Hackers linked to Iran target staff at US coronavirus drug-maker Gilead Sciences Inc.

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Yet despite this, the Iranian mullahs, with help from the international media, will continue to claim the moral high ground. That is nothing new, and neither is Iran’s aggression. As The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran shows, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been on a war footing against the U.S. since 1979.

“Iran-linked hackers recently targeted US coronavirus drugmaker, say sources,” by Jack Stubbs and Christopher Bing, Reuters, May 9, 2020:

LONDON/WASHINGTON: Hackers linked to Iran have targeted staff at US drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc in recent weeks, according to publicly-available web archives reviewed by Reuters and three cybersecurity researchers, as the company races to deploy a treatment for the Covid-19 virus.

In one case, a fake email login page designed to steal passwords was sent in April to a top Gilead executive involved in legal and corporate affairs, according to an archived version on a website used to scan for malicious web addresses. Reuters was not able to determine whether the attack was successful.

Ohad Zaidenberg, lead intelligence researcher at Israeli cybersecurity firm ClearSky, who closely tracks Iranian hacking activity and has investigated the attacks, said the attempt was part of an effort by an Iranian group to compromise email accounts of staff at the company using messages that impersonated journalists.

Two other cybersecurity researchers, who were not authorised to speak publicly about their analysis, confirmed that the web domains and hosting servers used in the hacking attempts were linked to Iran.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied any involvement in the attacks. “The Iranian government does not engage in cyber warfare,” said spokesman Alireza Miryousefi. “Cyber activities Iran engages in are purely defensive and to protect against further attacks on Iranian infrastructure.”…

Reuters has reported in recent weeks that hackers with links to Iran and other groups have also attempted to break into the World Health Organisation, and that attackers linked to Vietnam targeted the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Britain and the United States warned this week that state-backed hackers are attacking pharmaceutical companies and research institutions working on treatments for the new disease.

The joint statement did not name any of the attacked organisations, but two people familiar with the matter said one of the targets was Gilead, whose antiviral drug remdesivir is the only treatment so far proven to help patients infected with Covid-19.

The hacking infrastructure used in the attempt to compromise the Gilead executive’s email account has previously been used in cyberattacks by a group of suspected Iranian hackers known as “Charming Kitten”, said Priscilla Moriuchi, director of strategic threat development at US cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, who reviewed the web archives identified by Reuters….

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Stop Forcing People to Wear Masks Over COVID-19 Fears

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Whether masks actually prevent the spread of respiratory infection remains a subject of debate. As recently as March, the US Surgeon General was saying face coverings could actually increase one’s risk of infection.

There’s a famous scene in the movie Fight Club where Tyler Durden is on an airplane thumbing through one of those safety manuals in emergency exit rows.

“An exit door procedure at 30,000 feet,” says Durden (Brad Pitt). “The illusion of safety.”

It’s a memorable scene because it touches on the strange things humans do to make ourselves feel secure in frightening situations. Which brings me to America’s latest fad: wearing masks in public.

Polls show that more than half of Americans are now choosing to wear masks when they go out, presumably to prevent catching or spreading the COVID-19 virus. What one chooses to wear is up to them, of course, but the trend is a bit surprising considering government officials spent months telling Americans not to wear protective face coverings.

“We don’t routinely recommend the use of face masks by the public to prevent respiratory illness,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said on January 31. “And we certainly are not recommending that at this time for this new virus.”

Throughout February and into March, similar statements were made by numerous other top government officials and agencies.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said “the average American does not need a N95 mask. These are really more for health care providers.” He was echoed by Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that there “is no role for these masks in the community.” In February, the US Surgeon General chimed in on Twitter, “STOP BUYING MASKS.”

Despite these warnings, the popularity of masks grew. “Maskies”—selfies of people wearing masks—are the latest trend on Instagram, Fast Company reports. They’ve become a symbol and form of expression, a way to show social solidarity and empowerment.

“When everyone is wearing masks, I feel respected,” one woman recently told National Geographic. “The message is: I’m protecting you, you’re protecting me, I can feel safe.”

Feel safe. That’s the key word. Whether masks actually prevent the spread of respiratory infection remains a subject of debate.

There’s a reason public officials made the statements above. An abundance of research shows masks offer little or no protection against infection from respiratory viruses, and some masks can actually increase one’s risk of infection.

A 2011 randomized clinical trial found that medical masks offered no protection at all. A 2015 study concluded rates of infection were especially high in cloth masks, finding particle penetration in nearly 97 percent of them. A 2016 paper that analyzed six clinical studies found that N95 respirator masks fared no better than medical masks in preventing respiratory infection.

As recently as April 7, a paper analyzing data from 15 randomized trials concluded that “compared to no masks there was no reduction of influenza-like illness cases for influenza for masks in the general population, nor in healthcare workers.” Despite the lack of hard empirical evidence, however, the study’s authors recommended the use of masks based on “observational evidence from the previous SARS epidemic.”

Perhaps similar reasoning guided the CDC’s about-face in April when it issued guidance recommending the use of cloth face coverings for healthy individuals (though the World Health Organization still advises against them).

Recommended is the key word here. We’re now in May, a mere two months after federal authorities were imploring Americans to not wear or buy masks, and many people are finding themselves forced to wear masks to do their shopping or even go for a walk.

This month the megastore Costco began demanding that customers wear masks to do their shopping. As a private company, Costco has such a right. But many states in mid April began taking things further, demanding that citizens wear masks to leave their homes. The latest state to join the bandwagon is Massachusetts. The new order requires anyone over the age of two to wear a mask or face covering in public places, even if they are outdoors.

In the span of just two months, we’ve gone from urging people to not buy or wear masks (and warning face coverings could increase the risk of infection) to threatening to fine and jail those who don’t wear them. Americans, understandably, are confused. And it’s not helping.

This week in Michigan, a Family Dollar security guard was killed after refusing to allow a woman’s daughter into the store because she wasn’t wearing a mask. The guard was enforcing an executive order Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed two weeks earlier.

While only those people directly involved in the guard’s death are responsible, such confrontations could be avoided if state governors exercised a little humility and acknowledged that CDC recommendations are not gospel and the department’s conclusions (clearly) are not infallible.

