/qresearch/ - Q Research

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CURRENT DOUGH

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Donald Trump’s path to victory narrow, not impossible

TROY BRAMSTON- NOVEMBER 2, 2020

1/2

In the final days of the US election campaign, Joe Biden has a clear advantage in national and state polling and therefore many paths to achieving the necessary 270 votes in the electoral college. Donald Trump is well behind in the polling and has only a narrow, though not impossible, path to victory.

In assessing the various ways both candidates can win the presidency, it is important to note that Trump won a very narrow election victory in 2016. He lost the popular vote by 2.8 million to Hillary Clinton. It is very unlikely Trump will win the popular vote this year.

So, Trump’s task is to thread the needle of the Electoral College. Trump won the electoral college by demolishing the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall”: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But he won these three states by a small margin – a combined 77,744 votes.

Trump’s campaigning and advertising spend is almost exclusively focused on states he won last time. He is not looking to expand the electoral map. Many presidents have made gains when seeking re-election: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1956), Richard Nixon (1972), Ronald Reagan (1984), Bill Clinton (1996) and George W. Bush (2004).

There is one state that Trump hopes to pick up: Minnesota. Clinton won the state in 2016. The last Republican to win the mid-western state of Minnesota was Nixon in 1972. It is unlikely Trump can pick up this state.

Trump won 304 electoral college votes four years ago. The magic number is 270 to clinch victory. So, if he loses 35 votes, he’s toast. That could come by losing just Florida (29) and Wisconsin (10). Or he could lose just Pennsylvania (20) and Michigan (16). Two states stand between Trump’s re-election and defeat.

So Trump’s pathway to victory is to replicate what he achieved four years ago. It is possible that there could be another polling error in his favour. But we are past the point where this would be a normal polling error. But if the polling averages in 2020 are as wrong as they were in 2016, Trump would still lose.

(continued)

>>11415138

2/2

According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden has an 8.6 per cent average polling lead in Michigan, 4.9 per cent in Pennsylvania and 8.3 per cent in Wisconsin. Trump is also trailing Biden in North Carolina, Arizona and Ohio, albeit by smaller margins, but they are states he carried in 2016.

More worrying for Trump is that he is behind in Georgia (16 electoral college votes), according to RealClearPolitics. The last Democrat to win Georgia was Clinton in 1992. Texas (38 votes) is also at risk of voting for Biden.

That is why this electoral dynamics favour a Biden victory.

If Biden holds all the states Clinton won in 2016, he has multiple paths to 270 electoral votes. He could lose Florida and Arizona but win the presidency just by picking up Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – reassembling the “blue wall”. This is Biden’s best bet.

Or Biden could win just Florida and Michigan to edge past 270. Or Biden could win Arizona and Florida in the sunbelt and pick up Wisconsin in the rust belt to claim victory. There are many ways to slice and dice a Biden win.

If Trump loses Florida or Pennsylvania with a combination of just two other smaller states, he will not be able to reach 270. If Georgia or Texas goes blue, it will be over quickly.

The bottom line for Trump is that he will need to win states that are too close to call such as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio while also winning several states that are now “light blue” (leaning towards Biden) such as Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Hampshire. It is a tall order.

If the election looks close in several battleground states, we may not know the outcome on election night (Wednesday AEDT) due to the record early voting. But we will probably know enough to know where the race is headed.

Arizona, North Carolina and Florida will count most of their early votes on or before election day. But Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin will not start counting most of their early votes until election day, and it could take several days to complete. That is OK – votes are always counted after election day.

Australian audiences should start to see the first results before 11am on Wednesday. At 11am (AEDT), polls close in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania with results to come at that hour. Most polls will have closed by 1pm with results to follow in the early afternoon. It will be thrilling to watch.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/donald-trumps-path-to-victory-narrow-not-impossible/news-story/0a2af4ab9e4508cee23b509c1875afd8

ABC News - Corrections & Clarifications

Cardinal Pell

2 November 2020

News Channel: On 1 October 2020, Cardinal George Pell was described as ‘disgraced’ in bottom of the screen text during a news bulletin. The ABC recognises this was inappropriate in light of his successful appeal and acquittal by the High Court of his previous conviction for child sexual abuse.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/corrections/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/corrections/2020-11-02/cardinal-pell/12839220

OPINION - Ann Wason Moore on the importance of democracy

Whether you voted Labor, LNP or even One Nation, every single Queenslander should be stoked with the results of the state election. Why? Because the winner was democracy.

ANN WASON MOORE - November 3, 2020

WHETHER you voted Labor, LNP or even One Nation, every single Queenslander should be stoked with the results of the state election.

Why? Because the winner was democracy.

