90 Miles From Tyranny

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #203

Corruption: Beijing Nancy: Pelosi Shifted Her China Stance as Her Family Scored Beijing Deals

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi softened her previous criticisms of China’s communist regime as her husband and son scored big business deals in China, Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer’s new book reveals.

The bombshell revelations about Pelosi in Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win also come as the Democrat stalwart is under fire for stock trading returns made by her and her husband that regularly outperform the market. Now, it appears as though her family’s business opportunities in China have influenced her policy views on America’s chief adversary, something sure to fuel the fire to rein in corruption in Congress.

Pelosi’s family, Schweizer reveals, has had millions of dollars on the line when it comes to China, and the Speaker seems to have altered her positions on China’s communist regime from a policy perspective as these investments grew and took shape.

Pelosi began her career as tough on China and still occasionally rips the Chinese Communist Party for human rights abuses.

“The longtime member of Congress and Speaker of the House was, early in her career, a particularly harsh critic of China’s human rights practices,” Schweizer writes. “She continues to be vocal about some issues, but her positions have softened as her family has sought and received lucrative commercial opportunities in mainland China.”

In the early 1990s, Schweizer recounts how she even pulled off a protest in Tiananmen Square that infuriated Chinese officials:

In 1991, as a junior member of Congress, Pelosi found herself in Tiananmen Square. She was part of a congressional delegation visiting Beijing barely two years after the horrific events had un- folded. Pelosi had been in meetings with Chinese officials, but with a couple of colleagues, she covertly carried a banner into the middle of the square and unfurled it in front of a small crowd and the media. “To those who died for Democracy in China,” it read. The Chinese police were furious. They pushed through the crowd to seize the banner. “I started running,” Pelosi recalled. “And my colleagues, some of them, got a little roughed up. The press got treated worse because they had cameras, and they were detained.” The Foreign Ministry denounced the event as a “premeditated farce.

This move was not an isolated incident; Pelosi actually was tough on China for years.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) with Rep. Ben Jones (D-GA), left, and Rep. John Miller (R-WA), right, hold a banner in Tiananmen Square on September 4, 1991, to honor the pro-democracy protesters slain by China’s communist regime in the 1989 massacre. (AP Photo)

Schweizer also recounts how Pelosi fought against giving China most-favored-nation trade status and against allowing China entry into the World Trade Organization. He also noted that in 2005, Pelosi spoke on the House floor in support of an amendment to block the Chinese National Overseas Oil Company (CNOOC), a Chinese government-backed entity, from purchasing Unocal, a California-based...

Sohn, a longtime progressive activist, has called for the shuttering of right-wing networks throughout her career

Just one day after President Joe Biden nominated Gigi Sohn to the federal agency that oversees television networks, her nonprofit secured a favorable legal settlement with those same networks that reduced her financial liability by more than $30 million.

According to a confidential settlement revealed by Bloomberg Law, Sohn's now-defunct nonprofit, Locast, agreed to pay a number of top broadcasters $700,000 after it illegally streamed their programming. That amount is a mere fraction of the $32 million Locast was initially ordered to pay. Sohn, who served as one of the nonprofit's three directors, signed the agreement one day after Biden announced her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the same networks she settled with.

Sohn's settlement with the likes of ABC, CBS, and Fox has impeded her confirmation process. During a December hearing, Republican senators Roger Wicker (Miss.) and Roy Blunt (Mo.) expressed concern over the lawsuit, with Blunt asking Sohn if the ordeal would impact her "dealings with the very same local broadcasters that sued" Locast. Last week, Wicker called for a second hearing on Sohn's confirmation due in part to the "timing of this settlement in relation to her nomination."

"The possibility of the nominee's future financial liability to a number of companies regulated by the FCC, and the timing of this settlement in relation to her nomination, demands a full discussion by the committee to ensure that there is a clear understanding of the ability for this nominee to act without any cloud of ethical doubt," Wicker said. "The committee needs to hold a new hearing on this matter to provide the nominee an opportunity to fully address these concerns."

While Bloomberg Law wrote that Sohn's settlement "appears to undercut" Wicker's "stated reason for opposing her nomination," others aren't so sure. American Commitment president Phil Kerpen questioned both the timing and terms of the settlement, arguing that it raises new ethics questions.

"How does this eliminate criticism? The terms of the deal are incredibly favorable to her," Kerpen told the Washington Free Beacon. "How could anyone say that she can now objectively vote on anything involving any of the big broadcast networks that just basically let her company off the hook?"

Bloomberg Law initially published Sohn's settlement details under the headline, "FCC Nominee's Settlement Undercuts Rationale for Blocking Her." Hours after publication, the outlet changed that headline to read, "Biden FCC Nominee Settles Case That Spurred GOP Senator's Fight." Bloomberg Law did not immediately return a request for comment on the change.

Sohn's tenure on the board of the illegal TV streaming service is not the only reason Republican senators are hesitant to confirm her. Sohn, a longtime progressive activist, has also called for the shuttering of right-wing networks throughout her career, views that Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) in December Said "completely disqualify" her from...

Before You Click On The "Read More" Link,

Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.

If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.

Please Leave Silently Into The Night......

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.

The Truckers Are Coming: World Record Caravan Heads to Mandate-Imposing Tyrants

Girls With Guns

By: Andy Gno

I was scheduled to speak last week at Dartmouth College by invitation of the chapter College Republicans and Turning Point USA. The Thursday “Extremism in America” event was meant to highlight America’s long history with far-left violent extremism, a subject politicians and media oft ignore and deny.

