Wednesday, July 29, 2020

BYRON YORK - BIDEN SENILE!

Biden VP Search Underscores Fact He's Too Old to be President

Byron York
|
Posted: Jul 29, 2020 12:01 AM
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Biden VP Search Underscores Fact He's Too Old to be President
Source: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
An article in Politico got a lot of buzz in Washington, D.C., by reporting that Sen. Kamala Harris might not be a very strong front-runner, or even a front-runner at all, in the Democratic vice presidential selection race. Politico reported that 76-year-old former Sen. Chris Dodd, a member of 77-year-old former Sen. Joe Biden's VP selection committee, was unhappy that Harris showed "no remorse" for her rough attacks on Biden during the Democratic presidential primary season.
But the report revealed something else which should have gotten more attention. An unnamed Biden adviser told Politico that the VP choice is being shaped by the possibility that Biden might serve just one term. "If you assume Biden isn't going to run for reelection, you don't want someone who is only paying attention to 2024," the anonymous Biden adviser said. "The decisions that need to be made are not going to be easy. Biden's vice president might want to dodge a lot of tough issues if they only have an eye on 2024."
And why might Biden serve just one term? Because if elected, he would be by far the oldest president ever to begin his time in the White House. Biden will be 78 years old on Inauguration Day, older than President Trump, who took the oath of office at age 70. If Trump were to win re-election and serve a full second term, he would retire at the same age, 78, that Biden would be upon beginning his presidency.
The previous oldest? Ronald Reagan left office at 77 after two terms in office -- younger than Biden would be on Day One of his presidency. And Reagan's second term was filled with speculation that he had suffered mental decline and wasn't the man he used to be.
There's an implicit sense, when a candidate runs for president, that he or she will want to serve two terms if elected. That way, the president is not a lame-duck upon taking office. But with Biden, that would be asking the American people to serve in the White House until age 86, which is far beyond anything that has ever happened in American politics.
And the fact is, Biden, at 77, has clearly slowed down. He does not appear to be as vigorous as he was during his 44 years in the federal government. Trump slams him mercilessly for it, something which will likely increase as the campaign goes on.
It's extraordinary that the presidential race has come down to two candidates in their 70s. Trump was the oldest ever to take office for his first term. Democrats had two dozen candidates, most of whom were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s -- prime ages for a president. Yet they chose one significantly older than the Republican Trump.
At the moment, Biden is facing very little commentary and criticism about his age. There was more discussion of age when Republican John McCain, who would have been 72 had he been elected, ran in 2008, and when Republican Bob Dole, who would have been 73, ran in 1996. But Biden, who would be 78, attracts less talk.
But that is why the vice presidential decision is particularly complex. Bluntly put, Biden does not appear ready to tackle the world's toughest job until the age of 86. And if he is not, it is extraordinarily important for Democrats to have a vice president who can run to succeed a one-term Biden. As the anonymous Biden adviser suggested, that complicates things. Would the vice president be running for president the moment she takes office? What would that mean? Biden's age is an important factor in the 2020 race, even if some commentators don't want to talk about it.

THE TRUMP DEPRESSION - BUT HOW MUCH RICHER WILL THE RICH GET THIS TIME?

The U.S. economy suffered its worst quarter ever, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank 32.9% during April, May and June, as America’s businesses ground to a halt in a desperate effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The numbers continue to paint a grim picture as another 1.43 million people filed for unemployment last week, according to the Labor Department’s latest findings.


Walmart to Lay Off Hundreds of Corporate Workers

Walmart President and CEO, Doug McMillon, announced today that Walmart will give hiring preference to military spouses, becoming the largest U.S. company to make such a commitment. This announcement came during a Veterans Day ceremony on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018 in Bentonville, Ark. (Gareth Patterson/AP Images for Walmart)
Gareth Patterson/AP Images for Walmart

