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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
Donald Trump Is Going to Win This Election
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his National Security Council decided on January 28 to allow Chinese company Huawei access to “non-core” parts of its network, as it builds portions of Britain’s 5G network.
Though the council says that Huawei will not be granted access to “sensitive locations” or nuclear sites, it made the decision despite warnings from the United States that allowing the Chinese company access to its networks could jeopardize trans-Atlantic intelligence sharing.
The council decided to proceed with the deal because, despite Huawei being a “high risk vendor,” it determined that it could safely navigate the cybersecurity risks. The decision was also motivated by the belief that banning Huawei would have resulted in losses of tens of billions of pounds as well as “significant consumer delays,” according to the Telegraph.
Johnson said he would never “jeopardize” Britain’s security relationships. Digital Secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan asserted that high-risk vendors, such as Huawei, “never have been and never will be in our most sensitive networks.”
But U.S. security expert Klon Kitchen warned that Britain’s dual action of trusting Huawei and believing that it can keep Huawei out is a “terrible mistake.” He warned:
Chinese law says that all information—even your information—that transits, is stored on, or in any other way touches the networks of a Chinese company is considered “Chinese information” and, therefore, must be made available to the country’s intelligence services. Huawei’s assurances that your information is protected from these laws are not credible and the fact that these networks can be technically “secured” will do nothing to change this fact.
“We are now at the finality of a highly accomplished chancellor who led a country through many storms,” former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said about Chancellor Angela Merkel (Trumpet translation throughout). But now is the time, he said, when “the next to come must lead.” Guttenberg has a clear favorite about who this next leader should be: Merkel’s long-time rival, Friedrich Merz..... READ MORE
America’s government has been embroiled in a shameful impeachment charade for months now. The Democrats are demonstrating that there is virtually no limit to what they are willing to do to attack the president and undermine the last election—and the next one. Meanwhile, revelations continue to emerge about their abuse of the intelligence agencies to spy on Americans, even the president himself.
People need to understand what a dangerous threat this is to the very foundation of this nation!
What is happening in the Democratic Party is an extension of and intensification of a process started by the previous president.
When Barack Obama promised to “fundamentally change America” during his 2008 presidential run, few people knew what he really meant. Now that he is out of office, it is becoming clearer all the time that the change he was talking about was something far more dangerous than many people assumed.
He meant changing America from a constitutional republic. And what we are witnessing in the country today shows that, to an alarming degree, he succeeded! READ MORE
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent shock waves around the world once again. In his January 15 State of the Union address, he announced the most sweeping changes to Russia’s constitution since the document was put into force in 1993. This bombshell was immediately followed by the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the rest of the Russian cabinet, a move that will facilitate Putin’s overhaul of the Constitution.
Current News
Guttenberg and a ‘Final Wake-up Call’ for Europe
In an interview with Die-Wirtschaft.at, former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said he hopes that “developments in China and the United States” will provide Europe a “final wake-up call” to unite (Trumpet translation throughout). The Austrian publication wrote on November 27: “According to Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Europe must quickly move closer together and show strength—also militarily.”
In the interview, Guttenberg was asked how Europe can position itself to play a decisive role in the future. He answered:
First of all, I am convinced that Europe must position itself as a strong pillar and not lose sight of both directions. Whether this will work, however, depends on if, and to what extent, we can create European cohesion. First of all, one needs to see the antagonism between China and the United States, and the resulting lines of conflict, as an opportunity for Europe. If you want to capitalize on China’s drive to expand and the renationalization of the United States, Europe has to be more confident in carrying its unique economic area with over 500 million people forward.