The office, along with the FBI, the National Security Agency, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency inside the Department of Homeland Security, in a joint statement, said the hackers’ goal appeared to be collecting intelligence, rather than any destructive acts. They said they had so far identified “fewer than 10” agencies that were hacked.

The agencies said that the actor, “likely Russian in origin, was responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks.” The investigation is continuing, they said and could turn up additional government victims.

It was the first formal statement of attribution by the Trump administration.

Elected officials briefed on the inquiry and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had previously said Russia was behind the hacking spree, but President Donald Trump said it could have been China.

The incoming administration of Joe Biden has already promised a response to the SolarWinds hacks. On Tuesday, the top Democrats on the Congressional intelligence committees underscored that need.

“Congress will need to conduct a comprehensive review of the circumstances leading to this compromise, assess the deficiencies in our defenses, take stock of the sufficiency of our response in order to prevent this from happening again, and ensure that we respond appropriately,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, head of the House committee.

Russian officials have denied involvement and did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday.

The penetration of departments including Defense, State, Homeland Security, Treasury, and Commerce is already considered the worst known cyber-compromise at least since electronic dossiers on most Americans with security clearances were taken from the Office of Personnel Management five years ago.

Officials briefed on the case said that the main target of the hackers appeared to be email. One said that no classified networks seem to have been breached and that fewer than 50 private companies had been fully compromised, a lower number than initially feared.

The security company FireEye Inc, which was itself breached, discovered the new round of attacks, many of which were traced to a tainted software update from SolarWinds Corp, which makes widely used network-management programs.

It remains unknown how the hackers got deep inside SolarWinds’ production system as long as a year ago. Once there, they were able to slip “back doors” into two digitally signed updates of the company’s flagship Orion software.

As many as 18,000 customers downloaded those updates, which sent signals back to the hackers. At a small number of high-value targets, the group then manipulated access to cloud services in order to read emails or other content and potentially installed other back doors, making clean-up after discovery a daunting task.

A few major technology companies have said they had at least downloaded the bad code from SolarWinds, and Microsoft Corp said Dec. 31 that the penetration had gone well beyond that, allowing the intruders to view its prized source code, where they might have looked for security flaws. here

The attackers also hacked sellers of Microsoft services, which often maintain access to customers, to go after email at non-SolarWinds customers, according to security company CrowdStrike Holdings Inc and Microsoft employees.

Microsoft and federal investigators have not said how many resellers were hacked or how many customers were impacted.

The overall strategy of electronic infiltration through vendors, known as a supply-chain attack, is especially effective, and officials fear the success of the current wave will encourage more of them.

The post U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia likely behind hacking of government agencies first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The FBI is in possession of the laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden which contained emails revealing his foreign business dealings, including contacts in Ukraine and China, two senior administration officials told Fox News Tuesday.

The FBI declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation into the laptop or the emails, as is standard practice.

Further, Fox News has learned that the FBI and Justice Department officials concur with an assessment from Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe that the laptop is not part of a Russian disinformation campaign targeting Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Ratcliffe, on Monday, said that Hunter Biden’s laptop and the emails on it “is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” despite claims from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

RATCLIFFE SAYS HUNTER BIDEN EMAILS, LAPTOP ‘NOT PART OF SOME RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN’

“Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that,” Ratcliffe said. “And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff or any member of Congress.”

Ratcliffe went on to say that it is “simply not true.”

“If you thought it wasn’t possible for Schiff to have any less credibility, DOJ just proved you wrong,” a senior intelligence official told Fox News.

Meanwhile, another senior federal law enforcement official told Fox News that the emails are “authentic.”

The FBI, in a letter to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings, as well as the laptop in question, said that the bureau has “nothing to add at this time to the October 19th public statement by the Director of National Intelligence about the available actionable intelligence.”

“If actionable intelligence is developed, the FBI in consultation with the Intelligence Community will evaluate the need to provide defensive briefings to you and the Committee pursuant to the established notification framework,” the letter stated.

The emails in question were first obtained by the New York Post and, in part, revealed that Hunter Biden allegedly introduced his father, the then-vice president, to a top executive at Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings less than a year before he pressured government officials in Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the company’s founder.

The Post report revealed that Biden, at Hunter’s request, met with the executive, Vadym Pozharskyi, in April 2015 in Washington, D.C.

The meeting was mentioned in an email of appreciation, according to the Post, that Pozharskyi sent to Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015 — a year after Hunter took on his position on the board of Burisma.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email read.

DOCUMENTS SHOW ALLEGED HUNTER BIDEN SIGNATURE, FBI CONTACTS WITH COMPUTER REPAIR SHOP OWNER

The Biden campaign told Fox News Sunday that the former vice president “never had a meeting” with Pozharskyi.

Biden, prior to the emails surfacing, repeatedly has claimed he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”

Hunter Biden’s business dealings, and his role on the board of Burisma, emerged during the Trump impeachment inquiry in 2019.

