ALERT What to expect in the first days of the Biden Democracy
- Thread starter Mr.Smith
- Start date
marsh
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56:55 min
Biden introduces Health team appointments and nominees
•Streamed live 4 hours ago
Fox News
President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris introduce their health team.
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Zerohedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
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Surprise: Student Debt Relief Will Mostly Help Middle- And Upper-Income Households
Tue, 12/08/2020 - 15:40
Now that the air is heavy with talk of debt forgiveness, initially starting with the government's $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio before Democrats move to a broad debt jubilee much to the chagrin of all those Americans who responsibly have paid their obligations every month, investment banks have started analyzing the impact of the various student loan forgiveness proposals.
One such analysis comes from Goldman's economics team which, in what will likely come as a disappointment for progressives, has calculated that even substantial debt reilef "would only have a small effect on GDP", specifically, forgiving federal student loans up to $10k would add less than 0.1% to the level of GDP starting in 2021, and cumulatively add only $0.43 in real GDP for each $1 of forgiven debt over the next 10 years. A more generous debt relief program that forgives federal loan balances up to $50k would provide a slightly bigger boost to GDP, but would have a smaller per-dollar impact.
Meanwhile, forgiving federal student loans up to $10k would likely cost around $300bn (1.6% of GDP), while forgiving loans up to $50k would cost around $800bn (4.1% ofGDP). However, since these loans have already been funded through prior Treasury issuance, the impact on Treasury financing would be spread out over many years due to the lack of interest and principal payments. If loans were forgiven immediately, Treasury’s financing needs might actually decline, as tax payments on the forgiven amounts would likely more than offset the lack of scheduled loan payments.
Taking a step back, loan forgiveness provisions have made it into the initial version of the HEROES Act—the House Democrats' $3.4 trillion COVID-relief proposal that the Senate never passed—though none of the leading stimulus proposals in front of Congress at the moment deal with the issue. In light of the seemingly dim prospects for near-term legislative approval,several Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have instead shifted their sights to executive action. The chart below summarizes several of the recent proposals.
While noble in theory - if only to those who have never paid down their debt while a slap in the face to all those who have - in practice this rush to appeal to populism carries numerous traps, besides just the modest boost to the economy.
- One is that while loan forgiveness is fairly popular in concept — 55% to 60% of voters in several recentsurveys support forgiving up to $50k in student loans — it is likely to become more controversial once the cost and distribution of benefits of such a policy becomes clear, especially if it amounts to $800BN (as noted above).
- Second, there are potentially significant tax implications that could do more harm than good to some borrowers in the near term. Debt forgiveness is usually treated as taxable income to the borrower. Some student debt is excepted from this, either because of specific exemptions in the HEA or the tax code, or through Treasury’s interpretation of the tax laws in specific circumstances. However, as it currently stands, debt forgiven through a broad federal forgiveness program would be taxable to the borrower. (Some tax lawyers argue that the Treasury would have the authority to exempt this debt without Congress, but whether this could or would happen is hard to predict.) For example, forgiving $50k in student debt for a borrower with $100k in income (and a marginal tax rate of around 25%) would leave them with a tax bill of around $12.5k in a single year, probably more than the entire tax bill on their other income. Beyond a legislative or administrative change to tax rules, one potential way to mitigate this might be to spread forgiveness over several years by relieving borrowers of their responsibility for scheduled payments or simply forgiving loan principal in several installments.
- The third and biggest reason we Goldman expects the Biden Administration to take a much more incremental approach is not only that the boost to consumption from widespread student debt relief would likely be modest in comparison to the budgetary cost (as noted above), but that it would mostly benefit the middle and - drumroll - upper classes. As Goldman's Jan Hatzius writes, "although over 43 million individuals have federal student loans totaling almost $1.6tn, most federal student debt is held by middle- and upper-income households, and over half—including the vast majority of large debt balances—is held by highly-educated households with a graduate or professional degree (Exhibit 2)." According to Goldman - and frankly anyone with half a brain - these households likely have significant earning potential (we do not adjust for pervasive laziness or a predisposition to sit on your ass and ruminate rather than actually doing something useful with your life) and are less likely to be resource constrained, so eliminating their loan payments i) might not generate a large spending response and ii) once the peasants realize that their progressive heroes are once again bailing out the rich, the outcry would be a sight to behold.
As an aside, despite what you may have read, federal student loan payments account for only a modest share of after-tax income for most borrowers. The next chart shows that the median payment-to-income ratio for households with outstanding federal student debt is below 3% for all income deciles, and the 90th percentile is less than 11%. These low payment-to-income ratios reflect low interest rates on federal student loans, and that many households that would otherwise struggle to meet payments already qualify for debt relief (that's right: all those feminism and classical harpsichord majors who make about $15,000 a year already have debt forgiveness). Indeed, as Goldman confirms, over 32% of households with federal student debt in the bottom income decile are already enrolled in an income-based repayment or hardship deferral program.
Finally, the chart below, looks at the share of total student debt that would be forgiven under a 10K and 50K forgiveness policy. Forgiving up to $10k in student loans per borrower would reduce total federal student debt balances by 22%, with the benefits most concentrated among middle-income households (Applying a means test by only forgiving debt for households that either have income less than 150% of the federal poverty line or are economically distressed would make the policy significantly more progressive). The more expansive policy that forgives all federal debt up to $50k per borrower reduces total debt balances by 62%, but middle- and upper-income households receive an even greater share of the benefits.
Yet despite this analysis showing the student debt forgiveness would i) do little to boosting consumer spending or the economy, ii) would mostly benefit middle and upper-income households, we are confident that Biden will sign an executive order forgiving at least $10,000 in student loans.
Why? Because as we showed recently, blue states have the highest average student debt.
And since this proposal has little to do with actually stimulating the economy (and certainly encouraging responsible financial behavior) and everything to do with further widening the red-blue divide, it is virtually assured that it will pass if only for that reason.
marsh
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Zerohedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com
Biden Chooses Raytheon Board Member, Retired General Lloyd Austin, As Secretary Of Defense
Tue, 12/08/2020 - 08:44
Biden has tapped retired four star Army Gen. and former commander of CENTCOM Lloyd Austin to be his Secretary of Defense, with the formal nomination expected to be announced later in the day Tuesday.
Politico, which was the first to report it late Monday, highlighted that not only was President-Elect Biden under growing pressure to tap a black person for the top Pentagon post, but he was also strongly considering former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson for the job.
This also after Obama's former Pentagon policy chief Michèle Flournoy - considered a strong frontrunner and previously the focus widespread media speculation for the job - apparently proved too controversial and divisive, angering progressive Democrats as a top prospect given the Booz Allen Hamilton board member's past record of helping the US to escalate the war in Afghanistan to cheerleading the US-NATO intervention in Libya.
General Lloyd James Austin III, commanding general of United States Forces - Iraq, appears before the US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on US policy towards Iraq, on Capitol Hill on 3 February 2011. Source: EPA/EFEBiden reportedly offered the job to 67-year old Austin on Sunday and the retired general accepted. He'll be the first Black person to lead the Pentagon and previously broke multiple barriers in that regard while serving in the Army, for example he was the first Black general to command an Army division during, as noted in Politico.
"A person familiar with Biden’s decision said the president-elect chose Austin because he is crisis-tested and respected across the military," Politico described further. "Biden also trusts Austin, as they worked together when Biden served as vice president and had a large foreign policy portfolio."
And as CNN reviews, Biden and Austin have worked closely together during the past Obama administration:
One inside source told CNN further that Gen. Austin "knows the Pentagon inside and out" and would be "an excellent person to run logistics on Covid-19 vaccine distribution."
Among the controversial aspects to Austin being tapped by the incoming administration is that he is also a member of the board of directors for the war profiteering corporation Raytheon, where he went immediately after his military career.
Raytheon spends millions of dollars a year actively lobbying the US government to advance policies which are beneficial to the multibillion-dollar arms manufacturing giant, which of course means lobbying for military expansionism and interventionism. The previous Secretary of Defense Mark Esper also worked for Raytheon, working for years as one of the top corporate lobbyists in DC under the position “Vice President for Government Relations”.
Also, according to Newsweek, he "may face a confirmation process hindered by allegations that, under his command, U.S Central Command downplayed the threat of Islamic State militants while American forces were fighting against them in eastern Syria and northern Iraq."
Further as then commander of CENTCOM Austin oversaw the Pentagon's disastrous "train and equip" program for what the US dubbed "moderate" rebels in Syria, which in fact turned out to be al-Qaeda and ISIS-linked terrorists, many of which handed their weapons over to such groups.
marsh
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30:21 min
Democrats INFILTRATED By Chinese Spies, Video Shows Chinese Professor BRAGGING Biden Is Compromised
•Dec 8, 2020
Tim Pool
Democrats INFILTRATED By Chinese Spies, Video Shows Chinese Professor BRAGGING Biden Is Compromised. New Report details how a Chinese spy infiltrated top Democrats. In a viral video a Chinese professor brags about how for decades they have "old friends" at the highest levels of US Government, Finance, and Politics and how they used that to influence the US into favorable positions for China. The professor laments that since Trump has been elected they are unable to "fix" things. He goes on to say that now that Biden was elected they will regain control of the core circle of power in the US and that Joe Biden's son was made wealthy insinuating it was them. Trump is fighting tooth and nail to stay in the presidency and now it seems that major conflict is brewing one way or another.
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Chinese Media: Joe Biden Will Stop U.S. Allies from Confronting Beijing
A Joe Biden White House will be happy to intercede on Bejing's behalf and silence criticism of the Chinese Communist Party by...
www.breitbart.com
Chinese Media: Biden Will Stop U.S. Allies from Confronting Beijing
18,447
SIMON KENT7 Dec 20205,057
A Joe Biden White House will be happy to intercede on Bejing’s behalf and silence criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by U.S. allies, an official China state media outlet claimed Monday.
