Let's Consider A Little History Of Huntergate's Degenerate Father-Bagman Son Relationship

NYPost |  Rather than set up shop in New York City, the financial capital of the world, Rosemont Seneca leased space in Washington, DC. They occupied an all-brick building on Wisconsin Avenue, the main thoroughfare of exclusive Georgetown. Their offices would be less than a mile from John and Teresa Kerry’s 23-room Georgetown mansion, and just two miles from both Joe Biden’s office in the White House and his residence at the Naval Observatory.

Over the next seven years, as both Joe Biden and John Kerry negotiated sensitive and high-stakes deals with foreign governments, Rosemont entities secured a series of exclusive deals often with those same foreign governments.

Some of the deals they secured may remain hidden. These Rosemont entities are, after all, within a private equity firm and as such are not required to report or disclose their financial dealings publicly.

Some of their transactions are nevertheless traceable by investigating world capital markets. A troubling pattern emerges from this research, showing how profitable deals were struck with foreign governments on the heels of crucial diplomatic missions carried out by their powerful fathers. Often those foreign entities gained favorable policy actions from the United States government just as the sons were securing favorable financial deals from those same entities.

Nowhere is that more true than in their commercial dealings with Chinese government-backed enterprises.

Rosemont Seneca joined forces in doing business in China with another politically connected consultancy called the Thornton Group. The Massachusetts-based firm is headed by James Bulger, the nephew of the notorious mob hitman James “Whitey” Bulger. Whitey was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang, part of the South Boston mafia. Under indictment for 19 murders, he disappeared. He was later arrested, tried, and convicted.

James Bulger’s father, Whitey’s younger brother, Billy Bulger, serves on the board of directors of the Thornton Group. He was the longtime leader of the Massachusetts state Senate and, with their long overlap by state and by party, a political ally of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.

Less than a year after opening Rosemont Seneca’s doors, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were in China, having secured access at the highest levels. Thornton Group’s account of the meeting on their Chinese-language website was telling: Chinese executives “extended their warm welcome” to the “Thornton Group, with its US partner Rosemont Seneca chairman Hunter Biden (second son of the now Vice President Joe Biden).”

The purpose of the meetings was to “explore the possibility of commercial cooperation and opportunity.” Curiously, details about the meeting do not appear on their English-language website.

Also, according to the Thornton Group, the three Americans met with the largest and most powerful government fund leaders in China — even though Rosemont was both new and small.

The timing of this meeting was also curious. It occurred just hours before Hunter Biden’s father, the vice president, met with Chinese President Hu in Washington as part of the Nuclear Security Summit.

 

No Greater Love Than This - But Groping Joe Has Used Hunter As A Bagman....,

Slate  |  Last week, the New York Post began publishing reports on a series of photos, emails, and documents allegedly taken from a laptop hard drive that belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. As it became increasingly clear that the Post was using hacked, unverified information that may have been manipulated by a foreign entity for the purposes of influencing the upcoming presidential election, social media companies started to ban or otherwise attempt to reduce the spread of the Post’s initial story. But the tabloid continued printing information from the hard drive, a copy of which it says it received from disgraced Donald Trump associate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Given that Giuliani and Steve Bannon were the Post’s two sources of information about the hard drive, the provenance of the Rupert Murdoch­–owned paper’s information is more than a little suspect. Giuliani, for one, has said that there’s a 50-50 chance he worked with a Russian spy to dig up embarrassing material about the Biden family. And the computer repair shop owner who allegedly obtained the hard drive and turned it over to Giuliani’s lawyer doesn’t exactly seem like a trustworthy fellow either. So it is with a massive grain of salt that we consider the contents of the hard drive itself. One of the stories contains an alleged text exchange between Hunter and Joe Biden from two months before Joe announced his presidential campaign. It began with a text Joe sent around 7 a.m. to Hunter, who was residing in a rehab facility. “Good morning my beautiful son,” the text reads. “I miss you and love you. Dad.”

Whether or not the hacked material is accurate and complete, the father-son text exchange does the exact opposite of what Giuliani and Trump have been trying to do. For years, Trump and his allies have attempted to paint Hunter as the beneficiary of (Trump-style) nepotism and a shameful sleazeball who reflects poorly on his father. Yet, in the text conversation, Biden comes off as loving and concerned. Hunter certainly admits to struggling with addiction and the pressures of living under intense public scrutiny, but there is nothing politically damaging about the exchange—only a sad, humanizing portrait of a family working through a difficult time.

What Universe Do These Unfounded And Unvetted Claims Come From?!?!?!

msdnc  |  It must've seemed like a good idea at the time. Rudy Giuliani and his allies apparently thought they could package an anti-Biden smear, hand it to a media ally, and watch as the closing weeks of the 2020 presidential race focused on their "October Surprise." It'd fundamentally change the trajectory of the election and put Donald Trump in a position to hold onto power.

It's not quite working out that way.

As we've discussed, Giuliani and Steve Bannon delivered an anti-Biden smear to the New York Post, and the conservative tabloid ran its literally unbelievable story last week. The article was filled with convoluted details involving a Ukrainian gas company, Hunter Biden, his alleged laptop, some of his alleged emails, and an unnamed shop owner in Delaware. Of course, the underlying premise of the allegations was discredited quite a while ago, which is why most major news organizations had the good sense to steer clear of the Post's reporting.

As scrutiny of the scheme intensified, we learned that many inside the tabloid disagreed with the decision to publish the anti-Biden article. But more importantly, they're not the only ones with concerns.

