“Papers please.” These are perhaps the most un-American and un-British words in the English language. The Western world has established and prided itself on love of individual freedom and limited governmental control.

That time could be ending. In America and Britain, and around the world, governments are planning an unprecedented level of surveillance and control, on the pretext of combating covid-19.

This new surveillance society will require no rustling of papers. Governments are working on the most convenient system of ID and surveillance ever using smartphones and online tools. But the result is the same. New vaccine passports could soon mean that the government can track your every move.

Here is what the daily routine of a vaccinated citizen might look like.

In the morning, you leave for work. You buy a train ticket on your smartphone in order to commute. The ticketing app checks your vaccine status. It verifies when and where you were vaccinated and allows you to buy a ticket. You are allowed onto one of the more convenient carriages. Those who aren’t verified as vaccinated must wait in a long queue to use the socially distant carriages, if they are allowed on the train at all.

Once you get to work, you scan your security pass to get into the building. Then you scan your covid vaccine app. Your employer only allows vaccinated staff in the office. No jab, no job.

At lunchtime, you leave the office to buy a sandwich. There’s a good coffee shop down the road. Scan the vaccine app, and you’re in. Scan the app again to get back to the office, and you are back at the desk.

After work, you stop by the gym. They checked you vaccine status when you re-enrolled after lockdown. No vaccine, no membership. After heading home to change, you stop by a friend’s house party. But government rules prohibit group gatherings unless everyone is vaccinated. By law, your friend has to scan all your smartphone vaccine passes with his smartphone. It used to be awkward, but now everyone is getting used to it.

The result is the government knows where you are at every point of the day. It has a level of surveillance, and therefore control, that, until recently, the Chinese Communist regime could only dream of. A government record determines if you can work, travel, access entertainment or gather with friends.

Does this seem far-fetched? It is actually a reasonable picture based on plans already being drawn up by governments around the world.

Real Plans..... READ MORE, click the above link

The Chinese and Iranian governments agreed on a monumental trade deal on March 27. The deal, organized by the Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers in Tehran, involves China investing $400 billion in Iran over 25 years. China would invest the money in everything from infrastructure to health care to banking. Iran’s end of the bargain is that they would export oil to China at a significant discount. The deal was first announced in 2016 with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Iran.

According to the Wall Street Journal, China would also invest in Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Another component of the deal includes “transfer of military technology.”

China is the world’s second-largest economy and has been trying to expand its influence through investing heavily in Third World countries. China also faces sanctions due to its genocide against the Uyghurs, its encroachment of Hong Kong autonomy, and its sponsorship of nuclear North Korea. Meanwhile, the United States has been trying to economically isolate Iran in order to snuff out Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.

So, the motives for Iran and China to trade with each other are clear. The enemy of their enemy is their friend.

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Last week, Joe Biden slipped three times and fell while walking up the stairs to Air Force One. Photos and videos of the fall are all over the Internet. The White House blamed the wind, but leaders and everyday people around the world are noticing Biden’s declining mental and physical health.

“It’s a national security crisis, because our adversaries around the world—Iran, Russia, Venezuela, China—are watching this,” former Trump adviser Stephen Miller told Fox News. “They are looking at the United States, and its chief representative cannot even get through a simple interview without a cheat sheet and falls down, not once, not twice, but three times going up a flight of stairs. That is sad to watch. … It is extremely serious.”

It’s not just former Trump administration officials like Miller making these claims. Liberal feminist author Naomi Wolf has also expressed alarm at Biden’s current state of health. “As Americans, we would be remiss not to notice that this is a man who is struggling physically, and our national security kind of depends on our being grown-ups,” she said in an interview with Steve Malzberg. “When a very elderly president is struggling physically, it’s an important national security concern ….”

On the presidential campaign trail, Biden mocked President Donald Trump for slowly walking up and down ramps on some occasions, saying, “Look at how he steps, and look how I step. Watch how I run up ramps, and he stumbles down ramps.” Yet now Biden’s Air Force One fall is drawing the world’s attention to his physical gaffes—but they are nothing compared to his mental gaffes.

A United States president is breaking down before our eyes!

In October, he accidentally said, “We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.” On November 3, Biden introduced a crowd to his granddaughter, but referred to her as his son. On March 8, he forgot the name of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, calling him “the guy who runs that outfit,” a reference to the entire United States military. On March 18, he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “President Harris.”

Anyone who speaks often publicly makes mistakes, but Biden’s extensive history of misquoted statistics, offensive comments, misstatements and telltale bewilderment is ongoing. Despite the fact that he was aggressively shielded from the public and especially from challenging questions while campaigning to become president of the United States—and now that he has been sworn in as president of the United States—he has still made blatant, public mistakes that are causing people to question not only whether he has the mental capability to lead the free world or the United States, but whether he has the mental capacity to lead his party or even his administration.

People are wondering who is really in charge.

Some of his statements might give us a clue. In October, he referred to himself as Kamala Harris’s running mate. In December, he referred to her as “president-elect.” Last week he referred to her as “President Harris.” Statements like these.... 