Pointing to the lack of reaction from the Biden camp to China’s continued excoriation of long-term U.S. allies like Australia, an op-ed in the CCP mouthpiece Global Times asserted the silence is indicative of Biden compliance because “there is no legitimate reason for Biden to back up Australia’s condemnation against China.”
The piece asserts Biden will be able to apply pressure on Australia to tone down its opposition to Beijing in the Indo-Pacific by simply calling for it to obey orders. It said:
It goes on to outline the future of U.S.-China relations under a Joe Biden administration will be marked by “the normal track of ties with China” marked by non-confrontation:
China’s nervousness about Australia and its eagerness to see Joe Biden triumph comes at the end of a year where Canberra has been happy to step up and challenge Beijing on any number of topics.
From increased Chinese military activity in the Indo-Pacific region to the global spread of the coronavirus and China’s refusal to close or police its regional “wet markets,” the Australian government has been pressing Beijing hard.
Australia was also the first country to block China’s Huawei telecom giant from supplying equipment for its 5G network while Australian warships have been working with the U.S. Navy to curb Chinese aggression in contested waters.
China’s reponse has been to threaten Australia’s trade interests while portraying Canberra as unblinking lackeys of the U.S. in the Pacific, even going to the extent of manufacturing images of alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers on foreign battlefields.
China sees an end coming soon to an outspoken Australia in the Asia Pacific, as the Global Times notes.
It foresees a time when “tensions with China will be welcome to serve U.S. interests,” with Joe Biden as president.
Obey Beijing, do not challenge China’s assumed economic superiority and open your domestic markets without restraint: these are the three key instructions issued in an op-ed published last month by the Global Times, as Breitbart News reported.
Put simply, the Global Times warned resistance to Beijing is futile and Joe Biden – if he does eventually take the White House – should obey.
Any other course of action will be frowned upon by the a CCP dictatorship well used to having Joe Biden as a welcome visitor.
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Report: Biden May Appoint Official to Undo Trump's Immigration Reforms
Joe Biden may appoint an official to solely focus on undoing Trump's immigration reforms that have weeded out fraud.
www.breitbart.com
Report: Joe Biden May Appoint Official to Undo Trump’s Immigration Reforms
35
JOHN BINDER8 Dec 2020354
Democrat Joe Biden may appoint an official to solely focus on undoing President Trump’s reforms to the nation’s immigration system that have weeded out fraud and tightened rules to serve the national interest.
In a report by Politico, a source close to Biden’s transition team suggests that the former vice president is considering appointing an official at the Department of Justice (DOJ) that will attempt to dismantle Trump’s immigration reforms.
Politico reports:
Chief among Trump’s reforms is the legal wall that he has built at the United States-Mexico border and his constant imposition of new regulations to curb mass immigration that does not serve the interest of America’s working and middle class.
Trump’s legal wall, that Biden is eyeing to take down, is the “Remain in Mexico” policy that has ensured border crossers must wait in Mexico while they await their asylum hearings rather than being released into the interior of the U.S.
Similarly, Trump has imposed regulations known as the “Public Charge Rule” to effectively end the allotment of green cards to foreign nationals who cannot prove that they are self-sufficient and won’t require welfare from the federal government.
Trump’s latest reform invoked an order by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to allow federal immigration officials to immediately return border crossers to their native countries.
Already, those close to Biden’s transition team have warned that a dismantling of Trump’s reforms may lead to a surge of illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Every year, already, about 1.2 million legal immigrants are rewarded green cards and another 1.4 million foreign nationals are given visas to arrive in the U.S. These legal immigration admissions are in addition to the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who annually cross U.S. borders and overstay their visas.
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Two Biden Cabinet Picks Were Reprimanded For Roles In Clinton-Era ‘Pardongate’ Scandal
Xavier Becerra and Alejandro Mayorkas, two of President-elect Joe Biden's cabinet selections, played key roles in the Clinton-era scandal known as "Pardongate."
dailycaller.com
Two Biden Cabinet Picks Were Reprimanded For Roles In Clinton-Era ‘Pardongate’ Scandal
(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
CHUCK ROSSINVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
December 07, 20204:18 PM ET
- Xavier Becerra and Alejandro Mayorkas, who Joe Biden has chosen to serve in his cabinet, were key players in one of the cases linked to the Clinton-era ‘Pardongate’ scandal.
- Becerra and Mayorkas both lobbied the Clinton White House for clemency on behalf of Carlos Vignali, a convicted cocaine trafficker whose father was a politically-connected businessman in Los Angeles.
- A House report issued in 2002 said Mayorkas’s intervention was “inappropriate” given his position at the time as a U.S. attorney.
- The Vignali family contributed to Becerra’s political campaigns prior to his advocacy for Carlos Vignali.
The report, from the House Committee on Government Reform, detailed Xavier Becerra and Alejandro Mayorkas’s efforts to secure a presidential commutation for Carlos Vignali, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1994 for drug trafficking.
Biden nominated Becerra to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and Mayorkas to oversee the Department of Homeland Security. Becerra was a U.S. congressman in Los Angeles and Mayorkas was the U.S. attorney for the city when they sought reprieve for Vignali.
The report from the House committee asserted that Mayorkas’s advocacy was “totally inappropriate” given his position as a federal prosecutor. The report also detailed evidence that Vignali’s father, Horacio Vignali, made a series of campaign contributions to Becerra, who currently serves as California’s attorney general.
The Vignali family donated more than $11,000 to Becerra’s political action committee from 1998 to 2001 and nearly $6,000 to Becerra’s congressional and mayoral campaigns, the report said.
The issue of presidential pardons is poised to come roaring back in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s administration. The president has already come under scrutiny for pardoning Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser.
Trump is also reportedly weighing pardons for family members and other associates.
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Did Joe Biden Just Put Democrats in a Bind With His Defense Secretary Pick?
Matt Vespa
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@mvespa1
|
Posted: Dec 08, 2020 4:15 PM
Source: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Katie wrote about this development last night. Joe Biden has made his pick for defense secretary. It’s retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin. On a quick glance, the man has the credentials. His assignment was being the first black commander of CENTCOM. This is probably the most uncontroversial of Biden’s picks for government positions, but he might have also screwed his party regarding the nomination process. You see Gen. Austin retired in 2016. Remember, there’s that rule that no former member of the military should be considered for defense secretary until they’ve been out of uniform for several years. Democrats raised concerns about James Mattis helming the Pentagon when Trump won in 2016. And this pick has them primed to eat a lot of crap because we all know these Democrats only opposed Mattis because Trump picked him.
Now, with Biden, watch how the same people who opposed Mattis’ nomination out of respect for civilian control of the military and protection of our democracy will give Austin a waiver with no questions asked. Even The Washington Post noted how it will require multiple gold medals in the linguistic gymnastics to make Democrats not look like total idiots regarding Austin’s nomination. They also have the receipts regarding the waiver (via WaPo):
Those are the 13 Senate Democrats to watch for when this showdown occurs. Okay, it won’t be much of a showdown, but these 12 should be bombarded with questions regarding why this referral was okay, and 2016’s was not. You all know the answer though.
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On TB every waking moment
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Grenell: Secret intelligence shows 'much more' on US-China collusion
Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said that China is a "top" security concern and claimed there is "much more" to U.S.-Chinese relations.
www.washingtonexaminer.com
Grenell: Secret intelligence shows 'much more' on US-China collusion
by Mike Brest, Breaking News Reporter |
| December 08, 2020 01:36 PM
Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said that China is a "top" security concern and claimed there is "much more" to U.S.-Chinese relations.
Grenell, the current special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations, made the comment on Twitter Tuesday morning following a segment on Tucker Carlson Tonight that the host dedicated to the threat that the Chinese government poses to the United States.
"This is a must watch," he said of the segment. "Everyone in the intel community knows that China is a top US national security concern. And there is so much more that we can’t say."
During the segment, Carlson played a clip of Di Donsheng, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, claiming that the Chinese Communist Party has people “at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence.” The video was deleted off of China's social media platforms shortly after it was uploaded.
Di claimed, according to Carlson, that the people they have in the top levels of the U.S. government have been less successful in their espionage attempts since President Trump was elected.
"But the problem is that after 2008, the status of Wall Street has declined, and more importantly, after 2016, Wall Street can't fix Trump," he said. "Why? It's very awkward. Trump had a previous soft default issue with Wall Street, so there was a conflict between them. But I won't go into details. I may not have enough time. So, during the U.S.-China trade war, they [Wall Street] tried to help. And I know that — my friends on the U.S. side told me that they tried to help, but they couldn't do much."
On Monday, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe warned that while China has not caught up with the U.S. as the world’s foremost superpower, policymakers should not be complacent in the face of the rising threat that the country poses.
“China knows that, at this point, the United States is still the world’s superpower. They know they’re catching us in all those respects. They’re banking on the fact that we’re not going to do anything until they're superior in all those respects,” Ratcliffe said. “We don’t ever want to be in a position where we're looking up at China. And all of the plans that they have, all of the initiatives made in China, the digital Silk Road, Belt and Road Initiative — those are all thin veneers and facades for which China is going around the world and essentially gaining the influence, power to become the world superpower and supplant the United States in that role.”
Carlson's segment, and Grenell's tease of additional information, coincided with an Axios report that a female Chinese spy targeted a host of politicians nationwide, including California officials and congressmen, Midwestern mayors, and more.
marsh
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Two Biden Cabinet Picks Pushed Clinton To Pardon Cocaine Trafficker
Bill Clinton pardoned Vignali in a spree before he left office handing out favors to numerous old friends and campaign donors. Biden picks helped.
thefederalist.com
Two Of Joe Biden’s Cabinet Picks Pushed Clinton To Pardon Cocaine Trafficker Whose Dad Donated To Democrats
DECEMBER 8, 2020 By Jordan Davidson
Two of Joe Biden’s cabinet picks assisted former President Bill Clinton’s “pardongate” scandal by lobbying for clemency for a convicted cocaine trafficker whose father had contributed to Democrat campaigns.