The entire mess is now being investigated by federal authorities as potentially being part of a hostile foreign influence operation illegally targeting our election. Indeed, Politico published this report overnight:

More than 50 former senior intelligence officials have signed on to a letter outlining their belief that the recent disclosure of emails allegedly belonging to Joe Biden's son "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

These dozens of former officials added that their extensive national security experience has left them "deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case" and cited several elements of the story that suggested the Kremlin's hand at work.

Wikipedia Proclaims Huntergate Already Been Debunked Or Where The Cocaine Cigarettes At?!?!?!

wikipedia  |  Robert Hunter Biden (born February 4, 1970) is an American lawyer and investment advisor who is the second son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. He is a founding partner of Rosemont Seneca Partners, an investment and advisory firm.

Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a major Ukrainian natural gas producer, from 2014 to 2019. He and his father have been the subjects of debunked right-wing conspiracy theories pushed by Donald Trump and his allies concerning Biden business dealings and anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine.^[1]

Naval career

In May 2013, Biden's application for a position in the U.S. Navy Reserve was approved.^[73] At age 43, Biden was accepted as part of a program that allows a limited number of applicants with desirable skills to receive commissions and serve in staff positions.^[74] He received an age-related waiver and a waiver due to a past drug-related incident, and was sworn in as a direct commission officer.^[73] Joe Biden administered his commissioning oath in a White House ceremony.^[3]

The following month, Biden tested positive for cocaine during a urinalysis test and was subsequently discharged administratively.^[75][76] Biden attributed the result to smoking cigarettes he had accepted from other smokers, only later suspecting they had been laced with the drug.^[3] He chose not to appeal the matter as it was unlikely that the panel would believe his explanation given his history with drugs, and also due to the likelihood of news leaking to the press, though it was ultimately revealed to The Wall Street Journal by a Navy official who provided information to the newspaper on condition of anonymity.^[3][73]

 

.45's Gut Instinct, Dumb-Luck, And Kayfabery Is The Equivalent Of "Strong In The Force"

technologyreview |  The news: When Twitter banned, and then unbanned, links to a questionably sourced New York Post article about Joe Biden’s son Hunter, its stated intention was to prevent people from spreading harmful false material as America heads into the final stretch of the election campaign. But thanks to the cycle of misinformation—and claims from conservatives that social-media platforms are deliberately censoring their views—Twitter managed to do the opposite of what it intended. 

According to Zignal Labs, a media intelligence firm, shares of the Post article “nearly doubled” after Twitter started suppressing it. The poorly-thought-through ban triggered the so-called Streisand Effect and helped turn a sketchy article into a must-share blockbuster. And then on Friday, the Republican National Committee filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Twitter, claiming that the ban “amounts to an illegal corporate in-kind political contribution to the Biden campaign.” 

The ban: Twitter blocked shares of the story under its policy against hacked materials, in part because of the dubious sourcing by the New York Post, the company said. The article also contained screenshots of emails with the addresses unredacted. Federal investigators are now looking into whether they are tied to a foreign intelligence campaign, according to NBC News. 

But on Thursday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that blocking the URL was “wrong,” and that the company has changed its policy and enforcement procedures in response to the outrage over this decision.

Huntergate: What Comes Next?

revolver  |  What is the most incriminating thing on the hard drive? Rudy has suggested illegal things, and as Revolver reported, the FBI person tasked with the hard drive is associated with the child pornography division. Could you give more insight into how bad it is we’re talking about?

Mr. Bannon: Joe Biden is a liar, a fraud, and compromised by Chinese cash. In short, he is a national security crisis. The hard drive combines emails and text messages that show a massive involvement with companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Also, there are 25,000 images that show a drug-addled, depraved lifestyle — one that decent hardworking Americans will not want near the White House.

Revolver: The FBI has been holding onto the hard drive for almost a year? Any sense of why? Was there any indication that they were seriously interested in a criminal case, assuming that there is, in fact, illegal material on there? If not, why would the FBI simply hold onto information like that?

Mr. Bannon: The President must confront the director of the FBI on why the information housed on this hard drive was not moved on immediately. If the content of the hard drive had been released when received in November 2019, there would have been no impeachment of Trump, and Bernie Sanders would be the Democratic Party nominee. This confrontation should take place this weekend in the Oval Office. If Wray doesn’t have a bulletproof reason he should be fired in the room.

Revolver: What are your best estimates on how many foreign entities may have obtained possession of the hard drive? Chinese intel?

Mr. Bannon: It’s the actions represented on the hard drive that the American people must understand our enemies know about. The cash and equity given for access to Biden, the favors done for that cash, the drugs, the depravity. The CCP, Russian Intel, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Intel Services — they know the Bidens are for sale.

Did The FBI Conceal Huntergate In Order To Control Preznit Joe Biden?

americanthinker  |  It didn’t surprise the informed, and understandably a bit cynical, to hear that the FBI sat on Hunter Biden’s laptop instead of seeking justice. The bureau was previously involved in an illegal plot to take down Donald Trump, after all, and its Deep State elements would assuredly love to see Joe Biden succeed him in January. So why would they reveal damning information on their establishment hope? Yet suppressing Huntergate perhaps provided a secondary benefit:

The information could be used against Biden once he was in office.

This wouldn’t be anything new. It’s believed that longtime, legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover used “dirt files” on politicians for leverage; for one thing, it’s said, this enabled him to remain bureau head for as long as he wished. William Sullivan, once the number three official under Hoover, put it this way: From the moment the director got damning information on a senator, the man would be “right in his pocket.”

So not only could suppressing Huntergate get Biden in office, but then maybe it’s, “Nice presidency you’ve got there, Mr. Biden — I’d hate to see anything happen to it.”

