Monday, November 09, 2020

Trump plans to hold rallies to lead his followers in a legal war to stop Biden from taking office: report

November 8, 2020
President Donald Trump speaks at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. 
(StratosBril / Shutterstock.com)

President Donald Trump is taking his show on the road in his administration’s final days, attempting to get his supporters to follow him into the war against President-elect Joe Biden taking office.

Axios reported Sunday that the president’s team will publish obituaries they say of people who allegedly voted in the 2020 election, despite being dead. While Trump may find a few examples of questionable votes or fraudulent behavior, he won’t find enough to nullify the election. He’ll then take the illegal ballots to campaign-style rallies.

Trump’s team hasn’t been able to justify their claims that the election was a fraud, thus far, but they are apparently working to find examples.

“Team Trump is ready to announce specific recount teams in key states, and it plans to hold a series of Trump rallies focused on the litigation,” said Axios.

“We want to make sure we have an adequate supply of manpower on the ground for man-to-man combat,” an adviser told Axios.

They’re also creating a campaign-style media-operation, the report said.

It will pump out “regular press briefings, releases on legal action and obviously things like talking points and booking people strategically on television,” an adviser explained.

They’ll do a big push for money for the legal defense, but the reality is that the majority of the money is being spent to retire Trump’s debt.

“Reps. Jim Jordan and Scott Perry, as well as former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, are also heavily involved,” in the legal defense, said Axios. They’ll coordinate heavily with the White House team, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“We all have the same goal in mind, which is using the legal process over the next many days and weeks ahead to make sure that the president is re-elected,” an adviser said.

It may take a lot of support from his team, however, as the past several days revealed the president is very sad and his allies have begged supporters to show up with flags and signs to make him feel better.

Read the full Axios report.

Trump World clings to conspiracy theory from ‘hoax artist’ that secret supercomputer changed votes

Published on November 8, 2020
By Sarah K. Burris RAW STORY

Steve Bannon (Photo: Screen capture)

Supporters of President Donald Trump have discovered a new conspiracy theory they are grabbing onto as a means of justifying why they think the 2020 election was “rigged.”


The Daily Beast reported Sunday that a “deep-state supercomputer named ‘Hammer’ and a computer program named ‘Scorecard’ were used to change the ballot count”

While the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that the claim was “nonsense,” Trump World conspiracy theories don’t typically recognize the authority of the American intelligence world, considering it part of the “deep state” that would have ushered in the conspiracy against Trump.

Thus far, ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon, ex-NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik, ex-Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, right-wing firebrand John Cardillo, and Newsmax’s Emerald Robinson have all latched onto the conspiracy theory.

According to the scheme, a former intelligence contractor (and self-proclaimed whistleblower) named Dennis Montgomery said that the computer and program were used to change votes.

“He’s a genius, and he loves America,” said birther movement leader Thomas McInerney, during Bannon’s podcast. “He’s the programmer that made all this happen, and he’s on our side.”

It’s unclear why a self-proclaimed Trump supporter would confess to using such a supercomputer to change votes for Biden, but Mr. Montgomery hasn’t addressed the media. He has retained right-wing lawyer Larry Klayman, who previously worked for George Zimmerman, Jerome Corsi and the Bundy family.

“To be clear, Larry Klayman is a moron. He has never won a case in court in his life,” Roger Stone said in 2017. “He is a lightweight. He is a legal know-nothing.”

Klayman was suspended from practicing law for 90 days in June.

“What Trump allies tend to leave out, however, is that Montgomery has a long history of making outlandish claims that fail to come true,” reported the Beast. “As an intelligence contractor at the height of the War on Terror, Montgomery was behind what’s been called ‘one of the most elaborate and dangerous hoaxes in American history,’ churning out allegedly fictitious data that once prompted the Bush administration to consider shooting down airplanes.”

Michael Flynn’s lawyer Sidney Powell is on board with the conspiracy as well, saying Friday to Lou Dobbs on Fox Business that things “need to be investigated,” including the conspiracy that “three percent of the vote total was changed.” She repeated the conspiracy theory on Fox News without a fact-check from the host.