Good ideas generally don’t require force. And the truth is, based on an abundance of medical research and the federal government’s own statements and reports, it’s unclear how effective masks are as a preventive measure against COVID-19 transmission.

Public health aside, there’s no disputing the psychological impact masks have.

“The coronavirus is coming, and we feel rather helpless,” Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University, told CNN in March. “By getting masks and wearing them, we move the locus of control somewhat to ourselves.”

In a sense, the mask craze is largely about managing our fears. As my colleague Sean Malone recently observed, when people are afraid they’re much more willing to accept anything they believe might make them a little safer. Even really bad policies and ideas.

The illusion of safety. It’s a powerful thing. For both humans and governments, it would seem.

COLUMN BY

Jon Miltimore

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has appeared in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, and Fox News.

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EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved

VIDEO: CBS News and Cherry Health Issue Conflicting Statements on FAKE COVID Testing Line

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Earlier today, we sent you our latest video reporting the CBS News segment featuring a FAKE COVID-19 testing line at Cherry Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that later appeared on “CBS This Morning.”

As a result of this video going public, both Cherry Health and CBS News issued statements to explain what they claim really happened.

The only problem is these two statements are in conflict with each other.

Here is what Cherry Health and CBS News said:

As you can see, Cherry Health’s President and CEO Tasha Blackmon is denying having instructed her staff to participate in a fake testing line.

On the other hand, CBS News claims they did not stage the line and that one of Cherry Health’s “chief officers told at least one staffer to get in the testing line along with real patients.”

The truth still remains clouded. The public has a right to know who staged this fake COVID-19 testing line and why.

We spoke with Michigan State Representative Steve Johnson who expressed concern for the mixed messaging.

We are still awaiting feedback from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer who appeared at Cherry Health just two months earlier with Presidential hopeful Joe Biden.

Project Veritas will continue to pursue this story in order to uncover what really happened in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In Truth.

EDITORS NOTE: This Project Veritas video is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Facebook Names Muslim Brotherhood Operative to Oversight and Censorship Board

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It is easy to see where all this is tending, although no one seems to have the wit or the will to do anything about it. The social media giants, anxious to make sure that President Trump is not reelected, are moving quickly now to defame and discredit, or silence altogether, all those who dissent from their far-Left agenda. Google recently deep-sixed Jihad Watch from the first page of search results for “Robert Spencer,” which is now filled entirely with the libels of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Bridge Initiative, and the like, with nothing favorable at all. Nor am I the only one this has happened to: I noticed it when I saw Daniel Greenfield writing about the same thing having happened to him, and tried it on my own name. The far-Left’s favored religion, Islam, will be protected on Facebook, even in its jihadist forms, while Tawakkol Karman and her colleagues will make sure that the social media behemoth, through which most people get their news, is entirely divested of all content critical of the religion of peace. We have been blocked from posting on our Jihad Watch page at Facebook for several months now; this new “oversight board” will mop up any dissenting voices that are still active there.

“Facebook sparks controversy by naming Brotherhood figure to oversight board,” Arab Weekly, May 8, 2020 (thanks to Northern Virginiastan):

LONDON – The name of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Yemeni Nobel Prize winner Tawakkol Karman stood out as an odd addition to the list of Facebook’s first 20 oversight board members.

The new oversight body includes four chairs: Former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Stanford Law School Professor Michael McConnell, Columbia Law School Professor Jamal Greene and Dean of the Universidad de los Andes Faculty of Law Catalina Botero-Marino.

Apart from Karman, other members include Kenyan human rights activist Maina Kiai, Pakistani digital rights activist Nighat Dad and former editor of the Indonesian publication Jakarta Post, Endy Bayuni.

Facebook said it selected the four co-chairs who in turn helped choose the rest of the 16 members.

“The Oversight Board is an external body that members of our community can appeal to on some of the most significant and challenging content decisions we face,” announced Facebook.

The social media company pointed out that it expected the members “to make some decisions that we, at Facebook, will not always agree with — but that’s the point: they are truly autonomous in their exercise of independent judgement.”

The decisions by the oversight board are expected to influence “content moderation guidelines” for Facebook and Instagram.

Brent Harris, Facebook’s director of public policy, said the company “will implement the board’s decisions unless doing so violates the law.” Over the next few months, the body expects to grow to around 40 total members.

Radicalisation experts believe that by choosing Karman for the influential role, Facebook failed to recognise the link between the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological advocacy and extremist activity….

When Karman won the 2011 Nobel Peace prize for her “role in Arab spring protests,” the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, Ikhwanweb, released a statement on Twitter identifying her as a “Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood member,” sparking widespread speculation and criticism about her connection to the group.

Despite tactical disagreements about alliances in Yemen’s war, Karman is a leading figure of  Yemen’s Islah Party, a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate.

Karman has repeatedly defended the Muslim Brotherhood, even describing the group as “one of the victims of official tyranny and terrorism in the region, which Trump gives his supports and assistance.” She has said she believes the movement’s role in the region will “necessarily” grow in the future.

Many social media users in the Middle East and North Africa region reacted to Facebook’s selection of Karmancwith [sic] confusion and derision as the Yemeni writer is more known for her Islamist activism and divisive stances than for public service commitment….

The choice of Karman to Facebook’s advisory board will add to suspicions about the social media body’s political leanings and is unlikely to enhance the company’s credibility in the Arab world, experts say.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: Seattle Police Officer Sacrificed His Job to Speak the Truth on Abuse of Power by Government

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Officer Greg Anderson Courageously Speaks The Truth About Lockdown.

Watch:

Thank you Isaac.

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Streak Continues: April Gun Sales Sets NICS Record

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April 2020 set another record for background checks conducted through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Check System (NICS). The FBI NICS office conducted 2,911,128 background checks last month – a nearly 25% increase from the previous April, which had been the previous record high for the month of April.

April 2020 is now the fourth-busiest month in the history of the NICS office. Moreover, the week of April 13th through the 19th is the 9th busiest week in NICS history.

The more than 2.9 million checks run last month included: 984,872 checks related to the transfer of a handgun; 508,122 checks related to the transfer of a long gun; 68,746 checks related to “other” transfers; and, 34,779 checks related to multiple transfers in one transaction. There were also 311,568 permit checks and an additional 888,385 permit rechecks.

