Tag: 3/4/2019

Surrender: Hong Kong Leader Caves to 1 of Protesters’ 5 Demands, Will Withdraw Bill Allowing China to Extradite Dissidents

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By Frances Martel

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced Wednesday that the government would fully withdraw the bill that launched the ongoing pro-democracy movement from the legislature, ceding to one of the five demands protesters have been posing to the government for the past three months.

The bill in question would have allowed the Communist Party of China to extradite anyone present in Hong Kong, not just Hong Kong residents or Chinese citizens, into the Chinese prison system if accused of violating communist “crimes.” China has notoriously “disappeared” thousands of political dissidents into its prison system and severely restricts free speech and religious activity. Multiple investigations have found that China uses its political prisoners as forced organ donors, cutting them open and taking their organs alive to fuel a million-dollar industry.

Hong Kong residents naturally feared that exercising their rights to speech, assembly, or religion in what is ostensibly a free territory would result in being the victims of gross human rights violations and took to the streets this June.

In a public address Wednesday, Lam said the Legislative Council would fully withdraw the bill “in order to fully allay public concerns” and lamented the mostly police-driven violence her government has plunged the city into, though she appeared to equally blamed the peaceful protest movement.

“Our citizens, police and reporters have been injured during violent incidents. There have been chaotic scenes at the airport and MTR stations; roads and tunnels have been suddenly blocked, causing delay and inconvenience to daily life,” Lam narrated. “For many people, Hong Kong has become an unfamiliar place.”

Lam also announced that she would modify the membership of the existing police oversight organization, the Independent Police Complaints Commission. This is a nod to one of the remaining four demands – an independent inquiry on police brutality against protesters – but does not address concerns that the police would exonerate itself of human rights crimes if it conducts the investigation.

“The government believes that matters relating to police enforcement actions are best handled by the existing and well-established [IPCC], which was set up for exactly this purpose,” Lam insisted.

The Global Times, a Chinese regime propaganda outlet, was quick to applaud Lam and threaten protesters out of celebrating her moves as a win.

“Though the move is meant to show the SAR [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] government’s sincerity in addressing the political crisis, it should not be seen as a concession by Lam that could lead to a slippery slope,” the Global Times warned, “and radical forces should not have any illusion of winning ground on matters related to the ‘one country, two system’ [sic] principle that governs Hong Kong and China’s sovereignty.”

The Global Times reported that Beijing supported Lam’s decision.

The protesters have made five demands on Hong Kong’s government: a withdrawal of the extradition bill, the independent inquiry on police brutality, freedom for political prisoners, direct election of lawmakers, and an apology for calling the June 12 protest a “riot.” Currently, Hongkongers are allowed to election only half of lawmakers in the Legislative Council, while the others are appointed by a small group of special interests representatives controlled by China. Similarly, only 1,200 Hong Kong residents, part of a special committee, can vote for their chief executive, and even then only among a list of candidates handpicked by China.

Prior to Wednesday, Lam had adamantly refused to withdraw the extradition bill, noting that legislators had tabled it and declaring it “dead” in July. Tabling a bill keeps it alive and allows lawmakers to revive it at any time.

“I have almost immediately put a stop to the [bill] amendment exercise, but there are still lingering doubts about the government’s sincerity, or worries, whether the government will restart the process in the legislative council, so I reiterate here: There is no such plan, the bill is dead,” she said in July.

Protest movement leaders responded to this declaration by asserting that “dead” is not a legal term for a bill and that she gave no guarantees lawmakers would not bring it back to life.

Her statement followed the destruction of the Legislative Council floor and much of the building it uses as its headquarters. Protesters meticulously destroyed all the technology and every facility used to pass laws, but left historical documents, the building’s cafeteria, and other irrelevant areas untouched.

Lam’s concession follows the publication of a bombshell report this week by Reuters, revealing audio of the chief executive saying she would like to resign from the post, but she is not allowed.

“For a chief executive to have caused this huge havoc to Hong Kong is unforgivable. It’s just unforgivable,” she said in the audio. “If I have a choice, the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology, is to step down.”
Lam conceded on Tuesday that the audio is real, but claimed that her choice of words was taken out of context, and that she meant only that quitting was the easiest thing to do. Despite Lam admitting the audio was, indeed, of her voice, the Global Times called the Reuters report “fake,” without elaborating.