According to a House Committee on Government Reform report from 2002 revisited recently by The Daily Caller, Xavier Becerra, Biden’s pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, and Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s pick for the head of Department of Homeland Security, both helped obtain a presidential pardon for Carlos Vignali.
The report states that a “key element” in the release of the drug trafficker were “letters from prominent Los Angeles-area politicians,” to whom Vignali’s father had contributed large sums, including Becerra. At the time, all of these men hailed from Los Angeles, where Vignali’s father was a businessman, with Becerra as a U.S. congressman and Mayorkas as the U.S. attorney.
“A number of these letters contained misleading statements calculated to create the impression that Carlos Vignali was innocent,” the report stated. That is false. Clinton pardoned Vignali during a pardon spree before he left office handing out favors to numerous old friends and campaign donors who had been convicted of crimes. The Clinton White House was notorious for doing business this way.
Vignali’s father, Horacio Vignali, donated to both Becerra’s PAC and his political campaigns for mayor and Congress, totaling more than $17,000 from 1998-2001, an obvious conflict of interest. The House also found that Mayorkas’s support for Vignali was “totally inappropriate” due to his position within the government as a federal prosecutor, another conflict of interest.
“U.S. Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas provided critical support for the Vignali commutation that was inappropriate, given his position,” the report said. “Mayorkas supported the Vignali commutation despite his ignorance of the facts of the case and his knowledge that the prosecutors responsible for the Vignali case opposed clemency.”
Vignali’s sentence was commuted on Jan. 20, 2001, shortly after Becerra wrote a letter to the president the previous November to recommend “a full evaluation of this case to determine if justice has been achieved in the case of Mr. Vignali.” Becerra also repeatedly called the White House advocating for Vignali, according to the House report.
According to White House counsel Meredith Cabe, Mayorkas’s advocacy was also “significant” because “very few prosecutors advocate clemency in any form.”
A deputy White House counsel, Bruce Lindsey, testified that it was Mayorkas’s influence who reached out to him after talking with Vignali’s father, that sold him on the commutation. Despite warnings against clemency from federal prosecutor Todd Jones that the drug dealer was “bad news” and a “major player,” Mayorkas moved ahead to meet with Vignali’s father to talk about a potential pardon.
“Over the next two years, Mayorkas would see Horacio Vignali at various community events and at several one-on-one meetings with Vignali,” the report stated.
In 2013, Mayorkas claimed during his DHS deputy secretary confirmation hearing that he only began supporting Vignali’s pardon after the Clinton White House reached out to him. The House report, however, states that Mayorkas wrote an email in 2001 claiming that he “called the White House counsel’s office” to advocate for Vignali” first.
Been yelling about that here for a year or so. Should not be any surprise.
China’s Silent Takeover While America's Elite Slept - YouTube
2,223,584 views
•Nov 29, 2019
RT 1:43.11
Yeah, it is almost two hours. So what. BTW, you'd spend your time a lot more profitably watching Valuetainment interviews than stupid assed network teevee.
China’s Silent Takeover While America's Elite Slept - YouTube
2,223,584 views
•Nov 29, 2019
RT 1:43.11
Yeah, it is almost two hours. So what. BTW, you'd spend your time a lot more profitably watching Valuetainment interviews than stupid assed network teevee.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Biden taps Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge to lead Department of Housing and Urban Development
President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge from Ohio to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, otherwise known as HUD, according to multiple reports.
www.washingtonexaminer.com
Biden taps Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge to lead Department of Housing and Urban Development
by Jay Heflin, Business Editor |
| December 08, 2020 05:39 PM
President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge from Ohio to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, otherwise known as HUD, according to multiple reports.
Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Democratic whip, lobbied for Fudge to be a part of Biden’s Cabinet.
Fudge was first elected to the House in 2008 and represents the 11th Congressional District in Ohio, which includes most of the majority-black precincts between Cleveland and Akron.
Fudge does not sit on any of the House committees with jurisdiction over HUD. She was a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
If confirmed by the Senate to run HUD, Fudge will face a housing affordability crisis upon taking the helm.
Roughly 19 million people are at risk of eviction from their rental homes when the moratoriums expire at the end of the year, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the University of Arizona. That total rivals the number of foreclosures during the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Biden seeks to spend $640 billion over 10 years that would provide people greater access to affordable housing. Part of that money would provide tenants facing eviction with legal assistance to keep from being kicked out of their homes. It would provide access to housing that would cost no more than 30% of a renter’s income so there’s money left over to meet other needs.
The president-elect has also pledged to reinstate a rule that President Trump reversed that requires communities receiving federal funding to examine housing patterns and address any policy that discriminates.
Fudge was the first African American and first female mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio.
She received her undergraduate degree in business from Ohio State University and earned her law degree from the Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall School of Law.
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Zerohedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com
What Biden's First 100 Days Might Look Like
Wed, 12/09/2020 - 20:25
Authored by Pat Buchanan via Buchanan.org,
The Biden-Harris administration will confront “a pandemic, an economic crisis, calls for racial justice and climate change. The team being assembled will meet these challenges on Day One.”
So declares the transition team of Joe Biden, to echo what he’s defined as the lead items on his presidential agenda. And if this is his agenda, then how our presumed 46th president will proceed suggests itself.
The COVID-19 pandemic is now close to its apex, with a million new cases and a death toll in excess of 10,000 each week. We appear to be near the crest of the “second wave.”
Biden’s emphasis, as he has signaled, will be on slowing down the spread of the virus by universal masking and locking up and shutting down sectors of the American economy.
Yet, even as the worst of the pandemic appears directly ahead in December and January, the last six weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, the light at the end of the tunnel may be sighted within Biden’s first 100 days.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which have proven 90-95% effective against the virus, begin to come on line this month. By the end of Biden’s first 100 days, May 1, the beneficial effect of scores of millions of vaccinations should be visible to all, and the pandemic should be seen as irretrievably receding.
At least, that is the hope and expectation. And the media would naturally attribute the new dawn not to the triumph of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed but to the new president.
Biden’s response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will almost surely be along the lines of what Congress is now debating, contingent upon whether Mitch McConnell is prepared to accept what comes over from the House.
A trillion-dollar package seems baked in the cake, as the country would not long tolerate congressional inaction if the pandemic were still raging through the population as it is today.
As for racial inequality, the pandemic has exposed, deepened and widened it. The surge in shootings and killings in major cities during the pandemic is hitting the Black communities hardest.
The decline in test scores at schools where kids have been kept away from formal classes since March is most pronounced among minorities. Black and Hispanic workers in service industries are a disproportionate share of the victims of the pandemic.
If half a century of social progress after the civil rights revolution of the ’60s and eight years of the first Black president have failed to reduce racial disparities in income, wealth, employment and incarcerations, does anyone believe Joe Biden has the solution?
As for climate change, John Kerry, the new climate czar, will begin his tenure after a year of the deepest reductions in carbon emissions in recorded history.
By Dec. 31, U.S. carbon emissions will have fallen 9% from the end of 2019. Emissions from cars and aircraft fell 4% in 2020, from power 2.8%, and from industry .6%. On the flip side, forest fires reduced the 9% cut in carbon emissions by fully one-third.
Yet, it is in foreign policy where the traps appear.
The drawdown in U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to 2,500 by Jan. 15, will leave us with the smallest contingent since the U.S. plunged into that country to remake it more in our image in 2001.
And the troop drawdown comes at a time when the Taliban control the largest swath of Afghan territory since being overthrow 19 years ago. The possibility of a collapse in Kabul, chaos ensuing and the country disintegrating early in a Biden presidency cannot be ruled out.
Would Biden be willing to preside over an American defeat similar to that in Vietnam in 1975?
But the truly formidable challenge for a President Biden will be China, which is not the China of 2016 that Vice President Biden recalls.
While the U.S. refuses to recognize China’s claims to disputed islets in the East and the South China Seas and has committed itself to defend the Japanese and Philippine claims, Beijing has not backed away from its claims and, indeed, has grown increasingly bellicose in making them.
The U.S. has also been thickening ties to Taiwan.
Yet, what many Americans see as a democratic island of 25 million whose defense is a moral obligation and strategic necessity, China sees as a breakaway province, and signals in every way that it would fight a war rather than let Taiwan go.
These issues are likely to be decided in this decade. And it is hard to see how the U.S., 7,000 miles away, with a slowly shrinking share of the world’s economic and military power, would prevail indefinitely over a China that has the advantages of proximity and population, and whose power is steadily rising in relative terms to that of the United States.
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Zerohedge
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Mayor Pete To Take On China As Biden's Likely Ambassador Pick
Wed, 12/09/2020 - 16:45
Mayor Pete to take on China? President-elect Joe Biden is said to be mulling an appointment to one of America's most crucial diplomatic posts, US Ambassador to China.
Sources told Axios that the one-time Biden rival for the Democratic nomination Buttigieg "played a key role in Biden's nomination" after dropping out and campaigning for him (following a surprisingly strong performance that included winning the Iowa caucuses) and this would pave the way for bolstering him as a rising Democratic star and potential future president.
Via Sky News"Letting him deepen his foreign policy chops could boost Buttigieg's future, since many inside the Democratic Party believe his return as a presidential candidate is a matter of when, not if," Axios writes.
The 38-year old former mayor of South Bend, and Afghan war veteran and former US Navy Reserve intelligence officer has reportedly been vying to be Biden's ambassador to the United Nations, but is said to be happy with any top foreign policy or national security role in the new administration.
Notes Axios further of the significance should Buttigieg be confirmed for the top China job: "The Beijing post has often gone to experienced politicians, toward the middle or end of their careers, as a way to confer respect to the Chinese."
An "experienced politician" Buttigieg is not, at least not on a global stage - though he has prior military intelligence experience.