To be blunt: Americans set another record for background checks last month because we are a nation of law-abiding gun owners intent on keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe. Nearly three-million background checks to purchase a firearm or obtain a permit were conducted in just the thirty days of April. That is not a small group of “super gun owners” stockpiling thousands of firearms or some small subset of the general population.

Gun owners include all, from every race, gender, and creed. We – the gun owning community – reflect the overall population because we are a significant part of the overall population.

April continued the 2020 trend of record-setting months for the NICS office. January was (at the time) the sixth-busiest month ever and the busiest January by far. February saw even more checks than January, making it the third busiest month ever (at the time) and easily set the February record. March reset the all-time record with more than 3.7 million checks.

This is not an emerging trend. December 2019 saw more than 2.9 million NICS checks and was the second-busiest December ever. Before that, each of these months in 2019 had set the record for that respective month: April, May, June, August, September, October, and November. Of course, April 2020 and May 2020 shattered those respective records.

There were more NICS checks run in 2019 than in any other year, and there were more run in 2018 than any prior year except 2016. The four busiest years for the NICS offices have been the last four years. So far this year, there have been 32% more NICS checks run than there were in the same time period in 2019.

We suspect that we may see more NICS records broken this year. The anti-gun billionaires see these numbers, as do their “volunteers” and their bought-and-sold puppets. Do you think that Mike Bloomberg is going to take this as a sign that the American people support 2nd Amendment rights?

This is a man who spent more than a billion dollars on a shortsighted bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination that only lasted three months. Bloomberg and his allies – as well as those that depend on his funding for their campaigns – will double down as they try to eliminate gun rights in the United States.

We respect the millions of Americans who have decided to become law-abiding gun owners in 2020, but their rights may be revoked if they do not vote this November.

Protecting our rights will take every one of us. Every single American that applied for a permit and/or purchased a firearm this year must do everything they can to help us protect our rights.

Volunteer. Spread the word. Get your family and friends registered to vote. Vote and make your friends and family vote, too.

NRA is always looking for volunteers. See how you can help today.

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EDITORS NOTE: This NRA-ILA column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Fall of Obama’s House of Cards

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Obama’s top officials. Lying through their teeth.

Obama on CBS, 60 Minutes. January 25, 2017:

“I’m proud of the fact that we are the first administration in modern history that hasn’t had a major scandal in the White House.”

Pause for cynical laughter.

What Obama officials have said frequently on TV against President Trump, and later under oath with a potential charge of perjury if caught lying, are divided by the proverbial country mile.

Spread the dirt in the media but deny the lies under oath.

Examples:

James Clapper, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence:

December 18, 2017, CNN. “Vladimir Putin knows how to handle an asset and that’s what he’s doing with the President (Trump).”
Under oath at the House Intelligence Committee. July 17, 2017:

“I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting or conspiring with the Russians to meddle in the election.”

Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director of the FBI:

February 17, 2019. Answering CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s question “Do you think that President Trump could be a Russian asset?”
“I think that’s possible.”

Under oath to the House Intelligence Committee questions in December 2017:

“We have not been able to prove the accuracy of all the information.”

“What is the most damning or important piece of evidence in the dossier. You don’t know if it’s true or not?”
McCabe’s reply, “That’s correct.”

Samantha Power, US Ambassador to the United Nations:

December 11, 2019. Late Show, CBS, laughingly, “I think Putin has received a very high return on his investment (meaning President Trump).”

Samantha Power to House intelligence Committee; “I am not in possession and didn’t read or absorb information that came out of the intelligence community.”

But Samantha Power did request the unmasking of 260 American citizens during 2016 toward the end of the Obama Administration.

Susan Rice, Obama’s National Security Advisor:

July 2018. This Week, ABC; “He (Trump) has taken a number of steps that Vladimir Putin couldn’t have handled more effectively.”

Susan Rice in front of the House Intelligence Committee, September 8, 2017; “I don’t recall intelligence that I would consider evidence to that effect.”

But Susan Rice made requests for the unmasking on American citizens, members of the Trump campaign.

John Brennan, CIA Director:

August 17, 2018. NBC. Meet the Press. “I call his (Trump’s) behavior treasonous…to aid and abet the enemy…and I very much stand by that claim.”

Brennan addressed President Trump in a tweet dated March 20, 2019, “The Special Council will soon further complicate your life, putting your political and financial future in jeopardy.”

Brennan on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, March 26, 2019. “I don’t know if I received bad information, but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was.”

This was the head of Obama’s CIA calling the elected President of the United States a traitor based on information at his fingertips.

Obama’s Attorney-General, Loretta Lynch, in an interesting turn of phrase when pressed at the House Intelligence Hearing, “I don’t recall that being briefed up to me.”

Obama’s Attorney-General couldn’t recall if she had been informed that President Trump had been colluding with Russia!

Interesting statements were made by Evelyn Farkas, Obama’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, who told MSNBC in March, 2017, that she “had to get as much intelligence (on Trump) before Obama leaves the Administration before the Trump staff found out how we knew what we knew.”

Farkas left the Obama Administration in 2015. When questioned by Trey Gowdy how she would have known about information in possession of the Obama administration about Trump-Russian collusion if she didn’t work for the US government any more, Farkas admitted, “I didn’t know anything.”

Gowdy pressed further, “You also didn’t know whether or not anyone in the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia, did you?” Evenly Farkas replied, “I didn’t.”

Here we have a list of Obama top officials feeding the American public an ongoing series of lies but later denying knowledge of any Trump collusion with Russia when put on the spot and under oath where lying to Congress comes with potential prison time.

There is no other way of expressing it. This was a part of a coup attempt to remove a duly elected president and Obama knew what was going on.

It is shown in the August 6, 2016, text message between Peter Strzog and Lisa Page that “The White House is running this.”

This was confirmed in a September 2 reply from Page to Strzok that “POTUS wants to know everything we’re doing.”

What they wrote is obvious. In the United States, counter-intelligence always runs through the Commander-in-Chief. This is the person who sits in the Oval Office. In this case, Barrack Hussein Obama.