Gabriel Nadales, a former member of California militant leftist groups, was the co-speaker. But we never got to step on stage to a live audience.

Soon after the event was announced, Antifa and its army of online trolls threatened violence to shut it down. In turn, Dartmouth administrators gave the extremists exactly what they wanted: The Hanover, NH, college canceled the in-person event at the last minute, citing vague “safety issues.”

To be sure, the threats against myself, Nadales and prospective attendees were concerning. Local law enforcement had to clear Moore Hall with a bomb squad and dogs before I arrived.

About a week prior to the scheduled event, the group Northeast Antifa published a disturbing flyer featuring a photograph of my bloodied face from when an Antifa mob beat me in 2019 in Portland, Ore. I was hospitalized for a brain hemorrhage from that assault and robbery.

“Anti-fascists from all over New England will be mobilizing January 20th, 2022 at Dartmouth College to disrupt and prevent fascist propagandists like Andy Ngo from normalizing their reactionary beliefs on college campuses in the Northeast,” tweeted the group. It instructed fellow comrades to “wear black” to hide their identities and avoid future prosecution.

Dartmouth College claimed that Ngo’s event had to be canceled for “safety reasons.”

On Instagram, the group threatened me directly. “This is to Andy Ngo himself: when you f–k with us you are not f–king with college students,” it wrote. “When you enter our home you start playing by our rules, not yours. New England is anti-fascist, and we will hold that line until death.”

The Vermont chapter of the far-left militia John Brown Gun Club responded in a tweet, saying it had called up reserves and would be there with a “battalion of Antifa.” In 2019, a member of the group’s Washington state chapter, Willem van Spronsen, carried out an armed attack on the Tacoma Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility using firebombs. When he aimed his rifle at responding police, he was shot dead. He left behind a manifesto proclaiming, “I am antifa.”

In Portland, an Antifa member I’ve reported on named Jonathan Dylan Chase offered to pay anyone who gets arrested for assaulting me.

On Reddit, a thread announcing Antifa’s call to direct action went viral on the Socialist Rifle Association subreddit. There, some of the pseudonymous users posted about killing me and coming armed to the event to stop the “pests.”

Hanover police, nearby Lebanon police and the Grafton County Sheriff’s Office met the threats with a robust and commendable response. Dozens of officers secured the lecture hall where we were scheduled to speak. They secured every entrance and exit at the building, Moore Hall.

The message was clear: Law enforcement will ensure First Amendment activities are protected in Hanover, NH. Dartmouth’s administrators, however, felt otherwise...

Will They Surrender?

Father says, "Your mother's right
She's really up on things
Before we married, Mommy served
In the WACS in the Philippines"
Now, I had heard the WACS recruited
Old maids for the war
But mommy isn't one of those
I've known her all these years

Mommy's all right
Daddy's all right
They just seem a little weird
Surrender
Surrender
But don't give yourself away
Hey, heeeeeey

‘Pope Francis’ - A Wolf in Shepherd’s Clothing?

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano sheds a disturbing light on the "Deep Church."

“A non-Catholic Pope”? It sounds like a contradiction in terms. But those are the words used to describe Pope Francis by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. In fact, he rarely uses the term “Pope Francis.” He refers to him instead as “Bergoglio” and to his pontificate as the “Bergoglian papacy.”

Vigano has a following in some Catholic circles but it’s likely that the vast majority of Catholics have never heard of him. Yet the questions he raises about Pope Francis are of great consequence, not just for Catholics but for non-Catholics as well.

Since there are about 1.3 billion Catholics in the world, whoever leads them can have a significant effect on a large segment of the global population. It’s widely thought, for instance, that Pope John Paul II did more to put an end to communism in Eastern Europe than any other individual with the exception of Ronald Reagan. For evidence of the close collaboration between the two men, read historian Paul Kengor’s revealing book, A Pope and a President.

Now we have a new pope and a new president and neither of them seem terribly concerned about the revival of communist power throughout the world. In fact, both men have surrounded themselves with left-leaning advisors and appointees.

In addition, both Francis and Biden have effectively rolled back the agendas of their immediate predecessors. This is obvious in the case of Biden because the reversal has been swift and abrupt. The reversal that Francis has engineered is less noticeable since it has been more gradual, but the resulting change in the Catholic Church has been every bit as radical as the one now taking place in American government and society.

Archbishop Vigano links the two together. He talks of a coup in America and other Western nations led by secular leftist ideologues, and a coup in the Catholic Church led by Bergoglio and the progressive Catholics who surround him.

However, the coup in the Church has been a more silent one. Catholic writers who have studied Francis’s career describe him as a skillful--even Machiavellian--manipulator. According to them, all his actions are shrouded in a deliberate fog. Consequently, most Catholics remain unaware of the magnitude of the changes. It is only when a priest or prelate resists Francis that “the dictator pope” (the title of Henry Sire’s book about Francis) reveals himself. Just as the Biden administration is seeking to purge conservatives from government and the military, Francis seeks to purge traditional Catholics from the Church. And since some of the strongest resistance to Francis comes from adherents of the Latin Mass, he has acted to suppress the Latin Mass. Meanwhile, some conservative prelates find themselves demoted to obscure outposts, and others live in fear that...