Another email, dated May 13, 2017, and obtained by Fox News, includes a discussion of “remuneration packages” for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Hunter Biden as “Chair/ Vice Chair depending on an agreement with CEFC,” in an apparent reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.

The email includes a note that “Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate.” A proposed equity split references “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” with no further details.

SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING HUNTER BIDEN EMAILS

Fox News spoke to one of the people who was copied on the email, who confirmed its authenticity.

Sources also told Fox News that “the big guy” was a reference to the former vice president. The New York Post initially published the emails, and others, that Fox News has also obtained.

While Biden has not commented on that email or his alleged involvement in any deals with the Chinese Energy firm, his campaign said it released the former vice president’s tax documents and returns, which do not reflect any involvement with Chinese investments.

Fox News also obtained an email last week that revealed an adviser of Burisma Holdings, Vadym Pozharskyi, wrote an email to Hunter Biden on May 12, 2014, requesting “advice” on how he could use his “influence to convey a message” to “stop” what the company considers to be “politically motivated actions.”

“We urgently need your advice on how you could use your influence to convey a message/signal, etc .to stop what we consider to be politically motivated actions,”  Pozharskyi wrote.

The email, part of a longer email chain obtained by Fox News, appeared to be referencing the firm’s founder, Mykola Zlochevsky, being under investigation.

Meanwhile, additional documents obtained by Fox News include FBI paperwork that details the bureau’s interactions with John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of “The Mac Shop” who reported the laptop’s contents to authorities, as first reported by the New York Post.

The post FBI in possession of Hunter Biden’s purported laptop, sources say first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told Fox News that China poses “a greater national security threat” to the United States “than any other nation,” detailing a web of threats that includes “election influence and interference.”

Intelligence officials say they are increasingly concerned about interference in the U.S. election by China, adding to existing concerns about meddling by Russia that have been around since 2016, as well as the threat of meddling from Iran.

INTEL COMMUNITY HAS DELIVERED NEARLY 20 CLASSIFIED BRIEFINGS TO TRUMP, BIDEN, DNC, RNC, CONGRESS

“China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation – economically, militarily, and technologically. That includes threats of election influence and interference,” Ratcliffe told Fox News in a statement.

While Russia was widely seen as favoring now-President Trump and generally seeking to sow chaos in America during the 2016 election, the difference with China is it is seen to be seeking a Trump loss in November. Yet congressional Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who ever since 2016 have issued dire warnings about Russian meddling, have not been quite so vocal about China’s potential to interfere in the 2020 election.

Pelosi, D-Calif., last week said the threats of interference from Russia and China are “not equivalent,” while urging the intelligence community to put out more information about Russian efforts, saying Moscow is “actively 24/7 interfering in our election.”

Ratcliffe said the threat from China is actually significant, and he is “committing the IC resources needed to fully understand the threat posed by China and provide U.S. policymakers with the best intelligence to counter China’s broad and deep malign activities.”

“China is concerned that President Trump’s reelection would lead to a continuation of policies that they perceive to be ‘anti-China,’” Ratcliffe explained, noting that the intelligence community has briefed “hundreds of members of Congress” to raise their concerns about China “and its increased efforts to impact the U.S. policy climate in its favor.”

“Fair and free elections are a bedrock of American democracy, and the IC remains vigilant against the various activities by China, as well as other threat countries and actors, which seek to affect our electoral process,” Ratcliffe said.

ODNI ‘PRIMARILY CONCERNED’ WITH CHINA, IRAN, RUSSIA ‘SEEKING TO COMPROMISE’ 2020 ELECTION 

The intelligence community has acknowledged that Russia’s meddling remains a threat in 2020, but specifically mentioned China’s efforts, which an official within the intelligence community told Fox News has been ramping up in the last several months, citing rhetoric between the U.S. and China.

China’s cyber efforts, with relation to efforts to influence the election, are anti-Trump administration and largely include fake social media accounts to amplify certain anti-American beliefs.

According to a report released this month by Graphika, social media accounts from the pro-Chinese political spam network Spamouflage Dragon began posting English-language videos that attacked American policy and the Trump administration in June.

The report revealed that some of the accounts made on YouTube and Twitter used artificial intelligence-generated profile pictures, which is a common technique in disinformation campaigns, and did not appear to receive any engagement from “authentic users” across social media platforms.

The efforts also did not appear to “seriously attempt to conceal its Chinese origin as it pivoted toward messaging related to U.S. politics,” the report stated.

Specifically, the report revealed that some of the anti-Trump messaging is related to the coronavirus pandemic and racial justice protests across the U.S.

A video titled “Who is responsible for this national disaster in the United States?” posted on July 12, called Trump a “firm and creative ally” of the coronavirus, according to the report. The tone, according to Graphika, “wavered between scathing criticism of the American government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and apparent sympathy for everyday American citizens exposed to the pandemic and the anti-racism protests.”

Meanwhile, as for the intelligence community’s preparedness in the 2020 election versus 2016 to handle malign influence activities, an ODNI official told Fox News that the intelligence community is “significantly ahead of where it was in 2016 in terms of providing updates to the American people on election threats, including China.”