Protest leaders have called Lam’s withdrawal of the bill “too little and too late,” insisting they will continue their struggle for freedom from China.

 

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff Ran Slush Fund – Funneled Over $1 Million in Campaign Donations to His Own Companies

by Cristina Laila March 4, 2019

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According to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Committee Monday (FEC), two PACs founded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s top aide, Saikat Chakrabarti funneled over $ 1 million in political donations into two of his own private companies, reported the Washington Examiner.

So much for Ocasio-Cortez’s promise to reduce “dark money” in politics!

According to a complaint filed by government watchdog group National Legal and Policy Center, it appears Chakrabarti set up his two companies for the sole purpose of hiding how the donations were used.

The Washington Examiner reported:

The arrangement skirted reporting requirements and may have violated the $5,000 limit on contributions from federal PACs to candidates, according to the complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group.

Campaign finance attorneys described the arrangement as “really weird” and an indication “there’s something amiss.” They said there was no way of telling where the political donations went — meaning they could have been pocketed or used by the company to pay for off-the-books campaign operations.

PACs are required to disclose how and when funds are spent, including for expenditures like advertisements, fundraising emails, donations to candidates, and payments for events and to vendors.

The private companies to which Chakrabarti transferred the money from the PACs are not subject to these requirements.

The complaint names Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti and asks the FEC to investigate and audit the two PACs alleging they were engaged in “an elaborate scheme to avoid proper disclosure of campaign expenditures,” reported the Examiner.

“It appears Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her associates ran an off-the-books operation to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, thus violating the foundation of all campaign finance laws: transparency,” Director of National Legal Policy Center Tom Anderson said.

Chakrabarti founded the two PACs in question in 2016 and 2017.

Brand New Congress was founded in 2016 and Justice Democrats was founded in 2017 with the end goal of getting ultra progressive candidates elected to Congress — ultimately these two PACs helped radical Communist Ocasio-Cortez win a Congressional seat last November.

The Washington Examiner explains how Chakrabarti set up the PACs and his shell companies to move the money around in secret:

In 2016 and 2017, Chakrabarti’s PACs raised around $3.3 million for the project, primarily from small donors. During this time, the committees transferred over $1 million to two shell companies controlled by Chakrabarti with names similar to one of the PACs, Brand New Campaign LLC and Brand New Congress LLC, according to federal election filings.

A few weeks after starting the Brand New Congress PAC, Chakrabarti formed one of the companies, Brand New Campaign LLC, in Delaware, using a registered agent service and mailbox-only address.

Over the next seven months, as small-dollar political donations poured into the PAC from progressives across the country, the committee transferred over $200,000, 82 percent of the contributions, to the company Brand New Campaign LLC. The payments were for “strategic consulting,” according to federal election filings. They were sent to an apartment address listed for Chakrabarti in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan.

In 2017, Brand New Congress PAC transferred another $240,000 to Brand New Congress LLC, also for “strategic consulting.” Another PAC co-founded by Chakrabarti that year called “Justice Democrats” transferred an additional $605,000 to Brand New Congress LLC in 2017.

Bradley A. Smith, a former chairman of the FEC, said he has never seen such an arrangement. “It’s a really weird situation,” he said. “I see almost no way that you can do that without it being at least a reporting violation, quite likely a violation of the contribution limits. You might say from a campaign finance angle that the LLC was essentially operating as an unregistered committee.”

Recall, AOC’s Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti is a radical Communist and a huge fan of Indian political leader Subhas Chandra Bose who was an ally of Adolf Hitler and Imperial Japan.

Ocasio-Cortez was lambasted by conservative media after her boyfriend’s name appeared on the House directory list — many speculated she put her boyfriend on payroll like a good Socialist.

“Nice to see her adapting to the swamp so quickly,” writer Luke Thompson said after discovering AOC’s boyfriend was designated as House staff a few weeks ago.

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Emergency Declaration Drama Mitch Fails to Prevent Revolt as Border Remains Open

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has broken a reported promise to President Donald Trump, admitting Monday that he failed to prevent Republican Senators from passing a resolution blocking a national emergency declaration on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Speaking at an event Louisville, McConnell said that while the resolution will pass in the Senate, it is highly likely the House will vote to uphold the president’s veto. “What is clear in the Senate is that there will be enough votes to pass the resolution of disapproval, which will then be vetoed by the president and then in all likelihood the veto will be upheld in the House,” he said.