It’s a result we take for granted in Australia and, until recently, in America.

But with just 24 hours until the most important election in United States history, the days of the peaceful democratic process pioneered by the land of the free could well be numbered.

Businesses and homes across the States are boarding up windows and battening down the hatches in fear of the civil unrest that could result when vote counting begins.

And rather than uniting his fractured states, President Donald Trump is throwing lit matches on the oil of electoral anxiety.

When asked to confirm that he will leave office if he loses, Trump’s response was a middle finger to democracy.

“We’re going to have to see what happens,” he said. “You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”

Now, there is growing concern that the election, and the wait for results, will spark widespread civil unrest in the US.

No matter who wins, it seems that America will be the loser. Whether it’s on the right with QAnon crowds and racist mobs like the Proud Boys standing by — as encouraged by Trump — or radicals on the left ready to unleash hell, both sides are being besieged by extremists.

Over the weekend, Walmart announced it was removing all guns and ammunition from its sales floors in a bid to stop looters ahead of election day.

“We have seen some isolated civil unrest and as we have done on several occasions over the last few years, we have moved our firearms and ammunition off the sales floor as a precaution for the safety of our associates and customers,” a Walmart spokesman said.

Indeed, a poll released by Suffolk University and USA Today has found three-quarters of respondents are worried about the possibility of violence on election day.

Now, let’s compare and contrast that to our sweet state election.

Even in marginal seats like Gaven, or those now on a knife-edge like Burleigh and Currumbin, the conduct of our candidates is the epitome of what it means to be politically correct.

Forget guns and weapons, there was nary a sharp word from the likes of Labor MP for Gaven Meaghan Scanlon, who won her second term.

“I thank all my opponents and their supporters,” she said. “Politics can be tough and regardless of what your views, candidates and campaigners who are willing to take a stand and give up their own time to do what they believe is right is admirable.”

Indeed, Ms Scanlon paid particular tribute to LNP candidate Kirsten Jackson, whose huge effort saw her door knock 8500 homes in the area.

Over in Currumbin where, upon writing this, the result is still too close to call, Labor candidate Kaylee Campradt similarly saluted the efforts of LNP incumbent Laura Gerber.

And back in Burleigh, where the LNP’s Michael Hart seems to have lost his grip, if not his seat, to a swing from the silent majority who support light rail, the MP still exchanged kind words with Labor rival Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew on election day.

Indeed, it seems the only war of words erupting post-election have been inter-party battles, with Deb Frecklington forced to fall on her sword.

But whether or not she was to blame for her party’s failure, she was graceful in defeat — and for that, I consider her a winner.

I only wish I could expect the same behaviour from the President of the United States.

Let’s set aside personal politics for the moment. (Yes, I detest Trump. And big thanks to the Trump-lovers who trolled not just me but my kids on social media this weekend … way to prove my point that we need a better human being as leader.)

The result I most want to see from the US election is not a Biden win, but for the States to once again be united.

Unfortunately, it feels like we’re all going to lose.

https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/opinion/ann-wason-moore-on-the-importance-of-democracy/news-story/1a7e40b2c65db504cab989bcec5d5055

Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon Are Flooding the Zone With Hunter Biden Conspiracies

Media properties tied to an exiled Chinese billionaire are behind waves of disinformation in the lead-up to the election.

BY NICK ASPINWALL - NOVEMBER 2, 2020

1/3

A media network linked to Steve Bannon and his billionaire funder Guo Wengui has continued to act as a breeding ground for false stories about Hunter Biden, which have metastasized into wild claims repeated by mainstream commentators and broadened online attacks on a Texas-based Chinese dissident already in hiding after Guo’s followers congregated outside his home.

GNews, an outlet of Guo and Bannon’s GTV Media Group, has published numerous false stories about Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, operating as a nexus for the spread of alleged sex tapes by aggregating content from a popular YouTube streamer with ties to Guo. It was also an early source of unsubstantiated rumors that the Biden family hid business dealings in China—fictions that were eventually repeated by President Donald Trump during the second presidential debate.

Twitter confirmed that it had suspended Guo-linked accounts that spread the rumors, but the exiled Chinese businessman and his media properties remain a hub for the explosively viral spread of disinformation.

Weeks before the New York Post published its Oct. 14 series of stories on the contents of Hunter Biden’s so-called hard drive, allegations of multiple hard drives that would incriminate Biden were broadcast on Sept. 25 by Lude Media, a YouTube channel run by the dissident streamer and Guo ally Wang Dinggang. They were then shared by Twitter accounts linked to GNews and to Guo and Bannon’s Himalaya movement, according to a story in the Daily Beast, along with Bannon himself, who boasted on Dutch TV in late September that he had Hunter Biden’s hard drive.