President Obama was keeping tabs on anti-Trump activities by his counter intelligence and law enforcement elite.

On January 7, 2017, after Donald Trump had been elected president, but before he took office, outgoing President Obama held a meeting in the Oval Office purportedly about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Attending that meeting were Vice President Joe Biden, John Brennan, James Clapper, Susan Rice, Sally Yates, and James Comey (head of the FBI). After the meeting, Obama asked that Yates and Comey remain behind. This meeting was to discuss General Michael Flynn, who Obama had fired, and Flynn’s brief conversation with the Russian Ambassador as part of his preparation for his national intelligence role under a Trump presidency.

Whatever happened at that Oval Office meeting, Michael Flynn became a prime target for Comey’s FBI which forced the general to accept a plea bargain with Special Council, Robert Mueller, by pleading guilty to “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements.”

Flynn was innocent. He was exonerated of all charges.

Flynn had fallen into an FBI entrapment operation. Recent damning documents clearly show the ones who were willfully and knowingly making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements were top FBI personnel, including James Comey.

They now nervously await the Attorney-General, William Barr, and Special Prosecutor, John Durham, axe to fall. An axe which is likely to incriminate them in criminal behavior.

Trump had picked Flynn to be his National Intelligence Chief and Flynn knew where the bodies of the previous administration were buried.

When Obama met with Trump during the White House transition, the outgoing president told Trump to be wary of two people – North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, and Michael Flynn. That was how nervous Obama was about the general.

He had to be removed or turned against Trump. The plot nearly succeeded.

We now know that the FBI targeted Flynn in an effort to break him and make him turn against President Trump as proven in the shocking revelation of a hand-written instruction to the FBI team to entrap Flynn at a White House meeting.

The note written by Bill Priestap, Obama’s FBI head of counter-intelligence, ordered them to “get him to lie so we can prosecute him or get him fired.”

The note dated January 24, 2017, illustrated the corrupt behavior of Obama’s FBI.

This was the final act of President Obama who had bragged about having the most scandal-free White House in American history.

The question that dare not speak its name concerns President Barrack Hussein Obama.

What did he know, and when did he know it?

Don’t expect that question to be asked by the cover-up media, and certainly not by the Democrats in the House and Senate. They are co-conspirators in the tawdry, perhaps criminal, conduct of Obama’s top officials.

The Wall Street Journal, raised the question of Obama’s role in the gross abuse of FBI-DOJ power in their May 11th editorial, after Obama got himself involved by questioning the dropped charges against Flynn. It wrote:

“Barack Obama is a lawyer, so it was stunning to read that he had ventured into the Michael Flynn case…we wonder what he’s really worried about.”

Aren’t we all?

With the impending reports of the Barr-Durham probe, a probe that carries with it serious criminal implications for some, expect more bombshells to fall that could affect the outcome of the US 2020 election, and also the reputation of Obama’s closest aides.
Perhaps Obama himself.

We are witnessing the fall of the Obama House of Cards.

©All rights reserved.

INFOGRAPHIC: Timeline of FBI’s FISA Abuse in Trump Campaign Investigation

Twitter Rolls Out COVID Misinformation Warning Labels. Will They Target Chinese Officials Who Blame US For Outbreak?

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Twitter will slap warning labels and other messages on coronavirus-related content the company deems harmful but perhaps not harmful enough to warrant removal.

The social media company will begin providing additional context and warning messages on some tweets containing disputed or misleading information about the pandemic, Twitter announced in a blog post Monday.

Twitter’s move came as Chinese officials engage in a concerted coronavirus disinformation campaign on the platform.

“Moving forward, we may use these labels and warning messages to provide additional explanations or clarifications in situations where the risks of harm associated with a Tweet are less severe but where people may still be confused or misled by the content,” Twitter noted in the post.

Moderators will filter such content through three categories: misleading information, disputed claims and unverified claims, the announcement noted. Misleading information will carry a label or be outright removed, depending on the severity of the content, while unverified claims will not have any action taken against them. Disputed claims will contain a label or a warning.

“Our teams are using and improving on internal systems to proactively monitor content related to COVID-19. These systems help ensure we’re not amplifying Tweets with these warnings or labels and detecting the high-visibility content quickly,” Twitter’s blog post notes. The company will also rely on “trusted partners to identify content that is likely to result in offline harm.”

Twitter’s Head of Integrity Yoel Roth explained in a Twitter post Monday that the “labels will apply to anyone sharing misleading information that meets the requirements of our policy, including world leaders.” Company spokeswoman Katie Rosborough told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the labels will apply to anyone. 

Twitter revised some of its policies to “protect the public conversation around COVID-19,” according to a March 4 blog post from the company. Advertisements that “opportunistically use the COVID-19 outbreak to target inappropriate ads” are also banned, the March post added.

The tech company, meanwhile, is still refusing to remove a Chinese official’s tweets suggesting the U.S. Army is responsible for injecting coronavirus into Wuhan, China, where experts believe the virus originated. Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has killed more than 280,000 people worldwide.

“When did Patient Zero appear in the United States? How many people are infected? What is the name of the hospital?” Lijian Zhao, deputy director of China’s Foreign Ministry Information Department, said in a March 12 tweet. “It may be that the US military brought the epidemic to Wuhan.”

Zhao added: “America needs to be transparent! The United States owes us an explanation!” Zhao also falsely stated in the tweet that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield was “arrested” before floating the conspiracy theory to his 317,000 followers.

A spokesman told the DCNF on March 13 that the official’s tweets do not violate company policies.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

VINDICATED! DOJ Exonerates Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn

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“People always find lies more exciting and thrilling than the truth. Lies are like a virus that spreads easily around and contaminates the truth, making it impossible for people to separate actual facts from malicious rumors.”

“Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.” –  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“The duty of a true patriot is to protect his country from government.” –  Thomas Paine

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.  Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.” –  H.L. Mencken

Three-star General Michael Flynn never lied to anyone, not VP Pence and certainly not the FBI.  The FBI and Department of Justice misused their authority to try to entrap Flynn during an investigation that was utterly without factual merit or legal justification.  The special counsel pursued Flynn relentlessly, even though he had done nothing wrong.  Why? Because he was feared and hated by Obama and his Deep State minions in the DOJ.

