A U.S. Postal Service employee is out of a job amid an investigation into over 100 absentee ballots discarded in a dumpster in Louisville, Kentucky.
A contractor found the unopened 112 ballots while renovating a home in Jefferson County on Thursday. Additionally, two political flyers were discovered by special agents with the Postal Service Office of the Inspector General.
“When the investigation is concluded, the case will be presented for federal prosecution to the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Special Agent Scott Balfour said in a statement.
The case has been turned over to the U.S. attorney’s office, Balfour said.
Such incidents are “exceedingly rare,” Balfour said.
Voters who don’t receive an absentee ballot by Oct. 28 can go to any polling site, sign an affidavit saying they did not receive the ballot, and vote in person, said Nore Ghibaudy, spokesman for the Jefferson County clerk’s office.
The cities of Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, California, filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday claiming that the Trump administration’s effort to maintain law and order in U.S. cities and to protect federal property was unconstitutional.
The lawsuit said that the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security unconstitutionally took over police duties in those cities, where, in the case of Portland, police have faced almost nightly violent riots that have resulted in property damage, injuries, and even deaths.
The genesis of the lawsuit comes from President Donald Trump signing an executive order in June to fulfill the federal government’s responsibility to protect the American people and federal property.
The local ABC affiliate in Portland reported on the lawsuit:
The cities sued the departments’ leaders, Attorney General William Barr and Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, in their official capacities as well and asked the judge to forbid the federal agencies of sending officers to the cities. The 48-page lawsuit was filed in federal court in California.
Among the allegations, the cities said the federal government’s policies to send in officers to protect federal property instead “reveal a distinct and meaningful policy shift to use federal law enforcement to unilaterally step in or replace local law enforcement departments that do not subscribe to the President’s view of domestic “law and order.””
Portland and Oakland city attorneys asked a federal judge to rule the practice of sending in federal officers unconstitutional and pointed to the recent federal deputation of Portland police officers as an example of the federal government “commandeering” local law enforcement, despite requests from local leaders to de-deputize the officers.
The request to deputize came ahead of an expected clash between Antifa and the right-wing group Proud Boys in Portland on a recent weekend, although no altercation between the groups transpired.
“The U.S. Attorney for Oregon and the Marshals Service have refused to cancel the deputization, which officially expires on Dec. 31,” KATU reported, and also noted that Oakland joined the lawsuit because of concerns the Trump administration might send U.S. agents to Oakland or deputize police officers in that city.
The lawsuit also alleges the federal government illegally erected a fence around the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, which is federal property.
DHS reacted to the lawsuit.
“Yet again, dangerous politicians and fringe special interest groups have ginned up a meritless lawsuit,” a spokesperson from DHS said. “They aim to harm President Trump and distract from his law and order agenda.”
“Department of Homeland Security have acted entirely lawfully,” the spokesperson said. “Instead of condemning the violence we are seeing across the country, these politicians focus on scoring cheap political points to the detriment of the American people.”
Entertainment giant Disney has added expanded trigger warnings over “racist content” to many of its classic films, including Peter Pan, Dumbo, Fantasia, and Lady and the Tramp, on its streaming service Disney Plus.
“This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures,” read the warnings, which appear on audience screens for ten seconds after the films are selected for viewing, according to Variety. “These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it, and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together. Disney is committed to creating stories with inspirational and aspirational themes that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience around the globe.”
The new verbiage replaces previous warnings on films such as Dumbo that simply read, “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”
The warnings also contain a link to Disney.com/StoriesMatter, featuring a short video pushing the concept of “diverse storytelling,” which maintains that only “diverse” writer rooms, characters, and stories are worthy for depiction.
Watch below:
The latest warning screens are part of the company’s continuing effort to slap warning notes on its past content. Disney had already labeledDumbo, Jungle Book, Lady and the Tramp, and others as “offensive.” The latest warnings are an expansion of the campaign to marginalize its own past works.
Other TV networks have also slapped warning labels on movies. On HBO Max, the classic Civil War era love story, Gone With The Wind, was temporarily deleted after activists attacked the film. The service later brought the film back but festooned with warning labels. And in June, cable giant Comcast added a warning to Disney’s 1992 and 2019 versions of Aladdin claiming the films featured “outdated attitudes” that may “cause offense today.”
Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight posted a video message Friday in which called Joe Biden “evil” as he urged Americans to vote for President Donald Trump in November.
