting the defense potential of the Chinese People’s Army, which is in the interests of Russia as well as China. Time will tell how it will progress from here. So far, we have not set that goal for ourselves. But, in principle, we are not going to rule it out, either. So, we will see.
The next day in China, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian spoke about the Russia-China relationship and welcomed Putin’s remarks: “Under the strategic guidance of President Xi and President Putin, mutual political trust and strategic coordination between the two countries has been enhanced.” ..... Read more, click image
How corrupt was the Obama-Biden administration? How corrupt will a Biden-Harris administration be? Last week, the New York Post published a bombshell revelation that answers both of these burning questions. It has to do with the Biden vice presidency, piles of cash, and a laptop computer in a Delaware repair shop. And, especially if radical leftists seize power, it has to do with you.
The New York Post revelation about a massive pay-for-play scandal during the Obama years continues to make (some) headlines. It involves Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and what he did while his father was in power. More importantly, it involves what Joe Biden himself did while he was in power.
The story starts during the administration of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. And it revolves around, of all places, Ukraine. Yes, the same Ukraine that became a household word a few months ago. The same place that news companies plastered all over their headlines, nonstop. The same place that big technology executives allowed users to spread what was originally classified information (a presidential phone call) about. The same place—and the same issue of corruption—that Democrats were so concerned over that they solemnly impeached President Donald Trump. It even gets back to the same individuals: alleged corruption of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.... Read More, Click Image
After targeting Australian barley, beef, wine and coal in recent weeks, China is now also “discouraging” Chinese companies from buying Australian cotton the South China Morning Post reported on October 16. This wave of tariffs and embargoes might seem sudden, but developments over the last nine months, and indeed years, provide some insight on China’s ire.
China has steadily increased investment and trade with Australia over the last few years. Sixty percent of Australia’s trade worldwide is with Asia. As of 2019, China accounted for 40 percent of that total, and at $165 billion, China is Australia’s most important trade partner. China accounts for about a third of Australia’s export earnings; it has invested almost $50 billion in Australia over the last six years, funding over a dozen Australian universities and think tanks; and over 10 percent of all Australian university places are held by Chinese international students. Australia’s future looked inseparable from China. Then covid-19 happened. Australian Foreign Secretary Marise Payne called for an independent inquiry into the pandemic’s outbreak. Prime Minister Scott Morrison went a step further, suggesting that the China-controlled World Health Organization needed... read more, click image
Areport released by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy (fdd) on October 14 analyzes Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” (mic2025) plan first announced in 2015. The report sheds light on the details of China’s strategy to economically take over Europe. And the linchpin of China’s plan for a European economic empire is Germany.
Emily de la Bruyere, the report’s author, said that China sees Europe as the “battlefield for what they diagnose to be a third world war.”
“China sees Germany as the linchpin in that battle,” she said. “If China can win Germany, it can win Europe. It can win the world.” mic2025 is the first stage in a three-part economic project intended to turn China into a “manufacturing great power.” As the second-largest economy in the world, China already is a leader in global manufacturing. But for the Chinese government, like the athletes going to Beijing’s Winter Olympics in a couple of years, second place isn’t good enough. The Chinese intend on gaining an advantage not necessarily through direct competition with other countries but rather through cooperation. This involves undertaking joint ventures with foreign corporations in order to increase foreign nations’ dependencies on the Chinese economy, coerce the international community to adopt Chinese standards in trade and technology, and catch up technologically with other countries both through forcing them to give up their trade secrets and through intellectual property theft.... Read more, click image
Europe is marching toward its goal of creating a digital currency. The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ecb) established a High-Level Task Force in January to advance work on central bank digital currencies (cbdc) in the euro area. This month, the ecb published a 55-page report about the planned introduction of a digital euro.
In today’s digital age, innovation has touched almost every aspect of our lives. Yet many people continue to use cash as their predominant form of payment.
For many in Europe, paying with cash is simply a habit. Others see it as a way to keep their transactions anonymous, as opposed to using online payments, checks, credit and debit card payments. Also, some simply don’t trust the banking system and choose to store their cash at home.
But the way billions of people handle their financial activities may soon change. The European Union is working to create a digital currency. While Europe is not necessarily leading the innovation, it seeks to lead the regulations..... Read more, click image
00:30 Appalling Deceit About Coronavirus (2 minutes)
Governments say their hospital beds are full, but that does not mean they are full of coronavirus cases. During the winter months, with free health care, more people will fill up the hospitals.
