Four Democratic members of Congress, three of whom are senators, say Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), who is 88 years old, is too cognitively impaired to serve out her term, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.
One who has known the senator for 15 years had to reintroduce themself to Feinstein multiple times during a recent policy meeting. Her memory fails, and she has difficulty distinguishing longtime colleagues, the lawmakers said. During last month's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, she often repeated herself. "It's bad, and it's getting worse," a Democratic senator revealed. One Democratic aide even shared a joke: Californians have "a great junior senator in Alex Padilla and an experienced staff in Feinstein's office."
Reports of Feinstein's deteriorating cognitive ability have circulated for the past few years. Then-Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) had to tell Feinstein twice to step down as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee because she forgot about their first conversation.
"It was like Groundhog Day," a source told the New Yorker in 2020, "but with the pain fresh each time."
In September, former California Democratic senator Barbara Boxer became the first party figure to suggest Feinstein should retire.
"If Sen. Feinstein were to call me today and asked my advice … I would say only you can decide this," Boxer told the Los Angeles Times. "But from my perspective, I want you to know I've had very productive years away from the Senate doing good things. So put that into the equation."
Feinstein has rebuffed her critics, saying she may forget things but her cognitive abilities have not "diminished."
Lawmakers who spoke anonymously to the San Francisco Chronicle did so before Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, died of cancer in February.
"I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn't resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea," a California House Democrat told the Chronicle. "All of that is gone."
Some lawmakers defended Feinstein's mental acuity, including 82-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who called the lawmakers' claims "ridiculous," and Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), who said Feinstein mailed him a handwritten letter after he was stuck for more than 24 hours in traffic on I-95.
Feinstein has not held a town hall meeting in her state since the beginning of her current term. If she serves until 2024 and Democrats maintain a Senate majority, she could become the upper chamber's president pro tempore, making her third in line for the Oval Office behind Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris
THERE IS A REASON WHY CHINA’S GREAT WHORE, SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, WAS FIRST TO ENDORSE JOE BIDEN. THEY ARE ON THE SAME ELEVATED LEVEL OF CORRUPTION AND HAVE BOTH SERVED RED CHINA WELL. JUST FOLLOW THE MONEY!
ACCORDING TO THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, CHINA’S ENTIRE ECONOMY IS PREDICATED ON THE CHINESE THEFT OF AMERICA.
WHO WAS THERE TO HELP THEM?
DO A SEARCH FOR SENATOR DIANNE FEISNTEIN AND RED CHINA!
China: Power and Prosperity -- Watch the full documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JovtmKFxi3c
THE BIDEN KLEPTOCRACY
American people deserve to know what China was up to with Joe Biden, especially when Beijing had already shelled out millions of dollars to Biden family members — including millions in set-asides for “the big guy.” What else is on that infamous Hunter Biden laptop? The conflicted Biden Justice Department cannot be trusted to engage in any meaningful oversight on this issue. We need a special counsel now.
TOM FITTON - JUDICIAL WATCH
THE BIDEN KLEPTOCRACY
RIDING THE DRAGON: The Bidens' Chinese Secrets (Full Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRmlcEBAiIs
Chris Hedges: How Republicans, Democrats, and the Media Have Weakened US Democracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2jyzp09_g8
Schweizer: ‘It’s Going to Be Business as Usual’ for Hunter’s Dealings
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/01/20/schweizer-its-going-to-be-business-as-usual-for-hunters-dealings/
Schweizer: ‘It’s Going to Be Business as Usual’ for Hunter’s Dealings
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/01/20/schweizer-its-going-to-be-business-as-usual-for-hunters-dealings/
Joe Biden, the corrupt, unaccomplished 47-year career politician, with a reputation of having been a proud segregationist, an unabashed plagiarist and liar, a resolute tale-teller, and a serial flip-flopper, is pretending to head up a radical social-democratic ticket for President of the United States that includes as his running mate the ambitious, disagreeable junior senator from California: Kamala Harris.
“Protect and enrich.” This is a perfect encapsulation of the Clinton Foundation and the Obama book and television deals. Then there is the Biden family corruption, followed closely behind by similar abuses of power and office by the Warren and Sanders families, as Peter Schweizer described in his recent book “Profiles in Corruption.” These names just scratch the surface of government corruption. BRIAN C JOONDEPH
· Feinstein’s Close China Ties Under Scrutiny After Chinese Spy Discovery
· BY ZACHARY STIEBER
·
· News of a Chinese spy working for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein broke recently, revealing the spy was employed by Feinstein for 20 years.
· Initially reported as part of a larger story about spies in Silicon Valley, a former intelligence official later revealed that the staffer was Feinstein’s driver for many years.
· The source told the San Francisco Chronicle that the driver passed information to Chinese officials based at the local Chinese Consulate. Part of the staffer’s role was acting as a liaison between Feinstein’s San Francisco office and the local consulate.
· The staffer was recruited to spy after visiting China.
· The staffer, who has not been named, worked for Feinstein for 20 years.
·
Senator Feinstein was alerted to the spy about five years ago. The FBI alerted Feinstein after investigating and finding the staffer shared nothing of substance.
· “They interviewed him, and Dianne forced him to retire, and that was the end of it,” the source said. “None of her staff ever knew what was going on. They just kept it quiet.”
· Feinstein wouldn’t comment on the spy but her office told CBS that none of the staffers in San Francisco have ever had security clearances.
· Noting the oddness of the discovery, President Donald Trump said via Twitter on August 3: “Dianne is the person leading our Nation on ‘Collusion’ with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself?”
· …Dianne is the person leading our Nation on “Collusion” with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself? https://t.co/OG6l04bBwg
· — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018
· Feinstein’s Relationship With China
· Some details of Feinstein’s past are now being examined anew, centered on her close relationship with China, beginning with her service as mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.
· Feinstein has long been linked to China. For instance, she hosted former president of China Jiang Zemin at her home for dinner when she was mayor of San Francisco, and celebrated the resumption of air service from China to the United States (starting with San Francisco International Airport) after a 32-year hiatus.
· San Francisco and Shanghai have been sister cities for 38 years, after the agreement was put into place by Feinstein and Jiang, who was then Shanghai’s mayor. Feinstein was cited as having a “close relationship” with Jiang and ties between the two continued for many years later.
· Jiang is infamous for cracking down on human rights, most notoriously by banning the peaceful meditation practice of Falun Gong and throwing many of its estimated 100 million adherents into jail.
· 
A re-enactment of organ harvesting in China on Falun Gong practitioners, during a rally in Ottawa, Canada, 2008. (The Epoch Times)
· Under Jiang, torture, rape, murder, and even organ harvesting from detained practitioners became common.
· To help facilitate the relationship between the U.S. and China, Feinstein asked organizers of the city’s popular Chinese New Year Parade to stop displaying the flag of the Nationalist Chinese government, which ruled in exile in Taiwan after 1949.
· Feinstein also defended China, despite its communist policies, insisting that it was merely “socialist.”
· “There was originally this kind of anti-communist view of China,” Feinstein told the Washington Post. “That’s changing. . . . China is a socialist country but one that is increasingly becoming capitalistic.”
· Husband Becomes Prominent Investor in China
· Several articles from the 90s explore the development of not only Feinstein’s developing relationship with China while she was mayor, but her husband’s burgeoning investments there.
· According to the Los Angeles Times, in 1997 Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum, who invests his own and clients’ money into undervalued firms, expanded his business investments into the communist nation to the point that “his firm is now a prominent investor” there.
· In 1992, the investments amounted to one project worth less than $500,000. Two years later he was planning to invest up to $150 million and two years after that a Blum investment firm paid $23 million for a stake in a Chinese government-owned steel company.
· Another investment by Blum’s firm was helped by the International Finance Corp., an arm of the World Bank, which invested $10 million in the leading producers of soybean milk and candy in China.
· Utterly amazing to read this 1997 report on Sen Feinstein’s family’s political and business ties to #China in context of revelations about a Chinese spy working for her as a driver for 20 years, quietly let go seemingly rather than being brought to justice https://t.co/efwT2yZgkg pic.twitter.com/twAI5igZ2I
· — Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) August 4, 2018
· “It seems to be going quite well,” Rashad Kaldan—who in 1994 managed the IFC’s capital markets investments in Asia—told the Times of the project. He added: “There also was some comfort in that Mr. Blum had some contacts with the Chinese.”
· Blum said that his interest in China went back many years, predating political connections. He won permission from the Chinese in 1981 to climb the east face of Mt. Everest and called himself a close friend of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader who the Chinese government opposes.
· In dispatches written for the San Francisco Examiner, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Blum said that a goodwill visit to China by Feinstein in 1979 helped him win permission to climb Everest.
· “We had come to build goodwill, promote trade and to make new friends,” Blum wrote in one story, adding, “but I asked for and received permission to have another kind of meeting—one with the Chinese Mountaineering Association.”
· Trips to China
· Feinstein took three trips between 1995 and 1997 to China, in addition to trips earlier in her mayoral service, to meet with top communist officials, including Jiang. Blum often attended the meetings with her, an arrangement the Times described as “unusual.”
· At one time, the couple had dinner at Zhongnanhai, the enclave reserved for the president and other top officials in China.
· “We had dinner in Zhongnanhai in Mao Tse-tung’s old residence in the room where he died. We were told that we were the first foreigners to see his bedroom and the swimming pool. It was a very historic moment to see some of these things,” told the Los Angeles Times. Mao was the communist leader of China whose policies led to the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese people.
· Feinstein insisted that Blum had never spoken to officials during meetings about business.
· “I am open to any suggestion as to how I can even make a firewall more fireproof,” she said. “I don’t know what else I can do. . . . Either he retires or I suppose we end our marriage.”
· Feinstein’s Close China Ties Under Scrutiny After Chinese Spy Discovery
· BY ZACHARY STIEBER
·
· News of a Chinese spy working for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein broke recently, revealing the spy was employed by Feinstein for 20 years.
· Initially reported as part of a larger story about spies in Silicon Valley, a former intelligence official later revealed that the staffer was Feinstein’s driver for many years.