The post China’s anti-Trump election meddling raises new alarm, as DNI calls country biggest threat first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

No one dares talk back, let alone do anything to stop the communist takeover underway.  If Trump does anything they’ll call him a dictator, which of course, they do anyway.  The mayors and police authorities in the smoldering cities won’t do much.  They’re taking a knee, in some cases literally bowing down before crowds capable of destroying everything in sight if provoked.

Every big-name company and corporation is bowing down, or in many cases actually giving large sums of money, or should we say buying protection—mafia style—to the organizations that are funding the mob.  And it’s not just Black Lives Matter, although the admittedly Marxist outfit obviously welcomes the muscle of the anarchists, the rainbow crowd and every other dispossessed misfit. They’ve joined together to insist that all law enforcement is intrinsically racist, and so are you!  Any denial will get you beat to a pulp.  If you get in the way of the mob, you won’t even have a chance to make such a denial, which anyway would be proof of guilt to the goons.  Assuming these people wreaking havoc know something about anything, which is highly doubtful.

Watching everybody take a knee in fear, meet the mob half way, accept the destruction of our history, and “take responsibility” for things that happened in another era is the most pitiful display ever witnessed.  The media has determined that they will make us kneel!  Make us wear a mask, regardless!  Force an admission of racism or else.

Now there’s another preposterous accusation, and we’re supposed to believe it this time.  With somber tones and straight faces, the “news” people told us that Trump was “colluding with Russia.”  They told us that he was Putin’s puppet, doing Russia’s bidding from the Oval Office.  And Mike Flynn was betraying the United States, and conniving with the Kremlin in secret phone calls.  For three years the “news” media maintained it’s somber demeanor while they accused the most patriotic of Americans of sedition, perhaps treason.  They ridiculed everyone who didn’t buy their idiotic claims, calling us stupid and unwilling to accept reality.

When it blew up in their faces after three years of pumping out the story day and night, they hardly noticed that their big investigation yielded nothing beyond the deep-state coup that they insisted was a conspiracy theory.  Maybe that’s because the “news” media was up to its eyeballs in the farce, complicit in reporting every false story from their “insiders” and “whistle-blowers.”  The whole thing blew up in their gay faces.  The Mueller investigation they’d hyped for nearly Trump’s whole first term was a complete and utter embarrassment.  Mueller fell completely apart in public testimony, revealing that he didn’t even know, in some cases had never heard of,  things that appeared in the report he’d supposedly written.

But that didn’t slow them down one bit.  The corrupt media moved seamlessly toward impeachment with the ungainly Schiff and Nadler leading the charge.  The media, once again, was all in on President Trump’s guilt.  It was all in the Ukrainian phone call!  But, once again Schiff, Nadler and their minions lied every day and night to the media, and the media lied to all of us, insisting that high crimes and misdemeanors had been committed by the President, and the only remedy was removal from office.  But that left them with soot all over their faces like cartoon characters that accidentally blew themselves up.  Still, they never noticed, never apologized, never admitted what fools they’d made of themselves for all to see.  Instead, they purported to still believe their own fake news and figured they were probably right all along, despite their inability to prove any claims they’d been making for years.

The mainstream media has yet to own up to its role in trying to bring down a presidential administration on the basis of, shall we say, nonsense.  Now, they’ve got a brand new toy.  This time they’re claiming that Trump was briefed on a report that Russia was paying Taliban terrorists a bounty for every American soldier they could kill, and the President hid that fact, knowing full well that American soldiers were being killed for money.

It’s just as far-fetched, and divorced from reality as the previous “news” reports. It’s a quandary as to how President Trump has even survived.  He’s had corrupt federal agencies, together with the corrupt media working day and night to accuse him of the most outlandish, nonsensical intentions all the while scolding the population about how racist we all are.  Racism, they say, is a fact of America’s founding.  They’re trying to say the very existence of our flag, our national anthem, our founders, our history and our whole culture is irredeemably racist.

They’ve thrown red paint all over memorials of George Washington.  They’ve toppled statues of every respected or reviled figure in American history.  They’ve burned some of the most expensive retail locations, rampaging like the criminal idiots they are, fists in the air as they cavort in silhouette.

Can you point to ANYONE (save DJT) who dares stand up and defend America?  The so-called conservatives in government have fallen over like bowling pins.  They’re prepared to give in to all manner of demands.  The so-called conservatives are quietly working to root out Columbus Day and replace it with Juneteenth.  The important thing, and parties on all sides of every debate are absolutely sure of one thing:  We must wear masks!

Even one of the most popular “conservative” voices is on every day and night saying, “If we can go back to ball games, we’ll wear them.”  Maybe he will.  Some of us might just as soon not go anywhere the mask police will harass us.  The idea that some believe that we have the constitutionally guaranteed freedom not to make any of several public statements that masks represent just drives the media personalities to distraction.  They claim that their insistence is not even politically motivated.  But you’re just “so wrong” if you think you have the freedom NOT to make all the statements the mask represents.

