Daily Archives: March 19, 2019

03/19/19

DIA: Ron Rockwell Hansen, Pleads Guilty

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

We can’t know the extent of insider threats. The matter of China infecting our intelligence agencies and paying for spying continues.

Frankly, as compared to Jonathan Pollard, 180 months in prison for Hansen is hardly enough. Pollard was released after 30 years but remains on house detention. Pollard aided a steadfast ally, Israel… China is hardly a friendly country to the United States.

Anyway…

SALT LAKE CITY – A former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer, taken into federal custody by the FBI in June 2018 as he was preparing to board a flight to China, pleaded guilty Friday afternoon to attempting to communicate, deliver, or transmit information involving the national defense of the United States to the People’s Republic of China.

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 59, a resident of Syracuse, Utah, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson in Salt Lake City.  The plea agreement includes a stipulated sentence of 180 months, subject to the approval of the Court. Sentencing in the case is set for Sept. 24, 2019, at 2 p.m.

Hansen pleaded guilty to the lead count of a 15-count indictment returned in June 2018, charging him with an attempt to gather or deliver defense information, acting as an agent of a foreign government, bulk cash smuggling, structuring monetary transactions, and smuggling goods from the United States.  Federal prosecutors will ask the Court to dismiss the remaining counts of the indictment at sentencing, however, the plea agreement includes an agreement that relevant conduct can be considered by the Court in determining the reasonableness of the sentence.

Hansen retired from the U.S. Army as a Warrant Officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence.  He speaks fluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian, according to court documents. Upon retiring from active duty, DIA hired Hansen as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006. Hansen held a Top Secret clearance for many years and signed several non-disclosure agreements during his tenure at DIA and as a government contractor.

As Hansen admitted in the plea agreement, in early 2014, agents of a Chinese intelligence service targeted him for recruitment, and he began meeting with them regularly in China.  During these meetings, the agents described to Hansen the type of information that would interest Chinese intelligence.  Hansen stipulated that during the course of his relationship with Chinese intelligence, he received thousands of dollars in compensation for information he provided them.

Between May 24, 2016, and June 2, 2018, Hansen admitted he solicited national security information from an intelligence case officer working for the DIA.  Hansen admitted knowing that the Chinese intelligence services would find the information valuable, and he agreed to act as a conduit to sell that information to the Chinese.  He advised the DIA case officer how to record and transmit classified information without detection, and how to hide and launder any funds received as payment for classified information.  He admitted he now understands that the DIA case officer reported his conduct to the DIA and subsequently acted as a confidential human source for the FBI.

Hansen admitted meeting with the DIA case officer on June 2, 2018, and receiving individual documents containing national defense information that he had previously solicited.  The documents he received were classified. The documents included national security information related to U.S. military readiness in a particular region — information closely held by the federal government. Hansen did not possess a security clearance nor did he possess a need to know the information contained in the materials.

As a part of his plea agreement, Hansen admitted he reviewed the documents, queried the case officer about their contents, and took written notes which contained information determined to be classified.  He advised the DIA case officer that he would remember most of the details about the documents he received that day and would conceal notes about the material in the text of an electronic document he would prepare at the airport before leaving for China.  He admitted he intended to provide the information he received to the agents of the Chinese Intelligence Service with whom he had been meeting.  He also admitted knowing that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation.

Hansen was arrested June 2, 2018, on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Wash., to board a connecting flight to China.

As a part of the plea agreement, Hansen has agreed to forfeit property acquired from or traceable to his offense, including property used to facilitate the crime.

The case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert A. Lund, Karin Fojtik, Mark K. Vincent and Alicia Cook of the District of Utah, and Trial Attorneys Patrick T. Murphy, Matthew J. McKenzie and Adam L. Small of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.  Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington assisted with this case.

The prosecution is the result of an investigation by special agents of the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Counterintelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

03/19/19

Marines Prepare For Exercise Pacific Blitz

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

The Marine Corps’ top general on the west coast is readying his Marines for the next big war against a near-peer competitor, and one of his main concerns is figuring out how to alter the mindset of troops that have been fighting insurgencies since 9/11.

“If anything my problem is getting people out of the mindset of [counterterrorism] and making sure they’re thinking about near-peer adversaries in their training programs,” Lt. Gen. Joseph Osterman, commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, California, told Task & Purpose in an interview on Friday.

Exercise Pacific Blitz is one program, in particular, that is currently doing just that, involving thousands of Marines, sailors, and coast guardsmen training in and around southern California.

The joint exercise not only brings together a large number of personnel but various assets as well, including Navy ships and landing craft, CH-53 helicopters, V-22 Ospreys, F-35s, and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), a ground-based artillery system the Marines have previously test-fired from amphibious transport ships.

Marine Corps vehicle radio convoy Pendleton
US Marine Corps Sgt. Demarcus Tunstall, a motor transport operator assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion, during convoy training at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, January 16, 2019.

The bigger picture goal: Getting a large force like the 50,000-strong I MEF from sea to shore in a contested environment, described by the general in a press release as leveraging “a Marine land component as part of our larger goal of sea control.”