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France conducted its first-ever military space exercise from March 8 to 11. The space force was tasked with protecting French satellites against threats from foreign powers. French leaders see their space force as a defense against Russian and Chinese militarization of space, but offensive space weaponry is also being developed.

The exercise was held in cooperation with Germany and the United States, both of which have a military space command. It presented a crisis with “another foreign power possessing a considerable space force,” according to Deutsche Welle. Eighteen different threat situations were tested, from missile and jamming attacks on French satellites to weathering solar radiation storms and predicting the path of debris falling to Earth.

Only the U.S., Russia, China, France and Germany have military space programs. This leaves Russia or China as the aggressive “foreign power.”

After France launched its space force in 2019, French Defense Minister Florence Parly cited Russian militarization of space as a reason for its creation, referring to a 2017 incident in which a Russian satellite spied on messages from a Franco-Italian army communication satellite. Parly also expressed a policy of independence from the U.S., saying in July 2019, “If we want to be able to carry out real military operations in space, then we need to develop the ability to act alone.”

Aware that events in space could determine the outcome of future wars, France is developing its technology accordingly. It aims to become the world’s third-largest space power. Parly said in September 2019 that French satellites would be protected “in an active manner.”

“If our satellites are threatened,” he said, “we will consider dazzling those of our adversaries. We will reserve for ourselves the time and means of the response: It may involve the use of power lasers deployed from our satellites.”

Russian antisatellite missile programs date back to the Cold War. The country has also produced militarized satellites, which have made close approaches to European and American surveillance satellites, showing off their capability to interfere or cause damage.

China, too, has been testing antisatellite missiles since 2007. Some of these can reach 18,641 miles above Earth, where military surveillance satellites often operate. For comparison, the International Space Station flies at an average altitude of almost 250 miles.

Many advances in French space technology have been a direct result of Russian provocations. This is true of Europe’s military development in general. Every time Russia’s government becomes more centralized and powerful—every time Russia’s armed forces show off new capabilities—every time Russia annexes more territory, Europe strengthens itself..... Read More, Click above Link

Joe Biden has given his first speech since entering the White House. In it, he took credit for President Donald Trump’s coronavirus vaccination plan—while accusing President Trump of doing nothing in response to coronavirus—and said that if Americans are well behaved, he might benevolently allow them to celebrate Independence Day in small groups.

The propaganda media loved this speech!

msnbc analyst David Corn called the address “the speech that Donald Trump refused to give.” Washington Post contributor Jennifer Rubin praised it as being “a sober, sometimes poetic and hopeful speech mixed with Biden’s telltale expressions of empathy and sorrow for the losses we have suffered.”

Biden gave this speech on March 11, the one-year anniversary of governmental coronavirus lockdowns, as if to celebrate the central government’s unprecedented shutdown of America. He recounted how countless Americans lost their jobs, lost their businesses, lost their homes; how a generation of children was set back a year because of school closures; and how weddings, graduations and family reunions were canceled because of governmental lockdowns. But this was not an admission that the government is wildly exaggerating the actual danger. It was not an admission that the government is mishandling and intentionally manipulating the people for reasons that have nothing to do with a comparatively minor epidemic. This was not an admission that few to none of these lockdowns would have happened if his own political party had not aggressively pushed for them against Republican opposition.

Instead, it was praise for the lockdowns, punctuated by the sanctimonious statement that if every American obeys Dr. Anthony Fauci, masks up, gets tested and gets vaccinated, then maybe the government will let them enjoy a barbecue with their families on—ironically—Independence Day.

Liberals have been shaming Americans into wearing a mask, then two masks, standing like robots on floor markers 6 feet away from each other, staying inside their homes, giving up their businesses and incomes, and sacrificing their constitutional rights. Now they are using the same tactics to pressure you and me to get an untested, dangerous coronavirus vaccine.

“Now because of all the work we’ve done, we’ll have enough vaccine supply for all adults in America by the end of May. That’s months ahead of schedule,” Biden said. “And we’re mobilizing thousands of vaccinators to put the vaccine in one’s arm. [We are] calling on active-duty military, fema, retired doctors and nurses, administrators, and those to administer the shots. And we’ve been creating more places to get the shots. We’ve made it possible for you to get a vaccine at any one of nearly 10,000 pharmacies across the country, just like you get your flu shot.”

Four former American presidents have encouraged Americans to get injected: Barack Obama, George Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. That is every living former president, except Donald Trump. Yet neither they nor others who are pushing these injections urge caution or say much of anything regarding their effectiveness—or their dangerous side effects.

It would be illogical to think that a hurriedly developed, hurriedly approved, heavily politicized, potentially hugely profitable injection with vaguely defined contents wouldn’t be potentially dangerous. Especially if it is being distributed on....... read more, click the 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 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.

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.”

Read more, click the above link......

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

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.

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.”

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).  

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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

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.

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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.

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.

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.”

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.