Wang is close to Guo and has been photographed with Bannon and Rudy Giuliani, but that’s not the only evidence he was involved in the spread of the Biden rumors. On an Oct. 13 Lude Media livestream, broadcast hours before the Post ran its stories, Wang and a fellow analyst said the Post would likely publish the contents of the hard drives the following day.

Twitter accounts linked to Guo have continued to spread an array of escalating false claims about Biden, including Pizzagate-esque rumors of child abuse that also originated with Wang and Lude Media, along with false stories about the Biden family’s dealings with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “They’re trying to imitate tactics used by QAnon,” inflating conspiracy theories until their evolution becomes unstoppable, said Keenan Chen, a researcher for the misinformation-tracking nonprofit First Draft who has tracked the spread of the Biden rumors.

The release of the alleged sex tapes, which also claim to show Hunter Biden using drugs on a visit to Beijing, were spread by followers of Guo in an Oct. 24 Twitter campaign coordinated in a Himalaya movement Discord chat group. Members of the group tweeted links to the tapes once they were published on GNews and gave each other instructions to tag prominent political influencers throughout the spectrum, according to a source with knowledge of the group’s activities. If a group member was suspended, they were told to immediately use another email to create a new Twitter account, the source said.

Twitter confirmed that it recently suspended numerous accounts linked to Guo, GTV, and Guo and Bannon’s Himalaya movement, including accounts involved in spreading the sex tape rumors, for violating the site’s platform manipulation and spam policy. It declined to say how many accounts it had banned or which tweets triggered the suspensions.

It may have been too late. Discussions of the alleged sex tape, along with baseless claims of child abuse, quickly became “very visible on English-language social media,” Chen said. By the evening of Oct. 24, the actor and far-right influencer James Woods had referenced the story and accused Twitter of censoring it. Many others followed.

(continued)

>>11419240

2/3

The Biden rumors have reached a fever pitch in the days before the election. Many of the most potent claims have roots with anti-CCP and far-right actors, including the Falun Gong-backed Epoch Times. The CCP critic Christopher Balding—who was behind a discredited brief on Hunter Biden’s business dealings commissioned by a far-right editor, Mark Simon, at the Hong Kong-based Apple Daily—appeared on Bannon’s podcast to share his claims. Wang was a key driver of the brief’s virality on Twitter, where it was shared by right-wing influencers including Newt Gingrich.

“It does seem clear that there is a concerning nexus developing between anti-CCP conspiracy theories and other conspiracy theories like QAnon,” said Elise Thomas, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute who independently investigated the Balding report.

Bannon has notoriously said the key to dealing with media is to “flood the zone with shit”—and Guo’s money has given the former Breitbart editor in chief a prime position in a disinformation network that has not only derailed public discourse but has begun to be weaponized by Guo to target other dissidents whom he vowed to “eliminate.”

Guo fled China when his patron, Vice Minister of State Security Ma Jian, fell from grace within the CCP in January 2015. He quickly joined forces with Bannon, launching a self-proclaimed government-in-exile before Bannon was arrested by U.S. federal agents on Guo’s yacht off the shores of Connecticut on fraud charges.

In April, the pair launched GTV Media Group, a media company that says it is dedicated to exposing the truth about the CCP. The company is currently being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for potential misuse of $300 million of funds from investors.

Despite his proclaimed anti-CCP agenda, Guo’s actions have garnered vast speculation about where his loyalties truly lie. A consultancy firm hired in 2018 by a Guo-affiliated company accused him in court filings of being a “dissident-hunter”—claims that a lawyer for Guo has denied. There have even been private questions raised about Guo’s allegiances in conservative political circles themselves, according to the dissident pastor Bob Fu.

Lately, however, Guo has lived up to that moniker. In late September, around the time Guo-linked outlets began disseminating disinformation about Hunter Biden, the businessman launched his own array of attacks, urging his followers to gather outside the homes of Chinese dissidents he branded as “traitors” spying for the CCP. Groups of protesters spread flyers and chanted in the driveways outside the homes of Fu and his fellow dissident Wu Jianmin, causing Fu and his family to leave their Midland, Texas, home under police protection.

Guo’s anti-dissident campaign appeared unrelated at first—he had railed against Fu and the dissident artist Ai Weiwei as early as January—but the Fu and Biden conspiracies have somehow converged within the rabbit hole. On Oct. 27, Lude Media and GNews first shared an alleged screenshot of an email from “Bob Fenet”—said to be a pseudonym for Bob Fu—to James Biden, the nominee’s brother.