Walmart Inc. is joining the ranks of Macy’s and L Brands in eliminating hundreds of corporate jobs in order to cut costs.
Employees in the mega-retailer’s store planning, logistics, and real estate units have reportedly received pink slips, reported Bloomberg Thursday:
Some of those affected were told in person, while others learned their fate over a Zoom call, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. Conversations with those impacted will continue throughout the week. Those who lose their jobs will be paid until the end of January, when Walmart’s fiscal year ends and annual bonuses get doled out, according to one of the people.
John Furner, director of Walmart’s U.S. operations, told Bloomberg that more information about the company’s restructuring would be forthcoming after communications with associates are completed.
“We are continuing on our journey to create an omni-channel organization within our Walmart U.S. business and we’re making some additional changes this week,” a spokesperson said, adding that efforts will seek to boost “innovation, speed and productivity.”
While Walmart’s sales during the coronavirus pandemic have surged, it is no longer opening new stores in the United States, and has been streamlining its operations for several years. Recently, it closed down its Jet.com e-commerce unit.
According to the report, Walmart’s stock climbed 10% this year through Wednesday, ahead of the S&P 500 index. However, it fell 1% to $129.38 per share Thursday morning in New York.
Layoffs are occurring in merchandizing, transportation, human resources, and product design, Bloomberg was told.
L Brands Inc., which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, also announced this week it would be laying off 850 office workers, about 15 percent of its corporate staff.
Last month, Macy’s Inc. announced the elimination of 3,900 corporate and management positions as well.







The U.S. Economy Suffers Sharpest Downturn on Record

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JUNE 05: A worker removes cases of beer from the cooler inside Chicago Lake Liquors after it was looted during the protests and riots which followed the death of George Floyd on June 5, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. All of the merchandise left in the store will …
Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
5:18

The U.S. economy shrank in the second quarter by the fastest rate since the government began keeping track of gross domestic product after World War II, as lockdowns aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic decimated economic activity and anti-police riots tore through many American cities.
Gross domestic product, or the value of all goods and services produced by the economy, contracted at a 32.9 percent seasonally adjusted annualized rate in the April through June three month period, according to the preliminary estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis published on Thursday. That marked the steepest drop on records stretching back to 1947 and compared with economists’ forecasts for a 35 percent decline in output.
The BEA reports the change in GDP on an annualized basis, which can exaggerate the impact of temporary and sudden shifts in the economy. Compared with both a year ago and with the first quarter of the year, GDP was down 9.5 percent.
The previous record decline on the standard, annualized basis was a 10 percent drop in the first quarter of 1958. The U.S. economy shrank at a 5 percent rate in the first three months of 2020.
Consumer spending crashed at an annualized rate of 34.6 percent in the quarter, led by a 43.5 percent annualized decline in spending on services. Consumer spending on goods fell at an annualized 11.3 percent. Private sector investment fell 49 percent, driven down by a 38.7 percent decline in residential investment, a 34.9 percent decline in commercial building investment, and a 37.7 percent decline in equipment investment.
Consumer spending on durable goods, which had been the worst hit segment of the economy in the early stages of the pandemic, declined a milder 1.1 percent.
In comparison to the year-ago period, the declines look less extreme. Consumer spending was down 10.7 percent. Spending on services dropped 14.7 percent. Spending on goods declined 1.8 percent. Private investment fell 17.9 percent.
Much of the economy was locked down during the second quarter, with only essential workers and services permitted to operate for work that could not be done from home.  Americans were under instructions to stay home or social distance when in public. State reopenings required many businesses to operate at diminished capacity, limiting the speed of any rebound.
As well, businesses in cities across the U.S. found themselves under siege as protests turned into riots and looting. Although the total number of businesses that were damaged during the Black Lives Matter riots remains uncounted, that number certainly runs into the thousands.
In a separate report also released Thursday, the Department of Labor said that 1.43 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week, an increase of 12,000 from the week earlier. The virus and social distancing forced millions of employers to cut payrolls, throwing tens of millions of Americans out of work, as consumers slashed spending on travel, hotels, restaurants, and many other businesses. Yet as states have reopened their economies, employers have been hiring workers back at a record pace. An additional 4.8 million workers were added to payrolls in June and the unemployment rate fell to 11.1 percent.
The U.S. Census Bureau said in its latest weekly Household Pulse Survey that 51.1 percent of households experienced a loss of employment income in the week ended July 21, up from 48.3 percent four weeks ago.
Government relief efforts, however, gave a big boost to household income in the second quarter. Despite double-digit unemployment and the crash in consumer spending, personal income increased $1.39 trillion in the second quarter. The government said the increase in personal income was more than accounted for by an increase in government benefits. After-tax personal income increased $1.53 trillion, or 42.1 percent, in the second quarter. Real disposable personal income increased 44.9 percent.
Personal spending fell by $1.57 trillion.  The contrast of rising income and falling spending drove up personal saving by $4.69 trillion in the second quarter. The personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of after tax personal income—was 25.7 percent in the second quarter, compared with 9.5 percent in the first quarter and 7.3 percent at the end of 2019.
Most analysts expect a sharp rebound in the current third quarter, covering the July through September period. Even still, the data is likely to show the economy contracted in 2020. So far the recovery has been less smooth than some analysts and many Trump administration officials expected. The housing sector has done well as the economy reopened but many other sectors, especially the labor market, have struggled or stalled.