Michael Flynn never misrepresented his phone call to VP Pence.  Pence made the mistake of telling the press something he knew nothing about before talking to Mr. Flynn.  The General took one for the team.

Case Dismissed

The Justice Department announced their decision May 7th to dismiss with prejudice (they cannot revisit it) the criminal case against General Flynn just days after exculpatory documents revealed the FBI tried to get him to lie or get him fired after Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka interviewed him on January 24, 2017 at the behest of former FBI Director, James Comey. Obama holdover and Acting Attorney General Sally Yates put the scheme in motion by sending the agents to the White House to interview Flynn.  The FBI’s corrupt prosecutor, Brandon Van Grack, withdrew from the case the same day it was dismissed.

In February, the New York Times reported that AG Barr had installed a handful of outside prosecutors to broadly review the handling of other politically sensitive national-security cases in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. One of those prosecutors was U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen.

The dismissal of the Flynn case was recommended by Jeffrey Jensen, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, who was appointed in January by AG Bill Barr to review the Michael Flynn case. Barr long ago could have dismissed this case, but then he would have had to explain the seditious behavior of the entire DOJ, which is still reportedly being investigated by Attorney John Durham.  He also could have demanded that Christopher Wray release the exculpatory evidence requested by Sidney Powell.  He did neither. Bill Barr is a shrewd political strategist, he is not a lawman, he wants to preserve the institutions of the DOJ and FBI.  President Trump, unlike Barr, has no loyalty whatsoever to the intel machine.

“I concluded the proper and just course was to dismiss the case,” Jensen said in a May 7th statement released by the DOJ. “I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed.”

The General’s defense team, headed by Sidney Powell, had rightfully argued that officials of the FBI tried to set him up in a 2017 interview.  In a motion to dismiss, the department said it sided with the General’s defense team.

“The Government has concluded that the interview of Mr. Flynn was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn—a no longer justifiably predicated investigation that the FBI had, in the Bureau’s own words, prepared to close because it had yielded an ‘absence of any derogatory information,’” said Timothy Shea, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, in his May 6th motion to dismiss.  The FBI had “word-for-word” transcripts of the calls, and there was nothing in them “to indicate an inappropriate relationship between Mr. Flynn and a foreign power,” Shea said.

The DOJ needs to ask federal Judge Emmet Sullivan to vacate the general’s guilty plea in the wake of the document release.  All these materials should be made available either to the Senate Judiciary Committee or to whatever members of Congress are able to get them.

“Crossfire Razor”

The intelligence community’s massive abuse of power against the incoming President and his National Security Advisor came right from the top.  President Obama’s dislike of Gen. Flynn was well known, and for that reason Flynn became a target.  The top echelon of the FBI was involved according to text messages between FBI paramours Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.

The Comey team forced a meeting with Flynn, ignoring protocols and, in Comey’s own words, took advantage of a new, disorganized Trump administration. They had no legal basis for being in Flynn’s office and confronting him.  The politically motivated FBI is a real threat to our nation and to the rule of law.

It was Peter Strzok who kept the Flynn investigation open when it rightfully should have been closed after he and Joe Pientka stated that Michael Flynn had not lied when they deceptively interviewed him.

A handwritten note by FBI counterintelligence head Bill Priestap, in advance of the January 2017 interview with Flynn resulted in the retired general being charged with lying to federal agents: “What is our goal?” Priestap asked, “Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”  Strzok did the bidding of his superiors to strike the first blow to the Trump administration.

Documents show that Strzok and his paramour, Lisa Page massively edited the 302 reports to make them seem that Michael Flynn had lied.  Attorney Sidney Powell still does not have the original 302 reports.

We now know that the targeting of General Flynn (dubbed Crossfire Razor) was the beginning of the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” operation against the Trump White House.  Getting rid of General Flynn was the ultimate goal. The Obama holdovers knew that the General would investigate and eliminate the corruption within the intel community.

When Sidney Powell became Flynn’s attorney, she wrote a nine-page letter to Attorney General Barr outlining the entire case and asking for listed Brady/Giglio exculpatory evidence from the FBI, including the original 302 reports from the agents who had interviewed the General.  The requested documents were never forthcoming despite Judge Emmett Sullivan’s February 2018 standing order that they be furnished to defense.

The smug, arrogant and pompous FBI Director Wray was behind the suppression of stunning exculpatory evidence in General Flynn’s case.  The Federalist reported that FBI general counsel Dana Boente was also behind the effort to block the release of the Brady Material.  Boente, along with James Comey and Rod Rosenstein signed off on the flawed FISA warrants.  Quite obviously both Wray and Boente worked together to protect the Deep State swamp within the FBI.

What was most striking and shocking is how many also rejected any claim that the undisclosed evidence, at a minimum, violated Brady, the case requiring the government to turn over exculpatory information.  Mark Zaid, the national security lawyer who was on the Ukraine whistleblower’s legal team, said that the FBI notes showed routine FBI interview tactics. National security lawyer Bradley P. Moss, a partner at Zaid’s firm, said that the FBI’s tactics were “largely consistent” with what’s been going on for the last five decades.

The mainstream media really should go back to 2016 and take another look at James Comey, but doubtful that will ever happen.

Trump Considering Flynn Rehire

Most conservatives see FBI Director Wray as a younger copy of James Comey.  His failure to give Brady materials to Michael Flynn’s defense attorneys was typical of actions similar to disgraced former Director Comey.  Two weeks ago, Ken Matthews was guest hosting for Rush Limbaugh when he brought up the subject of Director Wray.  A caller had mentioned that Wray needed to be replaced and Matthews had a great idea.  He said that President Trump had communicated that he’d indeed “consider” rehiring Michael Flynn if he were exonerated. Now that the DOJ has dropped the case against him, the question about Flynn’s next career move is inescapable.  Matthews mentioned that the best man to clean up the intel agency was none other than three-star General Michael T. Flynn.

This thought has spread like wildfire, and gone viral on twitter.  Additions have included Sidney Powell as the new Attorney General.  With that combination, we’d see the rats scurrying for their holes, retiring to be with their families, and moving out of country.

