02/25/20

Operation Mega Flex

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

From July to September last year, Customs and Border Patrol in that 3-month period seized 1061 shipments of counterfeit goods at our cargo ports of entry. Items from Louis Vuitton bags to sports equipment with faulty parts. Other items included children’s toys, drug paraphernalia, deadly opioids, and really scary were (are) counterfeit drivers’ licenses. Recreational drugs, clothing, jewelry, and even food and nutritional items (may contain toxins) are part of the counterfeit items affecting likely every American and business.

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Unlike legitimate drug manufacturers that are subject to inspections by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, labs that manufacture counterfeits have no such oversight. According to a 2019 Better Business Bureau study, “companies based in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and India shipped 97 percent of the counterfeit medicines seized in the U.S.” In March 2019, Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, seized 13 million doses of counterfeit medicine ranging from opioids to heart medication. Europol noted that this type of counterfeiting is on the rise due to the relatively low risk of criminal detection.

Check out those items in retail operations of all sorts and locations and what you purchase in the e-commerce realm, not from the street vendor at the corner and when purchasing books, movies or music, you could be in real trouble for a transaction that violates copyright-protected work.

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Watches and jewelry follow at 13 percent of total seizures. During the Mega Flex operation on August 21, 2019, for example, CBP officers seized counterfeit Rolex watches valued at over $1.4 million. Handbags and wallets represented nearly 11 percent of all seizures, including counterfeits of luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, and Gucci. Consumer electronics represented 10 percent of seizures, including products such as iPhones, hoverboards, earbuds, microchips, and others. Pharmaceuticals and personal care items account for only 7 percent of total seizures. However, as discussed in the next section, many of the products in these categories pose significant dangers to the consumer. Fake prescription drugs can lack active ingredients, contain incorrect dosages, or include dangerous additives. Fake personal care items such as cosmetics have been found to contain everything from harmful bacteria to human waste. Between 2017 and 2018, CBP and ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized over $31 million in fake perfumes from China.

Law enforcement officials have uncovered intricate links between the sale of counterfeit goods and transnational organized crime. A study by the Better Business Bureau notes that the financial operations supporting counterfeit goods typically require central coordination, making these activities attractive for organized crime, with groups such as the Mafia and the Japanese Yakuza heavily involved. Criminal organizations use coerced and child labor to manufacture and sell counterfeit goods. In some cases, the proceeds from counterfeit sales may be supporting terrorism and dictatorships throughout the world.

In FY 2018, 12 percent of DHS seizures included counterfeit versions of critical technological components, automotive and aerospace parts, batteries, and machinery. Each of these industrial sectors have been identified as critical to the defense industrial base, and thus critical to national security. One example drawn from a 2018 study by the Bureau of Industry and Security within the Department of Commerce featured the import of counterfeit semiconductors or “Trojan chips” for use in defense manufacturing and operations. Such Trojan chips can carry viruses or malware that infiltrate and weaken American national security. The problem of counterfeit chips has become so pervasive that the Department of Defense has referred to it as an “invasion.” Companies from China are the primary producers of counterfeit electronics.

According to a 2019 report, Instagram and Counterfeiting, nearly 20 percent of the posts analyzed about fashion products on Instagram featured counterfeit or illicit products. More than 50,000 Instagram accounts were identified as promoting and selling counterfeits, a 171 percent increase from a prior 2016 analysis. Instagram’s Story feature, where content disappears in twenty-four hours, was singled out as particularly effective for counterfeit sellers.

For the full report, go here.

02/25/20

Fight the Corona virus by Defunding the United Nations

By: Cliff Kincaid

A left-wing businessman who claimed in 2017 that President Trump isn’t pro-anything except “essentially white nationalism” was on business channel CNBC on Tuesday trying to assign partial blame for the spread of the coronavirus to President Trump. Such absurd charges increase panic, leading to a possible economic recession. This may be the Democrats’ only hope to defeat Trump and elect a socialist or a left-wing billionaire.

What we know is that Trump is being blamed for a dangerous disease that came out of China that a pro-China United Nations bureaucracy failed to take seriously enough.

The United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) was first alerted to the patients in China with the virus on December 31, 2019. But it took weeks before any action was taken, until the end of January 2020, a delay which led some public health experts to assert that the U.N. bureaucracy was far too “deferential” to China. That has clearly been the case.

Without taking China off the hook entirely, the CNBC guest asserted, without evidence, that Trump had dismantled the global health disease infrastructure. Nobody discussed the pathetic response of the U.N. bureaucracy, the World Health Organization (WHO), and how China mishandled the outbreak and silenced whistleblowers.

As the disease spreads to more victims, causing suffering and death, the U.N. bureaucracy continues to use political correctness as a response. “We must be guided by solidarity, not stigma,” the director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Saturday. “The greatest enemy we face is not the virus itself; it’s the stigma that turns us against each other.”

He wants to maintain “solidarity” with China rather than hold its communist rulers responsible for what is shaping up as a crime against humanity.