Osterman even said personnel were being put ashore at nearby San Clemente Island to build aircraft runways — seemingly a throwback to the Marine Corps’ island-hopping campaigns of World War II.

“It’s not part of the exercise necessarily but that’s kind of one of the things we’d have to do on these remote islands is build runways. So it’s somewhat tangentially aligned,” Osterman said. “We’re doing connector capability between islands.”

In February, Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller told Task & Purpose the Corps had begun to move its training to a more traditional fight instead of what grunts would face against unsophisticated enemies in the Middle East, most notably in using more advanced enemies in force-on-force training against Marines going through pre-deployment training at 29 Palms, California.

“They had aircraft. They were able to jam [communications]. We had aircraft. And we fought force on force,” Neller said on the sidelines of the 2019 West Conference in San Diego. “Marine infantry now, they’ve gotta look up” since enemies in Syria and Iraq have increasingly used unmanned aerial vehicles, and near-peers will have assets such as attack helicopters and artillery.

Marine Corps construction Pendleton
A Marine from Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 303 during a bridge reconstruction project at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, March 7, 2019.

As Osterman explained, Marine grunts now need to learn to counter enemy drones, prepare for their GPS or communications to be jammed, and understand that enemy artillery, aircraft, or reconnaissance capabilities will be much more advanced if they’re up against an adversary like China or Russia.

“We haven’t had to worry about that for two decades,” Osterman said. “The Taliban doesn’t have any satellites up there.”

Some of Osterman’s Marines have already had a taste of that in Syria, where state and non-state actors have employed high-end anti-aircraft systems, GPS jamming technology, or hacking, for example.

“The Special Purpose [Marine Air Ground Task Force] we send to Central Command is engaged in all of that. High end, you know, kinetics in Syria, all the way down through advising the Iraqi forces. It’s one where we’ve gotta do it all, frankly.”

“Instead of having a forward operating base out there that they’re living out of and doing operations they’ve actually got to constantly be moving because if they sit too long the enemy artillery is going to take them out,” Osterman said of tactics Marines are beginning to think about. “So that gets them almost a little bit, back to [their] roots.”Read the original article on Task & Purpose.

03/19/19

GPS Attack On NATO Exercise Came From Russia

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

Norway has stunned the international community by presenting “proof” Russia was behind a sophisticated GPS attack during war games.

War games are supposed to test a military’s ability to deal with the unexpected. But NATO got more than it anticipated last year when its warships’ navigation systems started acting up.

There was no way they could be where their computers were telling them they were.

This was no small issue: warships from 31 different nations were maneuvering together in what was one of NATO’s largest exercises in decades.

But the implications went far beyond safety.

It means weapon systems without alternate means of finding out where they were could end up hundreds of kilometers off course.

It wasn’t the first time this GPS ‘glitch’ had been observed in Nordic nations such as Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Civilian air traffic has reported several instances of their navigation systems going haywire.

EXPLORE MORE: Huge NATO exercise ‘jammed’ by Russia

DELVE DEEPER: Russia, China test GPS jamming systems’

In all, GPS signals have been reportedly disrupted five times in the northeastern region of Norway, Finland, and Sweden since autumn 2017. But the Trident Juncture exercise in October and November last year experienced the most intense attack.

Suspicion immediately fell upon Russia.

Moscow dismissed the claims.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Larov went so far as to call the allegations “fantasy.”

But, now, Norway says it has proof.

“Russia asked to give proof. We gave them the proof,” Norwegian Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen told reporters after a bilateral meeting with Russia in Oslo.

Norwegian civilian science outposts had recorded the type, strength, and origins of the signals used to distort signals emitted by GPS satellites, he said.

This data has now been handed over to Moscow.

“Russia said ‘thank you, we will come back when our experts review that’. To have such an answer from Russia is a positive thing,” he said.

Minister Bakke-Jensen said Russia would have had to be well aware of the impact of its jamming systems.

A map provided by Norway’s intelligence service showing the source and intensity of GPS jamming signals. Picture: Norway Defence MinistrySource:Supplied

A map provided by Norway’s intelligence service showing the source and intensity of GPS jamming signals. Picture: Norway Defence MinistrySource:Supplied

“They were exercising very close to the border and they knew this will affect areas on the other side,” he said. “We recognize Russia’s right to exercise and train its capacities [but] it is not acceptable that this kind of activity affects security in Norwegian air space.”

And international conventions dictate notice be given of any kind of major military test.

The dates and locations of NATO’s Trident Juncture exercise were known to Russia for years.

But Moscow called a snap ‘live-fire’ exercise of its own warships on the boundaries of the NATO games. It also appears to have engaged in an undeclared test of its electronic jamming systems, encompassing Trident Juncture’s designated exclusion area.

Russia shows little regard for the ‘fallout’ of its electronic warfare testing.

Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was forced to contact Moscow in October 2017 to request jamming exercises along its border as part of Russia’s annual Zapad war-games be halted due to public safety concerns.

“It was a large military exercise by a big neighbor and it disrupted civilian activities including air traffic, shipping, and fishing,” defence minister Bakke-Jensen said at the time.