03:00 Threats of Post-Election Violence in the U.S. (6 minutes)
For the first time, one chain of survival camps will open—in case the nation collapses after the election. A widespread loss of law and order is real. Americans are stockpiling and preparing for the consequences of the election.
9:30 Pennsylvania Ballot Ruling (6 minutes)
The Supreme Court allowed Pennsylvania to count ballots that arrive after the election. Will other states do the same? There is a real prospect of a dragged-out election. How will other countries respond to this situation?
Every October, Germany, along with other European countries, practices for the eventuality of a nuclear war. This year’s exercises began the first week of October. Germany’s t-online.de noted on October 13: “The secret alliance exercise ‘Steadfast Noon’ is said to have started last week. According to military experts, the Air Force practices, among other things, the safe transport of nuclear weapons” (Trumpet translation throughout).
According to the German Press Agency (dpa), “Steadfast Noon” prepares fighter bombers to use tactical nuclear B61 bombs in the event of war. Within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey have access to nuclear bombs. They are part of nato’s nuclear-sharing agreement that allows them to use nuclear bombs to strike opposing forces. Ten years ago, the Bundestag called for the removal of nuclear bombs from German soil. Instead of removing them, however, the United States began modernizing the bombs. According to a report from Deutsche Welle, published on March 26, the B61-3 and B61-4 types will be replaced by the brand new B61-12. According to nuclear weapons expert Hans M. Kristensen, the new bombs provide “a significant military advantage.” Guardian Unlimited noted in 2015:
Are America’s elections free and fair? I am writing this about two months before the United States holds its 2020 presidential election, and a lot of evidence is exposing efforts to rig the election. This is a serious crime that undermines our constitutional republic!
Many politicians, press and media personalities dismiss accusations that the Democrats are trying to steal the election. But more and more evidence proves that they tried to steal the election in 2016. To believe they wouldn’t do so again is folly.
A lot of truth is also coming out showing how Britain was involved in this effort.
You have heard of the “Steele dossier”—a series of memos that falsely accused Donald Trump of escapades with Russian prostitutes and criminal links to the Russian government. It was authored by former British MI6 intelligence agent Christopher Steele. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign paid him $168,000 to produce it.
Not one bit of that dossier was verified. It is filled with lies! Yet Steele shared his dossier with former MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove, who allegedly advised him to contact the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation about it.
The Steele dossier set off the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia, which started a 22-month Special Counsel investigation led by former fbi Director Robert Mueller. Yet investigators couldn’t find any evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Trump and his campaign. That is because Steele never had any such evidence. He did not collect any factual information—only rumors from Ukrainian attorney Igor Danchenko, who had relied on hearsay from drinking buddies in Russia. Steele presented these rumors from Danchenko’s anonymous sources as if they came from high-level Kremlin insiders.
In fact, the only high-level foreign spies working to disrupt America’s 2016 presidential election that we know of were British.
In his book Ball of Collusion, investigative journalist Andrew McCarthy explains that London was actually “the nerve center of Russia-gate.” Aside from Danchenko’s Russian drinking buddies, almost all the key players in the effort to convince the public that Donald Trump colluded with Russia were American and British government officials who desperately wanted Hillary Clinton to win the election.
Britain’s intelligence-gathering services, MI6 and the Government Communications Headquarters (gchq), were working together with President Obama’s Central Intelligence Agency, fbi and National Security Agency to spy on American citizens and frame Donald Trump for a crime he did not commit. Why would these intelligence officials do such a diabolical thing? ...... click image to read
Rumors of a potential sale of the United States’ premier fighter jet to the United Arab Emirates have circulated since the August 13 announcement of the U.S.-brokered peace deal between Israel and the Gulf state. The F-35 Lockheed-Martin-made fighter jet has the highly valued ability to slip through enemy radar screens undetected. Until now, Israel is the only Middle East nation to have the jet—a status quo Israel lobbied hard for U.S. President Donald Trump to maintain. But unsuccessfully. This week, rumors of the F-35 side deal with the U.A.E. were confirmed when Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited Washington and met with U.S. counterpart Mark Esper. Discussions between the men centered not on whether the U.A.E. would get the jets, but how Israel’s qualitative military edge would be maintained. Based on a 2008 U.S. law and decades of precedent, the U.S. is committed to making sure Israel has better defenses than other Middle East militaries. “A cornerstone of our defense relationship is preserving Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region,” Esper told Gantz, according to the Pentagon. Exactly how that will be accomplished is unclear. Instead of peace for peace, as the deal was touted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it is peace for the F-35. The quid pro quo is clear to the U.A.E., which is working with the U.S. government to ink the deal by December 2—the national day of celebration for the United Arab Emirates. Understandably, Israelis are now more tempered in their jubilation over the peace accord.