The admission comes after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announced Sunday that he joined three of his fellow Republican senators to vote with 47 Senate Democrats in backing an anti-declaration resolution which passed the House. “I can’t vote to give the president the power to spend money that hasn’t been appropriated by Congress. We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing,” Paul said, the Bowling Green Daily News reported.

In addition to Paul, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Susan Collins (R-ME) will also support the measure, while Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) have not made their position on resolution public.

Later this month, the Senate will vote on the resolution to prevent President Trump from reallocating, without Congress, billions of dollars to fund the construction of a Southern border wall. In February, President Trump announced that he would declare an emergency to build the wall after Congress passed legislation providing $1.3 billion for barriers. He plans to divert $3.6 billion from military construction of the wall and transfer another $3.1 billion towards the construction. As the New York Times reported, McConnell promised the president to support the declaration, signaling that he would quell any opposition to the measure.

[A]fter a particularly unpleasant meeting with the secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen, the president was threatening to torpedo the deal, according to two people briefed on the exchange. Several hours and several phone calls later, McConnell had persuaded Mr. Trump to once again agree to sign the bill to avert another government shutdown looming at midnight Friday.

But persuasion came at a price: The president would declare a national emergency to try to secure wall funding without congressional approval, he told the majority leader — and Mr. McConnell would have to back him.

Later in his remarks Monday, the Senate Majority Leader said attempted to talk the president out of issuing a declaration, saying that it may set a precedent of abuse by future Democrat administration seeking to prosecute their progressive agenda without Congress. “That’s one reason I argued without success that he not take this route,” McConnell said.

“I was one of those hoping the president would not take the national emergency route,” added the Kentucky Republican. “Once he decided to do that I said I would support it, but I was hoping he wouldn’t take that particular path.”

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Facebook Bans Pro-Trump Group For Millennials, Cites Claims of Nudity

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The Big Tech Giant banned another popular conservative group.

By

Facebook banned the popular group ‘God Emperor Trump’s Dank Meme Stash’ yesterday, issuing no warning, and claiming that nude images were found in the group.

The Big Tech Giant did not provide any examples of the sexually inappropriate images allegedly found in the group, and instead banned the 12,500-member group outright, giving them the opportunity to appeal the decision.

Since the group’s admins appealed the decision, should their appeal be denied, the group will be completely deleted with no other opportunities to appeal the decision.

One of the group’s admins, speaking to Big League Politics, insists that they are simply young people who are supporters of President Donald J. Trump, and that the group had strict rules against pornography and other types of images that do not adhere to Facebook’s Community Standards.

“We are a Trump-centric, satirical meme group,” said one of the admins, “And now we’re probably dead men walking.”

“Our admins and mods are well trained and vigilant in policing content,” he continued, “But what we see as acceptable might not be acceptable to a Facebook employee in Singapore, or wherever they work from.”

Facebook has suffered several media blunders related to their heavy handed bans in recent weeks. Just last week, Facebook banned the popular pro-gun group ‘implying we can discuss weapons’, and did not so much as give them the ability to appeal the decision.

The company was also forced to reinstate the account of Raheem Kassam, former editor of Breitbart London, after the massive social media backlash from major figures, including Donald Trump Jr., that occurred following his ban.

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WATCH: Bernie Can’t Think Of Any Legislation He’s Passed That Helps People

By RYAN SAAVEDRA

Socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was unable to name a single piece of legislation that he has passed from his decades of experience being in Congress during an interview on Monday.

Sanders, 77, appeared on the “The Breakfast Club,” where he fielded questions related to his 2020 presidential candidacy as a Democrat.

“So I think I have a long history in civil rights activism,” Sanders said. “In 1988 I was one of the few white public officials who supported Jesse Jackson for President the United States and he ended up winning Vermont. I think if you look at my record in terms of civil rights and other areas you will find that it is consistently a very very strong record.”

Charlamagne tha God, one of the show’s hosts, asked Sanders: “Any legislation you can point to well?”

“Legislation that, uh, benefits African-Americans yeah we passed but not specifically you know we passed legislation that benefits working people sure,” Sanders responded.

WATCH:

Sanders held his first rallies over the weekend in Brooklyn, New York, and Chicago, Illinois where spoke about the need to “transform America.”