At this point, the possibility that the virus may have originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, cannot be ruled out. Chinese government claims about the virus originating in a food market can’t be accepted at face value.

A review of the official records reveals that the blame for any lackluster response lies with China and the World Health Organization. On January 22, an emergency committee of the WHO did not declare the coronavirus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). According to the official notes, “the members of the Emergency Committee expressed divergent views on whether this event constitutes a PHEIC or not.”  The committee failed to confront China and said it “welcomed the efforts made by China to investigate and contain the current outbreak.”

It soon became apparent that China was lying or engaged in a cover-up.  Its Communist rulers were afraid of the economic cost and consequences of revealing the truth and didn’t want to look incompetent in the eyes of the world. They thought that last-minute tough measures, including rounding up disease carriers, would impress people.

Not waiting for China to come clean, the White House had announced on January 29 the formation of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force, which is meeting on a daily basis.  It wasn’t until January 30, after China released new information about the spread of the disease, that the WHO declared the virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. But the group said the declaration “should be seen in the spirit of support and appreciation for China, its people, and the actions China has taken on the frontlines of this outbreak, with transparency, and, it is to be hoped, with success.” This statement went on, “In line with the need for global solidarity, the Committee felt that a global coordinated effort is needed to enhance preparedness in other regions of the world that may need additional support for that.”

One day later, on January 31, 2020, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II declared coronavirus a public health emergency (PHE) for the United States. A press briefing was held on January 31.

After its initial unsatisfactory response, a WHO emergency committee acknowledged that “it is still possible to interrupt virus spread, provided that countries put in place strong measures to detect disease early, isolate and treat cases, trace contacts, and promote social distancing measures commensurate with the risk.”

So-called “social distancing measures” include restricting the entry into the United States of foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the coronavirus. That’s what Trump did. In fact, the CDC notes that the U.S. government has taken “unprecedented steps with respect to travel in response to the growing public health threat…”

But if the WHO had acted sooner, more people could have been spared, and a global pandemic might have been avoided. The number of cases has surpassed 80,000 in 37 countries.

Those who hate Trump and love China want to ignore the possibility that the virus could be a man-made weapon or leaked from a laboratory. But the Trump Administration is prepared. Trump in 2018 signed the National Biodefense Strategy, drawing on lessons learned from biological incidents that include the 2001 anthrax attacks, the 2009 influenza pandemic, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, the 2014 West Africa Ebola epidemic, and the Zika virus outbreak.

In truth, the post-9/11 anthrax attacks were blamed on an American scientist when the evidence suggests a plot by al Qaeda involving the theft of killer bacteria from a U.S. weapons lab. Russia-gate prosecutor Robert S. Mueller, the then-FBI director, was part of a sophisticated cover-up.

The Trump Administration document declares, “Multiple nations have pursued clandestine biological weapons programs and a number of terrorist groups have sought to acquire biological weapons. In many countries around the world, pathogens are stored in laboratories that lack appropriate biosecurity measures where they could be diverted by actors who wish to do harm.”

Dr. Tedros, the former Minister of Health in Ethiopia now running the WHO, says, “We need a WHO that is efficiently managed, adequately resourced and results-driven, with a strong focus on transparency, accountability, and value for money.” We now have evidence that the money being spent on the WHO should be redirected into American agencies, including the Pentagon. The additional money requested by the Trump Administration for this crisis should be taken out of the U.N. budget.

The WHO failed to respond quickly and properly to the epidemic. Perhaps, as a matter of social justice, the WHO headquarters ought to be relocated to the coronavirus epicenter of Wuhan City, China. Let’s see if that gets them moving more quickly to save their jobs.

Unless the Trump Administration makes a clean break with the U.N. over this developing scandal, we can anticipate a proposal for a global tax to finance the “global health infrastructure” that the Trump critics claim he has decimated. It turns out that Dr. Tedros was a member of the “High-Level Task Force for Innovative Financing for Health Systems,” a group that recommended global taxes for the U.N. They call them “solidarity levies” on airline tickets, tobacco, and currency transactions. They probably want some of the money “in solidarity” to go to China.

Expect more hysteria that is designed to divert our attention from the source of the disease – Communist China. Trump’s critics don’t want lives saved; they want lives destroyed.

*Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. www.usasurvival.org

02/25/20

Bernie Sanders’ Communist Party ‘Flirtation’

By: Trevor Loudon | Epoch Times

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a news conference in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2020. (David McNew/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump says that he thinks presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is a communist. Bernie Sanders says he isn’t. The head of the Communist Party USA, Joe Sims, agrees with Sanders. After studying Sanders for more than a decade now, I agree with President Trump.

Bernie Sanders is a creature of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). They’ve funded and manned his election campaigns. They’ve propagandized for him and supported him for well over 30 years now. Sanders would be nothing without the DSA. And they’re definitely small “c” communists.

But what about big “C” communists. The Communist Party USA, for example?

While the DSA is Sanders’ greatest love, he has also occasionally flirted with the DSA’s best friends in the Communist Party. Aside from a little jealousy, there was no great conflict here. The two organizations have collaborated for decades and share some cross-membership. Their policy positions are almost identical. The DSA’s more innocuous name does, however, make it a little easier to work inside churches, the Democratic Party, and other organizations.