Fed Sees Dim Economic Outlook as Pandemic Squeezes Economy

In this March 3, 2020 file photo, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference to discuss an announcement from the Federal Open Market Committee, in Washington. Federal Reserve officials are grappling this week with the timing and scope of their next policy moves at a time when …

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is expressing concern that the viral outbreak will act as a drag on the economy and hiring in coming months and that it plans to keep its benchmark short-term interest rate pegged near zero.
In a statement at the end of its policy-making meeting Wednesday, the Fed acknowledged that the economy has rebounded from the depths of March and April, when nearly all states closed down nonessential businesses. But it said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic “will weigh heavily on economic activity, employment and inflation.”
The Fed announced no new policies in its statement. The central bank said it will also continue to buy about $120 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds each month, which are intended to inject cash into financial markets and spur borrowing and spending.
Economists say the Fed has time to consider its next policy moves because short- and long-term rates remain historically ultra-low and aren’t restraining economic growth. Home sales have picked up after falling sharply in the spring. The housing rebound has been fueled by the lowest loan rates on record, with the average 30-year mortgage dipping below 3% this month for the first time in 50 years.
With the economy struggling just to grow, small businesses across the country in serious danger and unemployment very high at 11.1%, few investors expect the Fed to hike interest rates for perhaps years to come. After its previous meeting last month, the Fed had signaled that it expected to keep its key short-term rate near zero at least through 2022.
Beginning in March, the Fed has slashed its short-term rate, bought more than $2 trillion in Treasury and mortgage bonds and unveiled nine lending programs to try to keep credit flowing smoothly.
Since the Fed’s previous meeting in June, the pandemic’s threat to the economy has appeared to worsen. The number of laid-off workers applying for unemployment aid has exceeded 1 million for 18 straight weeks. Measures of credit card spending have declined. And companies that track small-business employment say the number of people at work has leveled off, far below pre-pandemic levels, after having risen in May and June.
Most analysts say they think the Fed’s next move will be to provide more specific guidance about the conditions it would need to see before raising its benchmark short-term interest rate from zero.
Economists call such an approach “forward guidance,” and the Fed used it extensively after the 2008-2009 recession. Some Fed watchers expect no rate increase until 2024 at the earliest given the bleak outlook for the economy and expectations of continued ultra-low inflation. But by providing more certainty for investors about when a rate hike may occur, forward guidance can help keep longer-term rates lower than they might otherwise be.
The Fed will likely provide such guidance at its next meeting in September, economists say.
According to the minutes of their June meeting, “various” Fed officials felt it would “be important in the coming months … to provide greater clarity” about the future path of rates.
One potential form of forward guidance would be for the Fed to announce that it won’t raise rates until annual inflation has reached or exceeded its target of 2% for a specific period. This would be intended to allow inflation to rise above 2%, to offset inflation that has fallen below that target nearly continuously since 2012. (Inflation is now running at just 0.5%, according to the Fed’s preferred gauge.)
In recent speeches and appearances, Fed policymakers have sounded largely pessimistic about the economy. Several, including Powell, warned in late May, as many states began allowing more businesses to reopen, that a resurgent virus could imperil any recovery.
Congress is in the early stages of negotiating an economic relief package that might extend several key support programs, such as an expiring unemployment benefit that is now paying out $600 a week. That benefit will likely be reduced in any final legislation.
For now, the two parties are far apart, and the federal jobless benefit will likely lapse for about 30 million people who have been unemployed for several weeks. That would likely slow consumer spending and weaken the economy.