· The source told the San Francisco Chronicle that the driver passed information to Chinese officials based at the local Chinese Consulate. Part of the staffer’s role was acting as a liaison between Feinstein’s San Francisco office and the local consulate.
· The staffer was recruited to spy after visiting China.
· The staffer, who has not been named, worked for Feinstein for 20 years.
·
Senator Feinstein was alerted to the spy about five years ago. The FBI alerted Feinstein after investigating and finding the staffer shared nothing of substance.
· “They interviewed him, and Dianne forced him to retire, and that was the end of it,” the source said. “None of her staff ever knew what was going on. They just kept it quiet.”
· Feinstein wouldn’t comment on the spy but her office told CBS that none of the staffers in San Francisco have ever had security clearances.
· Noting the oddness of the discovery, President Donald Trump said via Twitter on August 3: “Dianne is the person leading our Nation on ‘Collusion’ with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself?”
· …Dianne is the person leading our Nation on “Collusion” with Russia (only done by Dems). Will she now investigate herself? https://t.co/OG6l04bBwg
· — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2018
· Feinstein’s Relationship With China
· Some details of Feinstein’s past are now being examined anew, centered on her close relationship with China, beginning with her service as mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.
· Feinstein has long been linked to China. For instance, she hosted former president of China Jiang Zemin at her home for dinner when she was mayor of San Francisco, and celebrated the resumption of air service from China to the United States (starting with San Francisco International Airport) after a 32-year hiatus.
· San Francisco and Shanghai have been sister cities for 38 years, after the agreement was put into place by Feinstein and Jiang, who was then Shanghai’s mayor. Feinstein was cited as having a “close relationship” with Jiang and ties between the two continued for many years later.
· Jiang is infamous for cracking down on human rights, most notoriously by banning the peaceful meditation practice of Falun Gong and throwing many of its estimated 100 million adherents into jail.
· 
A re-enactment of organ harvesting in China on Falun Gong practitioners, during a rally in Ottawa, Canada, 2008. (The Epoch Times)
· Under Jiang, torture, rape, murder, and even organ harvesting from detained practitioners became common.
· To help facilitate the relationship between the U.S. and China, Feinstein asked organizers of the city’s popular Chinese New Year Parade to stop displaying the flag of the Nationalist Chinese government, which ruled in exile in Taiwan after 1949.
· Feinstein also defended China, despite its communist policies, insisting that it was merely “socialist.”
· “There was originally this kind of anti-communist view of China,” Feinstein told the Washington Post. “That’s changing. . . . China is a socialist country but one that is increasingly becoming capitalistic.”
· Husband Becomes Prominent Investor in China
· Several articles from the 90s explore the development of not only Feinstein’s developing relationship with China while she was mayor, but her husband’s burgeoning investments there.
· According to the Los Angeles Times, in 1997 Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum, who invests his own and clients’ money into undervalued firms, expanded his business investments into the communist nation to the point that “his firm is now a prominent investor” there.
· In 1992, the investments amounted to one project worth less than $500,000. Two years later he was planning to invest up to $150 million and two years after that a Blum investment firm paid $23 million for a stake in a Chinese government-owned steel company.
· Another investment by Blum’s firm was helped by the International Finance Corp., an arm of the World Bank, which invested $10 million in the leading producers of soybean milk and candy in China.
· Utterly amazing to read this 1997 report on Sen Feinstein’s family’s political and business ties to #China in context of revelations about a Chinese spy working for her as a driver for 20 years, quietly let go seemingly rather than being brought to justice https://t.co/efwT2yZgkg pic.twitter.com/twAI5igZ2I
· — Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) August 4, 2018
· “It seems to be going quite well,” Rashad Kaldan—who in 1994 managed the IFC’s capital markets investments in Asia—told the Times of the project. He added: “There also was some comfort in that Mr. Blum had some contacts with the Chinese.”
· Blum said that his interest in China went back many years, predating political connections. He won permission from the Chinese in 1981 to climb the east face of Mt. Everest and called himself a close friend of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader who the Chinese government opposes.
· In dispatches written for the San Francisco Examiner, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Blum said that a goodwill visit to China by Feinstein in 1979 helped him win permission to climb Everest.
· “We had come to build goodwill, promote trade and to make new friends,” Blum wrote in one story, adding, “but I asked for and received permission to have another kind of meeting—one with the Chinese Mountaineering Association.”
· Trips to China
· Feinstein took three trips between 1995 and 1997 to China, in addition to trips earlier in her mayoral service, to meet with top communist officials, including Jiang. Blum often attended the meetings with her, an arrangement the Times described as “unusual.”
· At one time, the couple had dinner at Zhongnanhai, the enclave reserved for the president and other top officials in China.
· “We had dinner in Zhongnanhai in Mao Tse-tung’s old residence in the room where he died. We were told that we were the first foreigners to see his bedroom and the swimming pool. It was a very historic moment to see some of these things,” told the Los Angeles Times. Mao was the communist leader of China whose policies led to the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese people.
· Feinstein insisted that Blum had never spoken to officials during meetings about business.
· “I am open to any suggestion as to how I can even make a firewall more fireproof,” she said. “I don’t know what else I can do. . . . Either he retires or I suppose we end our marriage.”
· 
Dianne Feinstein, U.S.Senator and Richard Blum arrive at the State Dinner for China’s President President Xi and Madame Peng Liyuan at the White House for an official State Visit in Washington on Sept. 25, 2015. (Photo by Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images)
· Experts noted that even attending the meetings and being so visible conferred a certain benefit to Blum, in addition to Feinstein’s pro-China record.
· “There is no doubt in my mind that, if Dianne Feinstein had a pattern of taking positions on U.S.-China policy that Chinese officials disliked, Mr. Blum would have a great deal more difficulty doing business in China and probably would find it impossible to do,” said Ross Munro, co-author of “The Coming Conflict with China.”
· By 2000, Blum pledged not to invest in China or Hong Kong as long as his wife remained a senator.
· The Los Angeles Times noted that Feinstein has sometimes taken on issues that seemed to coincide with those of her husband, such as calling in a speech on the Senate floor in 1994 for President Bill Clinton to increase favorable trade relations with China. At the same time, Blum was planning to invest up to $150 million there.
· Feinstein was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992.
· China Attempts Illegal Contributions
· A widespread campaign of making potentially illegal donations stemmed from a 1996 vote on whether to bestow permanent most-favored-nation trading status on China, an effort Feinstein led.
· According to Slate and the Washington Post, Feinstein was alerted in the early 90s by the FBI that the Chinese government was working to illegally contribute money to various campaigns, including hers. Though no donations could be definitively linked to the government, Feinstein returned a $12,000 check to businessman and Democratic National Committee Vice-chair John Huang.
· “We have reason to believe that the government of China may try to make contributions to members of Congress through Asian donors,” a statement in the FBI briefing materials to elected officials read.
· A Justice Department task force said Feinstein nor any other member of Congress knowingly received illegal payments from the Chinese government.
· However, authorities said that the Democratic National Committee returned $3 million in campaign contributions because the money came from questionable or improper sources. Officials believed the potentially illegal campaigns were an attempt to influence votes on the trading status.
· Feinstein has received awards and recognition from some groups for promoting U.S.-China ties, accepting the California-Asia Business Council’s New Silk Road award in 2005.
· “The rise of China is one of the most remarkable transformations the world has ever seen,” she told the crowd.
· “For many of us who watch China, there is both a sense of awe at what China has accomplished, as well as a sense that it could all unravel overnight.”
· “Rather than just pinning the blame on China, we need to better understand the costs that lead to outsourcing abroad and take action to remediate them,” she added.
· “I strongly believe that the US-China relationship is and will be America’s most important bilateral relationship. We must not let differences, economic or otherwise, derail the progress that has already been achieved over the past three decades.”
· From NTD.tv
· Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber
·
· Ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) attends a Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on June 16, 2020. (Tom Williams/Pool/Getty Images)
· POLITICS
· Feinstein Praises China, Opposes Bill That Would Let Americans Sue CCP
· Longtime Democrat has ties to the country
· BY ZACHARY STIEBER
·
· July 31, 2020 Updated: July 31, 2020
·
· Print
· ✉
· A longtime senator spoke out against legislation that would let American citizens sue the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), claiming China’s regime is “growing into a respectable nation” and that the bill would open the United States up for to lawsuits.
· Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has close ties with China, made the comments during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that included discussion of a bill introduced by six Republican lawmakers.
· The legislation would provide Americans with the “legal tools necessary to sue the Chinese government in federal court for creating and worsening the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), one of the sponsors, said in a statement.
· Feinstein, the oldest member of the Senate, told colleagues that Californians “hold China as a potential trading partner, as a country that has pulled tens of millions of people out of poverty in a short period of time, and as a country growing into a respectable nation among other nations.”
· “And I deeply believe that. I’ve been to China a number of times. I’ve studied the issues,” she added.
· 
Medical staff in protective clothes are seen carrying a patient from an apartment suspected of having the CCP virus in Wuhan, in Hubei province on Jan. 30, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
· Feinstein cited a professor who told the committee behind closed doors that the United States has the most to lose by permitting civil lawsuits against China.
· “She explained that the more expansive the exceptions, the more they could also apply to U.S. conduct, the worse off we will be,” Feinstein said.
· “In short, if we eliminate sovereign immunity for countries engaging in reckless behavior that contributed to the spread of COVID-19, and other countries, including China, may very well do the same to us,” she added later.
· A Feinstein spokesman didn’t respond to an inquiry about what the senator is doing to respond to the CCP’s human rights abuses, including holding over one million in concentration camps in Xinjiang, or the party’s failure to contain the CCP virus.
· Feinstein during the hearing said she favors forming relationships “that can make the changes internationally.”
· 
Transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, isolated from a patient. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. (NIAID)
· The committee later advanced the bill to the full Senate. Republicans hold majorities on each committee because the party holds the Senate with a 53-47 majority, including two Independents who nearly always caucus with Democrats.
· “China’s Communist Party must face consequences for concealing and now profiting off of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a member of the committee, said in a statement.
· Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee conclude
Democrat Traitors Stand by China’s Spy Consulates
Democrat sanctuary cities don’t just provide sanctuary for illegal aliens, but for enemy spies.