He's faced accusations of at one point in his military deployments being on the CIA's payroll, something the Buttigieg team has come out and expressly denied...
But it remains that "A Buttigieg nomination would invert that model and give the Chinese an opportunity to get to know a potential future president," as Axios comments further. "That happened with George H.W. Bush in 1974, when President Ford appointed him to the U.S. liaison office in Beijing."
Biden has vowed to get "tough" on China, signaling he could continue some of Trump's hawkish and max pressure policies; however, Sino-US relations are at an historic low at a moment Trump is looking to "box-in" the Biden administration, limiting its ability to pursue its own independent policy.
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Barrasso: 'Joe Biden Is Off to a Very Rocky Start' with Cabinet Picks
On Wednesday's broadcast of the Fox News Channel's "Daily Briefing," Senate Republican Conference Chair Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) stated that it is | Clips
www.breitbart.com
Barrasso: ‘Joe Biden Is Off to a Very Rocky Start’ with Cabinet Picks
17
IAN HANCHETT9 Dec 2020133
Video on website 2:25 min
On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Daily Briefing,” Senate Republican Conference Chair Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) stated that it is important that Republicans keep the majority in the Senate so “we have much more of a say in who is in a Cabinet,” and said “Joe Biden is off to a very rocky start” with his picks.
Barrasso said, “I want a competent Cabinet, and I think Joe Biden is off to a very rocky start at this point.”
He added, “It’s hard to know what the Democrats are looking for in terms of a potential Cabinet. I think they’re wrong on the economy. They have another Obama team in there who wants to raise taxes. On foreign policy, they’re completely wrong. These are the people that brought us the terrible Iran deal.
They’ve been wrong on China. They’ve been wrong on ISIS. So, I think when you look at a potential Biden Cabinet, you have to say, who is going to be there and for what purpose? That’s why it’s so important that we win this runoff — these races in Georgia so that the Republicans are in the majority, and we have much more of a say in who is in a Cabinet, and it’s not just some rubber stamp or a free pass that the Democrats will likely do to have people that are going to take this country far to the left.”
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If Trump Acts Now, He Can Block Biden’s Chance to Pilfer Billions From Fannie And Freddie to Fund Radical Left-Wing Causes - Revolver News
ATTENTION NEWS JUNKIES: We are the new Drudge, be sure to check our news feed by CLICKING HERE Guest post by Joe Hoffmann The Supreme Court heard Collins v. Mnuchin on Wednesday, December 9th. This important and complicated case will determine the constitutionality of the Federal Housing Finance...
www.revolver.news
Will Mnuchin Give the Biden Administration Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in Slush Funds from Fannie and Freddie?
December 9, 2020 (3m ago)
ATTENTION NEWS JUNKIES: We are the new Drudge, be sure to check our news feed by CLICKING HERE
Guest post by Joe Hoffmann
The Supreme Court heard Collins v. Mnuchin on Wednesday, December 9th. This important and complicated case will determine the constitutionality of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) structure. The lawsuit is brought by investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hoping to reverse the Obama-initiated “100 percent net worth sweep policy,” which effectively funneled all of Fannie and Freddie’s considerable profits into the Treasury. While the Treasury Department is the defendant in the case, the Trump administration is not challenging the appeals court’s finding that the FHFA is unconstitutional, though it still wants to protect the net-worth sweep policies.
This is both bizarre and counter-productive. It is bizarre because Trump’s political appointees at the FHFA have initiated plans to take Freddie and Fannie out of conservatorship, which would likely result in a settlement with Fannie and Freddie’s investors that would end the litigation. The Trump administration’s approach to Collins v Mnuchin is counter-productive because its defense of the “100 percent net worth sweep policy,” if successful, would simply enhance the power and purse of a potential Biden Treasury Department.
This is especially disturbing given what Revolver has learned from a Treasury source about what Biden’s priorities would be at that department. Indeed, according to a senior Treasury official, Biden transition officials have stated that the three priorities for a Biden Treasury would be “Covid, racial justice, and climate change.” Even many career officials were taken aback at the overtly ideological agenda Biden has in store for the Treasury Department.
The stakes of Collins vs. Mnuchin are therefore higher than that of a typical boring Supreme Court case involving mundane separation of powers questions which only affect Wall Street.
To be sure, taking Fannie and Freddie out of conservatorship would benefit certain investors and harm others. Investors in Blackwells Capital, which filed on the case, support the plaintiffs, while investors who profit off the incumbent banks, such as BlackRock, want to make it more difficult to take them out of conservatorship.
Ultimately, however, the situation provides an opportunity for Trump and the right to think strategically. Instead of focusing on what position is more “free market,” or focusing on procedural issues around separation of powers, we should instead take a look at the classic question of power, “who, whom” — that is, who benefits and who loses out.
As a bit of background in the case, in 2008, during the financial crisis, the Federal Government bailed out Fannie and Freddie on the condition that FHFA would supervise it under a conservatorship to ensure it paid back the government. In 2012, the Obama administration began the so-called 100 percent net worth sweep policy, which effectively transfers all Fannie and Freddie profits to the Treasury. Fannie and Freddie have more than paid off the debt, but the policy continues. The investors in Fannie and Freddie who are suing the government are eager to make a deal to end the conservatorship.
From a purely realpolitik standpoint, the current deal gives the Federal Government billions of dollars unrestricted from Congress and the ability to negotiate a deal with Fannie and Freddie investors. As Paul Bradford at American Greatness noted, the Obama administration doled out Fannie and Freddie money to Democrats in the past:
The Left plays for keeps and, accordingly, supports the current program. Unsurprisingly, Soros-funded non-profits like the Constitutional Accountability Project are filing briefs in favor of keeping the status quo. If Biden becomes president he will continue to use the 100 percent net worth sweep policy to fund the left.
Writing in the Washington Post, the Urban Institute’s Jim Parrott and woke Wall Street analyst Mark Zandi — the type of people likely to get high-ranking jobs in the Biden Administration — advocated using the FHFA to “bridge the racial wealth gap” and fund left-wing housing non-profits. They thus found it “disconcerting” that the “the Trump administration is considering turning [Fannie and Freddie] back over to private control even before [they] are adequately capitalized, in part simply to avoid giving the incoming administration a say in their future.”
If Fannie and Freddie’s shareholders prevail at the Supreme Court, the Biden administration will likely negotiate a settlement which will fund leftist non-profits and mandate various minority preferences in lending. The Obama Justice department frequently settled cases with banks under similar conditions. For instance, a settlement with Wells Fargo required that funds go to “qualified organizations” which offer “programs targeted at African American and Hispanic potential and former homeowners.”
Instead of responding to the Left’s naked use of power politics with appeals to free markets and the Constitution, the Trump administration should take a page from their book and start playing to win. A competent right-wing government would have used the funds in question to support the national interest and negotiate with the investors to take Fannie and Freddie out of conservatorship on the grounds that they scale back various “woke capital” projects. Yet for the most part, Mnuchin’s Treasury Department did little to redirect the money away from Democrat pet projects.
Thus, at this point, the most useful thing the Trump administration can do is negotiate an end to the conservatorship on the condition that Fannie and Freddie refrain from funding left-wing non-profits or promoting banks which give loans to under-qualified home buyers based on the color of their skin — actions which led to this housing crisis in the first place.
Joe Hoffman is a lawyer and former Capital Hill staffer.
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On TB every waking moment
Rep. Andy Biggs to Newsmax TV: 'Biden Family Is in Bed With China'
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., sounded the alarm bells on Democrat Joe Biden and his family's ties to China.
www.newsmax.com
Rep. Andy Biggs to Newsmax TV: 'Biden Family Is in Bed With China'
(Newsmax TV's "The Chris Salcedo Show")
By Eric Mack | Tuesday, 08 December 2020 07:29 PM
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., sounded the alarm on Democrat Joe Biden and his family's alleged ties to China.
"If Joe Biden actually takes the seat as president of the United States, there's ample reason to believe that the Biden family is in bed with China," Biggs told Newsmax TV's "The Chris Salcedo Show." "And that is really something that we should be concerned about."
Biggs was asked about a report from Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe outlining the potential for lawmakers to be compromised by their ties to China.
"What DNI John Ratcliffe has done is good, because I trust John Ratcliffe," Biggs told host Chris Salcedo. "But I am not sure I trust the apparatus of the entire intelligence community anymore.
"And that gives me real concern – everything from IP [intellectual property] theft to currency manipulation to South Sea control to bellicosity to the fact that China's navy now is larger than the United States' Navy, even though we have a slight technological advantage.
"It won't be too many years before they match us, because they're stealing our technology. We have people that are facilitating that."
In a recent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Ratcliffe wrote, "China Is National Security Threat No. 1."
"You should be very concerned, because China is not our friend," Biggs said. "China is an adversary and there are people here in Congress that think China is just great, but most of us are very skeptical of China."
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2:58 min
Susan Rice to lead White House Domestic Policy Council
•Dec 10, 2020
Fox News
President-elect Joe Biden named Susan Rice as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
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Zerohedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
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Biden Names China Critic Katherine Tai As Top US Trade Official
Thu, 12/10/2020 - 12:05
One day after it was revealed that Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was being probed for tax fraud and Chinese influence peddling - something we first reported at the end of October in "Blockbuster Report Reveals How Biden Family Was Compromised By China", the Biden team - desperate to bury the fact that his family is beholden to Chinese dictator for life Xi Jinping - announced Katherine Tai, a trade lawyer with a history of taking on China, would replace Lighthizer as US Trade Representative; Tai is on record as saying China needs to be confronted strongly and strategically.
Born in Connecticut to Taiwanese parents, Tai speaks Mandarin fluently and is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. She taught English for two years at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, southern China, from 1996 to 1998 as a Yale-China Fellow. She gained fame as the Democrats’ leading trade counsel in negotiating stronger labor provisions with the Republicans’ Lighthizer-led team in the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Katherine Tai has been to be picked by Biden to be the new US trade representative.If confirmed by the Senate, Tai would inherit a critical position of continuing the US trade war with China, and would be tasked with enforcing America’s import rules and brokering trading terms with China and other nations.