Even as a student in Chicago in the early 1960s, Sanders worked for a time for the Communist Party-controlled United Packinghouse Workers Union.

Sanders’ communist flirtation got a little more serious in the late 1980s.

A notice was placed in the Maoist-leaning newspaper the Guardian (NY) on Nov. 8, 1989, concerning an upcoming U.S. Peace Council 10th anniversary national conference. The U.S. Peace Council was a front for the Communist Party USA and an affiliate of the Soviet-controlled World Peace Council.

Mayor Sanders addressed the event, as did long-time Communist Party ally Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), former Communist Party leader Jack O’Dell of the Rainbow Coalition, Zehdi Terzi of the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization, and Gunther Drefahl of the communist East German Peace Council.

Sanders was hobnobbing here with some of the most-dangerous communists on the planet. Little wonder that the FBI was keeping tabs on him when he served as mayor of Burlington.

H.R. 950, the Job Creation and Infrastructure Restoration Act of 1997, was introduced in the 105th Congress on March 5, 1997, by congressman Matthew Martinez of California. It had 33 original co-sponsors, including Sanders.

According to the New York State Communist Party:

“The primary purpose of this emergency federal jobs legislation was to provide much-needed jobs at union wages to crisis-ridden cities by putting the unemployed to work rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure (schools, housing, hospitals, libraries, public transportation, highways, parks, environmental improvements, etc[)]. $250 billion is authorized for emergency public works jobs over a five year period.”

The Communist Party USA unsuccessfully promoted versions of this “funnel money to the unions” bill for some years. All the major groups promoting it, such as the National Labor Coalition For Public Works Jobs and the New York Coalition for Public Works Jobs, were led by Communist Party members such as Bill Davis of New York.

In 2010, John Case wrote about his personal experiences with Sanders while serving as a Communist Party district organizer in New England. The article in the Communist Party’s Political Affairs was entitled “Sanders for President?”:

“There are few, if any, politicians on the left, more shrewd than Bernie Sanders. … I got to know him somewhat in my years as a UE rep in Vt, and later as DO for the Communist Party in N. New England. With a few arguable exceptions, he has always — both ideologically and politically — pursued a working-class line.

“As important, he become a demonstrated master of very concrete tactics directed at isolating the right, without appearing irresponsible or reckless to center forces. He kept focused on the concretes — especially economics, and non-corrupt governance — that blunted repeated attempts by the right to isolate him.”

In April 2015, just a weekend away from Election Day in Chicago’s mayoral and city council races, Sen. Sanders came to Chicago to speak in support of Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, the far-left’s candidate against incumbent Mayor Rahm Emmanuel.

In front of a crowd of 700 gathered on Chicago’s far southeast side, Sen. Sanders and district Steelworker retiree leader Scott Marshall fired up the voters for their friend Garcia.

“Chuy” Garcia had a 40-year history with the Chicago Communist Party. Marshall was head of the Communist Party Labor Commission.

According to a report of the event in the Communist Party’s People’s World:

“U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders elaborated on the theme of building a people’s movement. ‘What we are doing is not just to make the 10th ward better,’ he said, ‘but demonstrating when people stand together there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.’

“Then he laid out what looked to the enthusiastic crowd a lot like a platform for the 2016 presidential race.

“‘We’re gonna ask the richest people — billionaires and corporations — to start paying their fair share,’ he said right off the bat. Next, he spoke of putting millions to work at green and living wage jobs by ‘investing in the crumbling infrastructure’ and creating energy systems that cut carbons. He advocated free tuition in public colleges and universities, Medicare for All, raising Social Security benefits, overturning Citizens United and public funding for elections. …

“‘Change is in the air,’ observed steelworker retiree [Scott] Marshall. ‘A powerful movement, led by labor, is being born.’”

Garcia lost the mayoralty race but was later elected to Congress in 2018, where he proudly serves in the Bernie Sanders’ initiated Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In a Jan. 24, 2018, article on the Communist Party USA website, party leader John Bachtell explained his members’ involvement in the 2016 and 2018 election campaigns:

“Members were involved with Bernie Sanders campaign and are continuing their activism in Our Revolution, Swing Left, Indivisible, Working Families Party, statewide groups like the New Virginia Majority and local Democratic Party groups and 2018 electoral campaigns.”

The Communist Party USA appears to be at least equally involved in Sanders 2020 campaign.

In December 2019, Ohio Communist Party leader Rick Nagin wrote in the People’s World:

“Defeating Trump and the ultra-right in 2020 means moving the electorate to the left. The most effective force doing that is the Sanders campaign, which we should become fully immersed in.”

Communist Party Chairman Joe Sims may not consider Sanders a communist, but it seems like most of the rest of the party considers him a worthy comrade.

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. He is the author of a soon-to-be-published book “White House Red: Communist, Socialists, and Security Risks Running for U.S. President, 2020.”