July 29, 2020
Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
On Tuesday, Houston firefighters arrived at 3417 Montrose Boulevard. Neighbors had reported smoke and a burning smell at the Chinese consulate. The consulate, which had been given 72 hours to close by the State Department, did not let them in even as the smoke continued to waft into the summer air.
Video showed consulate employees throwing paper into burning bins.
“We have directed the closure of PRC Consulate General Houston, in order to protect American intellectual property and American’s private information," the State Department had warned.
The Houston consulate had become notorious for trying to intimidate American elected officials in Texas and nearby states, as well as American energy companies, especially those doing business in Asia. Some have also linked the Houston consulate to Chinese espionage against American tech and medical firms.
FBI investigations into the Houston consulate involved theft of medical research, recruiting researchers to get at scientific secrets, and forcing Chinese nationals to return to the People’s Republic of China.
Why would the People’s Republic of China have thought that Houston would be a safe base for spying on and intimidating Americans? Houston and Texas Democrats quickly rushed to provide the answer.
Rep. Al Green, who had hosted a luncheon at the spy consulate, accused President Trump of racism.
“Don’t give the impression, please Mr. President, that they are all spies,” Green whined. “My appeal is to the president to understand that his words take on a meaning that can be harmful to other people.”
Rep. Green then went on to suggest that Trump had endangered his constituents by referring to the pandemic as the 'China virus', and suggested that Trump's actions might be leading to "more anti-Asian American violence, or worse, internment.”
While shamelessly playing the race card, for a race he doesn’t belong to, the Democrat did not discuss his own collaboration with the spy consulate.
Rep. Green had co-hosted a Houston press conference with Consul General Cai Wei of the spy consulate, whom he described as a friend, with Chinese state media in attendance, at which the Democrat urged local residents not to worry about the virus, and described himself and Wei as a “committee of two”.
The Houston Democrat boasted that the enemy consulate was close enough for him to walk to.
That's the same Wei who had been accused of using fake identification to get Chinese nationals through the airport, with whom Rep. Green, an American official, had been meeting with on a regular basis.
Texas state representative Gene Wu, who had also been at the press conference, warned that, "in retaliation, China may basically stop all the investments and tell companies to pull out of here."
Green and Wu were far from the only Democrats playing defense for the Communist dictatorship.
Amid reports that a fugitive spy wanted by the FBI is being harbored by the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, the inescapable reality is that foreign spy compounds operate in Democrat sanctuary cities.
Democrat sanctuary cities don’t just provide sanctuary for illegal aliens, but for enemy spies.
The Trump administration had already ordered the shutdown of the Russian consulate in San Francisco over its espionage. And the Chinese consulate appears as if it will be next. But if the Chinese consulate in Houston was able to garner the support of Democrats at the local and national level, the situation in San Francisco is expected to be much worse because of Chi-Com infiltration of California Democrats.
Chinese intelligence officials at the San Francisco consulate had successfully recruited a staffer at Senator Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco office and the situation at the local level is much worse.
And Democrats, instead of supporting their country, are once again undermining it in favor of China.
The same Democrat officials who had castigated President Trump for not trusting the “intelligence community” are the ones rejecting intelligence findings about China’s spy networks.
Senator Angus King suggested that the move was a political stunt by President Trump. "Is it really about confronting China, or does it have something to do with an election in four months?"
Former Senator Max Baucus, Obama's ambassador to the Communist dictatorship, has falsely claimed that the closure was "electioneering".
“This is the wrong way to handle it," Baucus wheedled. "If Pompeo thinks he is going to quote ‘change Chinese behavior,’ he is gravely mistaken.”
Baucus' China rhetoric has, in recent months, tipped into blatant PRC propaganda, when he compared Trump to Hitler for opposing the brutal dictatorship in an interview with a Chinese propaganda outlet. Baucus has a consulting firm that works with Chinese businesses, and sits on the boards of several Chinese companies. The media outlets who have had Baucus on have not disclosed his ties to China.
"There are a lot of very responsible people in America who know this China-bashing is irresponsible and we will pay a price if it continues. That is all I am saying," he had warned.
The Democrat has claimed that relations with China will improve if Biden wins the presidency. That’s not surprising since Biden and Baucus are good friends, and Baucus got the ambassadorship due to Biden.
Biden’s China ties have made it impossible for Democrats to confront the Communist dictatorship. Instead they’ve decided to accuse President Trump of closing the consulate as an election stunt even though it’s only July and the closure it hardly likely to have any meaningful impact on the election.
Instead of standing with America, the Democrats are trying to shift the onus to President Trump.
“The White House must be transparent and show that it is taking smart and thoughtful action, rather than engaging in brash foreign policy," Rep. Lizzie Fletcher complained.
Meanwhile local Democrats like Rep. Al Green, and local Houston media, are treating the consulate closure as a hate crime perpetrated by President Trump in order to persecute Asian-Americans.
Gordon Quan, a former Houston City Councilman, contended that, "to have the consulate close, to have accusations being made that this is the hotspot for spying, just creates a further cast upon the loyalties of Chinese Americans.”
And the Chinese Communist propagandists have adopted the familiar playbook of the Left, complaining about racism, and whining that PRC embassies are facing bomb threats and angry messages. This propaganda is coming from a brutal regime which has engaged in genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the ruthless suppression of political dissent, ethnic and religious minorities, and anyone who gets in its way.
Chinese Communist consulates in America, including in Houston, have been used to intimidate Chinese residents in America, and to suppress political protests against China in this country. The Communist regime’s diplomatic corps has organized Chinese students to shout down, threaten, and even physically intimidate political opponents on campuses and even off them in San Francisco.
And yet, Democrats and the media insist on treating the Chinese Communist regime as the victim.
The Democrats are more loyal to their hatred for President Trump than they are to America. And even in the face of blatant enemy action, they choose the People’s Republic of China over the United States. A growing number of Democrats have also been directly or indirectly compromised by the enemy regime.
And that makes President Trump’s crackdown on spy consulates in Democrat cities all the more urgent.
When the State Department closed the spy consulate in Houston, Democrats had to choose between standing with Communist China or standing with America. They chose China and they chose treason.
Photo: China Uncensored (YouTube)
FEINSTEIN HAS SPENT HER ENTIRE POLITICAL LIFE STALKING THE HALLS OF CONGRESS SNIFFING OUT DEALS THAT PUT MULTIPLE FORTUNES IN HER HUSBAND, RICHARD BLUM’S POCKETS EVEN AS SHE SOLD OUT AMERICA
The deal would impose no review of human rights and impose no conditions for democratic reforms, supervised multi-party elections and such. All that, and more, is already a done deal with China, like the USSR a one-party Communist dictatorship that never produced a single product the United States needs. This has come about, in large part, due to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco Democrat.
LLOYD BILLINGSLEY
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/americas-china-dependency-syndrome-lloyd-billingsley
After Feinstein was elected to the Senate in 1992, Blum continued profiting off their ties to China. A the same time, the freshman lawmaker was pitching herself as a “China hand” to colleagues, even once claiming “that in my last life maybe I was Chinese.” HARIS ALIC
FEINSTEIN HAS SPENT HER POLITICAL LIFE STALKING THE HALLS OF CONGRESS SNIFFING OUT DEALS THAT PUT HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN HER POCKETS.
SHE HAS AVOIDED PROSECUTION BY VOTING AGAINST ANY ETHICS BILLS AND HER HUSBAND, RICHARD BLUM'S HANDING OUT "CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION" BRIBES TO EVERY DEMOCRAT OUT THERE!
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2019/07/she-ranks-as-one-of-most-corrupt-and.html
IN THE November 2006 election, the voters demanded congressional ethics reform. And so, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is now duly in charge of regulating the ethical behavior of her colleagues. But for many years, Feinstein has been beset by her own ethical conflict of interest, say congressional ethics experts.
“All in all, it was an incredible victory for the Chinese government. Feinstein has done more for Red China than other any serving U.S. politician. “ Trevor Loudon
After Feinstein was elected to the Senate in 1992, Blum continued profiting off their ties to China. A the same time, the freshman lawmaker was pitching herself as a “China hand” to colleagues, even once claiming “that in my last life maybe I was Chinese.” HARIS ALIC
“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world hell-holes. This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.” ---- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN THINKER.com
Senator Who Employed Chinese Spy Endorses Joe Biden for President
HARIS ALIC
A high-profile U.S. senator with professional and personal ties to China — including once employing one of its spies — is backing former Vice President Joe Biden amid mounting questions over his son’s business dealings with the communist regime.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), a former chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced her endorsement of the former vice president on Tuesday, claiming to have witnessed Biden’s “fortitude” and leadership during their overlapping tenures in Congress.
Feinstein said in a statement:
I’ve worked closely with Vice President Biden and I’ve seen firsthand his legislative ability, his statesmanship, and most importantly his moral fortitude (NO, IT’S NOT A JOKE, BUT THEN FEINSTEIN IS THE MOST SELF-SERVING CORRUPT POL IN U.S. HISTORY). During his time in Congress and in the White House, Joe Biden has been a tireless fighter for hard working (ILLEGALS) MEXICAN families.
BLOG: FEINSTEIN LOVES BIDEN BECAUSE SHE WALLOWS IN CORRUPTION. BIDEN HAD SPENT HIS ENTIRE POLITICAL LIFE SUCKING OFF BRIBES.
“He’s a totally corrupt swamp thing, and here’s the worst part of his manifest corruption – he doesn’t seem to realize that he’s corrupt, if not personally than in terms of allowing his bum kid to leverage his position. He thinks it’s A-OK for his boy Hoover to cash in all over the globe. After all, that’s what you do, right? That’s part of the benefits package for being in the liberal elite. And all these people fussing and fighting about the paternity test-failing dirtbag getting rich are totally out of line. How dare they? HOW DARE THEY!”
He wants to raise taxes, open the borders, let you pay for illegal aliens’ sex changes, and spark a civil war by taking guns from the people who don’t commit crimes.