“Biden is evil. Trump must win. He’s real. He will bring back the people’s trust,” Voight said. “These leftists are not for the American people. It’s the biggest cover-up ever. Biden is an extension of the policies of Obama that weakened America and we cannot let that happen again. The left are deceitful and have lied to the American people. They have stripped down her mighty power for their own ego of power to rule the nation’s economy.”
Voight’s message comes after the New York Post ran multiple stories this week revealing how Hunter Biden leveraged his father’s vice presidential office in the Burisma scandal and separately sought to enrich the Biden family with deals involving China’s largest private energy company.
Watch below:
Breitbart News reported Friday on previously unknown emails showing how Hunter Biden associates worked to secure White House meetings with Communist Party-aligned Chinese elites.
“Let us ask God to rid this horror,” Voight said in the video. “And let us hold a candle on this land of the free and bring her back to the place she once stood proud. She is God’s liberty, she is God’s love. She is freedom, diginity. And God will cast his healing breath across this land. He will vanquish deceit. And I assure you that Jesus, Moses will stand their ground and ask all to vote for truths. Our land of the free will break her chains, and this will be. ”
Voight continued: “My children of God, your only hope is to see this greatness and you must vote for this man in office, the president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, for he is a man of integrity fighting for you and this country’s welfare. He loves this country as you do. Don’t allow deceit to manipulate you. For only truths will prevail.”
The Coming Home actor concluded: “Donald Trump has been great for the American people these last four years, and he wants to continue to fight for her glory and freedom. The left will bring you down with their lies and destroy America. Let us all pray and may God give us strength that we may shine in the name of Jesus and Moses, and saints of all religions. May we hold God’s torch of truths and pray for world peace, for the U.S. to bring her nation’s flag to wave with pride, with President Donald Trump in 2020. God bless.”
Jon Voight is one of Hollywood’s most vocal Trump supporters. The Midnight Cowboy star narrated a video about American exceptionalism at this year’s Republican National Convention. He also narrated a RNC video about President Trump’s successful efforts to free American hostages held captive in foreign lands.
‘Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, which is now essentially an arm of the Democratic Party, is now going to legislate and extend mail-in-voting count by three days,’ says Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman.
The Honest Elections Project is warning that recent events unfolding in states throughout the country have confirmed their fears that November’s election will be mired in controversy because states changed their voting procedures without adequate time to develop a workable system.
The group had warned in a July report that large-scale voting by mail would waste resources, create a risk of complications, such as fraud.
The New York Post is required to delete all tweets containing its story on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden before its Twitter account is unlocked, according to the tech giant.
The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks, CNN and MSNBC joined Twitter and Facebook in suppressing a bombshell New York Post story posted on morning of October 14, alleging new evidence of Hunter Biden’s corrupt business dealing with Ukraine and Joe Biden’s potential knowledge of it.
For Wednesday, October 14 and Thursday, October 15 MRC analysts looked at the ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning shows, plus ABC’s and NBC’s townhall events with Joe Biden and President Trump, as well as CNN and MSNBC’s coverage (6am through midnight ET). Out of a total of 92 hours of news programming, there was less than 10 minutes (9 minutes, 47 seconds) spent on the latest scandal involving Joe Biden’s son, or less than 0.2% of the available airtime.
ABC and CNN spent ZERO seconds on Hunter Biden.
NBC spent just 45 seconds on Hunter’s emails. CBS led the broadcast networks with still a meager four minutes, 28 seconds.
MSNBC spent the most amount of time on the latest Biden family scandal coming in with a still insignificant four minutes, 34 seconds of coverage during a 36-hour period.
Even when journalists mentioned the story, they devoted much of their time to knocking it down.
NewsBusters’s Kyle Drennen reported on network skepticism:
On Thursday, CBS This Morning finally noticed story, but only to dismiss the report. “Plus, how the President is trying to revive an old attack line, using the Vice President’s son,” co-host and Democratic Party donor Gayle King announced at the top of the show. Moments later, her fellow co-host Anthony Mason repeated the claim of it being old news: “Yesterday, the President held a rally in Iowa, where he tried to revive an old line of attack against Joe Biden based on suspicious new claims linked to Rudy Giuliani.”
She then touted: “The Biden campaign said the allegations were false and noted that an investigation by Senate Republicans had cleared the former Vice President of any wrongdoing in Ukraine.” The headline on screen blared: “Trump Seizes on Hunter Biden Claims; Biden Campaign Says Allegations Reported in NY Post Are False.”
In addition, Reid warned viewers: “The story’s sourcing has also raised questions about its authenticity, as the files were given to the Post through an attorney for the President’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and allegedly obtained from a repair shop owner who said the device was allegedly left and never picked up.”