Wearing the mask says you believe in the sham-demic, and one or two of us don’t.  It says that you want to patronize some business or another so badly that you’ll capitulate to the pressure.  You have to fly after all, don’t you?  You will wear the mask or be removed from the flight, as has happened already.  Wearing the mask also is a sign (to some of us) that you’ve taken a knee.  That you believe in all their nonsense and submit.  We’re being softened up to submit to things we don’t respect or believe in.  How about #TogetherAlone?  That makes no sense, but you’re expected to feel a rush of warmth at the idea of people watching each other eat on computer screens, and pretend like they’ve been to dinner.  If you think pressure to wear a mask is intense, wait till they decide everybody must shave their heads for the public health, or take a Mark in order to participate in economic activity.  That’ll fix us.

What won’t we accept?  Especially when they accuse us of “endangering the public.”  You must SUBMIT to society’s demands.  Even the mob wears masks, but it has nothing to do with the virus.  When we all wear masks, we signal agreement with the mob.  The fact that governors and mayors are doing the bidding of the goon-squad is no sign that the rest of us are ready to relinquish our Constitution, the Bill or Rights, the Declaration of Independence, or history or culture.  You obviously are FREE to make your own decisions, without speaking for anyone else.  Aren’t we all?  Some, apparently few, of us believe that appeasement is not the answer.  Thanks anyway, Governor Abbot.   But the Governor has bought in to the phony “spike” stories that the “news” media tells us are true, and set Texas back even further as to any hope of a swift recovery.  It looks like the media, or the mob has gotten to him.

On the first or second of July, CNN’s Erin Burnett shook her head in exasperation explaining that some people consider the maze of mandates an infringement of personal freedoms and liberties guaranteed in all our founding documents.  “That’s so WRONG!” she explained, out of breath, shaking her head in disbelief, amazed that anyone would dare even make such a claim.  Across the board, including many of the “contributors” on Fox News, they are incredulous that President Trump has not issued a national mask mandate, and spend countless hours expressing disbelief.  Never mind the details.  Never mind Dr. Fauci’s earlier statements about the ineffectiveness of masks and the statement, “There’s no need for Americans to go around wearing masks…”  No, the good doctor has changed his mind, and as you all know, we need to make a U-turn every time the self-impressed little leprechaun thinks he’s cuter than before.

Crime has gone exponential in every big city.  Even the fake news admits it obliquely while insisting that the protesters are peaceful, and we need to take note.  The police now know that any time they’re summoned, thinking someone’s been shot or killed, it could well be an ambush.  It’s happened repeatedly.  Murders, robberies and assaults are occurring at vastly increased rates in most cities.  Meanwhile mayors and city officials are rushing to pass rules and laws that might appease the mob.  The “de-fund the police” movement has gained traction.  New York’s de Blasio and kindred spirits across the United States are falling all over themselves to grant mob wishes by slashing police budgets.  De Blasio’s slash is reportedly one billion dollars.  The Minneapolis City Council has resolved to abolish the police and “RE-IMAGINE” law enforcement.  Everybody’s repeating the magic re-imagine phrase.  But the insurrectionists have a never-ending wish list that includes the redistribution of all private property.  In fact they hate, viscerally, the very concept of private property.

They are felling statues and memorials at a blinding pace.  Now they are after the founders and framers, without whom none of these cities would have existed in the first place.  Without the idea of America, governed by “We, the People” we probably wouldn’t even be here, and might never have been born.  There certainly wouldn’t be the kind of wealth they love to plunder, or cities to loot and burn.  But they’re on a roll, and can’t be bothered with logic just now.  They’re happy to let the homosexuals that dominate prime time do their explaining.  Have you seen these idiots cavorting in the faces of policemen?  Have you looked at those desecrating memorials and pulling down statues?  Are they being paid?  Because from the looks of them, they likely don’t know anything about anything.

There are some voices, even in the medical community who say the “spike” in virus cases is a farce.  Sick people are going to hospitals all right.  For two months they were afraid to go, and now they’re flooding in.  Hospitals are testing everyone, and claiming COVID cases exist in patients who’ve come in for other reasons.  Reporters are giddy, breathless, as the inevitable spike leads every news report.   To supporters of the riots; to the officials who’ve waited a lifetime for the opportunity to clamp down on the general population; to the flabbergasted mainstream reporters who just can’t believe that no national mask mandate has been declared; it’s the best news they could have hoped for.