After 9/11 Montgomery was given $20 million by the U.S. government for a program he said would detect messages to al Queda sleeper cells in broadcasts from Qatar’s al Jazeera. Dec. 2003, Montgomery said that he detected al Queda hijackers ready to hijack plans from Europe and Mexico into the U.S. Flights were blocked and the George W. Bush White House even thought about shooting down planes. None of it was real. It ultimately became known as the greatest hoax in American history.

In 2013 he resurfaced as a friend of disgraced former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He told Arpaio that his computer program “Hammer” could prove that a federal judge was colluding against him with former President Barack Obama’s Justice Department. Montgomery was last heard of when he was facing charges from Nevada for writing bad checks to casinos totaling about $1.8 million.

Read the full report from the Daily Beast.

REMINDS ME OF THIS CLASSIC

Billion Dollar Brain (1967) HD Trailer

It's Harry Palmer's Wits Against The World's Deadliest Mind! Secret agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine, Get Carter) is blackmailed into working for MI5 again on his wildest - and most dangerous - assignment yet. An insane oil billionaire, intent on destroying Communism by starting a new world war, is close to achieving his goal with the help of the world's largest, and most powerful, computer. Harry is the only man who may be able to stop him; but as he races from London to Finland to Latvia to Texas and back, he must determine who of his supposed allies is the one he can actually trust, a sexy Russian agent, Soviet colonel or an American mercenary. Legendary filmmaker Ken Russell (Altered States) directed this third and final film in the great Harry Palmer series. The wonderful supporting cast includes Karl Malden, Ed Begley and Francoise

Dr. Jill Biden to become the only first first lady in history to work outside the White House: report

November 8, 2020
By Sarah Toce
Dr. Jill Biden (Photo: By Crush Rush/Shutterstock)

Dr. Jill Biden, a full-time English professor at Northern Virginia Community College, will become the first presidential spouse to commute from her job at the White House to another full-time day job where she has taught for 10 years.

“If we get to the White House, I’m gonna continue to teach,” Dr. Biden said this past August on CBS Sunday Morning. “It’s important, and I want people to value teachers and know their contributions, and lift up the profession.”

President-elect Joe Biden’s acceptance speech alluded to his wife’s dedication to education. “For America’s educators, this is a great day: You’re going to have one of your own in the White House,” he said.

A spokesperson for the future first lady, Michael LaRosa, confirmed the news on Sunday.


“Dr. Biden is focused on building her team and developing her priorities focused on education, military families and veterans, and cancer,” Mr. LaRosa said.

Televangelist (MANICALLY) laughs off Joe Biden winning the presidential election, and it’s all very uncomfortable

    Kenneth Copeland

     @RIGHTWINGWATCH VIA TWITTER

    This just might put the fear of God in you.

    Kenneth Copeland, a televangelist and devoted Donald Trump backer, let his feelings about the results of the presidential election be known in a most bizarre way during one of his prayer services.

    Two words pretty much sum it up: Ha ha.

    Social media ate it up, with the clip being viewed more than 5 million times. George Takei, of “Star Trek” fame, captured the gist of the reaction on Twitter TWTR, -1.35% :

    This isn’t the first time Copeland’s made a splash on the internet.

    Last year, he was confronted by an “Inside Edition” reporter over his use of donations to fund his private jet. He previously said he couldn’t fly commercial because “You can’t manage that today, in this dope-filled world, get in a long tube with a bunch of demons.”

    Here’s the full interview from last year:



    Thai Police Block Protesters Seeking Royal Reforms
    ASIA & PACIFIC Reuters Nov 8, 2020
    Anti-government protesters attend a mass rally to call for the ouster of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's government and reforms in the monarchy in Bangkok, Thailand, on Nov. 8, 2020. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

    \BANGKOK—Despite a burst of water cannon and a police blockade, thousands of Thai protesters marched to the Grand Palace in Bangkok on Sunday to demand curbs to King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s powers and the removal of the government.

    Police used the water cannon for only the second time in months of largely peaceful protests to demand greater democracy and the departure of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader.

    “When the king truly cherishes democracy, all people will find happiness,” the protesters said in a statement read a few dozen yards for the walls of the palace, where they were stopped by police lines.