03/19/19

U.S. To Base Rockets/Satellite Launches In Brazil

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

A few months ago, Vice President Pence traveled to Latin America with a specific visit to Brazil to discuss the location of a U.S. military base in Brazil. President Bolsonaro has waffled somewhat on this possibility, however, it is advancing. The mission for both the United States and Brazil is to counter China and Russia’s military influence in Latin America. Truth be told, the Brazilian military high command is against this ambition unless Russia displays further aggression.

(Ummm, they already have.)

Anyway… under the guise of a space program, the U.S. and Brazil have finalized the agreement for a U.S. space technology/military program in Alcantara, Brazil.

This will be located at the Forca Aerea Brasileira, the Brazilian Air Force base in the Alcantara Launch Center. Equatorial launches are beneficial so close to the equator due to the speed of the earth’s rotation, saving at least 30% on fuel.

Scott Pace, executive director of the US National Space Council, said on 18 March at a Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) industry group event that the TSA could be signed later that day. The remaining hurdle is approval by Brazil’s Congress, David Logsdon, head of CompTIA’s Space Enterprise Council, told Jane’s after the event. Coincidently, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro is in Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump.

A TSA prevents unauthorised access to and transfer of protected technologies. US companies are interested in flying out of ALC due to its location for equatorial launches. Equatorial launches are advantageous as the Earth spins the fastest at the equator, giving launches an extra boost to reach orbit.

However, ALC’s remote location poses a challenge. Flying out of ALC would require US companies to first fly into Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo before connecting to a flight to ALC, adding an extra day of travel. An industry source told Jane’s that it is still challenging for US companies to close their business case with flying out of ALC due to the distance between the two countries, corruption, Bolsonaro’s mercurial personality, and the tendency of Brazilians to run hot-and-cold when dealing with the US.

However, the source said if a company can work out the logistics and partner with an honest local broker, the 30% efficiency savings for launching that close to the equator can be a major incentive.

Brazil can currently launch small rockets from this same base for what is known as microsatellites. Brazil is investing with partners an estimated $300 billion for the joint or multi-lateral launch business. When General Mattis was still the Secretary of Defense, he signed a Space Situational Awareness agreement during his own visit to Brazil. This is an effort to do real-time tracking of other rogue satellites, data of objects in space and debris.

Not to be overlooked, both Boeing and Lockheed Martin went to the Alcantara Space Center last December along with Vector Launch, Inc. to determine costs of payloads. Brazil appears to have a new corporation called Alada and yet another named Embraer SA to advance the aerospace programs along with seeking investors.

03/19/19

5 Words Conservatives Should Never Use, Starting With Conservative

By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times


Shadows are reflected on an American Flag as people line up to speak with Ohio Governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich on Feb. 11, 2016, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Words are weapons. In the “culture war,” words are the most powerful weapon.

Control of words is how revolutionaries get us to think a certain way—the way they wish us to think.

Early 20th-century Italian Communist Party leader and leading “cultural warrior” Antonio Gramsci put it this way: “Ideas and opinions are not spontaneously ‘born’ in each individual brain: they have had a center of formation, or irradiation, of dissemination, of persuasion—a group of men, or a single individual even, which has developed them and presented them in the political form of current reality.”

The tool for planting these ideas is words.

According to Monica Showalter, writing for Investor’s Business Daily, Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin weaponized words to win the Bolshevik Revolution:

“As early as 1903, at a party congress, Lenin won a membership issue by a single vote. But from then on, he called his faction ‘the Bolsheviks,’ or majoritarians, and his opponents ‘Mensheviks,’ or minoritarians. It didn’t matter that the Bolsheviks never were a true majority among Russia’s revolutionaries; what mattered was the perception of power.

“Lenin repeated the tactic by dubbing Bolsheviks ‘Reds’ to signal an affinity with the bloody violence of the French Revolution, while their battlefield opponents were saddled with ‘Whites’ to link them with the discredited French Bourbon dynasty. Lenin also took title to the word ‘democracy,’ disarming opponents who were then unable to project a coherent message. By controlling words, Lenin controlled perceptions of reality.”

Why, then, do freedom fighters and anti-communists persistently use the words of our enemies to our own disadvantage?

Why do we define ourselves using our opponents’ terms? Why do we label the enemy in their own terms, not ours?

To win the war, we must control the language. We can’t set the terms of battle while using the language of the enemy against our own best interests.

Here are five words that I believe we should stop using. They are all tainted and inaccurate. They have all been weaponized against us.

Conservative

Conservative has become almost synonymous with “fascist” in modern America. Once it meant to “conserve” the Constitution, American values, and the American way of life. Today, to much of America, it means someone who supports the status quo and big business, maybe even a reactionary, a racist, or a “white supremacist.”

Socialism has advanced so far in America that the only thing “conservatives” usually end up conserving is big government. In my home country of New Zealand, “conservatives” oppose selling off state-run businesses. They want to “conserve” state control! We even hear of “conservative” old guard communists in China and Russia trying to preserve “traditional” socialism.