Time is short.  The mob, backed by the media and business entities paying protection in a myriad of ways, needs to bring down Trump, Attorney General Barr or if necessary the whole system of governance in the United States before the lead players in the failed coup are indicted.  It was announced just last night that a whole bunch in the House of Representatives have signed a petition calling for the impeachment of Barr.  To justify it, they trotted out one of those who claimed to have “proof” of Russian collusion for the past three years.  He’s concerned about damage to the rule of law if Barr should continue in office.  In fact, it’s Obama’s inner circle and his agency brass that are implicated in the earlier attempt at insurrection.  Supposedly the cases are nearing completion, but we’ve heard that before.  Nonetheless, all the big name Deep State players have reportedly lawyered up just in case.  Meanwhile, many federal employees and heads of agencies support the ongoing insurrection against the United States in general, and against the current President in particular.  It’s a battle for the soul of the United States, and everybody seems willing to appease the mob.  They’ll never be appeased, and they’ll never stop making demands, no matter what we do.

Source: https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/the-mob-demands-death-to-america-and-the-mainstream-agrees/

The post The Mob Demands “Death to America” and the mainstream agrees first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Maybe some protester means well.  But the screaming, cursing mob holding hundreds of police hostage while cities are systematically looted and burned is aiding and abetting the rampaging criminals.  The Senator is no doubt proud that hundreds of criminals were released on account of the viral panic that news organizations are still pushing, albeit feebly.  Bail reform was supposed to be a great improvement to the judicial system.  At present, it means that thieves and arsonists are freely doing what they do.  Apparently it was done of the basis of compassion and racial justice, but looks like a huge mistake right about now.  But Chuck is proud.

Is there some doubt that at least a portion of the rampaging gangs that have torn American cities asunder were put back on the streets just in time?  The Senator must be very proud.  He’s undoubtedly proud of all the other sanctuary cities that put the wants and needs of criminals way ahead of the security of law-abiding citizens and proprietors of formerly successful businesses.  

It was almost as if the Mayor of New York held the police at bay while the city burned.  We hesitate to divine motives, but the fact is New York’s most glamorous districts were reduced to poverty while news reporters stood in their masks with cameras rolling.  The looting went on hour after hour with no sign of any interference by law enforcement.  Later we learn that there were some few hundreds of arrests, but the looters and rioters were immediately returned to the streets, thanks to the last time the legal system was “reformed.”  Few if any are removed from the problem at hand.  

Mad Dog Mattis finally lived up to his name.  President Trump chose his top generals and advisors without litmus tests regarding their personal leanings.  He expected everyone to behave professionally and live up to universal expectations of high standards.  He thought they’d suspend any personal persuasions, performing their sworn duties on behalf of the United States.  Boy was he wrong!  Several of these “highly respected” professionals have shown themselves to be anything but.  They keep their heads down, grumbling privately about the president until they arrive at what they believe to be an opportunity to do maximum damage.  Then the long knives come out.  Mad Dog suggested the mayhem we’re seeing is the logical result of three years of immature leadership, directing his comments at the President.  So, what was the reason for Ferguson?  Was it Obama’s fault?  The ignorant protesters still act out the “hands up don’t shoot” fallacy.   Even though it was proven to be false, the media continued to show great deference.  They keep talking about the need for a conversation.  But this has gone way beyond a discussion.  

Mad Dog provided additional red meat to the angrily sneering “news” reporters.  He’s bolstered their case allowing them to rub his military rank and service in everybody’s face while basking in the reflected glow of his intemperate comments. What former general attacks the President who promoted him so enthusiastically?  The deep state undoubtedly cheered.  At least Mad Dog gave them a little temporary cover.  If there’s any shred of justice left in America, they’d better enjoy the moment.

Then there was the case of Mark Espers.  He’s publicly stated his disagreement that the President would use the military to protect national monuments in Washington D. C., many of which have already been vandalized with slogans of the mob.  Isn’t it great when those to whom the president entrusted important responsibilities defy him in public?  

Now we’re supposed to worry about the Constitutional powers of the President to protect national monuments with the military, many of which have already been vandalized and fouled with nonsense slogans?  Who does he think he is?  How dare he call out the soldiers and Humvees to protect the symbols of America?  Doesn’t he realize that someone might be upset?  We’re all upset!  It’s obvious the mob would break or topple every national symbol.  They’d burn down the White House with President Trump inside, such is their wild-eyed rage.  And they’re righteous, according to the media.  No, the only “right” and equitable thing to do would be to join the protest.  If the media had their way, we’d all go taunt some policeman while our buddies plunder the lives of those who worked for a living.  That is until the “authorities” told them they couldn’t!  What happened to the quarantine?  We were told we’d be putting everybody in “danger” if we so much as leave the house.  But we’re expected to display great deference and sympathy toward the mob burning up the lives of the law-abiding.

Violent mobs don’t have to stay home.  They don’t have to worry about going to work, work is still closed in the cities with large protests, and the government will now make it possible to survive without working.  They can stay up all night if they want.  They no longer have jobs.  Everyone else is quarantined!  Nobody better dare get in the way of the rampage, because those jumping around in the faces of police are right, according to nearly every source of news.  Their feelings have been hurt! You’ve got million-dollar ball players pretending to cry on national television because we don’t understand how “hurt” their feelings are.  Make it a river.  But then, where were the tears?  Pinched up faces don’t move us much.

