90 Miles From Tyranny

Friday, August 14, 2020

Brookings Institution Partnered With Shanghai Policy Center Under Scrutiny for Spying

Shanghai Academy acts as a front for Chinese spy recruitment, according to FBI

The Brookings Institution, a prominent Washington, D.C., think tank, partnered with a Shanghai policy center that the FBI has described as a front for China’s intelligence and spy recruitment operations, according to public records and federal court documents.

The Brookings Doha Center, the think tank’s hub in Qatar, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences in January 2018, the institution said. The academy is a policy center funded by the Shanghai municipal government that has raised flags within the FBI.

The partnership raises questions about potential Chinese espionage activities at the think tank, which employs numerous former government officials and nearly two dozen current foreign policy advisers to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

Since the partnership began, the organizations have teamed up to host a 2018 conference in Shanghai and a 2019 joint workshop in Doha. Both events focused on Middle East cooperation with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s multinational infrastructure project that the U.S. government has described as a global security threat.

"We highly value our partnership with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences," Brookings Doha Center director Tarik Yousef said at the joint workshop last December, calling the partnership a "very productive collaboration that is expanding, deepening, and allowing us all to better understand each other."

According to federal court records filed by the FBI, the Shanghai Academy, which describes itself as "the second biggest academic organization and comprehensive research center in the fields of philosophy and social sciences in China," is closely aligned with Beijing’s top spy agency, the Ministry of State Security. It has been used as a front group for Chinese intelligence collection and overseas spy recruitment, the FBI said.

The court records are part of a criminal case against retired CIA officer Kevin Patrick Mallory, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for selling classified U.S. defense documents to China in 2017. Federal investigators said Mallory was recruited by a Chinese national who contacted him on LinkedIn and "represented himself to Mallory as working for a PRC think tank, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences."

According to the 2019 affidavit, the FBI believes that senior Chinese officials use Shanghai Academy of Social Science for...

TRAGIC: Judge Reverses ‘Save James’ Ruling, Forces Father to Finance 8-Year-Old Son’s Gender Transition

The father has to pay $5,000 a month so his son can become hormonally disfigured and transgendered.

A district judge has reversed the ruling regarding 8-year-old James Younger, whose mother was forcing him to transition away from his birth gender against the wishes of his father.

Dallas District Court Judge Mary Brown has ruled in favor of James’ mother, Dr. Anne Georgulas, and is granting her full custody. She is also forcing his father, Jeffrey Younger, to pay for gender treatments for his son’s transition to the tune of $5,000 per month.

“She has forced James to live as “Luna” in a school surrounded by teachers and therapists who do not acknowledge that he has said multiple times to multiple people (without Jeff around) that he wants to be a boy and hates being forced to be a girl,” the “Save James” Facebook page announced on Wednesday.

“She has forced Jude into a stressful existence of constant lies and misery as he watches his brother get destroyed before him without any hope for an end to this madness. Anne won this battle without even a hearing,” the page continued.

They are calling for people to spring into action and restart the fervor that caused a social media explosion behind the “Save James” movement months ago.

“The time for passive actions must end TODAY! We call upon all SaveJames supporters to join us to get the attention of our conservative leaders on every social media platform possible. Our voice must be heard for the sake of these brothers. The world must know that we are still fighting tooth and nail to protect them,” the “Save James” page wrote.

Big League Politics has reported about the case that garnered the attention of Texas political figures like Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz:

..And It Had To Work Really Hard To Get There!

US Seizes 4 Iranian Fuel Tankers En Route To Venezuela, Diverts To Houston

It's been revealed that for the first time the US has successfully confiscated Iranian fuel cargo on the high seas that were deemed in violation of sweeping US-led sanctions on Iran's energy sector.

Recall that in late May Iran delivered five tankers laden with fuel to Venezuela at a moment the US was threatening military blockade in the Caribbean. Maduro sent military jets and warships to escort the Iranian tankers, which both countries hailed as a rare, victorious act of defiance against Washington's plans.

Later in July, when Iran again sent tankers for a second round of deliveries, which the two countries earlier announced would be 'routine', US federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit for the seizure of over 1.1 million barrels of gasoline on the four vessels. A judge issued a warrant for the seizure, but it remained unclear whether this could or would be carried out if the tankers never enter US territorial waters. Iranian oil tanker Fortune anchored near a refinery in Venezuela, via AP.

The efforts apparently met with success, as The Wall Street Journal reports, "One official said the vessels had been taken over without the use of military force but didn’t provide any details."

No doubt it was done either in international waters or in the territory of an ally friendly to the US maximum pressure campaign seeking to choke Tehran. The vessels - the Luna, Panid, Bering, and Bella - are now in US custody, said by the WSJ to be en route to Houston.

"Senior administration officials are expected to meet the tankers in the coming days at an event scheduled to mark the...

The Racism of the ‘Anti-Racist’ Movement

Black Lives Matter protests led many people to want to do something useful to reduce racial injustice. Racial justice groups are being flooded with money.

Big companies made multimillion-dollar donations.

“Bad idea,” says black radio host Larry Elder in my new video.

“It is condescending… and not helpful. I urge white people to chill. Stop helping us, because you’re making things worse!”

Making things worse, he says, because it supports the activists’ claim that “blacks are victims of racism. (But) if racism were in America’s DNA, Obama never could have got elected. Racism has never been more insignificant a factor in one’s success than right now.”

I push back. “It must be a huge problem or there wouldn’t be all this protest!”

“Well, they’re being lied to,” Elder responds. Teachers, black activists, and the media give “young people the impression that racism remains this huge problem in America when it is not.”

It’s not, he says, because today any person who does three things can succeed: “Finish high school, don’t have a kid until you get married, get a job. Do those things, you will not be poor.”

The biggest problem facing the black community today, says Elder, is the absence of fathers. In the 1960s, most black children were raised in two-parent households. That changed when our government’s war on poverty began.

The handouts sent the message that it’s the government’s job, not your responsibility, to take care of you and your kids. “A mother with two children makes more money than she would make on minimum wage because of all the goodies she gets through the...

The tragic, heinous murder of white 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant has brought many together in their demand for justice for this innocent child who was executed by his black neighbor.

But for some evil, soulless humans, and we are using that term generously, the murder of this baby has been a cause for celebration.

One man, again a generous term, on Facebook, who listed his place of employment as Taco Bell, appeared to openly celebrate the murder, Nationalist Review reported.

“Ion (I don’t) give a sh** he is white it’s time for revenge we tired shit over with now we shooting yall go cry to you moma,” an account belonging to Terrell Kent, who lives in the same town as the victim, said.

After being bombarded with hate mail for the abhorrent comment Kent posted again, this time saying that it was his brother, not he, who made the statement.

“For all y’all inboxing me and tagging me in shit that was not me who commented on that post or anything else I don’t even have a phone to post or even be on (Facebook).

“I work everyday and even when I did have a phone I never commented on anything like that and for all y’all who do know me know damn well I ain’t like that I got hella white friends.

“Ya’ll can clearly read the comments that tell you it won’t me and it was my brother on my page so y’all can stop ‘threating’ me

“And tbh I ain’t losing no sleep over this shit y’all just stressing my girl out with all this s**t so y’all can f**k off now,” he...