Let’s abandon the word. It’s a terrible word for attracting young people to the liberty movement. Until we can come up with something better, let’s use “Constitutionalist.” It’s a little clumsy, but it’s accurate and seizes the moral high ground. It’s also hard to attack. Who wants to be identified as an anti-Constitutionalist?

Capitalism/Capitalist

To most Constitutionalists, capitalism and capitalist mean supporting business, industry, and the American Way. To socialists and most young Americans, these words mean heartless multinational corporations seeking profit at all costs and degrading the environment. Capital means money, huge wealth, and extravagance to most young people. It’s no longer understood as intellectual or material property used to produce wealth for all.

The word “capitalism” has been around since the 16th century but was popularized in the 19th century by French socialist Louis Blanc and the founders of “communism”: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. “Capitalism” is essentially a Marxist word that our enemies use to beat us with.

Let’s resurrect “free enterprise.” It’s accurate, it’s idealistic, and it’s dynamic. When people hear the words “free enterprise,” they don’t think of faceless mega-bankers and Wall Street hustlers. “Free enterprise” conjures up images of young entrepreneurs taking on the world, family farms, and mom and pop stores. Most Americans believe in “free enterprise,” not so much in “capitalism.”

Democracy

The United States is not and never has been a “democracy,” although you wouldn’t know that from watching Fox News or most Democratic and many Republican Party politicians.

The United States of America is a “republic,” derived from the Latin “res publica”—the “people’s thing.”

Democracy means simply the will of the majority. The Founding Fathers were scholars of history. They knew that “majority rule” would inevitably lead to tyranny. Rights that are subject only to the whim of 50 percent plus one, are no rights at all.

The Founding Fathers designed a far superior system: the “constitutional republic.” Rights were to be enshrined in law and protected by a written constitution that would be protected from the tyranny of the majority—or “mob rule.” Some elements of “democracy” were incorporated into the system, to elect public officials and later to vote on ballot measures, but the fundamental rights of the people were seen as coming from God, never to be subjected to the popular vote.

A republic is far superior to a democracy in that it uses checks and balances to protect individual liberties against oppression from any quarter—including majorities.

The United States is a “republic.” We should always use that term. Never should we play into our enemies’ hands by downgrading this nation to “democracy” status.

Liberal

The Green New Deal isn’t a “liberal” proposal—it is socialist. The $15-per-hour minimum wage is not a liberal measure—it comes directly from the Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party USA. Antifa isn’t a “liberal” group, as Fox News often labels it—it’s communist/anarchist. Socialist groups regularly label their opposition fascists, Nazis, and white supremacists. We call them “liberal.” Socialist is the appropriate label.

Almost every policy coming out of today’s Democratic Party is demonstrably socialist. Most of the “liberal” commentators we see on TV are in fact, socialists. The word “liberal” is far too kind and no longer accurate. Let’s call socialists socialists. No more giving them a respectability they don’t deserve.

Progressive

The currently fashionable word “progressive” has partially replaced “liberal” as a euphemism for socialist. There is, however, a subtle difference. “Progressive,” in its current usage, came out of the socialist and communist movements of the 20th century. According to Marxist theory, humanity is slowly and inevitably “progressing” toward communism. Therefore, anyone assisting this historical process was, by definition, a “progressive.”

“Progressive” was used by Marxists as a code word. Put “progressive” into an organization’s name and all the comrades would know it was communist, even if the general public didn’t. Former communist David Horowitz was active in the Sunnyside Young Progressives as a teenager. In the 1950s, the Communist Party of New Zealand’s junior wing was known as the Progressive Youth League. “Progressive” also was used to identify friends and allies in the movement. “She’s a good progressive” didn’t necessarily mean the woman in question was a Communist Party member, but that she was at least working in the interests of the movement.

Never should we talk about “progressives.” These people and the movements they promote are working, whether they acknowledge it or not, to advance communism. “Progressives” are, whether they know it or not, Marxists. That’s how they should be labeled: Marxists promoting Marxist ideas.

President Donald Trump has shown us how to use weaponized words like no other president in generations. Who can forget “Lyin’ Hillary” (Hillary Clinton), “Low-energy Jeb” (Jeb Bush), “Pocahontas” (Sen. Elizabeth Warren), or his masterful use of “fake news,” which drives the liberal—whoops, I mean socialist—media nuts.

In his 2019 State of the Union speech, Trump didn’t attack “liberalism” or “progressivism”; he specifically and accurately attacked “socialism.”

We all need to follow the president’s example. We must stop using the enemy’s lexicon. Any good duelist understands that he who chooses the weaponry has the advantage.

Let’s stop using the weapons our enemy chooses for us. We are in a fight for the survival of our civilization. This is a life-or-death battle between good and evil. Let’s choose our own weapons of war and fight this war to win it.

Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.

03/19/19

America Deserves Much Beto than O’Rourke

By: Lloyd Marcus

Watching Beto O’Rourke announce his candidacy for president, I had snake oil salesmen come to mind.  Everything about this guy is fake, which makes him a perfect candidate for fake news media to celebrate.