Partial transcript of Sanders’ prepared speech in Brooklyn:

Thank you all very much for being here today and thank you for being part of a political revolution which will transform America.

Thank you for being part of a campaign which is not only going to win the Democratic nomination, which is not only going to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history, but with your help is going to transform this country and, finally, create an economy and government which works for all Americans, and not just the one percent. Today, I want to welcome you to a campaign which says, loudly and clearly, that the underlying principles of our government will not be greed, hatred and lies. It will not be racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and religious bigotry. That is going to end. The principles of our government will be based on justice: economic justice, social justice, racial justice and environmental justice. Today, I want to welcome you to a campaign which tells the powerful special interests who control so much of our economic and political life that we will no longer tolerate the greed of corporate America and the billionaire class – greed which has resulted in this country having more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth.

No. We will no longer stand idly by and allow 3 people in this country to own more wealth than the bottom half of America while, at the same time, over 20 percent of our children live in poverty, veterans sleep out on the streets and seniors cannot afford their prescription drugs. We will no longer accept 46 percent of all new income going to the top 1 percent, while millions of Americans are forced to work 2 or 3 jobs just to survive and over half of our people live paycheck to paycheck, frightened to death about what happens to them financially if their car breaks down or their child becomes sick. Today, we fight for a political revolution.

Read his full speech here.

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GOOGLE REFUSES TO REMOVE APP LETTING SAUDI MEN CONTROL WIVES’ TRAVEL

Google Refuses to Remove App Letting Saudi Men Control Wives’ Travel

App allows Saudi men to grant, rescind travel permission, lets them know when women leave country

Chris White | Daily Caller News Foundation – MARCH 4, 2019

Google is reportedly refusing to remove a feature in the company’s app store allowing Saudi men to track the whereabouts of women, according to online outlet Insider.

Google reviewed the Absher app and concluded it does not violate the company’s agreements, the report noted Saturday. Google communicated its decision to Democratic California Rep. Jackie Speier, who is demanding the company ding the feature. Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan joined their California colleague to ask Apple and Google to remove the app.

Saudis can use the app to interact with the state — but it also allows Saudi men to grant and rescind travel permission for women, and pings men when women leave the country. Neither Apple nor Google have responded to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about whether either company is preparing to change policies to disallow similar apps in the future.

“The responses received so far from Apple and Google are deeply unsatisfactory,” Speier told reporters. “As of today, the Absher app remains available in both the Apple App store and the Google Play Store even though they can easily remove it.”

Allowing people continued access to the app only perpetuates more harm to women trying to flee brutal regimes, she said.

Speier added: “Facilitating the detention of women seeking asylum and fleeing abuse and control unequivocally causes harm. I will be following up on this issue with my colleagues.”

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New of the Absher app comes less than three months after reports showed Google launched an application in November 2018 allowing citizens to report what they consider instances of blasphemy to the Indonesian government. People found guilty of such laws face a maximum of five years in prison.

The so-called Smart Pakem app was created through the Google Play platform and allows users to report “deviant” religious ideas directly to Indonesian authorities. The country’s anti-blasphemy laws target “those who disgrace a religion” or who otherwise express “hostility” to religion.

Dozens of Google employees signed a letter in November 2018 calling on the company to scrap involvement in a controversial program called Project Dragonfly, a Chinese search product that enables the government to censor search results in real-time. They also called for whistleblowers to receive more protections.

 

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BILDERBERG ATTENDEE HICKENLOOPER JOINS 2020 RACE

Bilderberg Attendee Hickenlooper Joins 2020 Race

Former Colo. governor could be globalist dark horse

By Paul Steinhauser

Touting that he’s proven he can bring people together “to produce the progressive change Washington has failed to deliver,” former two-term Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday morning launched his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“I’m running for president because we need dreamers in Washington but we also need to get things done,” Hickenlooper said in a video announcing his White House campaign

Taking aim at Republican President Trump, Hickenlooper said a major reason he’s running is because “we’re facing a crisis that threatens everything we stand for.”

And repeating a line he’s used on the campaign trail, he explained that “as a skinny kid with coke bottle glasses and funny last name, I stood up to my fair share of bullies.”

The 67-year-old geologist turned successful startup brewpub owner, who later served two terms as Denver mayor before being elected Colorado governor, joins a crowded field of contenders vying for the nomination.