How dare we respect the flag?  How dare we love the United States?  Don’t we realize how racist we are?  Don’t we realize that all the stealing is not really stealing at all?  It’s “symbolic taking,” and we have to support it if not contribute to it.  The news media has taken a knee, and they’re demanding we all do.  Say that you respect the flag?  You’ll be attacked, should they know your name.  The anarchists are blowing up ATM machines, as many as 50 reported in Philadelphia alone, using dynamite.  One idiot blew himself up in the process.  And the uh, “protesters” have defaced nearly every memorial in D. C.

They’re arguing that the president is pushing beyond his authority to invoke the Insurrection Act used by several Presidents over the last hundred years.  It was most recently used by President Bush Sr. in response to the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.  Is this current situation not infinitely worse?  Back in the day Los Angeles was a significant concern.  Today, law and order in the United States is breaking down completely, and Chuck Schumer is proud.  Maybe he just wants to be the last one they loot and burn.

Imagine how proud he’ll be then.

It seems that the riots and looting is starting to recede.  But don’t worry, another crisis has been planned, and another one after that.  The only shame is that the coronavirus panic murdered the economy, and we’re all supposed to feel good about it.  The “news” media is still pushing the virus.  Commercials are still advising that we stay home and stay safe.  They think we’ll continue doing business with them?

Russia collusion was a scam, and one that no-one has paid for, except for those who were falsely accused and broken by attorney’s fees.  The Ukraine phone call impeachment was utter nonsense, despite the bug-eyed dumbster (Adam Schiff) to which we were all subjected.  The reaction to the virus was all out of proportion to reality, but we’re going to be herded around by idiotic rules for the foreseeable future. Much to our amazement, the President must have been legitimately spooked by the dark predictions of medical professionals.  He stood by while the economy was destroyed, even before the rampage started, and that’s a huge disappointment.  Any suggestion that America might recover is enough to start another round of rioting.  As we’ve realized for some time, those who hate this nation won’t be satisfied until it’s utterly destroyed.  Sadly, that’s a real concern.  We were right when we warned that things might get ugly.  We didn’t know how right we were. 

Calls to defund police departments are gaining steam.  In Minneapolis, they’re talking about disbanding the police department completely.  Imagine how peaceful the metropolis will be when there are no police.  Come to think of it, that’s exactly what we’ve been watching!  America has some serious problems all right.  They have nothing to do with racism, but they have everything to do with the hideous sins that political correctness regards as national values. Have we forgotten that “values” like these got Sodom and Gomorrah burnt up?  Forget about hurting the feelings of the mob.  Why do you think we’ve been left vulnerable to these violent, America-hating leftists?  And one more thing.  They hated America long before the advent of President Donald Trump.  This play-book was created by the radical movement clear back in the ’60s.  One of the most prominent of them (Bill Ayers, Weather Underground) was Obama’s mentor. He’s been teaching…we wonder what.  They were ready to destroy everything in the name of… yep, police brutality.  Racial inequality.  We lived through some idiotic episodes, and here they come again.  This time with two generations of miseducated miscreants, taught by ’60’s era radicals.  Nice.

Source: https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/not-proud/

The post Not Proud first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Donald Trump meets with Republican members of Congress on Friday. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump continued to fume over the Russia investigation on Sunday, more than a year after special counsel Robert Mueller filed his report without recommending charges against the president but only three days after the justice department said it would drop its case against Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.

“The biggest political crime in American history, by far!” the president wrote in a tweet accompanying a conservative talk show host’s claim that Barack Obama “used his last weeks in office to target incoming officials and sabotage the new administration”.

The tweet echoed previous messages retweeted by Trump, which earned rebukes for relaying conspiracy theories. On Sunday afternoon the president continued to send out a stream of tweets of memes and rightwing talking heads claiming an anti-Trump conspiracy. One tweet by Trump simply read: “OBAMAGATE!”

Trump fired Flynn, a retired general, in early 2017, for lying to Vice-President Mike Pence about conversations with the Russian ambassador regarding sanctions levied by the Obama administration in retaliation for interference in the 2016 election.

The US intelligence community has long held that such efforts were meant to tip the election towards Trump and away from Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI – which Trump has acknowledged – and co-operated with Mueller, who was appointed to take over the investigation of Russian interference after Trump fired FBI director James Comey.

Mueller did not establish a criminal conspiracy but did lay out extensive links between Trump and Moscow and instances of possible obstruction of justice by the president.

Flynn sought to change his plea while awaiting sentencing and the president championed his case, floating a possible pardon. On Thursday, in an act that stunned the US media, attorney general William Barr said the justice department would drop the case entirely.

Michael Flynn at a campaign event in Virginia Beach in September 2016. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Trump and his supporters have loudly trumpeted the decision and across Saturday and Sunday, the president unleashed a storm of retweets of supporters and conservative commentators attacking targets including Obama, Mueller, Comey, and House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff.

The talk show host retweeted by the president, Buck Sexton, is a former CIA analyst who now hosts a show which he says “speaks truth to power, and cuts through the liberal nonsense coming from the mainstream media”.