Of course, that particular scenario may be a pipedream, but it’s one that thrills those of us who love both General Flynn and Sidney Powell.

Conservatives Love Mike

In September of 2018, Phyllis Schlafly’s Gateway-Eagle Council bestowed their very first Major General John K. (Jack) Singlaub Award for Service to America to General Flynn.  Six hundred people were in attendance and about that many conservatives of all ages had their pictures taken with General Mike.  The love for this veteran was so obvious, and I knew it was wonderful for him, his wife Lori, and their son Mike. It buoyed their spirits.

In January of this year, General Singlaub wrote a letter of support for Mike Flynn to AG Barr. It was shortly after this letter, that Bill Barr appointed U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen to take a much closer look at the entire FBI and Mueller case against General Flynn.

Maj. Gen. Singlaub, Lt. Gen. Flynn, and Phyllis Schlafly Eagle President, Ed Martin

Conclusion

General Mike Flynn and his wife Lori, and their entire family have been through the crucible, a horribly difficult trial and test.  And yet, never once did a smile fade from the face of General Mike and his beloved wife Lori.  Not once.  They faced this horror after Mike gave 33 years of his life to his beloved America, including five to actual combat, and the rest to Army intelligence, to being charged with the most vile and incomprehensible evil that could come against a true Christian patriot who loves his country.

Do yourself a favor and read his magnificent book, Field of Fight, available on Amazon where Mike describes how to win the global war against radical Islam and its allies.

Never once did the Flynn family’s faith in God waiver.  They walked the walk; they knew God had them in His Hands and all would be well for those who love the Lord, no matter the outcome.

I want to see compensation, ten-fold for what he lost, but that’s my heart for this man and his wonderful family…a huge family of brothers and sisters who love each other unconditionally.  Mike Flynn will hopefully be rewarded here, but if not, in heaven, and that’s where this man stands far above those who accused him.

He has stood tall throughout this ordeal, with his bride and family beside him…and no matter what, he prevails because of his love and trust in the Lord.  Isaiah 43:2  So does his brilliant attorney, Sidney Powell!

When you can, please help!  https://mikeflynndefensefund.org/

P.S.  The Covid-19 destruction of America’s economy has destroyed so many businesses, I can’t begin to list the numbers who are suffering, but NewsWithViews is one of them.  The cost of maintaining conservative and truth telling websites is astronomical.  We need your help even if it’s only a few dollars in an envelope…to maintain truth coming to America’s readers.  Please help by donating here, and get your friends to sign up for daily emails…in that way, the advertising helps to keep us out of the red.  Thanks again!

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VIDEO: Witch-Hunts by the ‘Stay-at-Home’ Zealots

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In this new Jamie Glazov Moment, Jamie focuses on The Witch-Hunts by the ‘Stay-at-Home’ Zealots, unveiling Virtue-signaling and shaming in a mass fascist health hysteria.

Don’t miss it!

And make sure to watch Jamie discuss Corona and the Serpent’s Lie to Eve, where he sheds a disturbing light on Suicide in the name of perfection and safety.

Subscribe to the Glazov Gang‘s YouTube Channel and follow us on Twitter: @JamieGlazov.

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Patriotism in the Fourth Commandment

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Brad Miner: Civility, civilization, civic, civil: each word has its root in the Latin civis, citizen. Citizens should honor their country; to honor it you must learn about it.

The Fourth Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.”

That’s not just a call to filial piety; it’s a call to patriotism as well.

One might argue that the regulation of our lives begins in God’s love for each of us, except there is nothing in the Ten Commandments about honor due to oneself. God knows most of us need no instruction in that, which is why the Commandments direct us out of ourselves: to family and the “land,” the ground we stand upon but also the people standing with us in neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, nations, and the world.

This comes across clearly in Luke 10:25-37. A lawyer has asked Jesus how he might inherit eternal life. Knowing this fellow’s profession, the Lord answers with His own questions: “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

How elated the lawyer must have been! The Galilean preacher has fallen into my trap! The lawyer slyly quotes Christ’s own answer (see Mark 12:28-34), which he may well have heard Jesus say at another time in another place or heard it reported by someone else. The shyster recites the Shema Yisrael (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), the Commandment to love God totally, adding, as Jesus earlier had, the phrase from Leviticus (19:18) about loving one’s neighbor.

Jesus praises him. But then the lawyer – “to justify himself,” Luke says – asks (half grinning, perhaps):

“And who is my neighbor?”

Comes then the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We could use that Samaritan’s loving-kindness these days, as anybody on social media realizes.

The importance of civility can certainly be deduced from the Fourth Commandment, but I think patriotism and civic-mindedness are there too. Consider what St. Thomas Aquinas says:

[M]an is debtor chiefly to his parents and his country, after God. Wherefore just as it belongs to religion to give worship to God, so does it belong to piety, in the second place, to give worship to one’s parents and one’s country. (ST IIa IIae, Q, 101, a.1)

We also have the instruction of the Catechism:

2199 The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended family. It requires honor, affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors. Finally, it extends to the duties of pupils to teachers, employees to employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who administer or govern it.

Civility, civilization, civic, civil: each word has its root in the Latin civis, “citizen.” The grandest of these, civilization – which stands for the collective and binding refinements of a society – means, in essence, life in the “city,” the assumption from ancient times being that it was in the city that one found the best and most developed ideas, institutions, and individuals.

This derives from a time before “nation” meant much more than “a people,” as in the nation of Israel, an ethno-religious unity. It was to one’s people that one owed allegiance, and “a people” (especially a “chosen people”) was an extension of family relations, with all its intricacies of blood and intimacy. With time, a unified nation such as the United States can be a “city upon a hill,” that is, civilization is no longer just experienced in great metropolitan places.

Athens and Rome helped transform “people” into “nation,” and gave the West its Greco-Roman view of identity that was later wedded with Jerusalem in the Judeo-Christian tradition. It’s one worth venerating, even loving.

But to love anything, you have to know it. To love America, we have to know America.