Since the criminality in question could, apparently, put Hunter in prison along with destroying China Joe, the leverage is profound. It could not only be used to control Biden but also his wife, Jill, in the unlikely event she for a time is able to pull off an Edith Wilson (who supposedly ran the show when Woodrow Wilson became incapacitated). She wouldn’t want to see her stepson in the hoosegow and her family’s reputation ruined, after all.

DNI Ratcliffe Shut That Russian Disinformation Operation Shit DOWN This Morning....,

pic.twitter.com/YZlLZfUr01

— OBX (@OBX) October 19, 2020

caitlinjohnstone |  Fight it all you want, but there’s nothing you can do. “The emails are Russian” is going to be the official dominant narrative in mainstream political discourse, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Resistance is futile.

Like the Russian hacking narrative, the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, the Russian bounties in Afghanistan narrative, and any other evidence-free framing of events that simultaneously advances pre-planned cold war agendas, is politically convenient for the Democratic party and generates clicks and ratings, the narrative that the New York Post publication of Hunter Biden’s emails is a Russian operation is going to be hammered and hammered and hammered until it becomes the mainstream consensus. 

This will happen regardless of facts and evidence, up to and including rock solid evidence that Hunter Biden’s emails were not published as a result of a Russian operation.

This is happening. It’s following the same formula all the other fact-free Russia hysteria narratives have followed. The same media tour by pundits and political operatives saying with no evidence but very assertive voices that Russia is most certainly behind this occurrence and we should all be very upset about it.

“To me, this is just classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft at work,” Russiagate founder and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is heard assuring CNN’s audience.

“Joe Biden – and all of us – SHOULD be furious that media outlets are spreading what is very likely Russian propaganda,” begins and eight-part thread by Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who claims the emails are “Kremlin constructed anti-Biden propaganda.”

“It’s not really surprising at all, this was always the play, but still kind of head-spinning to watch all the players from 2016 run exactly the same hack-leak-smear op in 2020. Even with everyone knowing exactly what’s happening this time,” tweets MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

“How are you all circling the wagons instead of being embarrassed for peddling Russian ops 18 days before the election. It’s not enough that you all haven’t learned from your atrocious handling of 2016 — you are doubling down,” Democratic Party think tanker Neera Tanden tweeted in admonishment of journalists who dare to report on or ask questions about the emails.

 

NBC/MSDNC Amp Up Anti-Constitutional Pandemic Lockdown Lies And Disinformation

jonathanturley |  For four years, I have written about the alarming loss of neutrality and objectivity in journalism — a trend that is reflected by many polls showing that the majority of the public no longer trusts the media for fair and honest reporting. While I have regularly criticized President Donald Trump, I have also objected to unrelentingly biased reporting as well as embarrassingly soft coverage of former Vice President Joe Biden. Now, Stanford Communications Professor Emeritus Ted Glasser has publicly called for an end of objectivity in journalism as too constraining for reporters in seeking “social justice.”

In an interview with The Stanford Daily, Glasser insisted that journalism needed to “free itself from this notion of objectivity to develop a sense of social justice.” He rejected the notion that the journalism is based on objectivity and said that he views “journalists as activists because journalism at its best — and indeed history at its best — is all about morality.”  Thus, “Journalists need to be overt and candid advocates for social justice, and it’s hard to do that under the constraints of objectivity.”

Dressing up bias as “advocating social justice,” does not remove the taint of yellow journalism.  It is the same rationalization for shaping the news to fit your agenda and treating readers as subjects to be educated rather than informed.

While other professors in The Stanford Daily disagreed, Wesley Lowery, who has served as a national correspondent for the Washington Post, also rejects objectivity.  In a tweet, Lowery declared “American view-from-nowhere, “objectivity”-obsessed, both-sides journalism is a failed experiment…The old way must go. We need to rebuild our industry as one that operates from a place of moral clarity.”

These are major voices in media.  Glasser is a Stanford Department of Communication professor emeritus and served as the director for Stanford’s Graduate Program in Journalism. He is also the former president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

 

Brow Furrowed In Mock Concern - The WaPo Composes Disinformation Operation Details

WaPo  |  U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter.

The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence during a December 2019 trip to Ukraine, where he was gathering information that he thought would expose corrupt acts by former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

The intelligence raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to the president, the former officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information and conversations.

The warnings to the White House, which have not previously been reported, led national security adviser Robert O’Brien to caution Trump in a private conversation that any information Giuliani brought back from Ukraine should be considered contaminated by Russia, one of the former officials said.

The message was, “Do what you want to do, but your friend Rudy has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine,” this person said. Officials wanted “to protect the president from coming out and saying something stupid,” particularly since he was facing impeachment over his own efforts to strong-arm Ukraine’s president into investigating the Bidens.

But O’Brien emerged from the meeting uncertain whether he had gotten through to the president. Trump had “shrugged his shoulders” at O’Brien’s warning, the former official said, and dismissed concern about his lawyer’s activities by saying, “That’s Rudy.”

Officials’ warnings about Giuliani underscore the concern in the U.S. intelligence community that Russia not only is seeking to reprise the disinformation campaign it waged in 2016, but also may now be aided, unwittingly or otherwise, by individuals close to the president. Those warnings have gained fresh urgency in recent days. The information that Giuliani sought in Ukraine is similar to what is contained in emails and other correspondence published this week by the New York Post, which the paper said came from the laptop of Hunter Biden and were provided by Giuliani and Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former top political adviser at the White House.

The Washington Post was unable to verify the authenticity of the alleged communications, which concern Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China.

 

 

Can You B'Lee They Say This Isht With A Straight Face? "This Is A Russian Disinformation Operation"

usatoday |   The New York Post story's publication prompted some to draw parallels to the runup to the 2016 election, when emails from the Democratic National Committee were hacked by Russian-affiliated operatives and released by WikiLeaks.

