White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 28 2020

 

Latest Polls Of The Georgia Senate Runoffs

Two runoff elections on Jan. 5 will determine which party controls the SenateNo candidate in either of Georgia’s Senate races won a majority of the vote on Nov. 3, triggering a runoff for both seats, with the top two candidates in each race facing off. Control of the Senate now hinges on the outcome of these two races.    click here for more information

Family and supporters hold runoff signs as Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Raphael Warnock speaks during an election night event.
Georgia’s Runoffs Will Determine Control Of The Senate. Here’s What We Know So Far.

Date Published on Nov. 13, 2020
Election Day 2020 has come and gone, and we still don’t know which party will control the Senate next year. As of Tuesday at 10 p.m. Eastern, it looks as though Democrats will have 48 seats1 in the next Senate, while Republicans will have 50. (We don’t yet know who won Alaska, but at this point, it will be very difficult for Democrats to make up their current vote deficit there.) So that leaves the two Senate seats from Georgia to determine control of the chamber in a rare double-barreled runoff election nearly two months from now.     continue to read


Related: Democrats Needed A Big Blue Wave To Win The Senate, And It Looks Like They Didn’t Get It

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Thomas Jonathan Ossoff (/ˈɒsɒf/; born February 16, 1987)[1][2] is an American politician and investigative journalist.[3] He is the Democratic Party nominee for the 2020 U.S. Senate election in Georgia, running against Republican incumbent Senator David Perdue.[4] Neither candidate reached the 50% threshold on the November 3 general election, triggering a runoff election on January 5, 2021.[5]

Ossoff was the Democratic nominee in the historically expensive 2017 special election for Georgia's 6th congressional district, which had long been considered a Republican stronghold. After finishing first, but without a majority in the all-party primary election, he lost the runoff with 48.2% of the vote to Republican Karen Handel's 51.8%.[6][7][8][9]
from Wikipedia


Jon Ossoff (Democrat) is challenging incumbent David Perdue (R) in a runoff election to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate on January 5, 2021. In the November 3 general election, Ossoff received 47.9% of the vote to Perdue's 49.7%.

Ossoff completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read his survey answers.

Ossoff is the CEO of an investigative media production company. He ran against Karen Handel (R) in the 2017 special election to represent Georgia's 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House. That race went to a runoff, where he lost 48% to 52%. It was the most expensive House race in U.S. history as of that time. Ossoff raised more than $23 million.[1]

• Click here for more on the Jan. 5, 2021, Senate runoff election.
• Click here for more on the Nov. 3, 2020, Senate general election.

White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 26 2020

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Prime Minister Ana Mercedes Diaz speech at the Executives' Congress of Asgardia
Nov 25, 2019
Asgardia Prime Minister, Ana Mercedes Diaz, spoke at the Executives' Congress in Estonia about the government of Asgardia and the work that they have undertaken.

Ana Mercedes Díaz Cardozo (born March 24, 1960, in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan lawyer and elector. From 2018 to 2020, she was the Prime Minister of the Space Kingdom of Asgardia. From 1991 to 2004, she was deputy director-general and then director-general of Political Parties of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela.[citation needed]

Professional career[edit]From 1997 to 2004, Díaz worked at the National Electoral Council of Venezuela (previously the Supreme Electoral Council), the highest Venezuelan electoral body. In 1989, she began working for the council's Directorate of Political Parties. In 1991, she was appointed as the deputy director-general, and in 2003 she was appointed as the director-general.[1][2][3][4][5]

In 2004, Díaz was fired from her position at the National Electoral Council after speaking out about election fraud in the Venezuelan recall referendum. She then emigrated to the United States, where she lives as of 2018.[2][3] Díaz has said that fraud, falsifications, and other violations of the law are common in the Venezuelan election process.[6]

In October 2017, Díaz joined several Venezuelan advocates and lawyers, among them Blanca Mármol, in an address to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela. They demanded that preparations for the upcoming regional elections cease due an unconstitutional change of the election date.[7] Regional elections were initially to be held on December 10, 2017,[8] but during the 5th session of the 2017 Constituent Assembly of Venezuela, it was suggested to move the elections forward to October 2017.[9] A month beforehand, October 15, 2017, was selected as the date for regional elections.[10]

In recent years, Díaz has spoken at conferences regarding democracy and fair elections in the United States, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Ecuador, Italy, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Spain.[citation needed]

Díaz has also worked on elections outside of Venezuela. She was an independent observer of the Ecuadorian general election in February 2017. She spoke out about falsifications and fraud during the elections. Her opinions were criticized by the National Electoral Council of Ecuador.[2][11][12][13] In 2018, Díaz warned of possible election fraud in Spain after changes to the electoral system were proposed.[14][15][16]
from Wikipedia

An Autopsy of Sidney Powell's 'Kraken' Reveals Suspiciously Similar Affidavits

Federal judges have been underwhelmed by the former Trump campaign lawyer's evidence of massive election fraud.