All this is by way of lamenting the lack of love being shown to the glorious and extraordinary history of our nation and the world. To the extent that history is even taught, it’s often as a litany of grievances against those allegedly benighted ancestors who had the impudence not to have been as virtuous and enlightened as we. Education in history today is often splintered into the sort of factionalism that worried Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, and is articulated by them in Federalist Nos. 9 and 10.

Hamilton (most know of him today thanks only to the $10 bill or Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical) expressed concern that “an infinity of little, jealous, clashing tumultuous commonwealths” would emerge unless we embraced (as Gouverneur Morris would write in the Constitution’s Preamble) “a more perfect Union.” And Madison warned of “a number of citizens. . .united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”

Madison and Hamilton were steeped not only in the history of their young nation and of Great Britain, but also of the larger European experience and the literary history of Greco-Roman civilizations from which many of their best ideas sprung. All of it was suffused with a Judeo-Christian soul.

Not to know this – to be ignorant of our history – makes it impossible to love America.

To be sure, to know history is to be repelled by some of it: war, slavery, racism, anti-Semitism. God knows, it’s all there. But it helps not at all to ignore history; in fact, that’s the worst response. And it is the response. According to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), of 1,132 colleges surveyed, only 205 have American history requirements. That’s 18 percent.

And it’s no surprise that so many young people are enamored with socialism, given that only 3 percent of colleges require even a single course in economics.

ACTA recently sponsored a fine essay about historical knowledge by Allen Guelzo of Princeton University. It’s worth reading and passing on to those who need it, which is apparently most people under 30.

COLUMN BY

Brad Miner

Brad Miner is senior editor of The Catholic Thing, senior fellow of the Faith & Reason Institute, and Board Secretary of Aid to the Church In Need USA. He is a former Literary Editor of National Review. His most recent book, Sons of St. Patrick, written with George J. Marlin, is now on sale. His The Compleat Gentleman is available on audio.

EDITORS NOTE: This Catholic Thing column is republished with permission. © 2020 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

Watchdog Claims Hundreds of California Voters Mailed Two Ballots Each in May 12 Special Elections

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SANTA CLARITA, CA /PRNewswire/ — Hundreds of voters in California’s May 12 Congressional District 25 and State Senate 28 elections appear to have been mailed two or more ballots each, according to Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa). These special elections were declared as all vote-by-mail by Governor Newsom due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, state VoteCal data show the voter lists for these districts contain hundreds of voters with multiple registrations in their names.

On May 4, EIPCa alerted California’s Secretary of State, the Registrars of Riverside, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties and informed both candidates in each of these closely contested races. No election official has responded to the following EIPCa findings:

  • In Congressional District 25 (CD25), 773 voters appear to have been mailed two or more ballots each. Five voters, if confirmed, were mailed 3 ballots each. These voters have two or more active registrations under the same names, addresses and birthdates. Those at differing addresses have additional matching factors. Persons mailed more than one ballot can easily vote more than once, since the system has them listed as two different voters. In addition, 82 duplicated voters appear to have moved to a different congressional district, retained their CD25 registrations and were mailed CD25 ballots. Also mailed ballots were 54 people who appear to be 105+ years old.
  • In Senate District 28 (SD28), 805 duplicated registrants were apparently mailed two or more ballots, five of which were mailed three. Additionally, 61 duplicated registrants appear to have moved to a different senate district, retained their SD28 registrations and were mailed SD28 ballots.

EIPCa recently reported over 458,000 registrants statewide who have likely died or moved will be mailed ballots in November. An additional 24,000 have two or more registrations and will be mailed two+ ballots each.

“Our organization has been advocating for clean voter lists for ten years. These two elections are examples of what will happen statewide in November unless California’s list is finally cleared of duplicates, deceased, and voters who have moved away,” said EIPCa President Linda Paine.  “The lack of response from election officials underscores their focus on access over integrity. California voters deserve and must demand both.”

Election Integrity Project, California (EIPCa)

The Election Integrity Project® California (EIPCa) is a non-partisan group of U.S. citizen volunteers seeking to fulfill our duty to actively participate in the governing of our state/country by helping to defend the integrity of the voting process that protects our freedoms and way of life. EIPCa volunteers seek to protect our Republic, a government of, by, and for the people by maintaining an active role in that part of government which empowers citizens with our most fundamental right ~ the right to choose our representatives by fair and honest elections.

©All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: There Now Are 1,285 Proven Cases of Voter Fraud in America

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VIDEO: Danish Activists Oppose Islamic ‘Call to prayer’ in Denmark

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Stop Prayer Calls in Denmark – Action Report #1 by Martin Sellner GI:

H/T Oz-Rita 

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Turkey: Lawyers who objected to Muslim cleric’s saying homosexuality brings ‘disease’ face criminal investigation

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog video posted by is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

China’s Electrifying Rags-to-Riches Ascent . . . at America’s Expense

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A friend of mine who traveled China from the 1970s until recently described what the country was like 30 years ago:

Its cities were sprawling, impoverished places with dirt roads and low-rise structures. With few automobiles in the country back then, the Chinese people got around mostly by rickshaws and bicycles. The country had only a few tall buildings and just two sizable airports, in Beijing, its capital, and Shanghai, its financial center. China had no modern highways, bridges or high-speed rails, and the only trains that traversed the country were pulled by antiquated steam engines.

To get an idea of how much things have changed, please watch this 40-second clip of the Chinese city where COVID-19 originated. As the video shows, Wuhan bears no resemblance to the backward, desperately poor place it was just three decades ago. The same is true of cities throughout China.

Over the past 30 years, China has undergone a stupendous, caterpillar-to-butterfly transformation that has created some of the world’s most eye-popping roadways, bridges and architecture. Now within sight of overtaking the United States as the world’s dominant economy, China has also built a massively lethal military that poses a serious threat to America’s long-standing combat superiority—as reported by the Washington Times, China’s military is forcing the Pentagon to confront the end of U.S. battlefield dominance.

How Did This Happen?

From where did the money come that funded China’s dramatic makeover from a Third World backwater to an economic and military superpower? Trillions of dollars used to finance its spectacular ascendancy was handed willingly over by its greatest patron: the United States of America.