    “When you hear all the flattering praise from the people, you must also hear fearless criticisms and suggestions all the same,” said the statement, signed “with power of equal human dignity” by “people.”

    The Royal Palace was not available for comment. It has not commented since the start of the protests.

    But the king said a week ago that the protesters were still loved and that Thailand was a land of compromise, as he greeted thousands of well-wishers near the very spot that the demonstrators reached on Sunday
    .
    Anti-government protesters attend a mass rally to call for the ouster of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s government and reforms in the monarchy in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 8, 2020. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

    Reuters journalists estimated more than 10,000 protesters marched from Democracy Monument in central Bangkok. Police put the number at 7,000.

    “Reform or revolution,” read one placard.

    Police spokesman Kissana Phathanacharoen said water cannon had been fired only as a warning. The Bangkok authority’s emergency unit said one police officer and four protesters were hurt during the brief confrontation outside the palace, where police had set a barricade of buses and barbed wire.

    “We no longer want the monarch to interfere in politics,” Jutatip Sirikhan, one of the protest leaders, told Reuters.

    ‘Please, King’


    One 25-year-old protester, who gave his name only as Keng, said “Please, king, please listen to the people. People are unhappy because you let the military have full power and approved their coups. We want the reform.”

    The protesters brought boxes stuffed with letters for the king and left them near the palace with police agreement.

    Protests since July have increasingly called for reforms to the powerful monarchy, breaking a long-standing taboo against criticizing the institution—which can be punished by up to 15 years in prison.

    The protesters say the monarchy has helped enable decades of military domination of Thailand, most recently by approving the premiership of Prayuth, who seized power in a 2014 coup and kept it after disputed elections last year.

    The protesters seek to put the king more clearly under the constitution, reversing changes he made shortly after taking the throne as well as moves he made to take personal control of the palace fortune and some army units.

    Several dozen royalists earlier held a counter-protest at Democracy Monument, wearing yellow shirts in the color of the king and waving Thai flags. Many held up pictures of the king and his late father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

    “I want to protect the monarchy and the king,” said Chutima Liamthong, 58. “The monarchy is the identity of Thailand. We cannot stand without the monarchy,” she said.

    Monarchists see the student-led protesters’ demands for reforms to the institution as a way of getting rid it of entirely, although protesters deny that is their goal.

    By Jiraporn Kuhakan and Patpicha Tanakasempipat
    Britain's GCHQ to wage cyber war on anti-vaccine propaganda: The Times

    (Reuters) - Britain’s GCHQ has begun an offensive cyber-operation to tackle anti-vaccine propaganda being spread online by hostile states, The Times reported.

    This latest move by GCHQ, which gathers communications from around the world to identify and disrupt threats to Britain, is an attempt to counter disinformation activities linked to Russia, the report said.

    The British government considers tackling false information about immunization as a high priority as the prospect of a reliable vaccine against the coronavirus draws closer, the Times said.

    A vaccine is seen as the world’s best bet for beating the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to more than 1.2 million deaths, roiled economies and disrupted billions of lives.

    GCHQ is Britain’s main eavesdropping agency and has a close relationship with the U.S. National Security Agency, as well as the eavesdropping agencies of Australia, Canada and New Zealand in an intelligence alliance known as the “Five Eyes”.

    “GCHQ has been told to take out antivaxers online and on social media,” the Times said, citing a source.

    The report said the focus of the operation is taking down hostile state-linked content and disrupting the communications of the cyberactors responsible.

    Reporting by Rebekah Mathew in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis

    GCHQ

    Intelligence and Security Organisation
    GCHQ
    Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelli…
    Bolsonaro's support falls in some of Brazil's main cities: polls










    SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s support has fallen in some of Brazil’s biggest cities, surveys said on Sunday, suggesting a previous bump may be short-lived as the country still grapples with a brutal coronavirus outbreak.

    Previous polls have seen the far-right former army captain’s support rise, despite what is widely seen as his poor handling of an epidemic that has now killed more than 160,000 Brazilians.

    Polls on Sunday suggested that support may be waning.