Dec. 25 - As part of her attempt to show that the presidential election was stolen through an elaborate international conspiracy, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell has submitted two affidavits from Venezuelans who purport to expose the roots of fraud-facilitating software that Powell claims switched Trump votes to Biden votes. Those affidavits include strikingly similar language that suggests they were written or edited by Powell or her colleagues rather than the affiants.

"I want to alert the public and let the world know the truth about the corruption, manipulation, and lies being committed by a conspiracy of people and companies intent upon betraying the honest people of the United States and their legally constituted institutions and fundamental rights as citizens," says a redacted affidavit from an unnamed individual who claims to have served on "the national security guard detail" for Venezuela's president. "This conspiracy began more than a decade ago in Venezuela and has spread to countries all over the world. It is a conspiracy to wrongfully gain and keep power and wealth. It involves political leaders, powerful companies, and other persons whose purpose is to gain and keep power by changing the free will of the people and subverting the proper course of governing."

An affidavit from Ana Mercedes Díaz Cardozo, a naturalized U.S. citizen who says she was "a career official for 25 years at the Supreme Electoral Council of Venezuela,"     continue to read

PBS NewsHour full episode, Dec. 25, 2020
Dec 26, 2020
Friday on the NewsHour, police investigate an explosion in Nashville they believe to be intentional, what’s behind a surge of COVID-19 in California, and a Christmas tribute to a few of the more than 330,000 people who have died this year from COVID-19.

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UK scientists trial new treatment to stop Covid infection soon after exposure
University College London Hospitals NHS Trust Covid antibody tests

A new antibody treatment with the potential to give people immediate protection after being exposed to Covid-19 and prevent illness is being trialled in the UK.

Dec. 25 - The University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH) is looking into the use of an antibody which could offer long-term protection to patients when it would be too late to offer a vaccine, as part of a new trial called Storm Chaser.

Scientists have also begun a second clinical trial named Provent, to examine the use of the antibody for people who may not benefit from vaccinations, such as patients with a compromised immune system, or those at increased risk of Covid-19 infection due to factors such as age and existing conditions.

NHS England national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: “The continuing contribution of the NHS to pioneering global efforts to fight Covid-19 is remarkable.

“These two clinical trials are an important addition to testing new therapeutic approaches, as antibody treatments may offer an alternative to patient groups who cannot benefit from a vaccine, such as immunocompromised patients.”     more details

White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 25 2020

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Watch Chris Christie explain why Kushner's father was prosecuted
Erin Burnett Out Front
During a 2019 interview with PBS, Chris Christie explained why he decided he had to prosecute Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, while US attorney. Trump has since issued Kushner a full pardon.
Source: CNN

Charles Kushner (born May 16, 1954) is a disbarred American attorney and real estate developer. He founded Kushner Companies in 1985. In 2005, he was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering, but received a federal pardon on December 23, 2020, by President Trump.[2][3]
His son, Jared Kushner, is the husband of Ivanka Trump and son-in-law and senior advisor to President Donald Trump.


Criminal conviction and pardon
On June 30, 2004, Kushner was fined $508,900 by the Federal Election Commission for contributing to Democratic political campaigns in the names of his partnerships when he lacked authorization to do so.[13] In 2005, following an investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey,[14] U.S. Attorney Chris Christie negotiated a plea agreement with him, under which he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.[15] The witness-tampering charge arose from Kushner's act of retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators; Kushner hired a prostitute he knew to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record an encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister.[16][17][18][15] He was sentenced to two years in prison.[16] He served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Alabama[19][20] before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence.[19][20][21] He was released from prison on August 25, 2006.[22]

As a result of his convictions, Kushner was disbarred and prohibited from practicing law in New Jersey,[23] New York,[24] and Pennsylvania.[25]
On December 23, 2020, President Trump granted him a full pardon citing his "record of reform and charity".    source from Wikipedia

Senior advisors to the President Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump walk on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 29, 2020.
Trump pardoned his son-in-law’s dad. Here’s what Charles Kushner did.

Dec. 24, WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called it “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted as U.S. attorney.
After Charles Kushner discovered his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities, the wealthy real estate executive and father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared, hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation.

Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife.

The scheme didn’t work. Kushner later pleaded guilty to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations in a case tailor-made for tabloid headlines.     continue to read

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Dec 24, 2020

Provocation trap: On Iran-American relations
Iran should rein in its proxies in Iraq and allow the Biden administration to reboot diplomacyThe rocket attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Sunday, which American military leaders called the largest attack on the highly fortified Green Zone in a decade, have sent tensions in the region soaring. President Donald Trump and senior leaders of the administration have pointed to Iran, saying that it supplied the rockets. The offensive appears to have been countered by the U.S.’s radar-guided defensive systems. Mr. Trump has warned that he would hold Iran responsible “if one American is killed”. The attack comes at a volatile time for Iran-American relations, which have collapsed after Mr. Trump took the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal unilaterally in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. He had reportedly sought options to launch strikes on Iran immediately after his election defeat but was dissuaded by Cabinet colleagues. With his exit soon from the White House, and Joe Biden, the next President, promising to revive the nuclear deal, there is a window of opportunity to restart the diplomatic process. But attacks like this threaten to push both the countries into an open conflict.