Susan Rice: 150,000 Dead Americans Is on Trump’s ‘Gross Mishandling of This Pandemic’

1:33

Wednesday on ABC’s “The View,” former Obama administration National Security Advisor Susan Rice said President Donald Trump was to blame for all the Americas who lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic.
Rice said, “Anybody who knew anything about national security, global health, understood that a pandemic was inevitable. I write about it in my book that we were just talking about briefly at the outset. We prepared the incoming administration with a pandemic for dummies playbook. So the fault here, the tragic loss of 150,000 Americans and counting is on Donald Trump and his gross mishandling of this pandemic. He said it would go away. He likened it to the flu. He said, you know, that it would be fine to reopen our states prematurely. He’s encouraged kids to go back to school in communities where the virus is raging.”
She added, “Every step of the way Donald Trump has put his own personal political interests ahead of the health and well-being and the economic security of Americans. That is why this tragedy has been as bad as it has been, and if anybody has any doubt about that, look at many other competent countries in the rest of the world. In Europe, in Asia and elsewhere that have handled this in such a way that their kids are going back to school, their economies are reopening, and the numbers continue to go down. That is not what’s happening here.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN

WILL MEXICO ELECT ALL FUTURE PRESIDENTS? - JOE BIDEN PROMISES AMNESTY SO 40 MILLION MEX FLAG WAVERS CAN BRING UP THE REST OF MEXICO AND VOTE DEM FOR MORE

Foreign influence in our elections is bad, unless done by illegal aliens


It is becoming increasingly difficult to refute the idea that as civilization advances, our collective memories are shrinking. It’s as if we can’t remember things that just happened a few short years ago. Whether the cause is advancing technology, the breakneck pace of our world or growing self-absorption, we are losing our ability to connect our past to our present. This can only bring bad consequences.
A recent example is the threat of foreign influence in our elections. Remember that? Barely a year ago the headlines were buzzing with the specter of Russian intelligence agents meddling in our 2020 presidential election, same as supposedly happened in 2016. Back then, the media breathlessly proclaimed the purported hack of our election to be as sinister as the attack on Pearl Harbor. Wherever you sit on the ideological spectrum, the message was clear: foreign influence bad; electoral integrity good.
To return to the present, we apparently have forgotten about that whole foreign-influence-bad thing. When President Trump recently signed an executive order to not count illegal aliens for the purpose of determining how many representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives are apportioned to each state, the very same people who railed about Russian influence howled in protest. Either some cannot remember the recent past, or they are hopelessly captive to their hyper-partisanship.
Make no mistake, foreign influence in our elections is indeed a bad thing. The biggest threat to our electoral integrity comes not from Russians, but from allowing illegal aliens to affect congressional apportionment.
Absent President Trump’s recent order, states can increase their number of representatives in Congress if they have more illegals aliens. More representation means more political clout in Washington and more ability to direct federal dollars home to those states. And when millions of illegal aliens are concentrated in just a few states, counting them gives political power to foreign nationals who choose to come here in violation of our laws, and takes power from Americans by diluting their votes. One can easily see the noxious incentive that creates for states: flood your state with illegal aliens and reap the political and financial rewards. 
More representatives in Congress also means more votes for a state in the Electoral College. Another reward for encouraging foreign nationals to violate our immigration laws is to receive more importance in presidential elections. This is not the policy of a country that wants to be sound and prosperous for the long term.
President Trump’s apportionment order raises another question: is there any founding principle of this country we are not prepared to abandon? Americans are not united by their DNA, but by our belief in uniquely American ideas such as the Bill of Rights and that we are endowed with those rights by a Creator, not government. That is why we have taught these concepts to our children from an early age.
Those who apply for U.S. citizenship legally are similarly required to learn about America’s history and its commitment to individual liberty. Foreign nationals here illegally, by contrast, have none of that grounding. They often come from countries run by oppressive dictatorships where the United States is despised. An oppressive nanny state is often all they know and expect from government. Unscrupulous politicians see these people as gullible marks whose votes can be purchased with the promise of a utopia that can never exist. That is precisely why such politicians are staunchly opposed to any measure that restricts illegal aliens from our electoral process.
Electoral integrity is one of the vital pillars upon which our country stands. To abandon it in the name of political correctness and the quest to consolidate political power is to set our country on a downward spiral from which it may never recover. At that point we will be no better than the authoritarian, corrupt and poverty-stricken states from which many prospective immigrants flee. This is a battle worth fighting. Few other issues are as important. Let us not forget our history when we need it most.
Dale Wilcox is executive director and general counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of illegal migration.