THE OLD WHORE FEINSTEIN IS NOT ONLY ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT AND SELF-SERVING, SHE HAS BEEN A MAJOR INSTRUMENT IN THE FALL OF AMERICA AS SHE TUCKS THEIR BRIBES DEEP INTO THE BOTTOMLESS POCKETS OF HER PIMP HUSBAND RICHARD BLUM!
America’s China Dependency Syndrome
Lessons from the USSR.
April 28, 2020
Lloyd Billingsley
“Made in China” has been a familiar label on products for years but it wasn’t until March of 2020 that Americans learned of the perils that might entail. China threatened to impose export controls on pharmaceuticals that would plunge America into “the mighty sea of coronavirus.”
Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters the United States was “dangerously reliant” on China for critical goods, including parts for technologies needed to fight COVID-19. Since 2004, Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been supplying 80-90 percent of U.S. antibiotics. Americans might wonder how they landed in such a dependent position, and that invites a comparison with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The world’s first socialist state, established in the world’s largest nation, never produced a single product the West wanted or needed. For all its vast natural resources, the USSR was an economic basket case, and by the mid-1980s in serious trouble.
Suppose that some U.S. senator had then offered a trade deal that ignored the regime’s human rights violations and allowed state-owned Soviet companies to manufacture goods for the American market, all marked “Made In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” These would include vital pharmaceuticals and the deal would allow the use of Soviet steel, and Soviet labor, in major infrastructure projects in the United States.
The deal would impose no review of human rights and impose no conditions for democratic reforms, supervised multi-party elections and such. All that, and more, is already a done deal with China, like the USSR a one-party Communist dictatorship that never produced a single product the United States needs. This has come about, in large part, due to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco Democrat.
On a visit to Shanghai in 2006 Feinstein told James Areddy of the Wall Street Journal, “I’ve been coming to China for 31 years, so I’m not a newcomer.” That would put her first visit in 1975, one year before the death of the Great Helmsman Mao Zedong his own self. Feinstein was then a San Francisco supervisor, and as mayor struck up a sister-city relationship with Shanghai. On the 2006 trip Feinstein spent time with former Shanghai mayor Zhu Rongji, “a good friend.”
Areddy asked about the Tiananmen Square massacre then turning 21. Feinstein said it was a “a great setback for China in the view of the world,” a public-relations problem for China, not a human rights issue. “It was just the PLA (People’s Liberation Army)” and China “learned lessons from it.” Still, Feinstein admitted, “we did not discuss it.”
As Ben Weingarten noted in the Federalist in 2018, Sen. Feinstein’s ties to China are “way deeper” than any Chinese spy in her office. Feinstein maintained a “strictly apologist line” on China’s human rights atrocities, and Feinstein’s husband has “profited handsomely” during her career in the Senate. Sen. Feinstein “served as a key intermediary between China and the U.S. government, while serving on committees whose work would be of keen interest to the PRC.” For two decades and three election cycles, Feinstein harbored a Chinese spy who fed “political intelligence” to Beijing’s Communist regime. Since that article, the dossier has grown longer.
As Rosemarie Ho noted in The Nation, Dianne Feinstein failed to support the democracy protesters in Hong Kong. When the coronavirus hit these shores, Feinstein was uncritical of China and one of the first to cry “racism” against those who pointed out the pandemic’s origin in Wuhan, China.
Ben Weingarten wondered how a motivated and empowered prosecutor would operate if tasked to explore “any links and/or coordination” between the Chinese government, Feinstein and individuals associated with her office. Such an investigation never took place with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the most servile apologist of Communist China since Anna Louise Strong, and certainly the most influential. On the other hand, Donald Trump was thoroughly investigated for “collusion” with Russia, which turned out to be a hoax.
It was the president’s tweet that brought Feinstein’s Chinese spy to public attention. President Trump has access to all U.S. intelligence, a major reason domestic and foreign foes alike are desperately trying to remove him from office. In his April 19 press conference, the president called the upper reaches of the DOJ and FBI “human scum,” and their inattention to Feinstein, Hillary Clinton and other high-profile Democrats confirms that the rot continues.
President Trump is now throwing down with the invisible enemy of coronavirus and making progress despite opposition from Democrats and their media allies. As they parrot Chinese propaganda, the president has already started the decoupling process.
“We cannot outsource our independence,” the president said last Monday. “We cannot be reliant on foreign nations. I’ve been saying this for a long time. If we’ve learned one thing it’s let's do it here, let’s build it here, let’s make it here.”
As with the USSR, we don’t need China for anything. And as Chuck Berry said, anything you want they got right here in the USA.
Joe Biden? Seriously?
Kurt Schlichter
The establishment narrative on Joe Biden is, to put it mildly, malarkey. Gropey J actually is everything the liberals accuse Donald Trump of being – bizarre, vulgar, dumb, corrupt, incompetent, and utterly unfit to be president. But yet the Creepy Veepy is so much more. In the last month, this totally not-senile, not-at-all-weird guy has assembled a track record of freaky behavior that would put mid-eighties Crispin Glover to shame.
Let’s review…
Corn Pop is old news. Biden’s latest rambling onion-on-the-belt monologue was something about little kids at a pool rubbing his leg hair or something – it’s so random I’m not even linking to it. There’s no best-case scenario here – he’s just creepy.
Then, for no other reason than I guess he felt like a snack, he started gnawing on his wife’s fingers in public and on camera. You know, like people do. You wonder what the thought process there was…
“Hey, sure are lots of cameras…gosh, I’m kind of hungry…oh look, an index finger. Yum.”
I’m a little surprised he didn’t pull out a packet of ketchup.
But the best part was when some guy pointed out that, you know, Biden’s loser son Lil’ Crackpipe is the poster child for corruption and Sane Joe started spazzing out and calling him “fat” and challenging him to a push-up contest for some reason.
This is just odd. And this is the candidate who, amazingly, is still in the lead for the Democrat nomination.
And then there’s the groping females thing. He still does it occasionally, though the media does its best to curtail coverage of his lecherous creeping. Do you believe there’s any chance at all that he is not going to, at some point, have some horrifying incident with some female at the White House, you know, like grabbing the Queen for a hug n’ rub, or walking absent-mindedly into the press room in a flapping robe with Little Joe and the gang in effect?
And let’s be charitable. No one has ever called Joe Biden “smart.” Well, maybe as a joke. The fact is that he’s a 40-watt guy in a 100-watt world. Haters say Trump is dumb, but he is demonstrably not dumb. The thing about Trump is that because our garbage elite hates him it tends to ascribe all possible negative characteristics to him regardless of whether they apply. Trump is cunning, crafty and has a keen sense of strategy. You may dislike him, but that does not change the fact that alone, against the full force of the elite and its media serfs, he prevailed and continues to prevail. If Trump, who managed to figure out that it would be a good idea to campaign in Wisconsin, is dumb, what does that make Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit and the sobbing losers who supported her?
No one can seriously argue that Joe Biden is smart, and no one does. They’ll either call you “racist” or start complaining about Trump. But you won’t get anyone comparing the former veep to Stephen Hawking. They just sort of elide past his staggering stupidity, perhaps hoping that whoever he picks for his veep will give him a rubber ball to play with and lock him in an Oval Office closet when it's time to do some presidenting.
He’s a totally corrupt swamp thing, and here’s the worst part of his manifest corruption – he doesn’t seem to realize that he’s corrupt, if not personally than in terms of allowing his bum kid to leverage his position. He thinks it’s A-OK for his boy Hoover to cash in all over the globe. After all, that’s what you do, right? That’s part of the benefits package for being in the liberal elite. And all these people fussing and fighting about the paternity test-failing dirtbag getting rich are totally out of line. How dare they? HOW DARE THEY!
Understand that Biden sees nothing wrong with this. Nothing. And that means there will be exponentially more of it. Hell, the useless DoJ under Trump won’t prosecute obvious graft. Do you think a DoJ that’s thrilled to have a fellow traveler back in the White House is going to root out Biden's business badness? You do? Well, then meet my unicorn Chet.
And SloJoe is utterly incompetent. This is the guy who thought they should let bin Laden skate. As Robert Gates, no Trumpie, said, "I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
This is the guy who wants to take your doctor, again, and impose another brilliant healthcare reform idea, again – all designed to unscrew the last big healthcare reform the Democrats passed, which he praised as “a big [vulgarity] deal.”
He wants to obey that tiresome Swedish teenager’s commands to sacrifice at the altar of the weird weather cult. He wants to appoint all Hawaiian and Scat Franciscan judges.
He wants to raise taxes, open the borders, let you pay for illegal aliens’ sex changes, and spark a civil war by taking guns from the people who don’t commit crimes.
When you think of a calm, steady, wise presence guiding the nation, you do not think of Joe Biden, though that’s what is allegedly needed to end the nightmare of the Trump presidency – you know, the record job numbers and the lack of stupid new wars. You think of Obama and Stumbles McMyturn, only dumber and touchier.
Just recently, Biden’s campaign ran an ad alleging that foreigners were “laughing” at Donald Trump. Is there any Democrat anywhere who takes America’s side in a dispute with malicious aliens? In any case, those tin pot euroweenies had plenty to cry about – Donald Trump has forced them to pay up for NATO. Of course, that will end too if Joe takes office. We’ll return to business as usual – the business as usual of being shafted for the benefit of the global bigshots.
Basically, we’ll get rid of all the peace and prosperity that Trump has brought and get back to normal – that is, people like us being plundered by the garbage elite.
Trump has a track record of success, and Democrats hate him. Joe has a track record of failure, corruption, and creepiness. Well, I guess we know why the Democrats seem to love him.
It’s out now, my new novel Collapse, the action-packed yet hilarious sequel to People's Republic, Indian Country and Wildfire. Friendless loser Never Trumpers hate it, so you’ll love it.
***One last thing. On Wednesdays, there's BONUS KURT if you're a Townhall VIP member. Sign up today. Three Kurts is better than two.
And here's the biggest laugh of all: the Democrat party's only hope is a confused old man whose corruption is oozing into the
open only because the Democrats wagered everything on impeaching President Trump.