The FBI is now examining whether Russia is tied to the information cited by the New York Post.

Some experts say the story has many hallmarks of a disinformation campaign.

"It is also an old Cold War disinformation tactic to pass information, especially but not exclusively when forged, to low-brow newspapers that have high circulation and low standards of investigation. Ideal for surfacing and amplification," Thomas Rid, a political scientist who focuses on disinformation and information warfare at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said in a tweet.

Russian operatives worked to sow partisan divisions in the U.S. and spread disinformation during the 2016 presidential election cycle, according to a 2017 report from U.S. intelligence services. That report found that Russian President Vladimir Putin "aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances," in part by discrediting his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. 

Trump's own intelligence officials have warned Moscow is interfering again in the 2020 election.

In September, the Treasury Department sanctioned Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, who met with Giuliani in December, for being an "active Russian agent for over a decade."

Bannon was indicted for fraud in August in connection to a border-wall fundraising effort that raised more than $25 million "under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction," according to prosecutors. Bannon has pleaded not guilty. 

More:How many Trump advisers have been criminally charged? Manafort, Stone and Steve Bannon makes 7

In the case of Giuliani associate Derkach, the Treasury Department's move was aimed at "exposing Russian malign influence campaigns and protecting our upcoming elections from foreign interference." It also made clear that Giuliani has engaged with Russian agents in his campaign against the Bidens.

Former Biden aides have also suggested that Russians are behind the story.

"This is a Russian disinformation operation,” Michael Carpenter, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense with a specialization in Eastern Europe who now heads the Penn Biden Center, said to POLITICO. "I’m very comfortable saying that.”

 

Like The BLM Fraud - If Biden Wins The Lockdowns End

Every public school district in America should be planning for in person school next semester. It can be done safely, *even in places with pretty high community transmission*. We now have pretty good data to show that. https://t.co/4fCs2tqVHa

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 16, 2020

economicprism |   One of the absurdities of the coronavirus era is the purported faith in science by the political class; in particular, the left.  Joe Biden, for instance, said he would shut the country down if recommended by scientists.  Nancy Pelosi, this week, with respect to coronavirus stimulus, told Wolf Blitzer, that “…the science should call the shot and when they do, we should all trust it.”

“Trust, but verify,” counseled Ronald Reagan.  No doubt, the Gipper, didn’t envision the ridiculous science behind coronavirus containment policy.

President Trump, taking the advice of Reagan, recently verified the effects of coronavirus himself.  His findings, following a three day bout with the illness, revealed the science based policies that have been applied are not to be trusted.  Trump tweeted these conclusions:

“One thing that’s for certain: Don’t let it dominate you.  Don’t be afraid of it.  You’re going to beat it.”

According to Science magazine, “[Trump’s] repeated public dismissals of scientific expertise, and his disdain for evidence have prompted many researchers to label him the most antiscience president in living memory.”

Maybe so.  But when science is being used by policy makers to do stupid and destructive things, like locking down the economy, being antiscience is the intelligent choice.  What’s more, the World Health Organization now says it’s opposed to lockdowns, and told world leaders: “stop using lockdowns as your primary control method.”

We have a hunch that the science of lockdowns has little to do with stemming the spread of coronavirus.  We’ll have more on this in a moment.  But first, we must make an important distinction.  And to do so, we must take a brief diversion…

Contrary To The Mainstream Media Narrative 93% Of Black Lives Matter Protests Have Been Peaceful

Black Lives Matter has no concrete specific policy, statutory, or legislative agenda - which is how you know it's a symbolic "stir the pot" and "get out the black vote" initiative. (as if you didn't gather as much from the fact that it's a Warren Buffett production)

The problem with this is that the MSM and social media have amplified the already popular and political cultural influence of selected "woke" sock puppets who have leveraged the disproportionate social, cultural and political capital of American negroes and applied this appropriated clout the exceedingly pedestrian objective of re-aquiring partisan control of the presidency, period. (and that control won't be used to satisfy any concrete-specific political-economic priorities or needs of Black Americans.

Once it was known that Negroes boycotted the 2016 election, the obvious marketing strategy became to create racial appeals that boosted the Democrat’s ‘brand’ and diminished their competitor’s. In fact, leading Democratic strategists who had spent storied careers crafting cynical dog whistle campaigns, began shouting racist! to shut down any challenge to their campaign.

By election eve 2016, Clinton campaign officials had decided on the ‘Russia stole the election’ storyline. Additionally, Democratic strategists were most certainly aware that blacks stayed home en masse in 2016. This made Donald Trump, with his nativist chatter and typical Republican deference to repressive authority, the perfect foil to retroactively portray the election as about race and foreign intrigue. 

When the Democratic-leaning press began (falsely) reporting on rising hate and racial backlash, and the CEOs of large banks and tech companies began stating publicly that white supremacy is the only problem in need of solving, the havoc that neoliberal policies have wrought quickly disappeared as a topic of polite conversation.

This elite pot-stirring and color-revolution antic is an exceedingly dangerous gambit. Since it wasn't done for Black people in America, but was instead something done to Black people in America - I gots to say the nayno...,

Right-wingers come from somewhere other than thin air. There’s at least a germ of truth in their beliefs. Fortunately, the rest of their beliefs are so abhorrent they’re dismissed out of hand. Nevertheless, I believe the day of another European holocaust, ethnic cleansing in the parlance of the day, has moved a step closer with this weeks display of barbarism in France. Cutting off a single French head doesn't really hold a candle to the pain and suffering and self-serving pot-stirring implemented this year in the U.S.  Does this sound familiar?