My wife Mary and I spent several weeks in Texas campaigning for Ted Cruz, fighting to stop O’Rourke from stealing Cruz’s Senate seat.  It was incredible watching O’Rourke’s TV ads.  Funded with mega-millions from outsiders, O’Rourke’s entire U.S. Senate campaign was built upon deceiving voters.

For example: While claiming to be pro-Second Amendment, great deceiver O’Rourke voted against every piece of pro-gun legislation that came to his desk.  To deceive voters into believing he is a regular guy, millionaire O’Rourke posted a video of himself in a laundromat doing laundry.  O’Rourke came disturbingly close to scamming Texans into electing him over Ted Cruz.

In his elect-me-or-we’re-all-gonna-die presidential campaign announcement, O’Rourke claimed there are crises in our economy, democracy, and climate.  O’Rourke urgently warned Americans that we are in a “moment of peril.”  What on Earth is O’Rourke talking about?

Our Economy: Trump has our economy booming.  Black unemployment is the lowest in recorded history.  Hispanics and women are also doing great in Trump’s economy.

Our Democracy: Mr. O’Rourke, the truth is, you and your fellow Democrats are the greatest threats to our democracy.  Democrats seek to criminalize conservative thoughts, conservative speech, and gun ownership.  Given their vindictive destruction of Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort, Democrats outrageously seek to criminalize working for Trump. 

Our Climate: For the gazillionth time, man-made climate change is a proven hoax.  O’Rourke passionately warns that not embracing the Green New Deal will lead to the extinction of the human race in a decade or so.  Here’s a reminder of the insanity in the Green New Deal.  By 2030, we must end air travel; end the use of fossil fuels; mandate that every new job be unionized; decommission every nuclear plant; rebuild every building in America for state-of-the-art energy efficiency; and let the government fund everyone, including deadbeats who refuse to work.

O’Rourke continued his trademark deception tactic.  He said we should ensure immigrants “lawful paths to work.”  Wait a minute, dude.  You and your fellow Democrats say screw our immigration laws; let’s roll out the red carpet for illegals.  Democrats say because we have pillaged the world’s resources and because we are racist, sexist, and homophobic, we do not have the moral authority to keep anyone out of our country.  Not only is O’Rourke fighting to stop Trump from building a border wall to keep Americans safe, but he wants to tear down the existing border wall in El Paso, Texas.

O’Rourke said we should “listen to and lift up rural America.”  The truth is, O’Rourke and his fellow Democrats despise rural America.  Rural Americans voted for Trump, desire to keep their guns, attend Christian churches on Sundays, believe that marriage is between one man and one woman, and believe that abortion and infanticide are evil.  Pandering to rural America is simply more of O’Rourke’s campaign of deception.

As a black American, I was stunned when O’Rourke said we should “confront the hard truths of slavery, and segregation, and suppression in these United States of America.”  What the heck is he talking about?  Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 ended slavery in America.  The only segregation I am aware of is black students segregating themselves on college campuses, demanding black student unions and race-based housing facilities.  Who are the masses of Americans O’Rourke claims we are suppressing?  Do you see O’Rourke using Democrats’ disgusting tactic of dividing Americans into bogus victimized voting blocs?

After spewing gloom and doom, America-sucks, and everyone-is-a-victim lies, O’Rourke had the audacity to say, “This is going to be a positive campaign.”  I laughed out loud.

O’Rourke is anti-law enforcement, voting against ICE.  He calls our nation’s police “the new Jim Crow,” which cruelly paints targets on the backs of our brave men and women in blue to be assassinated by Black Lives Matter.

Kate Steinle was shot and killed by an illegal alien who was deported several times and kept coming back to his sanctuary city, San Francisco.  Kate’s Law would give mandatory jail time to illegals who repeatedly break our immigration laws.  O’Rourke voted against Kate’s Law.  Supposed man of the people O’Rourke voted against Trump’s tax cuts.  O’Rourke wants single-payer health care, which leads to rationed health care, where the government makes funding decisions, determining who lives and who dies.

While in Texas campaigning for Ted Cruz, I got to witness O’Rourke’s deceptive tactics up close when he ran for U.S. Senate.  My brother and sister fellow Americans, our country deserves much better than sociopath conman Beto O’Rourke. 

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American
Help Lloyd spread the Truth: http://bit.ly/2kZqmUk
http://LloydMarcus.com

03/19/19

US Media Compares To Joseph Goebbels’ Operations

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

Ah yes… Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda for Nazi, Germany from 1933 to 1945. His job was to only present favorable stories for a positive image of the regime and to spread hatred of the Jews. He used radio, literature, music, textbooks, printed posters/newspapers and theater to display the propaganda. He too was responsible for burning books… beginning to sound familiar?

Media and Marxist activist groups in the United States are all pounding the same drumbeat that is pro-socialism, applies to parts of stories and is intent on holding others accountable that don’t fit the agenda.

Can you count the ways this is done using the methods and media outlets like the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and those pesky websites like Media Matters?

Well, when Reuters reports on Reuters… take notice. Senator Cruz took notice.

So, the Reuters backstory goes like this… even their summary is lacking but try it on for size anyway.