The German and United States armies will cooperate more closely in cyberwarfare, according to an August 4 report. “At the end of 2019, Germany and the U.S.A. agreed to intensify their cooperation in the areas of cyber and [information technology],” wrote the Bundeswehr’s Newsletter Verteidigung. “In the first half of 2020, a bilateral agreement, Cyber-IT Engagement Framework (citef), was signed between the two states at ministerial level ….”
“Both Germany and the United States of America have faced a more diverse and complex security environment since the end of the Cold War,” the Bundeswehr noted. “Information technology and the use of cyberspace offer nations unprecedented opportunities, but they also harbor risks. The resulting challenges to security and stability can be just as damaging to our societies, economies and institutions as conventional attacks.”
Cyberspace is unlike any other field of conventional warfare. At relatively low costs, players can gain access to resources and disrupt activities. Coupled with traditional military measures, cyberwarfare has made the world far more dangerous. Furthermore, attacked nations may easily detect a cyberattack but rarely are they able to quickly trace the origin.
The potential of cyberwar followed by nuclear war is frightening. For this and other reasons, Germany and America are increasing their cooperation.
Evidently, Germany pushed for the intensified cooperation. The citef is considered the first step toward this. The program furthers the dialogue at the top management level to deepen cooperation at an operational and tactical level on a sustainable basis. The newsletter continued:...... click image to read more
The United States Department of Justice has labeled New York City, Portland and Seattle as “anarchist jurisdictions” that have failed to control violent riots while defunding local police departments. Attorney General William Barr released a statement on September 21 condemning these cities and threatening to cut off their federal funding if they did not take steps toward performing the basic function of government.
“When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest,” stated Barr. “We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.” New York City slashed $1 billion from the New York Police Department’s budget even as its July shooting rate increased 177 percent. Federal officials also noted that some New York City district attorneys have refused to prosecute people arrested for disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly during George Floyd protests.
Eighteen Chinese aircraft, including bombers and fighter jets, were deployed dangerously close to the sensitive midline of the Taiwan Strait on September 18, in response to the United States Undersecretary of State Keith Krach’s visit to Taiwan. Two bombers from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force escorted 16 fighter jets to hold combat exercises in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. “Those who play with fire are bound to get burned,” said Col. Ren Guoqiang of China’s Defense Ministry.
China is forcefully opposed to the diplomatic meetings held between the U.S. and Taiwan. The Global Times, a Chinese paper controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, wrote that the “collusion” between the two nations could lead to “uncertainties in the entire region.”
Taiwan has been doing its best to bolster its defensive capabilities. President Tsai Ing-wen wants to increase the defense budget by 10 percent. Days before the diplomatic visit, White House officials announced that the U.S. and Taiwan would soon agree to a $7 billion arms deal, which would see the U.S. supply Taiwan with drones, fighter jets, cruise missiles and ground control stations. This deal likely rankled Beijing, as China has often reiterated its desire to reclaim the “renegade province” of Taiwan.
Germany’s K130 corvettes are due to be repaired and modernized in 2025, but a cost-benefit analysis concluded that it would be cheaper to build new warships. Germany also intends to update its warships with additional rbs15 Mk3 anti-ship missiles and the installation of laser cannons. The Bundeswehr’s five K130 corvettes that were delivered to the Navy in 2008 are currently involved in the United Nations mission to secure peace between Lebanon and Israel and to prevent arms smuggling. In 2017, the Bundestag decided that the Bundeswehr should have 10 operational corvettes available, so the construction of five more K130s was commissioned in a consortium of North German shipyards. Now, the order of a third batch is being discussed.
“[T]he old corvettes suffer from ‘obsolescence’; in other words: Their technology is out of date. From 2025, they would have to be overhauled anyway,” Handelsblatt noted on August 31. “New construction instead of permanent repairs: The Navy would like to order five more new warships instead of having the existing corvettes K130 extensively repaired and modernized in 2025. The Navy has a good chance that the Bundestag will fulfill this wish, which is expected to cost [$3.3 billion].”...... click image to read more