In another message retweeted by the president, Sexton called former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe – who Trump fired just short of retirement – “a dishonorable partisan scumbag who has done incalculable damage to the reputation of the FBI and should be sitting in a cell for lying under oath”.

In February, the US justice department said it would not charge McCabe over claims he lied to investigators about a media leak.

Like Comey, McCabe released a book in which he was highly critical of Trump, who he said acted like a mob boss. McCabe also wrote that Trump had unleashed a “strain of insanity” in American public life.

In his own tweets, Trump did not directly address comments by Obama himself which were reported by Yahoo News. The former president told associates the Flynn decision was “the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic – not just institutional norms – but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk”.

But Trump’s anger was evident.

“When are the Fake Journalists,” he wrote on Sunday, “who received unwarranted Pulitzer Prizes for Russia, Russia, Russia, and the Impeachment Scam, going to turn in their tarnished awards so they can be given to the real journalists who got it right. I’ll give you the names, there are plenty of them!”

The president did not immediately name anyone.

But in 2018 the Pulitzer committee did, awarding its prize for national reporting jointly to the Washington Post and the New York Times for “deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the president-elect’s transition team, and his eventual administration.”

Trump has further reason to resent the Pulitzer committee and question its choices.

In 2019, for example, a New York Times team won a Pulitzer for an “exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump’s finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges”.

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, was rewarded for “uncovering President Trump’s secret payoffs to two women during his campaign who claimed to have had affairs with him, and the web of supporters who facilitated the transactions, triggering criminal inquiries and calls for impeachment”.

Trump’s actual impeachment, which he survived at trial in the Senate in February, concerned his attempts to have Ukraine investigate his political rivals. No reporter or news outlet won a 2020 Pulitzer, announced this week, for its coverage of that affair.

Trump’s focus on Sunday remained largely on the Russia investigation despite continuing developments in the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 1.3m Americans and killed nearly 80,000.

With cases confirmed among White House aides close to the president, top public health experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci in quarantine and Trump reported by the New York Times to be “spooked”, the president claimed in a rare non-Russia-related tweet: “We are getting great marks for the handling of the CoronaVirus pandemic.”

He also attacked Obama and his vice-president, Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president this year, over their response to the “disaster known as H1N1 Swine Flu” in 2009.

Trump also marked a special day in the calendar, tweeting in trademark capitals: “HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/10/trump-obama-biggest-political-american-history-russia-michael-flynn

The post Trump charges Obama with ‘biggest political crime in American history’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It took a couple weeks, but we’ve got a BRAND NEW scandal!

How did they ever come up with this one?  The creativity is just astounding.  Are you ready?  RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA!  You’ll never believe it, but it’s all happening.  That’s right.  Russia is already in the process of stealing the next election because Trump is Putin’s little puppet.  How is it possible that Russia is interfering again, after 17 “intelligence” agencies dedicated over three years and incalculable “resources” to ferret out the truth, IMPEACH the President and get him out of the White House?  Such dedicated public servants, risking their lives to rid us of this menace.

Except they didn’t, and they won’t.  Our time and trouble have been wasted on this nonsense, of which they never had anything close to proof.  Apparently lacking a fresh strategy, they’ve doubled down on their unmitigated and embarrassing failure, having failed to notice what fools they made of themselves.  We noticed.

If you thought Adam Schiff’s eyes were bulging before, they’re probably coming completely out their sockets over this NEW revelation.  We’ll probably have hearings with second-hand witnesses, expressing their deep emotional distress over the depths of Trump’s seditious behavior.  He’s undoubtedly mistreated some innocent government employees and caused them tremendous pain, you’ll see.

Or maybe not.  It turns out, once again, that the proof of this nefarious plot is classified.  It’s so diabolical they can’t tell us any details.  But people much, much smarter than any of you, dear readers, are up to speed and we’d be crazy not to take their word for it.  Try a cable-news channel if you dare.  It’s all Russia, all over again.

By now you’d think we could concentrate on the real problems facing our nation and the world.  You know them well.  Drug cartels operating freely in our cities; opioid deaths off the chart; Muslim terrorists infiltrating the population; weird viruses with no treatment or cure coming from filthy dietary practices in far-flung places; a flood of third world, poverty-stricken aliens dreaming of life on the American government dole; China’s building of military bases all over the world.  And that’s just scratching the surface of concerns that deserve attention.

But no.  We’ve got legions of people throughout the media supporting any and all of those who think they’ve still got a chance of deposing the President, preaching like evangelists about the “existential” (oh how they love that word) threat of “climate change.”

For years now we’ve likened it to a religious belief, and now the pope is removing all doubt.  Not only has he made it all but a plank of Catholicism.  That, and of course respect for homosexuality.  The pope is inviting “representatives of all the Earth’s inhabitants” to the Vatican to sign on to the Global Compact on Education.  That ought to shut us up!  The goal is to “educate” all the world’s children to the dangers of the invented “crisis of climate change.”