For a start, this is a murder that has nothing to do with immigration from the Maghreb, unemployment, discrimination, neo-colonialism or anything similar. The assailant was white, and came from a refugee family that had been settled in France, looked after and educated. The town where it happened, Conflans Sainte-Honorine, is a quiet, dull, middle-class community about thirty-five kilometres west of Paris at the end of the high-speed Metro. (I passed through there once: it was closed). “Nothing ever happens here” said one shocked resident this morning. The killer was not a native of the town, but travelled there to do the killing. Moreover, this is one of a series of murders since 2015 – the body count is nearly 300 – carried out for explicitly political and religious reasons by radicalised young men, who believe, as do a significant proportion of French Muslims, that the Koran takes precedence over any secular laws. Thus, laws conflicting with Islam must not be obeyed, but equally it is the responsibility of all Muslims to punish anyone who violates the injunctions of the Koran. hence the present killing. This would be problematic in any modern state, but especially so in France, with its history of bitter struggle against the Church to establish a secular republic.

The problem has been building in schools for decades now, but has been ignored by successive governments, worried about upsetting the professional anti-racist lobby. Teachers have been threatened and physically attacked for giving lessons on secularism, for teaching the theory of Evolution or discussing non-Islamic religions. Militant parents, egged-on by fundamentalist Imams mostly sent from Qatar, have pressured schools to stop serving pork, or to excuse their daughters from mixed swimming classes or class photographs where non-muslim pupils are not veiled. Little by little, such tactics have undermined the educational system, as local mayors, always in search of votes, have made accommodations with local religious leaders. (Ironically, French schools only went co-educational in 1969, after generations of bitter opposition from the Church). This horrific incident at last seems to have brought home to French elites that uncontrolled immigration has produced communities in the country which do not believe that they have to obey the law, and consider themselves justified in using violence to enforce their religious principles. Macron seemed genuinely shocked when he spoke yesterday . Of course doing something about it is another matter.

Finally, the fact that the victim was a teacher doing his job has stunned people. Partly this is because so many French people are parents of school-age children or have a teacher in the family. But partly also the teacher is a traditional mythic figure of Republican Virtue, a kind of secular priest promoting the virtues of equality and secularism. Not for nothing were teachers known as “the hussars of the Republic”, and the bitter opposition between the local priest and the schoolteacher was a feature of French life until quite recently. As a number of politicians have said, to strike at a teacher is to strike at the very foundation of secular and republican French values. Unlike many countries who witter on about “values” the French do actually have them written down and seek to adhere to them: hence the shock and dismay.

 

The Hunter Biden Emails Are Authentic And The FBI/DOJ Sitting On Them Is Unconscienable

Rep. Adam Schiff says he’s concerned that he hasn’t “gotten much from the intelligence community” on Russia peddling disinformation.

“At times, some of the leadership, like Director Ratcliffe, not been very forthcoming in terms of the intelligence on the Russian threat.” pic.twitter.com/JhcVYlCgcf

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) October 16, 2020

turcopolier  |  This is the story of an American patriot, an honorable man, John Paul Mac Issac, who tried to do the right thing and is now being unfairly and maliciously slandered as an agent of foreign intelligence, specifically Russia. He is not an agent or spy for anyone. He is his own man. How do I know? I have known his dad for more than 20 years. I’ve known John Paul’s dad as Mac. Mac is a decorated Vietnam Veteran, who flew gunships in Vietnam. And he continued his military service with an impeccable record until he retired as an Air Force Colonel. The crews of those gunships have an annual reunion and Mac usually takes John Paul along, who volunteers his computer and video skills to record and compile the stories of those brave men who served their country in a difficult war.

This story is very simple–Hunter Biden dropped off three computers with liquid damage at a repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware on April 12, 2019. The owner, John Mac Issac, examined the three and determined that one was beyond recovery, one was okay and the data on the harddrive of the third could be recoverd. Hunter signed the service ticket and John Paul Mac Issac repaired the hard drive and down loaded the data. During this process he saw some disturbing images and a number of emails that concerned Ukraine, Burisma, China and other issues. With the work completed, Mr. Mac Issac prepared an invoice, sent it to Hunter Biden and notified him that the computer was ready to be retrieved. Hunter did not respond. In the ensuing four months (May, June, July and August), Mr. Mac Issac made repeated efforts to contact Hunter Biden. Biden never answered and never responded. More importantly, Biden stiffed John Paul Mac Issac–i.e., he did not pay the bill.

When the manufactured Ukraine crisis surfaced in August 2019, John Paul realized he was sitting on radioactive material that might be relevant to the investigation. After conferring with his father, Mac and John Paul decided that Mac would take the information to the FBI office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mac walked into the Albuquerque FBI office and spoke with an agent who refused to give his name. Mac explained the material he had, but was rebuffed by the FBI. He was told basically, get lost. This was mid-September 2019.

Two months passed and then, out of the blue, the FBI contacted John Paul Mac Issac. Two FBI agents from the Wilmington FBI office–Joshua Williams and Mike Dzielak–came to John Paul’s business. He offered immediately to give them the hard drive, no strings attached. Agents Williams and Dzielak declined to take the device. Two weeks later, the intrepid agents called and asked to come and image the hard drive. John Paul agreed but, instead of taking the hard drive or imaging the drive, they gave him a subpoena. It was part of a grand jury proceeding but neither agent said anything about the purpose of the grand jury.