The Democratic Party Is Wounded and Dangerous
By J.B. Shurk
Beware the wounded animal. In pain and desperation, it will do violent things. It seems to me no coincidence that Joe Biden's big win on Super Tuesday was followed by Democratic senator Chuck Schumer threatening conservative members of the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Joe Biden is hardly Lancelot to President Trump's dragon. The Democrats and the Deep State needed a first-class warrior; instead, their best option is a walking advertisement for Alzheimer's awareness. In his best days, Joe Biden was the political equivalent of Jack McCall, shooting his adversaries in the back. When he wasn't using his position of power for financial gain or stealing other people's words, he was helping his family line their own pockets. Today, he's a disoriented and stumbling shell of an unimportant political hack who looks on in confusion while his wife does his fighting for him. If you've ever wondered what happens to the shriveled soul of a lifetime liar and Democratic swindler, just cast your eyes upon Old Joe. He's a walking, talking effigy of Democratic corruption and amorality. He's what the Democratic Party usually keeps far off the main stage for the back-alley entertainment; now he's the main event, but no amount of stick-prodding by Donna Brazile or Tom Perez is going to turn Joe Biden into Fred Astaire. He's a freak-show carnival attraction at best, amazing onlookers by his ability to occasionally jumble audible words together into a sentence. The Democrats needed a man who could command a movement; all they got was a man who can barely control his own.
I'm not saying President Trump's re-election is in the bag. Far from it. We've never seen such an array of villains acting in concert to take down an American president. The Democratic Party has most of the permanent bureaucratic Deep State (as well as stealthy anti-Trump Republicans), Wall Street, Russia, Iran, China, Venezuela, cosmopolitan Europe, global warming doomsayers, the Middle East's worst terrorists, and domestic Antifa terrorists here at home all actively working to dislodge President Trump from the White House. In the past, the chiefs of our intelligence agencies and clandestine services retired into relative obscurity, cognizant that duty commanded their silent withdrawal into the pages of history. After orchestrating a coup against the American president, however, it is not unusual to see the former heads of Obama's CIA, FBI, and NSC all tirelessly justifying their criminal acts on cable news each night. The corporate news media and institutional government have spent years trying to gin up enough hysteria in the nation that mock beheadings of the president and ritual re-enactments of his assassination during summer theater might lead the American people to clamor for the real thing.
So, no, the 2020 election will not be over until all the votes have been counted on November 3, and it becomes clear that we have successfully preserved Western civilization for at least a little while longer from this most recent manifestation of Vienna's bloody 1683 siege. All I am saying is that Joe Biden was never meant to be the establishment's champion for resurrecting their oligarchic power. They wanted a formidable presidential nominee, someone who could check all the right identity politics boxes while stringing words together that were substantively meaningless while singularly inspiring. Instead, they're settling for a politician past his expiration date who sounds less crème de la crème and more soused in crème de menthe. The Democratic Party may depend on dead voters to win elections, but running dead candidates is another thing altogether.
So just because the cable news anchors and Carville clones are all high-fiving each other and cheering for managing to narrowly prevent a communist disciple of Stalin and Castro from sewing up the Democratic nomination for president by the beginning of March, don't forget how disappointed they are at heart. If Biden goes on to clinch the nomination, the Democratic Party will have managed to take all the aloof, plain, manila-folder blandness of John Kerry and combine it with the alertness and energy of a nursing home after pill rounds. This is the one whom the commentariat is celebrating right now, the guy Obama and the gang blocked from running in 2016 because they felt him not quite up for the challenge when he was four years younger. The vice president during the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression, the wordsmith who marveled at Obama for being strangely "articulate" for a black guy, and the obtrusive shoulder-rubber whose chief political instinct was to sniff the hair of the wives and daughters of White House officials and visiting dignitaries. Imagine being in such dire straits because the previous Democratic president so hollowed out the party's future by losing over a thousand elected officials across the country during his time in office that the last, great hope to beat President Trump this year is just hoping to make it to bed each afternoon before saying something so inappropriate or illogical or ridiculous that Red Bernie becomes the Democrat's Dear Leader by default. For every minute of his few wakeful hours, his handlers have to be on constant guard against the possibility that a voice in Biden's head will scream, "Oh, look, a young child with wonderful-smelling hair." "Comeback Joe"? More like "Come back, Joe!"
The Democrats and the Deep State have spent the last four years constructing the greatest wag-the-dog spectacle America's ever seen in an attempt to cover up the malfeasance and criminality of the last administration, while preventing the current one from achieving too many victories. Considering that Brennan and Comey are still free and Obama and Hillary are still smiling, they've been remarkably successful. But the Mueller obfuscation and Schiff circus are behind us, the dance music of delay is dying down, and the Democrats' and Deep State's ability to keep pushing back their day of reckoning is coming to an end. If they don't win in 2020, they cannot keep justice at bay, regardless of how stacked in their favor it has always been in the past. And standing in the gap as their last-ditch prospect to save them from President Trump's re-election and spare them from long delayed judgment is none other than Corn Pop's archenemy. The one "reasonable" Democrat in the race who has already burnished his "moderate" credentials by fully embracing Bernie's Green New Deal, Warren's Medicare for All, and Beto's door-to-door gun confiscation. Nothing says "electable centrist Democrat" like "D'oh!" Biden's full tilt toward Marxist socialism. No wonder Chuck Schumer sounds like some injured animal in the forest, lashing out at tree branches all around him. That's what small, weak, dying creatures do when they know the end is near.
Image: Lorie Shaull via Flickr.
Cruz: China ‘the Single-Greatest Political Threat the United States Faces over the Next Century’
106
JEFF POOR
2 May 2020111
1:30
Saturday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) outlined the threat communist Asian superpower China poses to the United States, calling it the “single-great political threat” to the country over the next 100 years.
“China is in my judgment the single-greatest political threat the United States faces over the next century,” he said. “They engage in espionage. They engage in censorship. They engage in torture and murder of their own citizens. They cover up free speech.”
Cruz pointed to legislation that he was introducing. One imposes sanctions on Chinese government officials for the coronavirus “coverup,” as he deemed it. Another he was introducing took aim at Hollywood for kowtowing to the Chinese government in movie scripts.
“The Script Act says we’re not going to allow the Pentagon to cooperate with moviemakers, to let them use ships and jet airplanes and equipment if they are going to allow the Chinese government to censor,” he said. “And so it uses the power of government to stop Chinese censorship through Hollywood.”
The Texas Republican U.S. Senator pointed to the soon-to-be-released sequel to “Top Gun,” which stars Tom Cruise. Reportedly, the Japanese and Taiwanese flags were removed from a jacket worn by Cruise’s “Maverick” in the sequel at the behest of Chinese censors.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
WE KNOW THERE IS NO ONE ON EARTH WHO LIKES SQUANDERING MONEY ON DEFENSE COMPANIES THAT WAR PROFITEER SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN!
SHE’S MADE A VAST FORTUNE, ONE OF MANY, IN THE WAR INDUSTRY
Hidden in the New House Coronavirus Relief Bill: Billions for Defense Contractors
A section of the HEROES Act championed by Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly would cover executive compensation and other perks for defense and intel contractors. The legislation’s wording mirrors what an industry group proposed.
by Jake Pearson
Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly on the floor of the House of Representatives on April 23. (House Television via AP)
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
When they passed another bill this month to help the tens of millions of Americans left unemployed and hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats in the House of Representatives touted the $3 trillion legislation’s benefits to working people, renters, first responders and others struggling to get by.
They made no mention of the defense contractors.
Tucked away deep in the nearly 2,000-page Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions, or HEROES, Act, is a section that will funnel money to defense and intelligence companies and their top executives, according to experts.
The section of the new bill seeks to “clarify” a provision of the $2 trillion CARES Act that passed on March 27. That legislation reimburses firms for the wages and benefits of contract employees who must be kept “in a ready state, including to protect the life and safety of Government and contractor personnel,” but who can’t work because federal offices are closed or they’re following stay-at-home orders.
In language that mirrors what an industry group proposed, the HEROES Act goes beyond just reimbursing wages. It says that such firms can bill the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies for a range of other costs associated with “the financial impact incurred” of keeping workers employed during the health crisis. That includes for “fees,” a term of art in federal contracting, and “general and administrative expenses,” a catch-all phrase associated with the costs of running a business such as paying executives, running the corporate office and even marketing and sales.
The Senate has yet to take up the new House bill, so the companies have not reaped a windfall yet. But experts say that if the Senate passes a new bill, this clause would likely survive.
The legislation was effectively a stealthy way to bail out the defense and intelligence government contracting industry and their executives at taxpayer expense, said Mandy Smithberger, who directs the Center for Defense Information at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.
Others agreed. “It’s one thing for the government to say, ‘We’ll keep the workers going,’” said Charles Tiefer, a University of Baltimore School of Law professor who specializes in government contracting. “But this is money for the firm.”
In a statement provided by a spokesperson, Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat who championed the relief bills’ contracting sections and whose Virginia district is home to many contract employees and companies, said the legislation’s goal was to make sure these firms “can survive this crisis and recover their lost revenue.”
He said the HEROES Act language wasn’t intended as a “loophole” for firms to bill for expenses like corporate headquarter costs and said he would “object if the Trump Administration interpreted it as such.” But he didn’t answer questions about why he fought to include the broader HEROES Act language that would allow for such charges or why its text matched what an industry group had proposed.
The defense and intelligence agencies have increasingly become reliant on hundreds of thousands of government contractors for everything from fighting on the battlefield to setting up classified computer systems to cleaning offices. At the Department of Defense, which spends more than all other government agencies combined on contractors, the amount obligated for such agreements jumped from $189 billion in fiscal year 2000 to $320 billion in fiscal 2017, according to a July 2018 Congressional Research Service report.
While small businesses that contract with the government would qualify for the reimbursement outlined in the COVID-19 relief bills, major multinational corporations like Raytheon Technologies and market champions like Amazon Web Services would too.
The taxpayer price tag for the section would be enormous.
Already the federal bailout for just payroll and benefits for defense contractor employees stuck at home outlined in the CARES Act will run in the “billions and billions,” the Pentagon’s top acquisition official, Ellen Lord, told reporters in an April 23 press briefing.
Executive compensation, fees and other expenses would be on top of that.