Since the late 1980s, China has been allowed—allowed—to extract trillions of dollars from the U.S. economy in the form of massive trade surpluses. As a result, the communist nation now has glistening cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan, while America is saddled with fading cities like Baltimore, Detroit, and Atlanta, once-thriving metropolises now marred by urban blight, rampant crime, sorry schools, generational poverty and other canaries in the coal mine of a nation in decline.

And to rub salt in America’s self-inflicted wounds, Chinese nationals who were allowed—allowed—to attend our top research universities and work at our most sensitive high-tech companies robbed America blind, surreptitiously sending many of our nation’s most vital technological and national defense secrets to our communist adversary hell-bent on chopping America off at the knees.

During the presidencies of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, China was allowed—allowed—to rip America a new one in what will go down as the most lopsided trade and stolen technology bludgeoning in history.

But don’t blame China for the trade imbalances. Its leaders were just doing what a nation’s leaders are expected to do: negotiate the best deal they could get. If the country on the other side of the table is willing to absorb an epic thrashing in the process, so much the better. And the voluntary thrashing America took lasted 28 consecutive years, from 1989 to 2017, a period when much of America’s manufacturing base was allowed—allowed—to sell-out its workers by offshoring production to China.

With America’s worn-out infrastructure badly in need of replacement, our political class instead ran up crushing debt and deficits, squandering trillions of dollars stolen from future generations on endless foreign wars and failed social programs. Meanwhile, China was using its trade-surplus windfall and stolen technology to build some of the world’s most impressive cities and a fearsome military.

In 2017, the United States began a strategic shift in its approach to China. Unless its relationship with the communist superpower is redefined, America’s days in the sun will be over, and the 21st century will be known as the “Chinese Century.”

Videos You Do Not Want to Miss

Below are nine related videos, each a visual reminder that China’s stunning rise at America’s expense could never have occurred without assistance from the four U.S. presidents who stood by and clapped as the Communist nation ate America’s lunch.

Viewing the videos will take a while, but doing so will help you see with your own eyes that while America was inching along on its hands and knees, a house of cards propped up by ruinous debt, China was making a great leap forward for the ages.

  • Click here to see China’s stunning road network. In 1988, China had zero modern highways; today, its world-class road network extends an astounding 84,000 miles, the longest road system in the world.
  • Click here to see China’s magnificent Beipanjiang Bridge, the highest bridge in the world. Of the world’s ten tallest bridges, eight are in China, zero in America.
  • Click here to see China’s incomparable Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the longest ocean crossing in the world. Designed to last 120 years, the $15 billion bridge-tunnel structure is a testament to China’s engineering might.
  • Click here to see China’s jaw-dropping 9-tower “horizontal skyscraper” in Chongqing. Known as “The Crystal,” the complex’s horizontal sky bridge straddles four 60-story skyscrapers, 820 feet in the air. Built at a cost of $3.6 billion, the mixed-use megastructure has a shopping mall with 450 stores. Is there anything like this in America? Of the world’s 25 tallest skyscrapers, 14 are in China, only two in the United States.
  • Click here to see a dynamic chart of China’s meteoric ascendancy to the world’s No. 2 economy.
  • Click here to see China’s stupendous Beijing Daxing International Airport. The world’s largest airport, Daxing can handle up to 250 takeoffs and landings per hour. By comparison, America’s busiest airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, accommodates just 100 total movements per hour. Business Insider’s 2018 list of the 14 most beautiful airports in the world includes three in China, zero in the United States.
  • Click here to see how the U.S. auto industry was allowed—allowed—to sell-out its workers by offshoring jobs to China and other countries with dirt-cheap labor, a betrayal that determined the 2016 presidential election.
  • Click here to see China’s most powerful weapons, including nuclear-armed ICBMs that could reach the United States in 30 minutes. Three decades ago, China’s military was primarily land-based; today, it boasts a 2-million-man army, a blue-water navy, the world’s third-largest air force, and advanced cyber and anti-satellite weaponry that could be the deciding factor in a war against America.
  • Click here to see Chinese female soldiers on dress parade, as impressive a display of military precision you’ll likely ever see.

Finally, my friend believes America’s best days are behind it. Having done business throughout China, he observed that Chinese workers are intensely proud of their country, eagerly working as tirelessly as a colony of ants toward a common goal of national ascendancy.

America once was blessed with widespread patriotism, but over the last half-century, it has been polarized into two camps with diametrically opposite objectives. One side believes America should continue as a two-party constitutional democracy, the other wants that system scrapped in favor of single-party socialist rule.

No matter which of those hardened positions gains ground in November, half of America will continue working at cross purposes with the other half. A country at irreconcilable odds with itself is not a recipe for national ascendancy; it’s a recipe for national decline. The winner? China.

©All rights reserved.

Nurse Fires Back at White House Reporter Who Shamed Her for Not Wearing a Mask

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A nurse pushed back when a reporter asked President Donald Trump Wednesday why she and several other nurses gathered in the Oval Office during a press conference were not wearing masks or social distancing.

“We’re all COVID-19-free. We were all tested,” said the nurse, identified by ABC News as American Association of Nurse Practitioners President Sophia Turner.

The reporter had asked the president why the nurses who flanked him during the meeting were not keeping their distance.

“We are not socially distancing because we are all negative … and we wouldn’t do anything to harm our president, obviously,” the nurse said before adding that she works at a center in Louisiana and frequently gets tested.

The nurses were at the briefing to talk about the country’s supply of personal protective equipment, like masks.

The nurses said they have ample access to personal protective equipment, even after the Department of Homeland Security stated May 3 that the Chinese government lied to the World Health Organization about the significance of the pandemic to hoard personal protective equipment, among other medical supplies.

Some officials have been critical of people who do not wear face masks. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a May 4 press conference that local officials should impose a “penalty” for “disrespectful” people not wearing masks.

“And by the way, you don’t wear a mask for yourself,” an unmasked Cuomo said during the conference. “You wear a mask to protect me. I wear a mask to protect you. We owe each other a certain amount of reasonableness and respect in society, and I owe you that level of respect, that if I’m sick, I should wear a mask.”

COLUMN BY

Chris White

Chris White is a reporter for The Daily Caller News Foundation. Twitter: @ZanderKelly30.

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EDITORS NOTE: This column by the Daily Caller is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities for this original content, email licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.