Rudy’s Laptop Authentication Process. This Isn’t His First Rodeo. Yeeeehaw!!!

archive |  Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says he spent three weeks authenticating the materials on a copy of a hard drive that once allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The contents of the drive are the subject of a series of explosive reports by the New York Post that shed further light on Hunter Biden’s dealings with China and Ukraine.

Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, told The Epoch Times that he and his attorney, Robert Costello, checked some of the written notes in the drive against samples of Hunter Biden’s handwriting, matched details about undisclosed meetings with confidential information they had already obtained from other sources, and verified the email addresses in the data trove, among other steps. Giuliani said the drive contains roughly 800 of Hunter Biden’s personal photos, including some which Giuliani alleges show illegal acts. The Epoch Times could not independently verify the claim as Giuliani declined to provide a copy of the files.

Costello allegedly received a copy of the hard drive in August from the owner of a Mac repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware, and handed it to Giuliani three weeks ago, according to the former mayor. Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, negotiated an exclusive deal with the Post and Giuliani handed a copy of the drive over to the newspaper on Oct. 10. The Post conducted its own authentication effort, Giuliani said.

The exclusive deal with the Post gave the newspaper a head start on covering the material but allows Giuliani to eventually begin disclosing the material to other media, the former mayor said.

Along with the copy of the drive, the owner of the Mac repair shop gave Costello a receipt dated April 12, 2019, which he allegedly generated on the day Hunter Biden dropped off a water-damaged laptop and requested the data to be recovered. After Biden failed to pick up the laptop for 90 days and the shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, was unable to reach him, Mac Isaac took possession of the laptop and reviewed its contents. Mac Isaac also gave Costello a copy of an alleged subpoena for the laptop, dated Dec. 9, 2019, which the FBI allegedly used to seize the laptop the same month.

An FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware declined to confirm the authenticity of the subpoena. Hunter Biden’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Mac Isaac did not respond to requests for an interview.

America First?!?!?! "Oh No He Di'int!!!"

politico |  Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President, world leaders, and distinguished delegates: Welcome to New York. It is a profound honor to stand here in my home city, as a representative of the American people, to address the people of the world....

Strong, sovereign nations let diverse countries with different values, different cultures, and different dreams not just coexist, but work side by side on the basis of mutual respect.

Strong, sovereign nations let their people take ownership of the future and control their own destiny. And strong, sovereign nations allow individuals to flourish in the fullness of the life intended by God.

In America, we do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to watch. This week gives our country a special reason to take pride in that example. We are celebrating the 230th anniversary of our beloved Constitution -- the oldest constitution still in use in the world today.

This timeless document has been the foundation of peace, prosperity, and freedom for the Americans and for countless millions around the globe whose own countries have found inspiration in its respect for human nature, human dignity, and the rule of law.

The greatest in the United States Constitution is its first three beautiful words. They are: “We the people.”

Generations of Americans have sacrificed to maintain the promise of those words, the promise of our country, and of our great history. In America, the people govern, the people rule, and the people are sovereign. I was elected not to take power, but to give power to the American people, where it belongs.

In foreign affairs, we are renewing this founding principle of sovereignty. Our government's first duty is to its people, to our citizens -- to serve their needs, to ensure their safety, to preserve their rights, and to defend their values.

As President of the United States, I will always put America first, just like you, as the leaders of your countries will always, and should always, put your countries first. (Applause.)

All responsible leaders have an obligation to serve their own citizens, and the nation-state remains the best vehicle for elevating the human condition.

But making a better life for our people also requires us to work together in close harmony and unity to create a more safe and peaceful future for all people.

The United States will forever be a great friend to the world, and especially to its allies. But we can no longer be taken advantage of, or enter into a one-sided deal where the United States gets nothing in return. As long as I hold this office, I will defend America’s interests above all else.

But in fulfilling our obligations to our own nations, we also realize that it’s in everyone’s interest to seek a future where all nations can be sovereign, prosperous, and secure.

America does more than speak for the values expressed in the United Nations Charter. Our citizens have paid the ultimate price to defend our freedom and the freedom of many nations represented in this great hall. America's devotion is measured on the battlefields where our young men and women have fought and sacrificed alongside of our allies, from the beaches of Europe to the deserts of the Middle East to the jungles of Asia.

It is an eternal credit to the American character that even after we and our allies emerged victorious from the bloodiest war in history, we did not seek territorial expansion, or attempt to oppose and impose our way of life on others. Instead, we helped build institutions such as this one to defend the sovereignty, security, and prosperity for all.

This Is The Speech That Made President Trump Establishment Enemy #1

Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. There is nothing the political establishment will not do, and no lie they will not tell, to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense.

The Washington establishment, and the financial and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself.

The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election. As an example, just one single trade deal they’d like to pass, involves trillions of dollars controlled by many countries, corporations and lobbyists.

For those who control the levers of power in Washington, and for the global special interests they partner with, our campaign represents an existential threat.

This is not simply another 4-year election. This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not We The People reclaim control over our government.

The political establishment that is trying everything to stop us, is the same group responsible for our disastrous trade deals, massive illegal immigration, and economic and foreign policies that have bled this country dry. The political establishment has brought about the destruction of our factories and our jobs, as they flee to Mexico, China and other countries throughout the world. Our just-announced jobs numbers are anemic, and our gross domestic product, or GDP, is barely above one percent. Workers in the United States, were making less than they were almost 20 years ago – and yet they are working harder.

It’s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.

Just look at what this corrupt establishment has done to our cities like Detroit and Flint, Michigan – and rural towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and across our country. They have stripped these towns bare, and raided the wealth for themselves and taken away their jobs. 

Full Transcript below the jump:

Ice Cube Is A Real One - Woke Weak And Elderly Negroes Just Won't Understand...,

medium  |  As sick as I am of Donald Trump, I am no match for my mama — and based on recent observations, probably not for yours either.