In federal contracting, general and administrative expenses relate to all the costs of running a home office, including support staff whose jobs can’t be billed to any one government contract and the salaries of executives. (The Bipartisan Budget Act caps the amount executives can be paid from a government contract at $540,000 a year, though the firms can augment that through other means, including by using profits from a government contract.)
The HEROES Act language introduces its own ambiguity about what firms can charge when it comes to what are referred to as “fees.” In certain federal contracts, the recipients are paid a fee on top of their costs. In others, fees refer to money contractors pay to third parties like lawyers and accounting firms. The new language opens the door for contractors to count those as billable, even if work isn’t being done, said Tiefer, the contracting expert.
“And now they still collect even though some of their workers are home,” he said.
At issue is a section in the CARES Act that reimburses contractors at “minimum applicable contract billing rates.” The vaguely worded term touched off a blitz of inquiries and suggestions in the weeks after the CARES Act passed from Beltway firms who perform IT, security and other national defense services for the federal government. The HEROES Act section pushed by Connolly seeks to “clarify” that.
The Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a trade group that says it represents more than 160 companies that do work for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community, was among the firms that lobbied for the new language. In an April 15 letter to the DOD, Larry Hanauer, the group’s vice president for policy, suggested that the term “minimum applicable contract billing rates” should mean “an employee’s base hourly wage rate, plus indirect costs, fees, and general and administrative expenses.”
That language made it into the HEROES Act, which defined “minimum applicable contract billing rates” to include costs “such as the base hourly wage rate of an employee, plus indirect costs, fees, and general and administrative expenses.”
Peggy O’Connor, an INSA spokeswoman, said nobody from her organization discussed the HEROES Act with Connolly’s office and she didn’t know how the group’s suggested definition of “minimum applicable contract billing rates” wound up in the bill.
“There were a lot of letters drafted by various organizations,” she said. “We posted ours, as well as various government guidance memorandum on our website, which is open to the public.”
The industry’s largest trade organization, the Professional Services Council, issued a statement thanking Connolly for his efforts after the HEROES Act passed the House on May 12. A spokeswoman for PSC declined to answer questions about the bill’s language or the group’s interactions with Connolly ahead of the vote.
The six-term congressman has long been an advocate for contracting firms and before joining Congress worked for the Science Applications International Corp., a government contractor that became Leidos. Among his top contributors since taking office in 2008 are government contractors Northrop Grumman, Leidos and Deloitte LLP.
Dump the F-35 program plagued with excessive costs and failing weapons
by Kevin Mooney
Wasteful, counterproductive spending is a threat to U.S. military readiness that should be rooted out now before taxpayers are saddled with “sustainment costs” that will burden future generations.
That’s just one of several takeaways from a just-released government accountability report analyzing the many defects of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. With government spending proceeding at an unprecedented and dangerous level in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the time for the Trump administration to search for ways to offset the impact of future stimulus efforts.
While it’s important for our military to exploit its technological prowess with an eye toward China and other rising threats, there appears to be a misguided effort to pack everything into one plane ranging from stealth technology to vertical takeoff ability.
At a time when the economy is in recession and the national debt is rising, defense spending must be smart and efficient. But since its inception in 2001, the F-35 has been bedeviled with cost overruns that are coming back to bite taxpayers without delivering any return on their investment.
The major findings from the Government Accountability Office report should give defense planners good reason to hit the pause button. They don’t need to go back very far into the history of the program to see that it has gone sideways.
From 2018 to 2019, the GAO reports the total cost estimate of the F-35 acquisition program increased by $22 billion from $406 billion to over $428 billion.
These costs are supposedly tied in with needed hardware and software upgrades. But where does it all end? The answer seems to be that it doesn’t since the acquisition costs are just the beginning. The sustainment costs, the costs needed to keep the program running once it's activated for its planned 66-year life cycle, are eye-popping. GAO reports costs will hit $1.2 trillion, bringing the total cost of the F-35 program to more than $1.6 trillion.
But what about military readiness? Is there an argument to made that the F-35 will give the United States the critical edge it needs in 21st-century warfare that justifies its exorbitant costs? Once again, GAO findings strongly suggest otherwise. In fact, the F-35 program is beset with thousands of “deficiencies” that directly affect its fighter capabilities.
“Through 2019, F-35 program test officials had identified over 3,200 deficiencies,” the GAO report says. “Deficiencies represent specific instances where the weapon system either does not meet requirements or where the safety, suitability, or effectiveness of the weapon system could be affected. The test officials categorize deficiencies according to their potential impact on the aircraft’s performance.”
The prospects for improving and altering the F-35 to the point where it can be transformed into a lean, mean fighting machine are bleak. A $17 billion Lockheed Martin Corp. diagnostic system used to analyze the F-35 and detect potential flaws in need of repairs is itself laced with flaws. Maintenance crews at military bases reportedly said they spent an average of 5,000 to 10,000 hours each year tracking information that the diagnostic system should have tracked automatically.
The runaway costs of the F-35 have not escaped the notice of President Trump, who tweeted about the fighter jet's many problems. Now is the time for him to pull the plug on the costly mess that subtracts needed resources away from other vital projects.
Kevin Mooney (@KevinMooneyDC) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C., who writes for several national publications.
FEINSTEIN HAS SPENT HER ENTIRE POLITICAL LIFE STALKING THE HALLS OF CONGRESS FOR DEALS THAT HAVE PUT MULTIPLE FORTUNES INTO HER HUSBAND RICHARD BLUM'S BOTTOMLESS POCKET.
SHE HAS VOTED AGAINST ANY AND ALL ATTEMPTS TO CLEAN UP THE U.S. SENATE'S CORRUPTION AS ALL DOORS WOULD HAVE LED TO HER!
Can Congress Really Use Insider Information to Trade Stocks? | Robert Reich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HXpLyg-iVg
Revealed: Four senators dumped millions in stocks while Capitol Hill was being briefed on the coronavirus threat but BEFORE markets started tanking
· Richard Burr, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee which was directly briefed on coronavirus, sold up to $1.7m in stock between January and February
·
· Dianne Feinstein, on the same committee, sold up to $6m in stock in same period
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· Kelly Loeffler, on the Senate Health Committee, sold up to $3.1m in stock starting on the day her committee was briefed by the CDC
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· James Inhofe sold up to $400k in stocks including real estate all on January 27
· Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
By NIKKI SCHWAB, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
Four senators dumped millions of dollars worth of stock while Capitol Hill was being briefed on the threat of coronavirus but before the markets tanked as infections soared, disclosure records have revealed.
Republicans Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler and James Inhofe and Democrat Dianne Feinstein collectively offloaded up to $11million in stock between late January and early February, according to records seen by The Daily Beast, New York Times and ProPublica.
Burr, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee that was directly briefed on coronavirus, sold up to $1.7million in stock including in hotels, according to reporting from ProPublica.
Feinstein, a member of the same committee, sold up to $6million in stock including in a biotech firm.
Loeffler dumped up to $3.1million in investments starting on the day the Senate Health Committee, which she sits on, was briefed by the CDC. Meanwhile James Inhofe sold up to $400,000 in stock including real estate.
Loeffler and Feinstein have defended themselves, saying their stocks are invested in trusts and portfolios that they have no personal control over. Inhofe has not commented.
Burr's spokeswoman said in a statement to DailyMail.com that Burr filed his financial disclosure form several weeks before the markets showed 'volatility.'
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act prohibits members of Congress from insider trading based on classified information they have received in briefings.
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The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Sen. Richard Burr, knew of the coming coronavirus crisis three weeks ago and divulged details of the chaos that would ensue to a group of well-heeled constituents
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Sen Kelly Loeffler (pictured) reportedly sold $3.1million in stock with the first sale made on January 24, the same day her committee was briefed by the CDC
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Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, sold up to $400k all on January 27
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Dianne Feinstein who sits on the Intelligence Committee which was also briefed on coronavirus, sold up to $6m in stock
According to The Daily Beast, Sen Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, sold $3.1million in stock between late January and early February.
The first sale was in the firm Resideo Technologies worth between $50,001 and $100,000 and made on January 24, the same day her committee - the Senate Health Committee - held a briefing with the CDC.
The stock has since halved in value.
During the same period the couple made just two purchases, one of which was stock in a tele-working company that has seen an increase in price amid office shutdowns.
Meawnhile Richard Burr, Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee which was being briefed on coronavirus, offloaded between $582,029 and $1.56million of his stock holdings in mid-February.
Burr later went on to warn people at a meeting in Washington that coronavirus was likely to cause significant disruption to businesses, even as Donald Trump was playing down the threat.
Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic member of the same committee, and her husband also sold between $1.5 million and $6 million in stock in California biotech company between late January and mid-February.
Elsewhere James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, sold stocks totaling $400,000 on January 27 including shares in PayPal, Apple and Brookfield Asset Management, a real estate company.
·
Loeffler's sell-off began the same day the committee she sits on was briefed by the CDC, which she later tweeted about
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Loeffler has defended herself, saying her money is invested in a portfolio she has no control over. Feinstein also said her stocks are held in a blind trust, which she does not control
ProPublica reported that on February 13 Burr sold of stock holdings in 29 separate transactions. A week later the stock market started its downward trend, now losing about a third of its value.
Burr dumped $150,000 worth of shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts stock and $100,000 worth of shares of Extended Stay America.
The hospitality industry has been one of the worst shattered in this collapse.
Then, on February 27 Burr gave well-heeled constituents from the Tar Heel State a dire warning about the kind of chaos the coronavirus could cause.
The North Carolina Republican is heard on a secret recording obtained by NPR telling members of the Tar Heel Circle on February 27 that the coronavirus was 'much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history.'
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Burr talked to members of the Tar Heel Circle, a group that charges $500 to $10,000 for membership, at the Capitol Hill Club, a private social club for Republicans located steps away from the Capitol Building
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At the Capitol Hill Club (pictured), Burr spelled out the anticipated widespread disruptions that would be caused by the coronavirus outbreak, statements he wasn't making publicly
'It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic,' Burr told the group, who pay between $500 and $10,000 for membership of the group, according to NPR's reporting.
In a series of tweets, Burr pushed back and said he was addressing the membership of the North Carolina State Society. 'The message I shared with my constituents is the one public health officials urged all of us to heed as coronavirus spread increased,' he also said.