Reid uncritically related the outrageous attempts by social media companies to censor the story:
“Twitter and Facebook have limited the distribution of that Hunter Biden story and last night Twitter appeared to suspend the Twitter account of White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany when she tried to share that story. Now Twitter clarified they have taken that action because the article contained images of personal information like private e-mail addresses and what Twitter classified as hacked material. Sharing hacked and private information violates Twitter’s rules.”
On the October 15 NBC’s Today show, White House correspondent Hallie Jackson largely avoided any of the unflattering details for the Bidens as she downplayed the news: “…this is a questionably-sourced story, to say the least, it appeared in a tabloid, that President Trump and allies are really trying to seize on here, alleging that Joe Biden may have had a meeting that was set up with somebody that Hunter Biden worked with on this Ukrainian company.”
She actually cited the Biden campaign as a way of fact-checking the story:
“Now, the story is so dubious – and we should note, by the way, that the Biden campaign says that meeting was never on Biden’s official schedule. But Facebook and Twitter made moves to try to limit the spread of this story. And the Washington Post is reporting that some intelligence experts think this has the hallmark of like a disinformation campaign meant to interfere with the election.”
Co-host Savannah Guthrie very quickly and blandly acknowledged controversy surrounding the social media bans: “And extraordinary because Twitter’s CEO also said Twitter should have communicated better about why it was taking down the content.”
Joe Scarborough scoffed about the Hunter Biden report over on the October 15 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
“And by the way, Mika, when there is a New York Post article that is false, it’s much better for Twitter to let people read the New York Post article and sit there and laugh at the hokie story of a computer repairman looking at a computer going ‘This sure does look suspicious to me. I’m gonna call Rudy Giuliani.’ Like let that out. Okay? Because people read this story, and then they’ll go — this is really one of the stupidest October surprises I’ve ever seen before. What did he have, x-ray vision?…‘This don’t look right. Wonder if America’s Mayor could take a look at it?’ Who thought of that? Who even thought to make that story up? It is hilarious! Oh my God!”
MSNBC host Joy Reid invited The Bulwark’s editor Charlie Sykes to bash the President on the October 14 edition of MSNBC’s The Reid Report: “When he’s [Donald Trump] also then relying on Russian disinformation laundered through the New York Post, you get a sense of somebody who has just….who’s lost his instinct, who’s lost the narrative.”
(For this study analysts looked at CNN and MSNBC’s broadcast days starting at 6am through 12 midnight ET on October 14 and October 15. Analysts also viewed ABC’s World News Tonight, Good Morning America and their 2-hour townhall event with Joe Biden; CBS Evening News and CBS This Morning; NBC Nightly News, NBC’s Today show and the Today show Third Hour and their 1-hour townhall event with Donald Trump).
Newly obtained emails from a Hunter Biden business partner lay out in detail how the Vice President’s son and his colleagues used their access to the Obama-Biden administration to arrange private meetings for potential foreign clients and investors at the highest levels in the White House. These never-before-revealed emails outline how a delegation of Chinese investors and Communist Party officials managed to secure a private, off-the-books meeting with then-Vice President Joe Biden.
In a 2011 email, Hunter Biden’s business associates also discussed developing relations with what one called “China Inc.” as part of a “new push on soft diplomacy for the Chinese.” These emails are completely unconnected to the Hunter Biden emails being released by the New York Post.
These and more explosive never-before-revealed emails were provided to Schweizer by Bevan Cooney, a one-time Hunter Biden and Devon Archer business associate. Cooney is currently in prison serving a sentence for his involvement in a 2016 bond fraud investment scheme.
In 2019, Cooney reached out to Schweizer after becoming familiar with the revelations in his 2018 book Secret Empires. Cooney explained that he believes he was the “fall guy” for the fraud scheme and that Archer and Hunter Biden had avoided responsibility.
Archer, who was also convicted in the case, saw a federal judge vacate his conviction. But an appellate court overturned the lower court judge’s ruling, reinstating Archer’s conviction in the case. Archer, Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner, awaits sentencing.
Cooney, their associate who is currently serving a prison sentence on his conviction in the matter, later reestablished contact with Schweizer through investigative journalist Matthew Tyrmand. From prison, Cooney provided Schweizer with written authorization, his email account name, and password to his Gmail account to retrieve these emails. He authorized, in writing, the publication of these emails— notable because it is the first time a close associate has publicly confirmed Hunter’s trading on his father’s influence.
