90 Miles From Tyranny

Thursday, April 11, 2019

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #588

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Jussie Smollett | George Soros | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Girls With Guns

The Long, Lost Scroll of Truth Has been Found!

US sails massive, F-35-laden warship in disputed South China Sea

In the latest show of military muscle in the South China Sea, the U.S. has apparently sailed its USS Wasp amphibious assault ship near a strategic reef claimed by Beijing and Manila that lies just 230 km (140 miles) from the Philippine coast.

Filipino fishermen near the site known as the Scarborough Shoal initially spotted what appeared to be the massive U.S. vessel on Tuesday, according to ABS-CBN News. It said planes were seen landing and taking off from the ship, some 5 km (3 miles) away from the fishermen’s boat. A video clip shown by the news network appeared to corroborate their account.

Contacted by The Japan Times, a U.S. military spokeswoman would not confirm or deny the Wasp’s presence near the collection of outcroppings that barely jut out above water at high tide, citing “force protection and security.” However, the spokeswoman did confirm that the Wasp “has been training with Philippine Navy ships in Subic Bay and in international waters of the South China Sea … for several days.”

Scarborough Shoal, which is also claimed by Taiwan, is regarded as a potential powder keg in the strategic waterway. It was seized by Beijing in 2012 after an extended standoff with Manila. China later effectively blockaded the lagoon, which is rich in fish stocks, and routinely dispatches scores of fishing vessels and government-backed “maritime militia” ships to the area to continue its de facto blockade.

The Wasp was taking part in the annual Balikatan U.S.-Philippine military training exercise “that focuses on maritime security and...

Embattled Chinese telecom giant Huawei hires Obama’s former director of cybersecurity

In the midst of the Justice Department’s prosecution of Huawei Technologies for violating sanctions against Iran, the Chinese company is teaming up with a new lobbyist to help minimize the fallout: Samir Jain.

Jain works for the lobbying firm Jones Day, but before that he served as director of cybersecurity policy for President Obama’s National Security Council.

“Embattled Chinese telco Huawei has hired a new lobbyist: Jones Day’s Samir Jain, formally the Obama National Security Council’s director of cybersecurity policy,” the Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay posted to Twitter, along with a pic of Jain’s lobbying registration.

According to Jain’s Jones Day biography, the veteran cybersecurity and communications expert has a lot of connections at the Department of Justice.

Prior to joining Jones Day in 2017, Samir was senior director for cybersecurity policy for the National Security Council at The White House. He led the team responsible for cyber incident responses, chaired the interagency body that reviewed proposed cyber operations, directed evaluation of legislative proposals concerning reform of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and regularly worked with international cyber counterparts, including leading an interagency delegation to India and coordinating the campaign to gain acceptance of U.S.-proposed international cyber norms.

Samir also served as associate deputy attorney general at the DOJ, where his responsibilities included overseeing the development of...

POTUS Trump schools dishonest media: ‘It was OBAMA who put migrant kids in CAGES!’

Earlier this week we took the “mainstream” media to task over its blatantly dishonest claim that outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will forever be remembered as the Trump official who “put kids in cages.”

“Kirstjen Nielsen, I think, is a great example of what happens when you go to work for Donald Trump,” CNN chief ‘legal’ toadie Jeffrey Toobin claimed over the weekend. “He is the great reputation killer. Here is this woman who was a reasonably admired bureaucrat. For the rest of her life people will look at her and think, ‘Oh, that’s the woman who put children in cages.’”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) joined in too.

“It is deeply alarming that the Trump Administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White House’s liking,” said Pelosi.

“The president’s dangerous and cruel anti-immigrant policies have only worsened the humanitarian suffering at the border and inflicted vast suffering on the families who have been torn apart,” Pelosi said.

The outgoing DHS chief repeatedly pushed back against this blatant and cosmically irresponsible lie for much of her nearly two-year tenure at the helm of DHS. In congressional hearings and on cable news programs, she said time and time again that no, Border Patrol, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection agents were not...