When the U.S. killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in January this year, American officials claimed that the drone strike in the Iraqi capital had reestablished America’s deterrence. But Iran had launched retaliatory missile attacks on U.S. military camps in Iraq, wounding several soldiers. And since then, pro-Iran Shia militias in Iraq have launched missile attacks at the Green Zone that houses the Embassy and repeatedly targeted American supply lines inside Iraq. The U.S. had earlier downsized its Embassy staff, closed the consulate in Basra and decided to reduce troops in Iraq. If U.S.-Iran relations are now at an explosive stage, the primary responsibility lies with Mr. Trump. His actions derailed a functioning international deal and his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign turned an Iran fully compliant with the deal’s terms more dangerous. Besides targeting the American Embassy, Iran, directly or through proxies, had attacked oil facilities and tankers in the Gulf over the past two years. Earlier this month, a tanker off Jeddah was attacked, allegedly by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen. Iran is under pressure to counter the repeated attempts by the U.S. and its allies to scuttle its influence. Late last month, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top scientist, was killed inside Iran, allegedly by Israeli agents. But in a quest for revenge, Iran should not sleep-walk into the trap of provocation. Under any circumstance, attacks on diplomatic missions cannot be accepted. It should rein in the militia groups in Iraq that it supports. It must give the Biden administration a chance to reboot diplomacy, which is in the larger interests of Tehran as well as the wider west Asia.     source

Dec. 25 -

White House News (白宮消息) | Dec. 24, 2020

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Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He has served on that court since 1997.
A native of the Chicago area, Garland attended Harvard University for his undergraduate and legal education. After serving as a law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States, he practiced corporate litigation at Arnold & Porter and worked as a federal prosecutor in the United States Department of Justice, where he played a leading role in the investigation and prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers.
On March 16, 2016, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated Garland to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. Despite Republicans themselves having spent years suggesting Garland as an acceptable Democratic choice,[1] the Senate Republican majority refused to hold a hearing or vote on this nomination made during the last year of Obama's presidency, with the Republican majority insisting that the next elected president should fill the vacancy. The unprecedented refusal of a Senate majority to consider the nomination was highly controversial. Some Republican lawmakers even suggested leaving the court with just eight seats if Hillary Clinton were to be elected, saying they would block Garland or any other nominee and keep the seat vacant for at least another presidential term.[1] Garland's nomination lasted 293 days and expired on January 3, 2017, at the end of the 114th Congress. The seat for which Garland was nominated was eventually filled by Neil Gorsuch, appointed by President Donald Trump.
Along with outgoing Alabama Senator Doug Jones, Garland has been mentioned as a leading candidate for United States Attorney General in the Biden administration.[2]

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Donald Trump arrives to speak at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual spring dinner in Washington on 2 April.
Trump floated nominating Merrick Garland to supreme court, book reveals

Exclusive: Trump raised the prospect in summer 2018, according to The Hill to Die On, but it was ‘not clear how serious’ he was

(This Article is more than one year old)
In the midst of a damagingly dysfunctional relationship with Republicans who controlled Congress in his first two years in office, Donald Trump pondered nominating Merrick Garland to the supreme court seat now filled by Brett Kavanaugh.

A political moderate, Garland was picked by former president Barack Obama to fill the vacancy created by the death of the arch-conservative Antonin Scalia in February 2016. Citing contested precedent but exercising brute political power, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, refused even to consider the nomination.

Jared Kushner challenged on conflicts of interest by Trump aides, book claims

The startling revelation that Trump mused on bringing Garland back is contained in a new book by the Politico reporters Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer. The Guardian obtained a copy of The Hill to Die On: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump’s America, which will be published next week.

Drawing on interviews with the president and a huge range of senior Republican and Democratic sources who agreed to go on the record, Sherman and Palmer unearth the Garland story and other telling moments, including a sample of ripe advice that the late senator John McCain had for Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

They write that in summer 2018, “at various points during Trump’s internal deliberations about whom to nominate to the bench, the president privately raised the prospect of tapping Merrick Garland – the very man McConnell had blocked from even getting a hearing”.

The authors write that it is “not clear how serious Trump was”. They do, however, repeatedly report frustration among Republicans over Trump’s eagerness to work with Democrats. It was reported at the time that the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, asked Trump to consider Garland.    continue to read

【精華】能安心吃豬的時間不多了！　
強硬進口萊豬犧牲食安「到底想怎樣」？
Dec 23, 2020