(When Reuters held the story, obviously people still had not read it when they did publish it as Beto was able to raise $6.1 million in the first 24 hours of his campaign announcement. He beat Bernie and all the other 2020 contenders…..sigh.)

Maybe it is just cool to campaign on a restaurant counter.

Or to skateboard onto a stage.

Presidential?

(Reuters) – Reuters reporter Joseph Menn exclusively revealed on Friday that Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke belonged to one of the best-known groups of computer hackers as a teenager.

Within minutes, his special report was the most popular story on Reuters.com here and was picked up by other news outlets. But the origin of the story goes back more than two years.

Members of the group, which calls itself Cult of the Dead Cow, protected O’Rourke’s secret for decades, reluctant to compromise the former Texas Congressman’s political career.

After more than a year of reporting, Menn persuaded O’Rourke to talk on the record. In an interview in late 2017, O’Rourke acknowledged that he was a member of the group, on the understanding that the information would not be made public until after his Senate race against Ted Cruz in November 2018.

Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, 46, speaks with supporters during a three-day road trip across Iowa, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Ben Brewer

In an interview with Reuters senior producer Jane Lee, Menn explains how he broke the story and got O’Rourke to open up about his hacking days.

“I decided to write a book about the Cult of the Dead Cow because they were the most interesting and influential hacking group in history. They illustrated a lot of the things that I think are fascinating about hacking and security work. Focus on Trump’s speech after [his] attack on Muslims.

“While I was looking into the Cult of the Dead Cow, I found out that they had a member who was sitting in Congress. I didn’t know which one. But I knew that they had a member of Congress.

“And then I figured out which one it was. And the members of the group wouldn’t talk to me about who it was. They wouldn’t confirm that it was this person unless I promised that I wouldn’t write about it until after the November election. That’s because the member of Congress had decided to run for Senate. Beto O’Rourke is who it was.

“I met Beto O’Rourke. I said ‘I’m writing a book about Cult of the Dead Cow, I think it’s really interesting. I know you were in this group. This book is going to publish after November and your Senate race is over. And he said, ‘OK.’

“And he told me about his time in the Cult of the Dead Cow.”

Menn explains more about the story on Twitter @josephmenn twitter.com/josephmenn

03/19/19

Where Did Some Of Venezuela’s Gold Show Up?

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

Uganda?

Remember that Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, is a virtual puppet of Cuba. Going back years, during the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, Chavez hosted President Yoweri Museveni, then president of Uganda. Cuba was known over the years to give scholarships to Ugandans. The relationship is long and deep.

Then as recently as February of 2019, the Kampala is allegedly investigating that top Venezuelan politicians are using Ugandan passports to smuggle key people out of Venezuela into China and possibly other countries that stand with the Maduro regime.

Further, Venezuela attempted to remove some of its gold reserves parked in Britain, worth an estimated $1.2 billion but were denied at the behest of the United States. The 8 tons gold residing in Venezuela was in fact removed this past February to an unknown location. However, in 2018, at least 23 tonnes of mined gold was transported from Venezuela to Turkey by plane.

Maduro is attempting to sell gold on the international market to pay for basic needs for his country’s elite. Last February, an Abu Dhabi company known as Noor Capital bought 3 tons of Venezuelan gold. Since oil production in Venezuela has dropped significantly and sales on the global market have dropped, gold is the next avenue to generate immediate funds.

Venezuela Gold Reserves

China and Russia are looking for exclusive oil deals from Venezuela due to the US sanctions. In fact, PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil operation is opening an office in Russia.

Ugandan authorities are investigating unexplained imports of 7.4 tonnes of gold worth US$300 million that is suspected of originating with President Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.

Refinery (AGR), the country’s largest refinery, Reuters reported on Wednesday. AGR confirmed that the gold arrived from South America but rejected claims of smuggling.

“All our transactions are legal and well documented,” the company said in a statement to OCCRP, dismissing the allegations as “fake news.”
Fred Enanga, a spokesman for Uganda’s police, told Reuters that AGR received two shipments of 3.8 and 3.6 tonnes at the beginning of March however neither passed through official customs entry points.

Police raided AGR premises on March 7 but found the lighter batch had disappeared.

Flights this month from Caracas to Entebbe have raised suspicions that Nicolas Maduro’s government is smuggling gold out of the country and selling it to traders in Africa and the Middle East in an attempt to prop up its sanctions-hit economy.

An airline source told The Times that a European charter company was contracted to fly four tonnes of gold from Caracas to Entebbe early this year.

The Venezuelan opposition previously claimed a jet owned by Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza transported gold to Greece. Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s prime minister, is one of the few European leaders still supporting Maduro.

Venezuela’s ambassador to Greece, Freddy Fernández, denied the reports.

“It is foolish to believe that the Venezuelan foreign minister himself was taking the gold out of the country. The story is part of a concerted attack against our country,” he told the Greek news outlet Efimerida ton Syntakton.

Investigators are looking to establish where the gold came from, who owns it and how it was shipped into the country, he said.

Uganda has become a regional smuggling hub for gold with corruption and widespread mismanagement proving profitable for officials and international investors, a report from Global Witness claims.