In choosing Tai, the senior trade lawyer on the House Ways and Means Committee, the Biden team likely signals an intent to return to a more multilateral trade approach to advance US trade interests and confront growing economic competition from China, according to CNBC. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris emphasized Tai’s experience in a press release Thursday.
Tai would succeed current trade czar Robert Lighthizer, whose achievements during the Trump administration include a more-forceful tact in negotiations with Beijing and the imposition of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tariffs on goods imported from China.
Though Tai may favor multilateral enforcement mechanisms more than Lighthizer, her leadership as USTR wouldn’t necessarily signal a change to the tougher stance toward China. She has said that China should be addressed forcefully and strategically.
From 2007 to 2014, Tai successfully litigated Washington’s disputes against Beijing at the WTO, the global trade organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Lighthizer and his team, frustrated with what they viewed as slow-moving bureaucracy and China’s influence at the WTO and World Bank, often opted to work around the WTO and take a more direct approach through tariffs. The U.S. still has import duties on $370 billion of Chinese imports.
In August, Tai called for a different approach to China from the years-long tariff war waged by Lighthizer and said the use of import taxes are actually a defensive maneuver. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said in a press release Wednesday evening that Tai would be a smart choice for USTR based on their time working together on the Ways and Means Committee.
That’s likely to appeal to Biden, who has suggested he would favor a return to a more multilateral, ally-based approach and a move away from President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach.
Commenting on Tai's appointment, the HK based SCMP quoted Wu Xinbo, director of Fudan University’s American studies centre, said Tai’s previous experience in setting US strategy in trade disputes with China at the WTO meant she was skilled in applying pressure to China on a multilateral platform.
“In contrast to Trump’s and Lighthizer’s approach, which favours bilateral trade war, Biden doesn’t see tariffs as the way to go,” Wu said. “Under Biden, Tai could be instrumental in implementing the strategy of recruiting allies and ganging up on China at the WTO.”
Meanwhile, Shi Yinhong, a professor on international relations at Renmin University in Beijing and a government adviser, said Tai’s nomination might be another “negative signal” for China-US relations and might continue Washington’s tough stance on China, given Tai’s experience in handling trade issues with China.
“This might not be good news for China, given that she handled the trade disputes with China,” Shi said. “It is not an issue of her Chinese-language skills or ethnicity. We also need to observe whether she has real political influence on Biden.” Shi said China might “not be very excited at all” about the choices of Tai as the US trade representative and Pete Buttigieg as US envoy to Beijing, both of whom China knows little about.
Biden has said previously that he will not immediately roll back tariffs imposed on Chinese products without a full review of the interim trade deal signed with China in January, and consultation with US allies.
Wang Yong, director of Peking University’s international political economy centre, said Tai’s selection was a positive move for future trade negotiations between China and the US.
“Tai is an American-born Chinese who speaks fluent [Mandarin],” he said. “She probably has a better understanding of Chinese culture and negotiating style. This is her advantage and her background and qualities will be conducive to advancing dialogue and exchanges between the two countries.
"The Biden team has already expressed that they think it is unrealistic for China and the US to decouple. So I believe the Biden administration will eventually remove all the tariffs put in place by the Trump administration, because American businesses and consumers have suffered from that. “The US’ negotiating tactics will also need to change."
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday that China would fulfil its commitments under the interim deal while also calling for a resumption of dialogue on economic policy coordination and a bilateral investment treaty.
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Susan Rice Departing Netflix Board to Join Biden Administration
Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice will formally leave her post on the Netflix board next month to join Joe Biden's administration, with Netflix chairman and co-CEO Reed Hastings thanking Rice for her "service."
www.breitbart.com
Susan Rice Departing Netflix Board to Join Biden Administration
12
HANNAH BLEAU10 Dec 2020112
Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice will formally leave her post on the Netflix board next month to join Joe Biden’s administration, with Netflix chairman and co-CEO Reed Hastings thanking Rice for her “service.”
“We are grateful to Susan Rice for her many contributions on our board and congratulate her on her return to public service,” Hastings said following reports of Biden selecting Rice to head the Domestic Policy Council.
Rice, who joined the Netflix board in 2018, will be leaving January 20, according to Deadline.
The former Obama administration official sparked suspicions in August after selling a sizeable portion of her Netflix shares as Biden continued his search for a running mate, though he ultimately chose Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). However, a representative at the time claimed that Rice’s move had “nothing to do” with Biden or his campaign.
“Ambassador Rice’s sale of a fraction of her Netflix stock has nothing to do with V.P. speculation,” Rice spokesperson Erin Pelton said in a statement. “She filed a stock plan pursuant to SEC regulations over three months ago.”
“She will coordinate the formulation and implementation of President-elect Biden’s domestic policy agenda to build back better,” Biden’s team stated, describing Rice as a “deeply experienced, talented negotiator.”
In a statement, the former vice president said his selection of Rice is aimed to bring “the highest level of experience, compassion, and integrity” to his administration.
Rice, as well as the Obamas, were among those who remained relatively silent in the thick of the controversy over Netflix’s Cuties, a French drama critics say is rife with the sexualization of pre-pubescent children.
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Joe Biden Policy Director: 'Big...Changes, Executive Action' on Guns
Joe Biden policy director Stef Feldman is promising "big, bold changes through executive action" on guns.
www.breitbart.com
Joe Biden’s Policy Director Wants ‘Big, Bold Changes Through Executive Action’ on Guns
24
AWR HAWKINS10 Dec 202045
Joe Biden policy director Stef Feldman is promising “big, bold changes through executive action” on guns.
The NRA posted a video of Feldman talking about all the areas in which Biden might be able to use execution actions. Those areas include “policing and climate” and guns:
On November 7, 2020, Reuters said that Biden planned to use executive action to “ban the importation of assault weapons.”
Ironically, Kamala Harris campaigned using executive action against the import of certain firearms as well. On May 15, 2019, Politico reported Harris planned to use such action for “banning the importation of AR-15-style assault weapons.”
The National Shooting Sports Foundation responded to Harris’ executive action pledge by noting the import of such rifles is already blocked, based on the ATF’s interpretation of import guidelines, and this has been the case since 1989.
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Joe Biden Planning On Blitz of Gun Control Executive Orders If Inaugurated - Big League Politics
He will ban the importation of so-called assault weapons.
bigleaguepolitics.com
BIG LEAGUE GUNS
Joe Biden Planning On Blitz of Gun Control Executive Orders If Inaugurated
He will ban the importation of so-called assault weapons.
Dec 10, 2020 by Richard Moorhead
Joe Biden staffers are speaking of a tentative list of gun control executive orders if the Democrat is inaugurated. Biden has claimed victory, as final results of the 2020 election are disputed in various courts.
View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1336710920098246657
.18 min
Biden policy director Stef Feldman pledged that the Democrat candidate would enact “big, bold” executive orders pertaining to “gun violence,” a term Democrat PR professionals have substituted for the traditional terminology of “gun control.
It’s expected that Biden will seek to use executive orders to ban the importation of so-called assault weapons. It’s all but impossible that a President Biden could ram through a ban of assault weapons through the Senate, but a president could hypothetically use executive trade powers to prevent the importation of these firearms. Such a ban would restrict US gun owners to using firearms already in the country, most notably restricting the importation of Soviet-originating firearms into the country.
Biden accepted the endorsement of anti-gun fanatic Beto O’Rourke during the Democratic primary, a far-left Texan who ran on a policy platform of actively confiscating legally-owned assault rifles from law-abiding Americans. Biden himself has been hesitant to embrace such an unconstitutional and divisive policy, even though he poached O’Rourke’s former campaign manager after the low-polling candidate dropped out of the race.
Biden Deputy Chief of Staff Proposed Mandatory Confiscation of "Assault Weapons" as Beto Campaign Manager - Big League Politics
A Biden campaign operative tasked as a deputy chief of staff in Biden’s supposedly incoming presidential administration called for the
bigleaguepolitics.com
Biden may very well go much further than Barack Obama in pushing gun control and confiscation policies, potentially surpassing the last Democrat president and making himself the de facto greatest gun salesman in American history.
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REPORT: Joe Biden Already Planning Executive Orders On Gun Control | The Gateway Pundit | by Mike LaChance
Joe Biden has not even been certified as the winner of the 2020 election yet, but is already reportedly crafting new measures for gun control.
www.thegatewaypundit.com
REPORT: Joe Biden Already Planning Executive Orders On Gun Control
By Mike LaChance
Published December 10, 2020 at 11:23pm
Joe Biden has not even been certified as the winner of the 2020 election yet, but is already reportedly crafting new measures for gun control.
And it should come as no surprise that he is not even planning legislation to send to America’s representatives but rather is planning to take steps through executive action.
As usual, Democrats just can’t wait to take rights away from law abiding citizens.
The Washington Examiner reports:
Funny. This never really came up during the debates, did it? Do you think that was a coincidence?
Biden is even being pressured by the left to create a cabinet position dedicated to gun control.
Trump tried to warn people, and he was right.
Cross posted from American Lookout.
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Joe Biden Admits: No 'Executive Authority' to Ban 'Assault Weapons'
During a December 8, 2020, meeting with Civil Rights leaders Joe Biden admitted he lacks "executive authority" to ban "assault weapons."
www.breitbart.com
Joe Biden Admits He Lacks ‘Executive Authority’ to Ban ‘Assault Weapons’
193
AWR HAWKINS11 Dec 2020612
Joe Biden admitted he lacks “executive authority” to ban “assault weapons” when the subject was broached during a December 8, 2020, meeting with civil rights leaders.
An audio recording of the meeting was shared by The Intercept’s De-Constructed, and listeners can hear Biden respond to calls for aggressive executive action by assuring the leaders that where possible, he will use executive authority to “undo every damn thing [President Trump] has done by executive authority.”