Whenever my mom is about to say something that might be considered impolite, she prefaces her comments with “Lord forgive me.” I question whether God takes offense to criticism of someone that’s the seven deadly sins rolled up into a stupid man who acts as if he’s the omnipotent one, but I don’t tell her how to be a good Christian and she lets me be a heathen who elects to speak to God without an intermediary.

Where we differ on how to practice our faith, we align in tone whenever discussing the demon in the White House. That’s why more often than not, what follows “Lord forgive me” is something that recalls the Old Testament.

I love that my mom aims to be polite even if the person she’s talking about is spiritually something akin to a boil on the left ass cheek of Satan, but Black elders have earned the right to be especially venomous, given what his victory in the 2016 presidential election signified.

In an Undefeated article about Black voters’ reactions published soon after the election, Melvin Steals, a retired educator and school administrator living in western Pennsylvania, said of Trump’s victory, “Now we see what was hidden.” Steals, 70 at the time, went on to compare the outcome to the Great Redemption, the period after Reconstruction “when they wanted to eradicate all of the gains made by Blacks after the Civil War.”

“I’m working the voter protection hotlines and I’ve had some conversations with older voters that made me blush.”

“This is another opportunity to reassert their authority,” Steals added. “At the core there is something nefarious about it. It’s tied into White supremacy, that it’s their way or the highway.”

In America's Softest Heads, Obama Ranks Between MLK And Jesus Christ...,

President Obama had the house and a supermajority in the senate. He passed an insurance giveaway health care bill w no public option, failed to break up the banks, failed to rescue homeowners, and then has the audacity to blame progressives for his administration’s failures. Wow. https://t.co/QRZH9jzbHP

— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) October 15, 2020

Not Just K Street - Twitter And Facebook Have Embedded Execs In The Biden Campaign And Transition Team

breitbart  |  Breitbart News recently reported on the New York Post’s bombshell story that indicated that Joe Biden may have met with an adviser to the board of Burisma while he was Vice President, arranged by his son Hunter, who was working as a lobbyist for the company at the time. Joe Biden has previously said, “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”

But, the leaked emails allegedly show that Hunter introduced his father to a Bursima executive less than a year before Biden, acting as Vice President, pressured the Ukrainian government into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company. Shortly after the story broke, many found themselves having trouble sharing it across social media. This censorship comes just weeks after executives from both Facebook and Twitter joined the Biden transition team.

Breitbart News reported in September that Twitter Public Policy Director Carlos Monje left the social media company to join the transition team for Joe Biden. Monje’s specific role on the team has not been made clear and Biden’s transition team reportedly declined to comment on the situation.

Despite a specific role not being named, Monje will reportedly be serving as co-chair of Biden’s infrastructure policy committee and has already helped to host a fundraiser for Biden this week, according to an invitation sent to Politico.

Monje has worked in the world of presidential transition politics in the past, previously serving as the director of agency review on the team that prepared for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s administration, which failed to take flight. Monje also worked on the Obama administration team’s 2008 national security working group according to his LinkedIn profile.

Monje also acted as deputy policy director during Obama’s first run for office and subsequently served as a senior policy advisor and special assistant to the president on the Domestic Policy Council. Monje’s final years in the administration were spent in the Transporation Department before he departed for Twitter.

In October, Breitbart News further reported that Biden’s transition team had hired top Facebook executive Jessica Hertz to its general counsel to oversee ethical issues. The move reportedly came as the campaign struggles with Facebook to have posts by President Trump censored on the platform. This is the second Big Tech executive to join Biden’s campaign. Hertz will reportedly be responsible for “enforcement, oversight, and compliance” of the ethics plan that Biden’s team unveiled this week.

New York Post op-ed editor Sohrab Ahmari was one of the first to note that Twitter was blocking him from posting a link to the Biden-Ukraine story, claiming that the link was “potentially harmful.”

 

The FBI Had Hunter Biden's Laptop And Kept Silent While .45 Was Impeached

NYPost |  Joe Biden’s campaign said Thursday they had no problem with Twitter and Facebook’s unprecedented censoring of The Post’s bombshell reporting on Hunter Biden’s business dealings — even admitting they were “glad” it happened.

The DNC Is A Hoe'lie Owned Proxy For K-Street - AT ALL LEVELS!!!

realsludge  |  Democrats are looking ahead to the second nominating ballot at the July Democratic National Convention, when superdelegates will be allowed to cast votes if no presidential candidate receives a majority of pledged delegates on the first ballot.

Superdelegates include 75 at-large DNC members, often prominent party figures who are put forward as a slate by DNC Chair Tom Perez and do not directly represent a state or other region. Among the 447 total voting DNC members, who make up the majority of 771 superdelegates, there are scores of corporate lobbyists and consultants—including many of the 75 at-large DNC members, who were not individually elected.

These corporate lobbyists will be allowed to vote on the second ballot under the compromise that emerged from the Unity Reform Commission meeting in 2017. The Unity Reform Commission’s proposed package of reforms was later passed by the Rules and Bylaws Committee and adopted as the 2020 convention rules in a rushed voice vote of full DNC members at the summer 2018 national party meeting.

In October 2017, Perez purged DNC committees of several members who had supported either his rival candidate for chair, then-Rep. Keith Ellison, or Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid. In their place, Perez appointed several handpicked corporate lobbyists to the committees that govern the party’s operating rules, budget, convention delegates, and other matters.

Sludge reviewed a DNC committee membership list from September 2019 and found that nearly two-thirds of the members of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee have backgrounds in corporate influence and legal defense that present possible conflicts of interest for their work on the party rules. Some individuals may not currently hold the same committee assignments, but all are current DNC members. Committee membership details are not made publicly available by the DNC.