    According to a Datafolha poll, undertaken at the start of November and published in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, his support in Sao Paulo fell to 25% from 29%, while in Belo Horizonte it fell to 35% from 40%, compared with a previous poll taken Sept. 21-22. The margin of error was 3 percentage points, it said.

    In Recife and Rio de Janeiro, his support was more stable, the polls showed.

    Meanwhile, a separated compilation of data by pollster Ibope, collated by the G1 website, showed on Sunday that Bolsonaro’s support has fallen in seven state capitals.

    The largest drops in support occurred in the cities of Salvador and Rio Branco, in which Bolsonaro’s popularity fell by 7 percentage points.

    While Bolsonaro has been criticized by health experts for minimizing the severity of the coronavirus and opposing lockdowns in order to keep the economy going, his popularity has been bolstered by a 322 billion reais ($58 billion) payments program, analysts say.
    Prayers of gratitude for election of 'daughter of India' Harris as U.S. Vice President



    ]







    By Sudarshan Varadhan

    CHENNAI, India (Reuters) - Indians burst firecrackers on Sunday and offered prayers of gratitude over the election of Kamala Harris as the next U.S. vice president, declaring it a proud moment for Indian-Americans.

    Harris, born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, both of whom immigrated to the United States to study, made history by becoming the first woman to win election to the post.

    At her ancestral village in southern India, about 14,000 km (8,700 miles) from Washington D.C., children clutched posters of Harris as people gathered at a Hindu temple to thank the gods for the victory that she and President-elect Joe Biden won.

    Priests at the temple in Thulasendrapuram village bathed the local deity in milk and prayed. Women drew murals in the courtyard and musicians played traditional music.

    “A woman hailing from this small village now holds one of highest positions in U.S. It’s a proud moment,” said R Kamaraj, a government minister in the southern state of Tamil Nadu who joined the celebrations.

    Harris identifies herself as a Black American but she has also spoken about her Indian heritage during the campaign. In her victory speech on Saturday night, Harris said her late mother Shyamala Gopalan was the “woman most responsible for my presence here.”

    Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born head of the main opposition Congress party described Harris as a daughter of India in a letter to the vice-president elect, inviting her to visit.

    “We hope we will have the opportunity soon to welcome you to India, where you will be warmly hailed not just as a much admired leader of a great democracy, but also as a beloved daughter.”

    Harris, who visited her village when she was 5, has often recalled walks with her maternal grandfather on the beaches of the southern city of Chennai during annual trips from the U.S.

    Those conversations with her grandfather, who was among millions of people who joined India’s independence movement, left a profound impact, Harris said in a 2018 speech.

    She has been in close touch with her family in India and her uncle said he planned to attend the inauguration in January.

    “It’s great (the victory). It was needed and it was good. And the next four years will be good,” G. Balachandran, a leading defence scholar, told Reuters partner ANI at his home in New Delhi, where like millions of people worldwide, he watched every turn and twist of the election.

    “I knew she was going to win. So, I was not tense, except I wanted the final results to come in so that I could go and sleep,” he said.

    In Mumbai, people shot off fireworks and a group of artists painted a portrait of Biden and Harris.

    Dozens of prominent Indians and Americans of Indian origin took to social media to congratulate Harris, including actors Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Mindy Kaling.

    Kaling tweeted images of Harris and wrote “Crying and holding my daughter, ‘look baby, she looks like us’.” 

    VIDEO/PHOTOS 

    Estonian far-right coalition partner says U.S. election rigged, Biden corrupt

    By Reuters Staff

    VILNIUS (Reuters) - Leaders of a far-right party in Estonia’s government coalition on Sunday denounced the U.S. election result as rigged and called president-elect Joe Biden “corrupt”, sparking a political crisis as other coalition partners condemned the comments.

    FILE PHOTO: Estonia's Finance Minister Martin Helme of far-right EKRE Party reacts after the swearing-in of the incoming coalition government in Tallinn, Estonia April 29, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

    Racism, sexism, Nazi economics: Estonia's far right in ...

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/21/racism-sexism-nazi...