Biden said, “But I’m not going to exercise executive authority where it’s questioned.” He then referenced doing away with “assault weapons” and said, “There’s no executive authority to do away with that.”
He added, “No one’s fought harder to get rid of ‘assault weapons’ than me, but you can’t do it by executive order. You do that and the next guy comes along and says, ‘Well, guess what, by executive order…everybody can own machine guns again.'”
Biden’s admissions about the limits of executive authority regarding firearms which Democrats label as “assault weapons” points to a scenario where he would have to rely on Senators and U.S. Representatives to pass a ban he could sign.
Breitbart News reported that Associated Press addressed this scenario, noting that Biden’s fight for gun control would be an uphill battle.
The “assault weapons” ban and other gun controls being sought by the left, with the exception of red flag laws, are basically the same controls Democrats have been pursuing since the early 1990s. And the AP reported “it will be a tall order to get a majority of lawmakers on board,” regardless of which party controls Congress.
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Zumwalt: Biden's Iran Policy May Spark Mideast Nuclear Arms Race
The expected return of former Vice President Joe Biden to the White House will likely end the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.
www.breitbart.com
Zumwalt: Biden’s Iran Policy May Spark Mideast Nuclear Arms Race
47
JAMES ZUMWALT11 Dec 202053
The expected return of former Vice President Joe Biden to the White House will likely end the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, allowing the Islamist regime to expand its influence in the region and triggering alarm among its neighbors.
Biden’s statements on Iran – indicating he would be amenable to a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and further concessions to Tehran – are a wakeup call for Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and Egypt that they can no longer depend on the United States to protect them from a nuclear Iran and the time has come to consider developing their own nuclear arsenals.
Saudi Arabia, eager to have a good working relationship with Biden, wasted no time in congratulating him for his victory and did so in 24 hours. But days later, the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir made it clear that Riyadh would definitely consider arming itself with nuclear weapons if Iran acquired them.
Asked in November if Riyadh would consider nuclear development in the face of a nuclear-armed Iran, al-Jubeir said it was “definitely an option.” He has made this threat before. It was voiced when Saudi Arabia feared the mullahs would use the newfound cash they were receiving under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015 to fund various nefarious activities (i.e., terrorism) and when tensions between Riyadh and Tehran heightened as Iranian supported the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Since the JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal, paved the way for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons despite assurances otherwise, any discussions about a new agreement will see Iran demanding nothing less. Tehran is already making it clear, while the U.S. is obliged to return to the nuclear deal, it will cost us to do so.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who negotiated the agreement with Secretary of State John Kerry, sounded a bit like an old Smith Barney commercial in which the brokerage house claimed to make money the old fashioned way — by earning it. Zarif claims the U.S. now has to “earn” the right to return to the deal by fulfilling its commitments since its withdrawal — which means he is looking for a similar financial windfall as Tehran received for agreeing to JCPOA originally. Interestingly, and somewhat curiously, since Iran never actually signed JCPOA, a legal argument could be made the U.S. owes Tehran nothing —but it is an argument Biden likely will not make.
Skeptics believing a Middle East nuclear arms race is many years down the road fail to realize Riyadh can join the race almost instantaneously. Having helped Pakistan fund its nuclear defenses for years, Saudi Arabia did so with a tacit understanding that if it needed such weapons from Islamabad, they would be provided. Since Iran continues to be firmly committed to knocking Saudi Arabia off its pedestal as custodian of Islam’s Two Holy Cities, to establishing a Shia caliphate as the leader of the Islamic world, and to triggering the return of the “Hidden Imam” – all goals pointing to a nuclear attack on Saudi Arabia – Riyadh will quickly press Pakistan to make good on their understanding.
The prospect of a Middle East nuclear arms race should make us pause and reflect upon how two former leaders — one Iranian and the other American — viewed a nuclear-armed world.
In 1980, Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini said, “We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah. I say let this land burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam remains triumphant in the rest of the world.” It tells us a militant Iran does not fear its own destruction in its plan to destroy other nations.
In 2009, President Obama described his policy of the “audacity of hope” by announcing he sought to create a world free from nuclear weapons.
Ironically, Obama’s dream could be shattered by a nuclear arms race ignited by his former vice president.
Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.), is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the U.S. invasion of Panama, and the first Gulf war. He is the author of Bare Feet, Iron Will–Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields, Living the Juche Lie: North Korea’s Kim Dynasty and Doomsday: Iran–The Clock is Ticking. He is a senior analyst for Ravenna Associates, a corporate strategic communications company, who frequently writes on foreign policy and defense issues.
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Pollak: Joe Biden Names Susan Rice to WH Despite Record of Lying, Failure
No one in America has a worse public record of failure, dishonesty, and conniving than Susan Rice. She has no place in any administration.
www.breitbart.com
Pollak: Joe Biden Names Susan Rice to WH Despite Record of Lying, Failure
JOEL B. POLLAK11 Dec 2020127
Former Vice President Joe Biden named Susan Rice to lead his White House Domestic Policy Council on Friday, despite her long history of failure and her record of lying to the American people.
Rice has no experience in domestic policy. She has extensive experience in foreign policy, however — almost all of it bad.
In President Bill Clinton’s administration, Rice tried to keep the U.S. from intervening in the Rwandan genocide, and then tried to cover up the president’s inaction.
Moreover, as Breitbart News has previously noted, “Rice also defended the Clinton administration’s initial refusal to provide cheaper HIV/Aids drugs to Africa, and opposed efforts to work with the Sudanese government when it was prepared to hand over a terrorist named Osama bin Laden.”
She was a foreign policy adviser to then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) during his first presidential campaign, famously lying about the fact that her candidate had promised to meet with enemy leaders “without preconditions” (he did so during a 2007 debate). Obama elevated her to the position of UN Ambassador, where she compounded dishonesty with mismanagement.
As Breitbart News has noted:
In her role as UN Ambassador, Rice infamously led the Obama administration’s effort to cover up its failures during the Benghazi terror attack in September 12, blaming an obscure anti-Muslim YouTube video rather than Islamic terrorists.
That episode doomed her prospects to survive Senate confirmation, were Obama to have nominated her to be Secretary of State in his second term.
Instead, he made her National Security Advisor, where she presided over major failures, allowing Russia to seize Crimea and pursuing a flawed nuclear deal with Iran that encouraged the regime’s regional aggression.
On her way out of office in 2017, Rice was deeply involved in the Obama administration’s efforts to undermine the incoming Trump administration. She helped “unmask” the names of Trump aides in intelligence reports, and later lied about it.
She was present at a key Oval Office meeting in January 2017 when the investigation of incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was discussed (so, too, was Vice President Biden). Though the FBI knew by then that Flynn was innocent, the Obama administration allowed the inquiry to continue.
Rice later tried to cover up the Obama administration’s involvement by writing a memo on her last day in office in which she insisted that President Obama wanted everything done “by the book.”
On Friday, Biden promised that Rice would “elevate and turbocharge” the Domestic Policy Council, but he did not explain what qualifications, if any, she had for that specific role.
In accepting her appointment, Rice talked about her family background, and the achievements of her forebears. But she added: “Today, for far too many, the American dream has become an empty promise, a cruel mockery of lives held back by barriers, new and old.”
Why does someone with contempt for America want to govern it?
There is hardly anyone in America with a worse public record of failure, dishonesty, and conniving than Susan Rice. She has no place in the Biden administration — or any administration.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Policy Causing Clash Between Biden, Left
Democrats, who hope a Biden presidency will usher in left-wing policies, don’t like his plan for partial forgiveness of student loan debt.
www.breitbart.com
Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Policy Causing Clash Between Biden and Left
14
PENNY STARR11 Dec 2020131
Former Vice President Joe Biden pledged during the 2020 campaign that if elected president he would tackle the issue of 43 million Americans owing $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. But Democrats, who hope a Biden presidency will usher in left-wing policies, don’t like his plan for partial forgiveness and legislative remedies.
Many in the growing far-left of the Democrat Party want Biden to do away with all student loan debt on his first day in office.
“In this moment of national reckoning on racial injustice, the president-elect must cancel all federal student debt on Day 1 of his administration,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) said in a statement. “The president-elect must meet the moment. If he fails to, we will hold him accountable.”
“There are a lot of people who came out to vote in this election who frankly did it as their last shot at seeing whether the government can really work for them,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a New York Times article. “If we don’t deliver quick relief, it’s going to be very difficult to get them back.”
Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote in a recent op-ed that $50,000 debt forgiveness for individuals would give “black and brown families across the country a far better shot at building financial security” and would also serve as an economic stimulus.
“More than 200 organizations — including the American Federation of Teachers, the NAACP and others that were integral to his campaign — have joined the push,” the Times reported,
The Times reported on the conflicting approaches on solving the student loan debt problem:
It would also be expensive — “canceling even $10,000 per person in debt would eliminate more than $400 billion in government assets, although calculating the true cost to the Treasury is tricky because of student loans’ long repayment time and high default rate,” according to the Times.
The report said that high college tuition also should be addressed.
“The real problem is the cost of higher education,” Betsy Mayotte, president and founder of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors,” said. “Unless you’re going to solve the problem, forgiveness is just throwing away money.”
Biden’s campaign platform said he backed the idea of making public universities tuition-free for families making less than $125,000 a year.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Chinese Foreign Minister Seeks ‘Common Ground,’ ‘Dialogue’ with U.S.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denounced “virus politicization” and said China wants to “open a dialogue with the US."
www.breitbart.com
Chinese Foreign Minister Presses for ‘Common Ground,’ ‘Dialogue’ with U.S.
5
JOHN HAYWARD11 Dec 202034
Speaking to a symposium on international relations in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denounced “virus politicization” — other countries holding China responsible for the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus— and said China wants to “open a dialogue with the US on an equal footing at all levels and in all fields for candid, in-depth, and constructive exchanges.”