The 32-member DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee contains the following 20 individuals: a health insurance board member co-chair, three surrogates for presidential campaigns (two for Bloomberg, one for Biden), four current corporate lobbyists, two former corporate lobbyists, six corporate consultants, and four corporate lawyers.

This article, the second in a series on DNC committees, looks at the Rules and Bylaws Committee, which is responsible for the Charter of the Democratic Party, for which it “shall receive and consider all recommendations for adoption and amendments.”

Here are the rules-making DNC members—many of them unelected—whose voting power raises ethics questions, as the Rules and Bylaws Committee continues to block proposed changes for stronger conflict of interest policies.

Tom Perez Was Installed As DNC Chair To Maintain K-Street's Chokehold On The DNC

theintercept |  Members of the Democratic National Committee will meet on Saturday to choose their new chair, replacing the disgraced interim chair Donna Brazile, who replaced the disgraced five-year chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Even though the outcome is extremely unlikely to change the (failed) fundamentals of the party, the race has become something of an impassioned proxy war replicating the 2016 primary fight: between the Clinton/Obama establishment wing (which largely backs Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who vehemently supported Clinton) and the insurgent Sanders wing (which backs Keith Ellison, the first Muslim ever elected to the U.S. Congress, who was an early Sanders supporter).

The New Republic’s Clio Chang has a great, detailed analysis of the contest. She asks the key question about Perez’s candidacy that has long hovered and yet has never been answered. As Chang correctly notes, supporters of Perez insist, not unreasonably, that he is materially indistinguishable from Ellison in terms of ideology (despite his support for TPP, seemingly grounded in loyalty to Obama). This, she argues, is “why the case for Tom Perez makes no sense”: After all, “if Perez is like Ellison — in both his politics and ideology — why bother fielding him in the first place?”

The timeline here is critical. Ellison announced his candidacy on November 15, armed with endorsements that spanned the range of the party: Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Raúl Grijalva, and various unions on the left, along with establishment stalwarts such as Chuck Schumer, Amy Klobuchar, and Harry Reid. He looked to be the clear frontrunner.

But as Ellison’s momentum built, the Obama White House worked to recruit Perez to run against Ellison. They succeeded, and Perez announced his candidacy on December 15 — a full month after Ellison announced. Why did the White House work to recruit someone to sink Ellison? If Perez and Ellison are so ideologically indistinguishable, why was it so important to the Obama circle — and the Clinton circle — to find someone capable of preventing Ellison’s election? What’s the rationale? None has ever been provided.

I can’t recommend Chang’s analysis highly enough on one key aspect of what motivated the recruitment of Perez: to ensure that the Democratic establishment maintains its fatal grip on the party and, in particular, to prevent Sanders followers from having any say in the party’s direction and identity:

There is one real difference between the two: Ellison has captured the support of the left wing. … It appears that the underlying reason some Democrats prefer Perez over Ellison has nothing to do with ideology, but rather his loyalty to the Obama wing. As the head of the DNC, Perez would allow that wing to retain more control, even if Obama-ites are loath to admit it. …

And it’s not just Obama- and Clinton-ites that could see some power slip away with an Ellison-headed DNC. Paid DNC consultants also have a vested interest in maintaining the DNC status quo. Nomiki Konst, who has extensively covered the nuts and bolts of the DNC race, asked Perez how he felt about conflicts of interest within the committee — specifically, DNC members who also have contracts with the committee. Perez dodged the issue, advocating for a “big tent.” In contrast, in a forum last month, Ellison firmly stated, “We are battling the consultant-ocracy.”

Clinton Takeover Of The DNC: (Or Why Donna Brazile Is Now A Lowly Fox News Contributor...,)

politico  |  I wanted to believe Hillary, who made campaign finance reform part of her platform, but I had made this pledge to Bernie and did not want to disappoint him. I kept asking the party lawyers and the DNC staff to show me the agreements that the party had made for sharing the money they raised, but there was a lot of shuffling of feet and looking the other way.

When I got back from a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, I at last found the document that described it all: the Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America.

The agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.

I had been wondering why it was that I couldn’t write a press release without passing it by Brooklyn. Well, here was the answer. 

When the party chooses the nominee, the custom is that the candidate’s team starts to exercise more control over the party. If the party has an incumbent candidate, as was the case with Clinton in 1996 or Obama in 2012, this kind of arrangement is seamless because the party already is under the control of the president. When you have an open contest without an incumbent and competitive primaries, the party comes under the candidate’s control only after the nominee is certain. When I was manager of Al Gore’s campaign in 2000, we started inserting our people into the DNC in June. This victory fund agreement, however, had been signed in August 2015, just four months after Hillary announced her candidacy and nearly a year before she officially had the nomination.

I had tried to search out any other evidence of internal corruption that would show that the DNC was rigging the system to throw the primary to Hillary, but I could not find any in party affairs or among the staff. I had gone department by department, investigating individual conduct for evidence of skewed decisions, and I was happy to see that I had found none. Then I found this agreement.

The funding arrangement with HFA and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical. If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.

I had to keep my promise to Bernie. I was in agony as I dialed him. Keeping this secret was against everything that I stood for, all that I valued as a woman and as a public servant.

“Hello, senator. I’ve completed my review of the DNC and I did find the cancer,” I said. “But I will not kill the patient.” 

I discussed the fundraising agreement that each of the candidates had signed. Bernie was familiar with it, but he and his staff ignored it. They had their own way of raising money through small donations. I described how Hillary’s campaign had taken it another step.