AGR was accused of facilitating gold smuggling from conflict regions in the Democratic Republic of Congo in an investigation by The Sentry, an African financial investigations organization co-founded by actor George Clooney.

AGR Chief Executive Officer, Alain Goetz denied the accusations, calling it “yet another pathetic attempt to destroy the much-needed reforms and changes needed in the African gold industry.”

03/19/19

Will Hedge Funds Reinvent Themselves?

By: Kent Engelke | Capitol Securities

A hedge fund pioneer whose quantitative models became the basis for today’s algorithmic trading models is on the verge of throwing in the towel.  David Harding is credited with pioneering the quantitative models in the mid-1980s, models that are now greatly replicated and are failing miserably because of the popularity of trend-following and risk-based parity models. 

Harding commented that he now has to “reinvent himself” given the “perceived efficiency of computers that systematically buy and sell according to programmed instructions,” trading on information that is perhaps nothing but noise.

Many market luminaries have commented about the impact of high-speed computer-based trading that has destroyed historical benchmarks, creating a false sense of liquidity.

Over the past three years, a record number of hedge funds have closed while capitalization-based passive ETFs have flourished. To put it differently, the best and brightest minds in finance are going out of business while the passive no-brainer investment funds focusing almost entirely on capitalization are doing great. 

Wow!  Talk about an imbalance. Will this massively overcrowded strategy follow the same path as hedge funds? If history is a guide, the answer is yes. A basic premise to this strategy—if you can call passive buying a strategy—is to find more people to buy more of the same over-owned companies. Sometime the buyers will exhaust themselves or conditions will change.

The greatest investors have been big picture people, focusing on the substance of geopolitics and macroeconomic research versus thoughtless style.

Many are focused on today’s commencement of the two-day FOMC meeting. As widely known, the Central Bank radically changed direction on January 8th adopting a “patient” outlook regarding monetary policy following a tumultuous December. Two weeks earlier, the Fed was focused upon a more active monetary policy including increasing bond sales.

No change is expected but I am certain every word will be parsed. 

I continue to argue that growth will continue to surprise on the upside, strength that may again alter monetary policy expectations.

Markets were quiet relatively quiet yesterday. Will the calm extend into today?

Last night the foreign markets were up. London was up 0.59%,  Paris was up 0.50% and Frankfurt was up 0.87%. China was down 0.18%, Japan was down 0.08% and Hang Sang was up 0.19%.

The Dow should open nominally higher awaiting numerous central bank announcements. The 10-year is unchanged at 2.60%.

03/19/19

Facing hard truths: Are you unwittingly funding the leftist takeover of America?

By: Leo Hohmann

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at opening session of the 116th Congress. Photo credit: SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

One week ago, I posted a speech I gave to a group of Georgia Republicans on “Knowing Your Enemy: The Red-Green Axis of Evil shows its Face in Washington.”

The response has been overwhelming. As a result, I am going to offer a special opportunity to learn more about the Marxist game-plan, which you can read about at the end of this article.

My speech to the Georgia Republicans addressed the growing alliance between the Islamic supremacists and the neo-Marxist thought leaders embedded in our media, our universities and our political-legal structures. This alliance is on the move both in America and across the globe. Its proponents include hugely recognizable names like Pope Francis and George Soros, a new breed of socialist politicians like Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Andrew Gillum of Florida, and congresswomen Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

These politicians typically read from scripts handed to them by their handlers and are very well spoken as long as they don’t get caught going “off script.” They are plugged into a lucrative money pipeline continuously refueled with cash by elites like San Francisco lawyer Steve Phillips, who married into the billionaire family of Susan Sandler; the Soros clan; billionaire hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer; just to name a few. Canada’s Justin Trudeau and the UK’s Jeremy Corbin are also on this same team of global Marxists seeking to transform their once-free nations into something more authoritarian, where free expression is taken off the table for anyone who doesn’t agree with their globalist agenda that punishes America and Israel at every opportunity.

For more on how the money pipeline works, researcher Trevor Loudon has already done the heavy lifting for us in his excellent article published by the Epoch Times.

Many of you have contacted me, shocked, and asked what we can do to stop this race toward socialism, which we know will accelerate as soon as the Democrats win back the White House. And they will win if we continue to ignore the biggest elephant in the room — our lack of funding and the utter dominance of the mainstream media by the left. When that day comes, it will be open season on anyone who dares to speak up on behalf of the Judeo-Christian values that undergird our Constitution. In short, our Constitution itself is in danger of being gutted.

What can we do about it?

So my answer to these inquirers who ask, “What can we do?” is this: Spread the word about writers/researchers like myself and Trevor Loudon, who dish out the real news and expose the fakes. But don’t stop there. We must follow the money!

If you follow the trail of greenbacks, you will find out that most of the money flow to the armies of left-wing worker-bees battling in the trenches for a socialist America starts in the places you would least expect—in conservative families, in the churches, in iconic American institutions that we believe, or want to believe, are still pure.

I know it sounds shocking, but let me repeat what I just said: Much of the money that is flowing into the coffers of evil organizations like Planned Parenthood, the anti-gun lobby, and far-left community organizing groups, originates from the pocketbooks of regular, patriotic, God-fearing Americans.