STEVE BANNON'S RADIO FREE CHINA - AS SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN AND JOE BIDEN SUCK OFF RED CHINA FOR BRIBES

Bannon's Radio Free China


During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe (RFE) broadcast anti-communist messaging to countries behind the Iron Curtain. In addition to providing hope to victims of leftism and countering the official Soviet narrative, RFE shored up hope for change. The efficacy and threat of this western-backed and -operated “free flow of information” was recognized by the Soviet Union, such that in 1981, RFE’s Munich headquarters were bombed by Carlos the Jackal under the orders of the Stasi.
Seventy-one-years after RFE’s inception and twenty-nine-years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the West continues to “provide accurate and timely news and information to… countries whose governments prohibit access to a free press,” only now it is targeting a new audience: the Chinese people, along with North Koreans, Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Burmese listeners. Radio Free Asia began broadcasting in 1996, but the CCP has managed, in large part due to its great firewall, to jam the signal.
Behind the Chinese firewall are over 1.3 billion people. Only 90.6 million are members of the Chinese Communist Party, and of that number, fewer than 5,000 wield real power. The value and importance of connecting a western, anti-totalitarian message with the hundreds of millions of Chinese persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, brainwashed, and cowed by Xi Jinping’s murderous regime -- to provide some semblance of hope and international camaraderie -- cannot be underestimated. After all, as The Hill reported in 2017, China spends over $10Bn a year expanding its soft power in the form of CCP propaganda for which there must be a counter. Such a crucial humanitarian and political mission cannot be left to a single organization or broadcaster, especially when RFA’s budget remains under $50M. Thankfully, there is another messenger addressing Old Hundred Names (i.e. 老百姓), and discussing change, hope, and action. In the matter of a couple of months, that messenger has done enough damage to the CCP’s credibility to draw its ire as the RFE drew that of the Soviets.
Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former Chief Strategist, rejects Graham Allison’s conclusions in Destined for War concerning Thucydides’ trap -- that China is the ascendant power, America the established power, and that the former will unseat and replace the latter. Condemning this defeatism amongst the Kissinger-types in Washington and calling out collaboration between American corporatists and the CCP, Bannon argues that now is the time for bold action, to support dissidents in China, to knock down Xi Jinping’s “running dogs” and those collaborators in the West arguing in favor of America exiting the world stage and getting out of the way of an atheistic, collectivistic, and genocidal China. Even prior to the onset of the CCP Virus, Bannon was convinced that Sino-American relations were on the verge of a major change; that we were nearing the height of what William Strauss and Neil Howe call in their generational theory a “fourth turning.” (In simplest terms, where America is concerned, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men have created the times we presently find ourselves in, which could be characterized as a time of upheaval or a fourth turning) This Chinese-facilitated global crisis, exacerbated domestically by weak individuals, presents an opportunity for great change and a fundamental reorientation of national priorities and global powers. If this opportunity is ignored or passed up, America will forsake the free world and guarantee its own eventual demise.
In the fall of 2019, at the height of the Russian Collusion delusion with partisan gaslighting threatening to undermine Trump’s presidency, Bannon once again declared war. In the basement of his Capitol Hill townhouse -- formerly known as the Breitbart embassy -- Bannon kicked off a counterinsurgency podcast and radio show entitled War Room [Impeachment]. On his team, amplifying the signal and ignoring the noise: former Jamestown Associates VP and Trump 2016 campaign spokesman Jason Miller former Breitbart London editor-in-chief and Nigel Farage advisor Raheem Kassam; Virginia’s “political kingmaker” John Fredericks; veteran operative and celebrated patriot Jack Maxey; and Vish Burra, the head of the Yorkville Group, among others. With Voice of America behind them, Bannon’s War Room was ready for action.
At the start of the New Year, with impeachment frenzy petering out, Bannon changed gears. He began discussing the CCP Virus and the Chinese regime’s culpability for what has since become a global pandemic, one that has reportedly claimed the lives of over 140,000 Americans and nearly 700,000 others internationally, as well as sending the world into a global financial meltdown. By February, Bannon and his team were devoting the majority of their airtime to analysis of the grossly overlooked mayhem taking place in China’s Hubei province. They took note as millions of Chinese were being welded into their apartments or dragged into the streets; while dozens of industrial incinerators -- for China’s flu-decimated pigs or its citizens, it’s still not clear -- ran nonstop in Wuhan. The mainstream media, desperate not to offend benefactors and political allies, downplayed the ghastly reports out of Wuhan as conspiracy theories and smeared whistleblowers. Those politicos, experts, dissidents, and whistleblowers denied a platform on CNN, MSNBC, and on other hack outlets, flocked to War Room -- to Bannon’s Radio Free China.