As summarized by China’s state-run People’s Daily, Wang’s broadside against “virus politicization” was a not-so-thinly-veiled demand for the rest of the world to unquestioningly accept Beijing’s political narrative of the pandemic — a narrative that portrays the Chinese Communist Party as champions of global public health, rather than the people who unleashed the Chinese coronavirus on the rest of humanity through their incompetence, mendacity, and lust for power:
Wang praised China’s ostensible commitment to “win-win” diplomacy and “open cooperation to inject confidence into the global economic recovery.”
“China’s diplomacy will keep facilitating domestic development strategies, boosting the global economic recovery, promoting the building of a new type of international relations, and deepening regional and international cooperation, as well as participating into the process of global governance system reform and building the community with a shared future for mankind,” he asserted.
Another passage of Wang’s speech quoted by China’s state-run Global Times called on the United States to get over its prejudices against China and resume diplomatic dialogue as “an effective way to correctly understand each other’s strategic intentions as well as internal and external policies.”
Wang suggested this dialogue could begin with “bilateral cooperation in the field of anti-pandemic efforts,” followed by cooperation on “the global economy, climate change, counter-terrorism, and cyber issues.”
China is, of course, the world’s number one “cyber issue” with its constant electronic espionage and intellectual property theft, but Wang insisted the U.S. should set aside such concerns and stop viewing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a “threat.”
“We always believe that as long as we keep an objective and rational attitude, increase mutual understanding and integrate our interests, we will be able to find a way for countries with different social systems and cultural backgrounds to coexist peacefully on this planet,” the foreign minister said, touching on another major CCP political narrative: its assertion that China’s outrageous human rights violations are merely an aspect of its unique “culture” and criticism amounts to meddling in China’s “internal affairs.”
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Mark Levin Slams Joe Biden's Cabinet Picks For Being Appeasers Of China (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit | by Mike LaChance
Mark Levin went on an epic rant during the Sean Hannity show this week.
www.thegatewaypundit.com
Mark Levin Slams Joe Biden’s Cabinet Picks For Being Appeasers Of China (VIDEO)
By Mike LaChance
Published December 12, 2020 at 12:46am
Mark Levin went on an epic rant during the Sean Hannity show this week.
He slammed the people Joe Biden is surrounding himself with as appeasers of China.
Joe Biden doesn’t have a great record on China either, and Levin offered plenty of reminders.
From BizPac Review:
Mark Levin goes off on Biden cabinet picks: They’re all ‘appeasers of China!’
Watch the video below:
View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1337254921243136001
9:41 min
Levin has been making the same point on Twitter:
Joe Biden is compromised by China. How can he serve America’s best interests?
Cross posted from American Lookout.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
EXCLUSIVE: Biden Cabinet Picks Welcomed Chinese Communist Conference for Group Boasting 'Private Briefings' With U.S. Officials » The National Pulse+
The Committee of 100 – which hosts conferences alongside the Chinese Communist Party and has been praised by Xi Jinping – boasts of “private briefings” with U.S. government officials and involvement from U.S. politicians including nominated Biden administration cabinet secretaries and advisers...
thenationalpulse.com
EXCLUSIVE: Biden Cabinet Picks Welcomed Chinese Communist Conference For Group Boasting ‘Private Briefings’ With U.S. Officials
The Committee of 100 – which hosts conferences alongside the Chinese Communist Party and has been praised by Xi Jinping – boasts of “private briefings” with U.S. government officials and involvement from U.S. politicians including nominated Biden administration cabinet secretaries and advisers.
The group, the brainchild of noted Chinese Communist Party appeaser Henry Kissinger, routinely holds conferences to boost political and economic ties between China and the U.S.
The Committee of 100, however, appears to leverage its membership, which consists of prominent Chinese and American nationals, to connect Americans with the Chinese Communist Party.
Prominently displayed on the group’s “mission and history” page are pictures of group members posing with current and former leaders of the Chinese Communist Party including Xi Jinping:
The current leader of the Chinese Communist Party praised the group’s efforts in 2015, describing the committee along with other members of the pro-China lobby as “friendly” towards the Chinese Communist Party and deserving of his “heartfelt gratitude”:
As a Chinese saying goes, the fire burns high when everyone brings wood to it. It is the loving care and hard work of the national governments, local authorities, friendly organizations and people from all walks of life in both countries that have made China-US relations flourish. In particular, the National Committee on US-China Relations, the US-China Business Council, the US-China Policy Foundation, the US Chamber of Commerce, the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA, the Committee of 100, the Brookings Institution and many other friendly groups and individuals have made untiring efforts over the years to promote friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries and brought the relationship to this far. Let me pay high tribute and express my heartfelt gratitude to all the local governments, social organizations, universities, think tanks and people from all sectors of society who have dedicated themselves to the cause of China-US friendship.
In addition to conferences, often featuring high-level Chinese government officials, the group also conducts “private briefings on Capitol Hill on important U.S.-China topics”:
Since April 2015 C100 has organized 6 private educational briefings on Capitol Hill on important U.S.-China topics, engaging nearly 300 congressional participants in the nation’s capital, including current members of Congress, former members of Congress, members of the diplomatic community, and senior congressional staff in both the House and the Senate. […] The long-term goal is to build a consistent and systematic presence on Capitol Hill and enhance C100’s long-term capacity to engage with leading policymakers on issues critical to our dual mission.
The Committee of 100 has also seen its members visit China to attend “private meetings with several prominent Chinese leaders” such as Chinese Culture Minister Cai Wu.
The group leads “annual delegations from the U.S. to meet with top political and business leaders in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei,” and has held meetings with top tier Chinese Communist leadership.
The organization’s most recent conference, which featured former Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Zhaoxing Li and Ambassador to the U.S. Wenzhong Zhou, saw speakers argue for closer ties between the two countries. Speakers emphasized how “decoupling is not a sustainable direction” and that the U.S. and China need to “work with each other.”
In the same year, responding to an abundance of Department of Justice (DOJ) indictments against Chinese Communist Party-linked researchers swiping intellectual property and failing to disclose their foreign ties, the committee held a summit on “the challenges facing Chinese American Researchers” undermining the DOJ’s findings.
CA REP. TED. LIEU SPEAKING ON PANEL.
“With rising concerns of Chinese espionage in the United States and escalating tensions between the U.S. and China, Chinese Americans, especially those in science and research, have felt increasingly scrutinized by employers, colleagues, and prosecutors. These issues have had a chilling impact, not only on individual scientists and researchers, but also on universities, research institutions, and businesses,” a summary noted.
Judy Chu, who has been repeatedly pictured with a recently-exposed Chinese Communist Party intelligence operative, spoke at the event along with Adam Schiff.
Another 2019 event counted Joe Biden adviser Lawrence Summers as the opening keynote speaker along with Max Baucus, an Obama-era China Ambassador and close Biden friend exposed by The National Pulse for leveraging his credentials to consult on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party-owned Bank of China also served as a sponsor of the event.
In 2016, the conference, which counted Chinese state-run media outlet China Daily as a sponsor, boasted of its “support” from representatives including Biden’s Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, two representatives targeted by a Chinese spy as recently revealed by Axios, and Chinese Communist Party officials.
BECERRA’S LAUDING LETTER TO THE CONFERENCE.
Among other “participating organizations” at the conference were additional Chinese state-run media outlets such as CCTV America, Xinhua, and People’s Daily as well as Obama’s Department of Commerce and Alibaba. Never Trump Republicans such as Cory Gardner and Mark Kirk also offered support for the event.
ALIBABA PRAISING CONFERENCE.
The 2015 conference featured similar sponsors along with official branches of the Chinese government including the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. Another sponsor was China-based Wanxiang, a firm with a long track record of corruption, frequently adding connected individuals to its rolodex, as Peter Schweizer points out in Secret Empires:
It has also collected powerful political friends on both sides of the aisle, by putting them and their family members on the payroll. Along the way, it has skated past federal regulations and avoided sanctions for doing business in North Korea that have plagued other companies. It offers a powerful illustration of how politically connected firms make members of the American political class wealthy while getting special treatment in the United States.
The latest revelations will add fuel to the already raging concerns in Washington, D.C. that Joe Biden’s team and the wider Democratic Party are compromised by leading Chinese Communist Party members.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Pinkerton: What Happens When a Communist Regime Penetrates Our Government
There was once a Democrat Congressman and a Democrat aide who spied for a communist country, and a Democrat president who took action.
www.breitbart.com
Pinkerton: What Happens When a Communist Regime Penetrates Our Government
43
JAMES P. PINKERTON12 Dec 202077
Explosive Accusations
The U.S. Congressman, a Democrat, is accused of being an agent of a foreign communist power. As one accuser says of the lawmaker, “I think he is a spy.” The Congressman denies it, and yet eventually, it’s demonstrated that he has been, in fact, engaged in espionage on behalf of foreign communist paymasters.
Perhaps the reader might be thinking that this case is connected to the People’s Republic of China; after all, its many spy programs have been in the news a lot lately—including just this past week.
On December 1, John Ratcliffe, the former Member of Congress whom President Trump appointed as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) earlier this year, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “The People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II.” He added, “The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically.”
In addition, in a December 3 interview with CBS News’ intelligence ace, Catherine Herridge, Ratcliffe added more detail, asserting that the Chinese have proven themselves capable of using blackmail, bribery, and covert and overt influence to ensure that the U.S. enacts laws and policies favorable to China.