The problem is that the left, while our parents and grandparents slept, quietly hijacked almost every cultural institution in our country. Once purely American groups like the Girl Scouts, the AARP, the Chamber of Commerce and some of the largest church denominations have all been flipped in recent years to the point where they are on board with the insane policies of open borders, abortion, special privileges for an ever-increasing cadre of sub-groups claiming to be victims, and socialism under the guise of “sustainable development” or as recently rebranded, the “green new deal.”

  • The AARP, with an annual budget of $1.5 billion, supports liberal causes too numerous to mention. It put its considerable clout behind Obamacare and the socialization of our medical system. Are you an older American looking for an alternative? I have good news: There are now at least half a dozen alternatives, some of which advocate for conservative causes!
  • Do you buy Girl Scout cookies? As adorable as those little girls outside Wal-Mart may be, you might want to reconsider. This is not the same iconic, all-American organization you grew up with. The Girl Scouts provide support to Planned Parenthood, which is quite likely the most evil organization on the planet, actually profiting off the sale of the dismembered body parts of aborted babies.
  • Are you paying the tuition bill for your child to attend a university just because you went to that university back when it actually believed in free speech and intellectual honesty? Now, there’s a good bet that same university’s version of free speech excludes the conservative point of view, so why support it?
  • What about Hollywood? Most of the directors, producers, and actors loathe us and our “old-fashioned” values. We enrich them. They turn around and use their riches to donate generously to Democrat political campaigns. Stop buying tickets to their movies!
  • If you believe there’s a better way to help Third World refugees than permanently resettling them into the United States, then don’t buy your yogurt from Chobani, which is a big supporter of the refugee resettlements, staffing roughly 30 percent of its U.S. plants with refugee labor.
  • Leftist universities gobble up billions every year from conservative American families, who send them their money and their kids, who get indoctrinated in leftist politics and anti-Israel Jew-hatred. Let’s not kid ourselves: ALL public universities are leftist universities. I repeat: ALL OF THEM are leftist, and they’ve been fleecing God’s people on a daily basis for decades. Send your kid to a private Christian college and if they prefer a leftist public institution, let them foot the bill themselves!

We also bear the responsibility to ask where our church tithes and offerings are going. Typically, a percentage of all these donations get sent back to the denominational headquarters. It’s time to start asking questions about where some of that money ends up. You might be surprised.

  • The Catholic Church has been funding Saul Alinsky-aligned community organizations since the 1970s. For a brief history of the atheist Alinsky’s infiltration of the Catholic Church in America, I recommend the documentary A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.
  • Once good and noble Protestant organizations like World Relief are now more involved in left-wing politics than actual missionary activities.
  • What about Amazon, owned by leftist billionaire Jeff Bezos. Amazon has wiped out much of its competition, but often we can find other alternatives for the products we buy. Even if you have to spend a few dollars more to do business with the little guy, you’ll have the satisfaction of not contributing to Bezos’ many horrific business and philanthropic ventures, including the propaganda organ known as the Washington Post, which Bezos purchased a few years back and now uses to bash conservatives with fake news like the hit pieces it did on the Covington Catholic boys.
  • Then there’s Starbucks, that powerhouse of caffeinated beverages run by leftist CEO Howard Schultz, who is thinking of running for president. There are tons of coffeehouses. Find one that won’t put more money into left-wing causes and candidates.
  • Instead of using Google, which tracks your searches and helps China crack down on its Christian population, use DuckDuckgo.com, which doesn’t store your data, doesn’t sell it to advertisers, doesn’t work with communist dictatorships, and doesn’t discriminate against conservative websites in your searches! It is far superior to Google and doesn’t cost a thing!

The left has been voting with its dollars for years. They avoid conservative establishments like Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby while dragging their names through the mud. That’s because they are serious about their agenda and want to see it take over. Conservatives need to get in the game and also watch where their dollars are going.

The end game is to destabilize Western democracies by driving a wedge between different people groups that make up nations. Like the Nazis and the Bolsheviks before them, these radical globalists hate the idea of nationhood and the very humanity that makes up nations.

Upcoming opportunity to learn more

If you want to learn more about this trap being set for us and how not to fall for the deceptions, I invite you to tune in to a special series of free webinars in which I am honored to be a participant. From the comfort of your own home and broken up into four convenient time slots, you will learn about how this alliance is embedding itself into so many churches of almost all denominational backgrounds. We are calling it “The Enemy Within” and this enemy will increasingly be targeting and blaming you, the remnant faithful Christians and Jews, for all the world’s problems. So we’d better get prepared.

You can register here to attend all four webinars in March and April.

The problem, you see, is that one side in the culture wars is deadly serious and puts its money where its mouth is. The other side, our side, mostly talks a good game while handing money to the enemy. It’s time to put on your battle gear, the full armor of Christ as St. Paul said, and get in the game.

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Leo Hohmann is a freelance writer and journalist, author of the 2017 book “Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad.” He is working on a follow-up that will investigate the Interfaith movement, which is ushering false and antichrist ideas into Western churches. If you would like to support this project, please consider a donation of any size.