The emails offer a unique window into just how the Biden universe conducted business during the Obama-Biden Administration. These associates sought to trade on Hunter Biden’s relationship with, and access to, his father and the Obama-Biden White House in order to generate business.
For instance, on November 5, 2011, one of Archer’s business contacts forwarded him an email teasing an opportunity to gain “potentially outstanding new clients” by helping to arrange White House meetings for a group of Chinese executives and government officials. The group was the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) and the delegation included Chinese billionaires, Chinese Communist Party loyalists, and at least one “respected diplomat” from Beijing. Despite its benign name, CEC has been called “a second foreign ministry” for the People’s Republic of China—a communist government that closely controls most businesses in its country. CEC was established in 2006 by a group of businessmen and Chinese government diplomats.
CEC’s leadership boasts numerous senior members of the Chinese Communist Party, including Wang Zhongyu (“vice chairman of the 10th CPPCC National Committee and deputy secretary of the Party group”), Ma Weihua (director of multiple Chinese Communist Party offices), and Jiang Xipei (member of the Chinese Communist Party and representative of the 16th National Congress), among others.
“I know it is political season and people are hesitant but a group like this does not come along every day,” an intermediary named Mohamed A. Khashoggi wrote on behalf of the CEC to an associate of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer. “A tour of the white house and a meeting with a member of the chief of staff’s office and John Kerry would be great,” Khashoggi said before including what should have been a major red flag: “Not sure if one has to be registered to do this.” Presumably, Khashoggi meant a registered lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Khashoggi believed the trip presented “a soft diplomacy play that could be very effective” and would give Hunter Biden’s business partners “good access to [the Chinese] for any deal in the future.”
Indeed, the email boasted of CEC’s wealthy membership:
CEC’s current membership includes 50 preeminent figures such as: Liu Chuanzhi, Chairman of the CEC, Legend Holdings and Lenovo Group; Wu Jinglian, Zhang Weiying, and Zhou Qiren, China’s esteemed economists; Wu Jianmin, respected diplomat; Long Yongtu, representative of China’s globalization; Wang Shi (Vanke); Ma Weihua (China Merchants Bank); Jack Ma (Alibaba Group); Guo Guangchang (Fosun Group); Wang Jianlin, (Wanda Group); Niu Gensheng (LAONIU Foundation); Li Shufu (Geely); Li Dongsheng (TCL Corporation); Feng Lun (Vantone) and etc.
The gross income of the CEC members’ companies allegedly “totaled more than RMB 1.5 trillion, together accounting for roughly 4% of China’s GDP.” The overture to Hunter Biden’s associates described the Chinese CEC members variously as “industrial elites,” “highly influential,” and among “the most important private sector individuals in China today.”
Before contacting Hunter Biden’s associates, the CEC had been trying to get meetings with top Obama-Biden administration officials to no avail. “From the DC side as you will see below they [CEC] have written letters to several members of the administration and others and have so far not had a strong reaction.”
“This is China Inc,” wrote Khashoggi in the email, referring to the delegation of Chinese billionaires.
“Biggest priority for the CEC group is to see the White House, and have a senior US politician, or senior member of Obama’s administration, give them a tour… If your friend in DC can help, we would be extremely grateful,” Khashoggi emphasized.
Hunter Biden and Devon Archer apparently delivered for the Chinese Communist Party-connected industrial elites within ten days .
The original Oct. 19, 2011, email from Khashoggi was sent to Gary Fears — a controversial political fundraiser with a checkered history who was caught up in a riverboat casino scandal in the mid-1990s — who forwarded it on to Archer a couple weeks later on Nov. 5, 2011.
Time was short, as Khashoggi’s original email noted that the Chinese delegation would be in DC on Nov. 14, 2011. Fears told Archer to “reach out” to Khashoggi about the request regarding getting the Chinese businesspersons and officials into the Obama White House, adding it would be “perfect for” Archer to also “attend” with them and then “get guys for the potash deal.”
The same day Fears sent Khashoggi’s message to him, Archer took the email from Fears and sent to Khashoggi a business proposal for a potash mine deal he had lined up.
Six days after the initial overture, Archer received a followup email asking how a meeting with CEC’s representative went. The email closed with “Do me a favor and ask Hunter [Biden] to call me — I’ve tried reaching him a couple of times.” Archer responded, “Hunter is traveling in the UAE for the week with royalty so probably next week before he will be back in pocket…. The meeting with [CEC representative] was good. Seems like there is a lot to do together down the line. Probably not a fit for the current Potash private placement but he’s a good strategic relationship as the mine develops. Definitely have a drink with Mohammed and let him know how impressed I was with his whole deal.”