But he knows, just like all the network evangelists that it’s as phony as Russian collusion.  The media intends to force-feed us more nonsense for the foreseeable future, even though they know we’re not buying it.  They’re own network and think-tank polls, skewed as they are, still show that we’re just not buying into this nonsense.  It’s colder than…whatever we said as kids, just like every year this time. Snow still falls in the usual locations, contrary to the predictions of those who were trying to push this canard on us fifteen or twenty years ago.  They said we’d need video, photos and long explanations to explain what snow was like to the next generation.  Instead, we just take them skiing.

There are freak weather events, and there always have been.  It’s the weather after all, and we see anomalies from time to time.  But we’re getting a little tired of being told we have to be afraid, very afraid if there is no all-powerful government to force compliance with its dictates.  As one of my favorite personalities recently said, “All the free stuff sounds great to kids who’d rather not work for a living, but somebody should tell them it comes wrapped in an iron fist.”

The pope is all about socialism, “global warming,” open borders and apologies to “gay” people who aren’t even happy.  It’s the new religion and it requires a serious if not angry demeanor.  Yeah, thanks anyway.  The world may regard God’s Laws as bondage, we don’t.  Observing those things we’ve been given as reminders of His creation and His intervention at critical times in human history is wonderful, and we enjoy them.

We’re content in the realization that we’re in His Hands so far as the climate is concerned, weather events and all.  We’re thankful for freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, and we intend to exercise all those freedoms for as long as possible.  And to those that demand that we fervently worry about their fake concerns?  Tell them to have a nice day.  We’re going to.  It’s the Sabbath, the day God rested after He finished this fabulous creation.  It’s what we call the pursuit of happiness.

Mark

PS. Mr. Terry Gooch is doing well and seemed to be in great spirits earlier in the week. Thanks to all who remembered him in prayer. The next monthly letter has gone to the printer and it’s more fun than the Update!  Our next issue of 21^st Century WATCH is also complete and off to be printed.  It’s a beautiful day in this neck of Texas, but colder than “global warming” should permit.  We’ll try to survive!

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 21 February 2020 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

All Democratic senators supported convicting the president of abuse of power and obstruction of justice, including swing-vote moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Doug Jones, R-Ala.

The only party defection was on the abuse of power charge from Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who declared hours before the final vote that Trump had engaged in as “destructive an attack on the oath of office and our Constitution as I can imagine.” Romney voted not guilty on the obstruction charge.

By a final vote of 52-48 against conviction on the abuse of power charge and 53-47 on the obstruction charge, the Senate fell far short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict and remove the president. Swing-vote Republican senators — including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee — voted to acquit on both counts.

FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE: ROMNEY EXPLAINS HIS VOTE

The separate obstruction of Congress charge concerned the Trump administration’s assertion of executive privilege and refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas. Romney explained he would acquit on the obstruction count, saying House Democrats had chosen not to respond to the White House’s legal arguments against the subpoenas.

While the result has been expected for months, the process brought a series of surprises and heightened animosity to Washington — exemplified dramatically during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., furiously ripped up the president’s speech upon its conclusion.

Also ahead of the vote, Republican and Democratic leaders addressed the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned of “truly dangerous” Democratic partisans, saying they insist on taking down institutions that do not produce the outcomes they desire.

“This partisan impeachment will end today,” McConnell said. “But, I fear the threat to our institutions may not. Normally, when a party loses an election, it accepts defeat. … But not this time.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Instead, McConnell went on, top Democrats — including Hillary Clinton and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. — have already preemptively challenged the validity of the 2020 presidential election, and blamed their loss on unsubstantiated claims that the president’s campaign colluded with Russians.

Minutes earlier, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed the Senate trial as a “kangaroo court” and a “sham.”

Pelosi formally announced the beginning of impeachment proceedings last September, although freshmen and high-ranking Democrats, commentators, and even the Ukraine whistleblower’s attorney had urgently called for the president’s removal for far longer.

The House of Representatives then voted to impeach the president by majority vote last December, with no Republicans supporting impeachment and several Democrats opposing it. After a weekslong delay, the House transmitted the articles of impeachment to the GOP-controlled Senate.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram and Jason Donner contributed to this report.

Gregg Re is a lawyer and editor based in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter @gregg_re or email him at gregory.re@foxnews.com.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-acquits-president-trump-impeachment-vote

The post Senate acquits Trump on abuse of power, obstruction of Congress charges first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Watch the Impeachment Trial videos

Day One – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 1

Day Two – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 2

Day Three – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 3

Day Four – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 4

Day Five – Complete video
Fox Business: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 5

Day Six – Complete video
C-Span2: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 6

Day Seven – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 7

Day Eight – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 8

Day Nine – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 9

Day Ten – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 10

Day Eleven – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 11

Day Twelve – Complete video
Fox News: Senate impeachment trial of President Trump – Day 12

Final Day of US Senate Trial – Final vote
Final Senate Vote on Impeachment – 5 February 2020

Source: https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/

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