Hickenlooper, who in January finished up his second term steering Colorado, becomes the second sitting or former governor to enter the race. Washington State Gov. Jay Insleeannounced his candidacy on Friday.

Like Inslee, Hickenlooper faces a long-shot bid against a number of higher-profile contenders such as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New  York.

Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary under President Barack Obama, is also running, as are Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland, and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

A number other Democrats are moving toward White House bids, including former Vice President Joe Biden, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Rep. Eric Swalwell of California.

HILLARY CLINTON SAYS COUNTRY IN ‘FULL FLEDGED CRISIS’

In his video, Hickenlooper spotlighted the challenges he faced during his first term as governor, from the historic recession to devastating droughts and forest fires and floods to the 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora.

“We beat the NRA by enacting universal background checks and banning high capacity magazines,” he touted.

Hickenlooper also highlighted passing through a divided legislature health care legislation that now covers “nearly 95 percent of all Coloradans.” And he spotlighted bringing environmentalists and fossil fuel companies together to create “the toughest methane emission laws in the country” and moving the state from “40th in job growth to the number one economy in America.”

The listing of his progressive achievements is aimed at blunting perceptions of Hickenlooper as a moderate Democrat not in lockstep with the base.

HICKENLOOPER’S RESERVATIONS WITH MEDICARE-FOR-ALL, GREEN NEW DEAL

While many of his rivals for the 2020 Democratic nomination have wholeheartedly supported both the Green New Deal and “Medicare-for-all,” two top wish-list items for the progressive base of the party, Hickenlooper expressed some reservations during a stop last month in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House.

“We will get to some version of single payer, but single payer doesn’t include getting rid of insurance companies,” he told reporters when asked about Medicare-for-all.

Asked about the Green New Deal, the sweeping proposal that aims to transform the country’s economy to fight climate change while enacting a host of new health care and welfare programs, Hickenlooper told Fox News that he hadn’t seen all of the details of the plan, but “I’m going to guess that 99 percent of what’s in the Green New Deal I will be happy to embrace.”

But he said support for the Green New Deal shouldn’t be “a litmus test that you’re either with us or wrong.”

The Republican National Committee, though, tagged the former governor as yet another “liberal” joining the 2020 field, in response to his announcement Monday.

“John Hickenlooper is the latest tax-and-spend liberal to join the race. But according to Hickenlooper, he’s actually ‘a lot more progressive’ than his far-left opponents. In a primary dominated by socialist policies like the $93 trillion ‘Green New Deal,’ that puts him way outside the mainstream,” RNC Communications Director Michael Ahrens said in a statement.

Hickenlooper is expected to formally kick off his campaign on Thursday, with what’s being billed as a “hometown send-off” event in Denver. The next day the former governor heads to Iowa – the state that kicks off the presidential caucus and primary calendar – for two days of campaigning.

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100 Migrants Swarm French Port, Storm Ferry in “Coordinated Attack”

The French port of Calais plunged into chaos after over 100 migrants stormed a ferry bound for the UK in what police are calling a “coordinated attack.”

A mob of migrants broke through a high-security area, and using dinghies and ladders, managed to charge aboard a DFDS Seaways-owned vessel after its arrival from Dover, with some climbing to the top of the ship’s exhaust funnel and others hiding in the ventilation system, the Daily Mail reports.

The port was temporarily closed, stranding some ships at sea and forcing others to cancel their journeys as authorities embarked on a search-and-rescue mission lasting more than 12 hours.

Emergency response teams reportedly battled difficult weather conditions in an attempt to root out invaders in and around the ship, and were also forced to rescue two who fell overboard.

More than 40 migrants were arrested, with most being released with only a warning, EuroNews reports.

A dozen suspects are slated to appear in court and a 36-year-old man from Mali has been identified as the operation’s “organizer” and sentenced to four months in prison, according to Intelligence Fusion.

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“This was a coordinated and simultaneous attack that did not allow the police, who had too few staff, to intervene,” said police union spokesman Gilles Debove.

Officials claim an escalation of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel is due to the looming Brexit deadline, with one source telling the Daily Mail, “this is something we can expect to see more of in the coming weeks.”

UK Border Force apprehended migrants crossing the Channel in boats of their own on four consecutive days last week.

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