Then, on December 8, came a pair of revelations that are perhaps traceable to Ratcliffe’s intelligence work. The New York Post reported on a video, taped in November, in which a Chinese official, Di Dongsheng, vice dean of the School of International Relations at Beijing’s Renmin University, said:
Yes, Di’s words are, indeed, explosive—the idea that China’s friends are “at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence.” So who might these friends be? Di didn’t say, exactly, although he mentioned Hunter Biden, who is certainly well-placed and has had plenty of business activity in China, along with Chris Heinz, step-son of John Kerry, whom Joe Biden has slated to be his climate-change czar.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, waves as he walks out of Air Force Two with his granddaughter Finnegan Biden and son Hunter Biden at the airport in Beijing, China, on Dec. 4, 2013. Hunter Biden’s private equity firm secured a billion dollar deal with the state-owned Bank of China ten days after accompanying his father on this trip to China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Of course, Di’s statements haven’t been verified, let alone proven. So it’s possible that some or all of these allegations will be judged to be misleading, or perhaps even as outright fake news. Or, they might someday be regarded as a disinformation plot—perhaps, who knows, aimed at throwing investigators off the trail of someone else. As they say, espionage and counter-espionage are a wilderness of mirrors.
In that same spirit of curious but cautious, we must, at least for now, also put a caveat in front of Tuesday’s bombshell scoop of Axios, headlined, “Suspected Chinese spy targeted California politicians.” As that piece detailed, early in the last decade, a female Chinese national named Fang Fang (also known as Christine Fang) deliberately networked with various Golden State politicians, including Rep. Eric Swalwell, best known for his ill-starred bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Moreover, the Axios report added:
In fact, one unnamed intelligence official told Axios that the Fang case “was a big deal, because there were some really, really sensitive people that were caught up.” (Swalwell, we might note, has a spot on the powerful House Intelligence Committee.)
These are some tantalizing suspicions, aren’t they? For his part, Swalwell denies any wrongdoing–although in an interview with Politico, he pointedly refused to discuss his relationship with Fang (Gee, how should we interpret that?). For her part, Fang reportedly left the U.S. in 2015, returning to China—where she will most likely be unavailable to investigators.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) with suspected Chinese communist spy Christine Fang (Facebook)
Indeed, as of now, it’s an open question as to how much more we’ll learn about any of these cases. After all, Ratcliffe is a Trump appointee, and Joe Biden has already named a successor, Avril Haines, for the DNI post.
So what will Haines do once she’s in office? Will she have anything notable to say about China’s campaign against the U.S.? Will she provide us with more details about Di’s comments? Or about Fang’s activities? Or about Swalwell—and what he did or didn’t do? And what about that pair of randy Midwestern mayors? Will we ever find out their names?
We don’t yet know the answers to those questions, of course, although we do know that Joe Biden has been notably non-communicative about one China-connected figure close to him: his son, Hunter Biden.
Yes, Joe Biden has said that son will not be involved in any foreign money-making schemes; however, as Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak has pointed out, the elder Biden has made that pledge before and not kept it. (And we can add that such restrictions are hard to enforce; what, after all, constitutes a foreign scheme, as opposed to just, you know, Hunter Biden living his usual high life in a $12,000-a month pad in the Hollywood Hills?)
In the meantime, we should know that if something has happened before, that raises the likelihood that it can happen again. As the philosopher Hegel explained, the actual proves the possible.
And actually, there was once a member of Congress who was spy for a communist country. So yes, today, a communist spy in our midst is a possibility.
An Explosive Accusation, Proven
It was in the 1930s, when a Democratic Congressman from New York City, Samuel Dickstein, operated as a paid spy for the Soviet Union. As detailed in a 1999 book, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America – The Stalin Era, by Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, Dickstein delivered secrets to his NKVD (a predecessor to the KGB) handler, Peter Gutzeit, a Russian operating in the United States. Gutzeit had also spread his tentacles into Hollywood and other leftist hotbeds. In 2014, another intelligence historian, Peter Duffy, summed up the case against Dickstein in an article headlined, “The Congressman Who Spied for Russia.” (Duffy dug up the quote, used in the first paragraph of this piece, “I think he is a spy,” said by a contemporary of Dickstein’s.)
Soviet spy Rep. Samuel Dickstein (D-NY), 1937. (Library of Congress)
In addition to the elected Dickstein, hundreds of others in non-elected federal jobs were also Soviet spies. Perhaps the most notorious of these was Alger Hiss, a onetime top aide in the State Department, who was revealed as a communist agent by a young Congressman, Richard Nixon, in 1948, and sent to prison in the early 1950s.
This was the Cold War era, when the communist Soviet Union sought to overturn American security and threaten world peace.
John Berresford, an independent historian whose extensive research on the Hiss case has been showcased at the Smithsonian Museum, sees similarities—and dissimilarities—between America’s situation in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and today in what’s emerging as a new cold war with China.
Among the dissimilarities is that the Soviet Union back then had the benefit of the international appeal of communism. That is, many idealists—wrongheadedly, of course—saw communism, then embodied by Josef Stalin, as the better system. By contrast, in our time, as Berresford says, “No one is ideologically committed to President Xi Jinping.”
Yet on the other hand, China has far-flung business interests across the world, as well as plenty of money. And money, all too often, can make things happen, spy-wise. As Berresford puts it, “The words may change but the song—that is, blackmail and seduction—remains the same.” Indeed, the essence of spycraft is temptation: if not ideological, then financial or sexual. Anything that someone might want, a spy-recruiter might provide.
Proven Countermeasures
So what can we do about Chinese espionage? We know what Ratcliffe and the Trump administration want to do—they want to get tough. So now we’ll have to see the stance of the Biden administration.
Yet the Bidenites should realize that there’s a price to be paid for laxity on national security—including a political price. For perspective, we might think back, again, to the 1940s. We had been allies with the Soviet Union during World War II, based on the hard-nosed calculation that Hitler’s Germany was the greatest enemy and that we needed all the help we could get to beat him.
Yet after Germany’s surrender in May 1945, it soon became apparent that the Soviet Union was also a grave threat. And the threat wasn’t just the Red Army in Europe; it was also the “fifth column” of communist spies in the U.S. Most, if not all, of those spies, including Alger Hiss, had penetrated the federal government during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945.
Soviet spy and Democratic administration official Alger Hiss testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, DC, on Aug. 25, 1948. (AP Photo)
So now it was the challenge of FDR’s successor in the Oval Office, Harry Truman, to address the communist threat. Truman, after all, wanted to be elected in 1948, and he could’t hope for such a victory if he were seen as oblivious to the threat of internal subversion. In the meantime, the opposition Republicans, smelling lots of red rats hidden inside the federal government, were on the hunt.
After some hesitation, Truman stepped up on counter-espionage. In 1947, he issued Executive Order 9835, establishing a Loyalty Program for the federal government, including a Loyalty Oath. Some might argue that a dedicated communist, or other nogoodnik, would be happy simply to lie about loyalty. And yet history proves that oaths do actually have an effect on individuals; moreover, loyalty programs and oaths have an effect on institutions—that is, they send a signal that leadership takes security seriously, and so safety measures fall into place.
In 1952, Uncle Sam went further, putting into law the McCarran-Walter Act, toughening up on immigration and internal security. We might note that the sponsors of the legislation, Sen. Pat McCarran of Nevada and Rep. Francis Walter of Pennsylvania, were both Democrats. In other words, Democrats can do it—at least the old kind of Democrats could.
Today
So what will the Biden administration do about China? One place to start making a good impression would be the full and frank disclosure of the $22 million that anonymous Chinese individuals or interests donated to the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. During the Trump years, the so-called Penn Biden Center served as a kind of holding center for once and future Biden aides, including Tony Blinken, Biden’s pick to be the next secretary of state.
So what’s up with that $22 million? Who gave it? Why did they give it? What are they getting for it?
If and when those questions are answered, there will be more questions to be asked.
A lot more. Because this is Cold War II with China—and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Reports: Joe Biden Eying Andrew Cuomo for Attorney General
Former Vice President Joe Biden is eying New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a possible candidate for attorney general, according to reports.
www.breitbart.com
Reports: Joe Biden Eying Andrew Cuomo for Attorney General
2,477
CHARLIE SPIERING12 Dec 20201,860
Former Vice President Joe Biden is eying New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a possible candidate for attorney general, according to reports.
Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker cited “a person with knowledge” of Biden’s search process who included Cuomo on the shortlist as well as outgoing Alabama Democrat Sen. Doug Jones, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland. Bloomberg News reporter Jennifer Epstein also cited “a person familiar with the matter” confirming the report.
Cuomo, who has served as governor since 2011, will finish his third term in 2022. Cuomo also previously served as the Attorney General of New York and the secretary of Housing and Urban Development during former President Bill Clinton’s administration.
In October, Cuomo downplayed rumors that he would join Biden’s cabinet as Attorney General.
“I’m a New Yorker,” he told reporters. “I said I would serve as governor and those rumors — those are only from people who want to get me out of New York… I have no interest in going to Washington.”
If Cuomo was nominated, he would face a tough confirmation fight, as the New York governor has become a controversial proponent of draconian coronavirus lockdowns in the state.
marsh
On TB every waking moment
Brooks: I Have 'Concerns' about Austin as Defense Secretary
On Friday's "PBS NewsHour," New York Times columnist David Brooks expressed concern over Joe Biden's Defense Secretary pick, retired General Lloyd Austin, | Clips
www.breitbart.com
Brooks: I Have ‘Concerns’ about Austin as Defense Secretary
12:13 min
On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks expressed concern over Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary pick, retired General Lloyd Austin, and said that there’s no need to risk contradicting the principle that the secretary of defense should “have distance from the current military brass.”
Brooks said, “I also share some of the concerns with Lloyd Austin, not for anything having to do with Lloyd Austin and his performance. But there’s a reason we have this rule, this tradition, and also a rule, that you don’t have generals switching right over to the defense secretary. It’s about civilian control. It’s about picking people who have distance from the current military brass. And that is a very solid and sensible rule. And in the Jim Mattis case, where we also had to get an exemption, that struck me as an extreme circumstance where getting Jim Mattis in there was so important, it was worth breaking the rule. Now there must be a lot of very qualified people, like Michele Flournoy, who could be secretary of defense. I don’t quite see why we run this risk of traversing what is a sensible principle.”