One minute later, Archer sent a follow-up email, “Couldn’t confirm this with Hunter on the line but we got him his meeting at the WH Monday for the Chinese folks.”
On the day of the meeting, November 14, 2011, Cooney emailed Fears to confirm that Archer “got the Chinese guys all taken care of in DC.”
The Obama-Biden Administration archives reveal that this Chinese delegation did indeed visit the White House on November 14, 2011, and enjoyed high-level access. The delegation included approximately thirty members, according to White House visitor logs. But those records also obscure perhaps the most important item for the Chinese delegation: a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden himself.
The visitor logs list Jeff Zients, the deputy director of Obama’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as the host of the CEC delegation. Obama had tasked Zients with restructuring and ultimately consolidating the various export-import agencies under the Commerce Department—an effort in which the Chinese delegation would have a keen interest.
A trip itinerary posted by the CEC also confirms the delegation met with Obama’s then-recently-confirmed Commerce Secretary John Bryson.
Curiously, the Obama-Biden visitor logs do not mention any meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. But the Vice President’s off-the-books meeting was revealed by one of the core founders of the CEC. In an obscure document listing the CEC members’ biographies, CEC Secretary General Maggie Cheng alleges that she facilitated the CEC delegation meetings in Washington in 2011 and boasts of the Washington establishment figures that CEC met with. The first name she dropped was that of Vice President Joe Biden.
The relationships established during that visit may have benefited Hunter Biden and Devon Archer down the road. Two years later, they famously helped to form the Chinese government funded Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) investment fund. One of BHR’s first major portfolio investments was a ride-sharing company like Uber called Didi Dache—now called Didi Chuxing Technology Co. That company is closely connected to Liu Chuanzhi, the chairman of the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) and the founder of Legend Holdings—the parent company of Lenovo, one of the world’s largest computer companies. Liu is a former Chinese Communist Party delegate and was a leader of the 2011 CEC delegation to the White House. His daughter was the President of Didi.
Liu has long been involved in CCP politics, including serving as a representative to the 9th, 10th, and 11th sessions of the National People’s Congress of the PRC and as a representative to the 16th and 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Liu was the Vice Chairman of the 8th and 9th Executive Committee of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), an organization known to be affiliated with the Chinese United Front.
The Biden campaign has not responded to a request for comment on this story.
This is a developing story.
Peter Schweizer is the author of Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite. Seamus Bruner is the author of Fallout: Nuclear Bribes, Russian Spies, and the Washington Lies that Enriched the Clinton and Biden Dynasties.
Why Is The FBI’s Top Child Porn Lawyer Involved In Hunter Biden Laptop Case? Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/16/2020 – 17:54
The recent New York Post bombshell reports on Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop contents included a curious piece of evidence – a photograph of an FBI subpoena which bears the signature of the agency’s top child porn investigator, special agent Joshua Wilson.
According to the Post, a laptop was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop by a man believed by the owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, to be Hunter Biden. The shop owner made a copy of the hard drive before turning it over to the FBI, which includes incriminating emails detailing alleged Biden family corruption in Ukraine and China, as well as a ‘raunchy, 12-minute video that appears to show Hunter smoking crack while engaged in a sex act with an unidentified woman,’ as well as ‘numerous other sexually explicit images.’
FBI agent Wilson’s identity was confirmed by both Western Journal and Business Insider, the latter of which compared his signature to a 2012 criminal complaint and concluded that it "clearly matches the unreversed signature on the subpoena published by the New York Post."
As BI notes:
It’s unclear whether the FBI employs more than one agent named Joshua Wilson. But the available evidence seems to show **the Joshua Wilson who signed the subpoena for Hunter Biden’s laptop, and the Joshua Wilson who investigates child pornography for the FBI, are the same person**. This raises the possibility, not explored by the Post, that the FBI issued the subpoena for reasons unrelated to Hunter Biden’s role in Ukraine and Burisma.
So why is the FBI’s top child porn lawyer involved in the Hunter Biden laptop case? OANN‘s Chanel Rion says she’s seen the contents of the hard drive, which includes "Drugs, underage obsessions, power deals," which make "Anthony Weiner’s down under selfie addiction look normal."
Just saw for myself a behind the scenes look at the #HunterBiden hard drive:
Drugs, underage obsessions, power deals…
Druggie Hunter makes Anthony Weiner’s down under selfie addiction look normal.#BidenCrimeFamily has a lot of apologizing to do.