Recognizing War Room Pandemic’s reach and the clarity of its message, the CCP’s media arm attempted to throttle Bannon or at the very least smack some fear into him. In May, CGTN called Bannon “A Modern Day Demagogue” and lashed out again the next day to note that he “can’t be trusted.” Bannon laughed it off. In fact, he was emboldened by the regime's smears and the attacks by its 50 Cent Army (i.e. 五毛党). After all, they wanted to shut him up because he was saying something of value. For starters, he compared the CCP to the Nazis.
The Chinese regime would prefer the West forget or ignore the hundreds of millions of coerced abortions and sterilizations carried out under the CCP’s eugenicist One Child Policy; the persecution of house Christians, the underground Catholic Church, and the Falun Gong; the internment of millions of Uighur Muslims in concentration camps; the clamp-down on dissent under the CCP’s new dehumanizing social credit surveillance program; its torturous indoctrination camps; the CCP’s aggression against Taiwan, Tibet, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and its other neighbors on the East Sea as well as its creation of illegal maritime fortresses; the CCP’s predacious One Belt One Road program, which it uses to bankrupt developing nations and secure regions with geostrategic value for future plunder and military advantage; China’s cyberespionage and ongoing theft of western IPs; the CCP’s currency manipulation; and the 46 million Chinese the CCP murdered in its so-called Great Leap Forward. Bannon and his team together have a great memory and they’re highlighting all that the CCP wants hidden.  Furthermore, they've emphasized the distinction between the Chinese people and the CCP.
Channeling Fulton Sheen -- who pointed out in 1955 that only 3% of the population of Russia belonged to the Communist Party -- Bannon pointed out early on in his War Room coverage that the Chinese people are not the enemy. In fact, they are the first victims of America’s enemy, the Chinese Communist Party. Before China was putting Americans out of work, it was snuffing Chinese baby girls out of existence. Around the time Xi Jinping denied his father and broke rocks for Mao, tens of millions of Chinese were run over, shot, and starved by the same threat that now seeks to reign over Asia, to bring India to heel, and to punish Korea and Japan for crimes long-forgotten with crimes unforgettable. It is for this reason that there are two targets for Bannon’s Radio Free China: first, the American people whose elite have sold them and their children out to the communist Chinese who, through deception, information warfare, and trade warfare, have put them out of work, murdered their loved ones, and destroyed their economy; and second, the Chinese people who have never been free.
On the matter of the first, it was War Room Pandemic that gave Senator Tom Cotton a platform when everywhere else he was derided for pointing out that: the recombinant CCP virus did not originate in a wet market but rather in a level-four lab; that the CCP lied about human-to-human transmission (in part via the World Health Organization), arrested whistleblowers, silenced scientists sounding the alarm, destroyed key medical documents, and allowed international travel out of Wuhan while all domestic travel to and from Wuhan was prohibited. In addition to Cotton, Bannon has hosted dozens of experts from around the world while amplifying the message of patriots keen on action, such as Congressman Matt Gaetz, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, and former Navy Intel Office and China-expert Jack Posobiec. Where their American audience is concerned, War Room is championing the America-First populist cause (what Sohrab Ahmari might call common good conservatism) -- to make citizenship mean something again, to find common cause in common values, and all that both require.
On the matter of the War Room’s second target, Bannon and his team seek to channel their pro-democracy populist discourse over to the Chinese people via Nexus.org and VPNs, and it is for this reason that the show is translated into Mandarin. To anyone who might accuse the War Room team of xenophobia: what kind of –phobe seeks to improve the life, well-being, and agency of the Other? To urge her to persevere and to continue her fight against evil and oppression? Bannon’s hope is that while China’s thousand-year dam is presently pushed to its breaking point, perhaps it will be a Chinese populist revolt that surges.
Radio Free Asia is not alone in the information war focused on liberating the Chinese people and unburdening the world from the totalitarian, murderous CCP. It has fighting alongside it War Room (unofficially Radio Free China), helmed by Stephen Bannon who routinely vows: “Yes, we are coming for you -- the Chinese Communist Party -- and yes, we will overcome and defeat you like we defeated the fascists and the Nazis and the commissars in the Soviet Union.” It’s not the war to end all wars, but it’s a just war and it’s damned good thing Bannon is on our side.