A spokesman for Feinstein said that all of her stock holdings are in a blind trust, and that she has no involvement in financial decisions made by her husband.
The luncheon that was taped was held at the Capitol Hill Club, a social club for Republicans located steps away from the Capitol Building.
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Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez led the calls for the resignations of both Koeffler and Burr shortly after the news broke on Thursday
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US Senator Richard Burr steps down as intelligence chairman amid investigation into pre-pandemic stock dump
By Jacob Crosse
15 May 2020
As part of an ongoing Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe into insider trading conducted by prominent US senators, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents have seized the personal cell phone of North Carolina senator Richard Burr.
BLOG: FEINSTEIN, WHO HAS SPENT HER ENTIRE POLITICAL LIFE PUSHING FOR AND VOTING FOR DEALS THAT WOULD FILL HER HUSBAND'S POCKETS HAS ALWAYS FACED SERIOUS ETHICS CHARGES. SHE SIMPLY GAMES THEY CORRUPT SYSTEM AND AS HER PIMP-HUSBAND HANDS OUT BRIBES TO ALL DEMS SO THEY KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT ABOUT FEINSTEIN'S 'DEALS'.
A spokesperson for Dianne Feinstein has also confirmed that FBI agents have questioned the California senator regarding her and her husband's selling of up to $6 million worth of stock between January 31 and February 18. Feinstein has maintained her innocence, pleading ignorance as to her husband’s actions.
It was revealed by several media investigations as well as senate disclosure forms in March, that senators Burr and Feinstein, as well as James Inhofe and Kelly Loeffler, sought to secure their personal wealth at the expense of society by selling millions of dollars in stock, prior to the market’s collapse and after receiving classified intelligence briefings on the emerging threat of the coronavirus beginning on January 24.
Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., gives opening remarks at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing for a nomination hearing for Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)
As the virus spread unchecked throughout the country, Burr sought to soften the threat of the virus while buttressing the government's preparedness efforts. Burr coauthored an opinion piece for Fox News on February 7 arguing that “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats like the coronavirus, in large part due to the work of the Senate Health Committee, Congress and the Trump administration.”
But when speaking to affluent campaign contributors on February 27, Burr made more direct warnings. Members of the Tar Heel Circle, who pay between $500 and $10,000 in dues, were truthfully warned by Burr, that far from being a minor flu,“[COVID-19] is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic.”
In order for a warrant to be executed on a sitting senator, such as Burr, the signature of Attorney General William Barr is required. As Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Burr oversaw investigations into, and suppressed findings that could shed light on, the murderous and illegal activities of the CIA, FBI and NSA. The purpose of the warrant was to obtain phone records and conversations between Burr and his stockbroker, according to reports.
As of this writing, it does not appear that Inhofe nor Loeffler have been questioned by authorities, nor served any warrants, despite both engaging in similar activity as Burr and Feinstein.
According to Burr’s senate disclosure forms, he and his wife sold 33 different stocks on a single day, February 13, worth between $628,000 and $1.72 million. The sales represent the most stock Burr had sold in over a year and a significant portion of his estimated $3.1 million net worth according to Opensecrets.org. ProPublica reported last week that Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares the exact same day as Burr. Fauth was appointed by Donald Trump to the National Mediation Board, the federal agency that coordinates labor-management relations within the railroad and airline industries, in 2017.
As with his connected brother-in-law, Fauth chose to divest from several businesses that were soon to see a precipitous drop in stock value, including several major oil companies. Fauth sold $50,000 worth of Chevron; between $1,001 and $15,000 of BP and between $15,001 and $50,000 of Royal Dutch Shell stock.
FBI agents served the now-former chair of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee with a warrant to seize his cell phone at his Washington D.C. home on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, Burr delivered a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell informing him that he would be stepping down as chair of the Intel Committee.
As chair, Burr oversaw the nearly three-year investigation into “Russian interference” that took place during the 2016 election which supposedly benefited Donald Trump. This fact-free conspiracy theory was promulgated by the ruling class and their servants in the intelligence agencies and Democratic party to channel mass popular opposition to Trump behind a right-wing pro-war campaign to demonize Russia and lay the groundwork for internet censorship and war.
Burr earned Trump’s ire by issuing a subpoena for Donald Trump Jr. to testify in front of the committee last year as part of the committee's McCarthyite investigation.
While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump insisted that he didn’t know about the warrant, or impending seizure of Burr’s phone. During a press conference Trump stated that he “knew nothing about it.” Upon hearing that Burr had resigned his chair position, Trump dryly replied, “That’s too bad.”
BUT WHAT ABOUR SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN? SHE’S RED CHINA’S MOST LOYAL AGENT AND SOLD $6 MILLION IN STOCK.
Richard Burr Steps Down From Chairmanship of Senate Intelligence Committee
Burr’s resignation comes after the FBI seized his cellphone Wednesday. The Republican from North Carolina is being investigated for selling stock ahead of the market crash due to coronavirus fears.
by Robert Faturechi and Derek Willis
May 14, 12:45 p.m. EDT
Sen. Richard Burr will be stepping aside as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee during the investigation into his stock trades, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday.
“Senator Burr contacted me this morning to inform me of his decision,” McConnell wrote in a statement. “We agreed that this decision would be in the best interests of the committee and will be effective at the end of the day tomorrow.”
FBI agents served a search warrant to Burr at his Washington, D.C.-area home on Wednesday night as part of an investigation into stock sales he made in February before the stock market crash in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The North Carolina Republican turned his cellphone over to federal agents, the newspaper reported, citing an unidentified law enforcement official. Another unnamed law enforcement official told the paper that the FBI previously had used another warrant to obtain access to Burr’s Apple iCloud account as part of its investigation.
Burr came under scrutiny after ProPublica reported in March that he sold off a significant percentage of his stocks shortly before the market declined, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions. As chairman of the intelligence committee and a member of the health committee, Burr had access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security and public health concerns.
On the same day, Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, a member of the National Mediation Board, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in six companies — including several that have been hit particularly hard in the market swoon and economic downturn. A person who picked up Fauth’s phone previously declined to comment.
Before his sell-off, Burr had assured the public that the federal government was well-prepared to handle the virus. In a Feb. 7 op-ed that he co-authored with another senator, he said “the United States today is better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus.”
That month however, according to a recording obtained by NPR, Burr had given a VIP group at an exclusive social club a much more dire preview of the economic impact of the coronavirus, warning it could curtail business travel, cause schools to be closed and result in the military mobilizing to compensate for overwhelmed hospitals.
Burr’s Senate spokesperson declined to comment, as did the FBI.
Burr has defended his actions, saying he relied solely on public information, including CNBC reports, to inform his trades and did not rely on information he obtained as a senator.
ProPublica has also reported that Burr has frequently traded in medical stocks while working on legislation that could impact the industry, made a timely sale of his stake in an obscure Dutch fertilizer company before its stock plummeted and sold his Washington townhouse to a lobbyist and donor who had business before his committees.
Do you know where Richard Burr resides in Washington, D.C.? If so, or if you have any other tips about Burr or the stock trades of other government officials, email Robert.faturechi@propublica.org or reach him on Signal at 213-271-7217.
Revealed: Four senators dumped millions in stocks while Capitol Hill was being briefed on the coronavirus threat but BEFORE markets started tanking
· Richard Burr, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee which was directly briefed on coronavirus, sold up to $1.7m in stock between January and February
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· Dianne Feinstein, on the same committee, sold up to $6m in stock in same period
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· Kelly Loeffler, on the Senate Health Committee, sold up to $3.1m in stock starting on the day her committee was briefed by the CDC
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· James Inhofe sold up to $400k in stocks including real estate all on January 27
· Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
By NIKKI SCHWAB, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 17:02 EDT, 19 March 2020 | UPDATED: 10:17 EDT, 20 March 2020
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Four senators dumped millions of dollars worth of stock while Capitol Hill was being briefed on the threat of coronavirus but before the markets tanked as infections soared, disclosure records have revealed.
Republicans Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler and James Inhofe and Democrat Dianne Feinstein collectively offloaded up to $11million in stock between late January and early February, according to records seen by The Daily Beast, New York Times and ProPublica.
Burr, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee that was directly briefed on coronavirus, sold up to $1.7million in stock including in hotels, according to reporting from ProPublica.
Feinstein, a member of the same committee, sold up to $6million in stock including in a biotech firm.
Loeffler dumped up to $3.1million in investments starting on the day the Senate Health Committee, which she sits on, was briefed by the CDC. Meanwhile James Inhofe sold up to $400,000 in stock including real estate.
Loeffler and Feinstein have defended themselves, saying their stocks are invested in trusts and portfolios that they have no personal control over. Inhofe has not commented.
Burr's spokeswoman said in a statement to DailyMail.com that Burr filed his financial disclosure form several weeks before the markets showed 'volatility.'
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act prohibits members of Congress from insider trading based on classified information they have received in briefings.
0
·
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Sen. Richard Burr, knew of the coming coronavirus crisis three weeks ago and divulged details of the chaos that would ensue to a group of well-heeled constituents
+10
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Sen Kelly Loeffler (pictured) reportedly sold $3.1million in stock with the first sale made on January 24, the same day her committee was briefed by the CDC
+10
·
Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, sold up to $400k all on January 27
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Dianne Feinstein who sits on the Intelligence Committee which was also briefed on coronavirus, sold up to $6m in stock
According to The Daily Beast, Sen Kelly Loeffler and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, sold $3.1million in stock between late January and early February.
The first sale was in the firm Resideo Technologies worth between $50,001 and $100,000 and made on January 24, the same day her committee - the Senate Health Committee - held a briefing with the CDC.
The stock has since halved in value.
During the same period the couple made just two purchases, one of which was stock in a tele-working company that has seen an increase in price amid office shutdowns.
Meawnhile Richard Burr, Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee which was being briefed on coronavirus, offloaded between $582,029 and $1.56million of his stock holdings in mid-February.
Burr later went on to warn people at a meeting in Washington that coronavirus was likely to cause significant disruption to businesses, even as Donald Trump was playing down the threat.
Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic member of the same committee, and her husband also sold between $1.5 million and $6 million in stock in California biotech company between late January and mid-February.
Elsewhere James Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, sold stocks totaling $400,000 on January 27 including shares in PayPal, Apple and Brookfield Asset Management, a real estate company.
·
Loeffler's sell-off began the same day the committee she sits on was briefed by the CDC, which she later tweeted about
·
Loeffler has defended herself, saying her money is invested in a portfolio she has no control over. Feinstein also said her stocks are held in a blind trust, which she does not control
ProPublica reported that on February 13 Burr sold of stock holdings in 29 separate transactions. A week later the stock market started its downward trend, now losing about a third of its value.
Burr dumped $150,000 worth of shares of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts stock and $100,000 worth of shares of Extended Stay America.
The hospitality industry has been one of the worst shattered in this collapse.
Then, on February 27 Burr gave well-heeled constituents from the Tar Heel State a dire warning about the kind of chaos the coronavirus could cause.
The North Carolina Republican is heard on a secret recording obtained by NPR telling members of the Tar Heel Circle on February 27 that the coronavirus was 'much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history.'
·
Burr talked to members of the Tar Heel Circle, a group that charges $500 to $10,000 for membership, at the Capitol Hill Club, a private social club for Republicans located steps away from the Capitol Building
+10
·
At the Capitol Hill Club (pictured), Burr spelled out the anticipated widespread disruptions that would be caused by the coronavirus outbreak, statements he wasn't making publicly
'It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic,' Burr told the group, who pay between $500 and $10,000 for membership of the group, according to NPR's reporting.
In a series of tweets, Burr pushed back and said he was addressing the membership of the North Carolina State Society. 'The message I shared with my constituents is the one public health officials urged all of us to heed as coronavirus spread increased,' he also said.
A spokesman for Feinstein said that all of her stock holdings are in a blind trust, and that she has no involvement in financial decisions made by her husband.
The luncheon that was taped was held at the Capitol Hill Club, a social club for Republicans located steps away from the Capitol Building.
+10
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Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez led the calls for the resignations of both Koeffler and Burr shortly after the news broke on Thursday
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Poll: 57% Americans Support Probe of Biden and Son’s Ukraine, China Actions
Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
KRISTINA WONG
6 Oct 20196,961
3:48
A new poll showed that 57 percent of respondents support a Justice Department probe on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden regarding their actions in Ukraine and China.
Only 37 percent of respondents were against investigating them, according to the new poll by Investor’s Business Daily/TIPP, published on Friday.
Political Polls@Politics_Polls
Should DOJ investigate Joe Biden and his son regarding Ukraine and China?
Yes 57%
No 37%
IBD/TIPP 9/26-10/3https://www.investors.com/politics/americans-back-trump-impeachment-ukraine-scandal-biden-probe/ …
724
5:42 PM - Oct 5, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
506 people are talking about this
The poll showed that the recent headlines on Ukraine, surrounding President Donald Trump’s calls for the Bidens to be investigated and the Democrats’ push to impeach him over those calls, are having a negative impact on the former vice president.
The poll also showed that as a result of the Ukraine issue, eight percent said they were more likely to vote for Biden, while 23 percent said they were more likely to vote against him.
The former vice president’s son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company and was paid $50,000 a month for no discernible work while his father was tasked with overseeing Ukraine for the White House.
The elder Biden had pushed the Ukrainian government to fire a former chief prosecutor, who had opened an investigation into the company’s CEO.
The Bidens have denied doing anything improper, and the former vice president has denied ever speaking to his son about his work, although conflicting accounts, including from his own son, have emerged, as well as a picture of him, his son, and a Ukrainian gas executive on a golfing trip together.
The younger Biden also had ties with an investment firm that raised funds in China. He once accompanied his father on a work trip to China and appeared to further those ties during that trip.
The poll surveyed 900 adults contacted via mobile phones and landlines from September 26 to October 3 and had a 3.3-point margin of error. The poll’s Ukraine-related questions reflect the views of a subset of 748 people.
Meanwhile, the poll showed that Trump was not being significantly affected by Democrat calls to impeach him after a whistleblower complaint expressed concerns he was withholding military aid in exchange for help with the 2020 elections.
The poll showed that as a result of the impeachment inquiry, 15 percent said they were more likely to vote for Trump, while 18 percent said they were more likely to vote against him.
In addition, Trump has made gains against Biden in a head-to-head matchup.
Biden led Trump 54 to 42 percent in September but now only leads Trump 51 percent to 44 percent. There are big gains towards Trump from independents. Biden led Trump 55 to 37 percent in September — an 18 percentage point lead, but that has dropped to 46 to 45 percent — only a one percentage point lead.
Trump also gained with self-described investors. They favor Biden over Trump by two percentage points at 49 to 47 percent, but that is down from an 11 percentage point lead at 54 to 43 percent in September.
Still, the poll also showed that 50 percent of those surveyed thought Trump asking the Ukrainian president to help investigate Biden is an impeachable offense, while 46 percent do not. Independents were split, with 46 percent saying it was an impeachment offense versus 47 who said it was not.
More — 55 percent — support the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump, with independents supporting it at 53 percent to 45 percent.
But the poll also showed that Trump’s job approval rating has actually risen in October, despite calls for his impeachment. The IBD/TIPP poll found that his approval rating climbed from 39 percent to 43 percent during the month.
Forty-eight percent approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, versus 39 percent that did not.
Follow Breitbart News’ @Kristina_Wong.
Donald Trump: Joe Biden Family ‘Paid Off’ by China and Ukraine
Mario Tama/Getty Images
CHARLIE SPIERING
6 Oct 2019530
2:04
President Donald Trump accused former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden on Sunday of being “paid off” by foreign interests.
“The Biden family was PAID OFF, pure and simple!” Trump said. “The fake news must stop making excuses for something that is totally inexcusable.”
The president pointed to the photo of the former Vice President playing golf with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, a man who also served on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Referring to Biden’s presidential campaign, Trump said the former Vice President should just “hang it up.”
“Sleepy Joe won’t get to the starting gate, & based on all of the money he & his family probably ‘extorted,’ Joe should hang it up,” Trump wrote.
He again said he would love running against Biden in the general election, but did not see him succeeding, based on his previous failed runs for president in 2007 and 1988.
Trump expressed surprise that the establishment media continued to defend Biden from his attacks.
“It is INCREDIBLE to watch and read the Fake News and how they pull out all stops to protect Sleepy Joe Biden and his thrown out of the Military son, Hunter,” Trump wrote.
The Biden campaign sent an aggressive memo to media outlets in September demanding that “any article, segment, analysis and commentary that does not demonstrably state at the outset that there is no factual basis for Trump’s claims, and in fact that they are wholly discredited, is misleading readers and viewers.”
The establishment media has largely complied.
However, Trump said he would continue to raise questions about Hunter Biden’s lucrative opportunities in Ukraine and China while his father was vice president.
“There is NO WAY these can be legitimate transactions?” he said. “As lawyers & others have stated, as President, I have an OBLIGATION to look into possible, or probable, CORRUPTION!”
Chicoms get very, very nervous as Joe Biden corruption scandal spreads to their shores
By Monica Showalter
Up until now, China's communist regime has had a grand old time blasting President Trump's Ukraine-linked impeachment troubles from its state propaganda outlets. They hate the guy based on his calling them out on their unfair trade practices, hitting them with tariffs, and their economy is not doing well.
According to the New York Times:
BEIJING — Since a trade war broke out with the United States, China’s state-run media has not held back from commenting on the swirl of political controversies around President Trump. At least, not until now.
But now that the tale of House Biden's pocket-lining has spread to China (what a family!), they're getting tongue-tied.
After Mr. Trump openly urged China on Thursday to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter, Chinese news media and officials were strikingly muted.
While news of Mr. Trump’s request has seeped onto the Chinese internet, official media have been silent so far and social media mentions have been sparse, suggesting censors are at work. As of Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not publicly responded. Even Global Times, a nationalist Chinese tabloid that is reliably voluble about Mr. Trump, has been quiet.
The lack of response reflects China’s awkward choices as it tries to stand tough against the Trump administration while trying to avoid a spiral of worsening tensions, several experts said.
The Times piece begins well, but then goes on to quote experts who attempt to pin the whole thing on the Chinese interest in supposedly not rousing Trump. Fine and dandy, that's probably part of the equation as it implicitly admits that Trump does scare them.
It also goes on to quote experts who believe China is quite concerned in international circles with not appearing to be a hypocrite given its previous pieties about not interfering in other nations' internal affairs. Color me skeptical on that one, they've been getting away with that for years. The idea that they've suddenly gone bourgeois and care about what other nations think of them is ridiculous. Not Chicoms.
It leaves on one giant elephant in the room.
That the Chicoms with zero doubt don't want anyone inside China to read about those billion-dollar crony money-flingings with the Bidens in the Chinese state's bid to buy influence in the states. A spare billion dollars will buy a lot of shark's fin soup in still-poor China, and right now, the economy there is in a recession.
Here's another piece of fat already on the fire: The Hong Kongers are in open revolt and not only demanding their rights, they're drawing supporters rolling in from red China itself, people who are likely to spread the implacable message and we already know the Chicoms are worried about that as they try to stop them.
News of sleazy crony deal from China's princeling elites is gasoline on the already-burning fire. The ordinary Chinese people can't stand the cronies as it is, and now that the details of a crony deal, done for political purposes, by the Chinese elite, legally, for the purpose of increasing their power in America, is going to provide China's people with one more grievance as they stand impoverished ... and one more reason to revolt. The fact that it all was done legally, is going to fuel the matter further. If it weren't, it would be a fairly easy matter for the Chinese authorities to arrest the Chinese participants and dissociate themselves from the obvious corruption. They can't quite do that, at least not now. China, incidentally, has a tradition of populist revolts over crony activity with today's China is no stranger to it.
All communist parties seek to protect their nomenklaturas first and foremost, that's what communism is actually about. That's why the spread of the Biden scandal to China really terrifies them. It sure as heck has to be the biggest reason their propaganda outlets, even the chattiest of them, have all gone dark.
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