    2019-05-21 · The party’s father-and-son leadersMart and Martin Helme, took the key posts of interior and finance minister respectively and celebrated by flashing a white-power symbol at their swearing-i

    Estonia, a NATO and European Union member, relies on backing from the United States for its security from Russia.

    “In my opinion, there is no question at all that these (U.S.) elections are rigged,” said Martin Helme, head of the populist far-right Ekre party who is also the finance minister, according to local news portal Delfi.

    “Joe Biden and Hunter Biden are corrupt types,” added his father Mart Helme, who is the interior minister.

    U.S. President Donald Trump, whom Biden beat in the elections this week, has accused Biden and his son Hunter of unethical business practices in China and Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Biden has called them false and discredited.

    The Helmes’ comments were deemed “crazy” by Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, who condemned it along with Prime Minister Juri Ratas and President Kersti Kaljulaid.

    “I am sad and embarrassed”, Kaljulaid said in a statement, adding that the politicians “have damaged our relations with our allies and have sown doubt on the Estonian democratic elections”.

    Ratas is dependent on the support of the Ekre party, which holds 19 seats in Estonia’s 101-member parliament and has five ministerial portfolios out of fifteen.

    The outspoken Helmes have caused a lot of political turmoil in the administration’s 1.5 years in power.

    In Dec 2019, Estonia apologised to Finland after Mart Helme mocked Finland’s new prime minister -- the world’s youngest-serving government leader -- as “a sales girl” and questioned her ability to run the Nordic country.

    Reporting By Andrius Sytas; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama



    Huge, 'Impossible' Crystals in Denmark Have Finally Been Explained by Scientists

    The Danish Island Fur. (Nicolas Thibault)

    DAVID NIELD

    As geological puzzles go, it's a pretty good one. In the global greenhouse conditions of the early Eocene (56-48 million years ago), how did huge numbers of giant glendonite crystals manage to form?

    These rare calcium carbonate crystals - that need temperatures lower than 4 degrees Celsius to form - are composed from the mineral ikaite and found in their tens of millions on the Danish islands of Fur and Mors. They have been dated to 56-54 million years ago.

    "Why we find glendonites from a hot period, when temperatures averaged above 35 degrees, has long been a mystery," says geologist Nicolas Thibault, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. "It shouldn't be possible."

    After a detailed chemical analysis of glendonite samples by Thibault and an international team of researchers, using a technique called clumped isotope thermometry to trace temperatures back millions of years, we may have an answer: the Eocene was perhaps not as uniformly warm as previously thought.

    The idea of colder Eocene spells has been put forward previously, but the evidence has been inconclusive so far. The new chemical breakdown helps researchers argue the case for cooler conditions, with models suggesting the glendonites formed in waters below 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) at a depth of around 300 metres (984 feet).

    Sedimentary layers of ash on the island of Fur point to the possibility that volcanic eruptions may well have been responsible for these chillier episodes in the Eocene, localised around specific regions, which would help to explain the cooler waters and the rock record.

    "There were probably a large number of volcanic eruptions in Greenland, Iceland and Ireland during this period," says Thibault.

    "These released sulphuric acid droplets into the stratosphere, which could have remained there for years, shading the planet from the sun and reflecting sunlight away."

    "This helps to explain how regionally cold areas were possible, which is what affected the climate in early Eocene Denmark."

    The new study backs the hypothesis that colder Eocene periods are more likely than the alternative – which is that the science is wrong about the sort of temperatures that ikaite-based rock is able to form at.

    Next, the team wants to see similar investigations carried out to see how widespread the cooling discovered in the Danish Basin actually was. Other geological records – including those from the Arctic – suggest this dip in temperature wasn't happening all over the globe through the Eocene.
    As with any discovery about our climate past, the study is going to help scientists map out our climate future.

    We may not have the sky blotted out by volcanic ash anytime soon, but a quickly changing climate is something we are going through – just like parts of the world were more than 50 million years ago, long before humans arrived on the scene.

    "Our study helps solve a mystery about glendonites, as well as demonstrating that cooler episodes are possible during otherwise warmer climates," says Thibault.

    "The same can be said for today, as we wise up to the possibility of abrupt climate change."

    The research has been published in Nature Communications.

    16 OCTOBER 2020