UC Davis Harbored Suspected Communist Spy Juan Tang

Intrigue in Dems' China-friendly California.
 
Lloyd Billingsley


On Friday U.S. authorities arrested Juan Tang, who had sought refuge in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco after being charged with visa fraud last month. Tang had been a visiting cancer researcher at UC Davis, the Davis Enterprise reports, funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council, affiliated with the China’s Ministry of Education and Xijing Hospital in China.
According to the report, the FBI found a 2016 photo of Tang wearing a People’s Liberation Army uniform and an application for government benefits in which Tang revealed she was member of the Chinese Communist Party. After questioning at her Davis apartment, Tang fled to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. Justice Department officials did not reveal how Tang was apprehended or whether the consulate had turned over the fugitive.
Chen Song, a visiting researcher at Stanford is also charged with visa fraud for lying about affiliations with the Chinese military. These are hardly the first cases of Chinese espionage in California. For some 20 years, in fact, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco Democrat, employed a Chinese spy on her staff.
The spy worked as a driver but also served in Feinstein’s San Francisco office, as a liaison to the Asian American community, and even attended Chinese consulate functions for the senator.
When the news broke in 2018, Feinstein professed to be “mortified,” but at a loss as to what information the spy might have passed on to China. Observers might wonder what Feinstein knew and when did she knew it. The Senate Intelligence Committee could have shed light on the Chinese spy, and Chinese espionage in general, but no such hearing took place.
Long before she became a U.S. Senator in 1992, Feinstein had been on good terms with Communist China. She first visited the People’s Republic in 1975, when Chairman Mao still held the reins. Feinstein compared the Tiananmen Square massacre with Kent State, and in 1999 spearheaded efforts to bring China into the World Trade Organization, which removed annual review of the regime’s record on human rights and weapons proliferation.
The San Francisco Democrat has never charted any progress the Communist regime might have made on human rights, and on the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen in 2018, no official statement appeared from the senator. As Rosemarie Ho noted in The Nation, Democrats in general and Feinstein in particular have been rather quiet about the democratic protesters in Hong Kong. For their part, California Democrats have gone out of their way to do business with the Communist power.
The state did not need a new eastern span of the Bay Bridge but California Democrats opted to build one anyway, with steel from Communist China. Democrats even declined to apply for federal funding to avoid the requirement to use steel from American manufacturers. The Chinese company ZPMC lacked bridge construction experience and failed on key quality control measures. The cheaper Chinese was prone to embrittlement, and many of the Chinese welds were defective. The span came in 10 years late, $5 billion over budget, and riddled with safety issues, to which Gov. Jerry Brown famously replied, “I mean, look, shit happens.”
Brown was succeeded by former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, whose father Brown had appointed as a judge. On March 4 this year, Newsom declared a state of emergency and the next month struck a $1 billion deal for 200 million masks with Build Your Dreams (BYD) a Chinese company with no experience in protective equipment but troubling ties to the Chinese military.  Newsom handed $500 million to BYD up front, and kept details of the deal from fellow Democrats and the public.
Like Sen. Feinstein and his one-time aunt Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom has little to say about democratic demonstrators in Hong Kong. The carefully coiffed governor has exploited the China virus to rule as an autocrat, issuing executive orders by the dozens. When the state economy predictably tanked, Newsom banned protests at the state capitol and ringed the capitol grounds with black-clad CHP forces in full riot gear.
Like Gov. Newsom, state Democrats deploy the coronavirus as a misery index and means to control the people. The numbers hardly justify it, but former Jerry Brown advisor Sen. Steve Glazer, not a doctor or immunologist, wants to lock down the whole state again.
When Newsom declared the emergency he hailed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and said “we are so blessed to have her leadership in California.” State Democrats are doubtless hoping Pelosi will bail out the state after a Biden victory in November. Meanwhile, Juan Tang is not the first researcher to conceal affiliations with China’s Communist government.
As the Los Angeles Times reported last week, a researcher at UC San Francisco was secretly a Chinese military official with “a designated point of contact” at the Chinese consulate. According to John Brown, head of the FBI’s National Security Branch, visa holders with hidden affiliations to the Chinese military have been identified in more than 25 American cities.

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


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!

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

Democrat Traitors Stand by China’s Spy Consulates

Democrat sanctuary cities don’t just provide sanctuary for illegal aliens, but for enemy spies.
 
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)