The evidence presented is incredibly shaky, but pro-Guo accounts immediately began sharing the alleged email, accumulating thousands of likes and retweets. “Breaking news from #LudeMedia,” one tweet from the pro-Guo account @John316_truth read. “Bombshell email!! Bob Fenet is Bob Fu!! The phony pastor, real CCP spy who pretends to be a Republican but in the pants with the #BidenCrimeFamily #LaptopFromHell.”

Twitter removed tweets about the email on Friday morning after an inquiry from Foreign Policy. The company confirmed that it had removed the tweet from @John316_truth for violating its private information policy. Other tweets containing the screenshot and mentioning “Bob Fenet”—whose details have been lifted from social media profiles of a real person apparently residing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana—remain on the website.

(continued)

>>11419284

3/3

Fu’s own Twitter posts have been bombarded by Guo followers accusing him of being part of a vast conspiracy to elect Joe Biden. This has come as a surprise to Fu, himself a conservative evangelical and Trump supporter who has close ties to prominent Republican politicians and faith leaders and whose nonprofit organization, which provides legal assistance to Chinese victims of religious repression, is widely respected in Washington. The rumors “show how low and desperate the Guo/Bannon group would go in order to have the CCP interfere in the U.S. election,” said Fu, who told me he is worried by the vitriolic online comments accusing him of being part of a Biden conspiracy.

The rumors may start as typo-filled, radical QAnon-like nonsense. This has not slowed their virality. Unlike QAnon, which started on 8chan and spread for years through the internet’s annals before making its way to Facebook and Twitter, the Guo-backed spread of Hunter Biden conspiracies has gained momentum on mainstream platforms—leaping easily from there to the lips of conservative commentators and House members.

The conspiracies—and their hardcore anti-CCP themes—have proved attractive to some Chinese exiles as well, including well-known figures like the soccer star Hao Haidong, who show up to Guo’s rallies, call in to Bannon’s podcast, and donate to the pair’s myriad ventures. In the paranoid political culture of the CCP, underhanded business dealings and brazen power grabs are ordinary occurrences. It makes wild Biden rumors more believable to Chinese in the United States, who share them in closed WeChat groups that are both incredibly influential and nearly impossible for independent observers to monitor.

Guo and Bannon have also shaken the preelection conversation among the Chinese diaspora and among Chinese-speaking voters, both inside and outside the United States. Hunter Biden rumors have erupted in Taiwan, where Apple Daily has published allegations that a Taiwanese businessman acted as his business broker in both China and Taiwan.

Guo’s campaign against Fu has intensified speculation of the businessman’s true motives, which, according to the pastor, had gradually picked up steam for years among conservative policymakers in Washington.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz accused the CCP of being behind the attacks on Fu. So did Sam Brownback, Trump’s religious ambassador, who said Friday that the CCP was orchestrating the “harassment of US citizen Pastor @BobFu4China, defender of religious freedom, and others on American soil.”

Commentators have speculated that Guo, who has himself been the target of Chinese-backed online harassment campaigns, could be hedging his bets to protect relationships he maintains within China. His true motives, along with Bannon’s knowledge of them, have become their own bottomless well of speculation. The U.S. presidential election is a day away, and, just as it was in 2016, the zone is flooded with shit.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/02/guo-wengui-steve-bannon-hunter-biden-conspiracies-disinformation/

Chinese fugitive Guo Wengui ‘spread Biden-China claim to impact US election’

• Unverified stories linking Democrat Joe Biden’s son Hunter to China was part of an interference campaign, former Guo collaborator John Pan says

• Claims were spread on Guo-linked YouTube channels and media platforms associated with Guo and ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon

Linda Lew and Sarah Zheng - 3 Nov, 2020

1/2

In the run-up to the US presidential election, Chinese fugitive tycoon Guo Wengui, best known for incendiary accusations against Beijing, has been helping to promote unverified claims linking Democratic candidate Joe Biden to China, it is claimed.

The amplification of stories about Biden’s son Hunter and his alleged business ties to China was part of coordinated and sophisticated attempts to interfere with Tuesday’s US election, according to John Pan, a former collaborator with Guo who is based in Australia.

“Guo’s intention is to interfere with the US election,” Pan told the South China Morning Post in an interview. “He may not be able to control the results, but he can release materials that can mislead the public.

“I think there already has been some impact to the US election, by the so-called Hunter Biden hard drive files leak.”

Pan has said he was previously part of Guo’s inner circle, a group who helped the flamboyant and controversial billionaire-in-exile – also known as Miles Kwok – push sweeping and unproven claims ahead of the election.

The unsubstantiated theories were spread on Guo-linked YouTube channels and media platforms associated with Guo and the far-right figure Steve Bannon, formerly the chief strategist for President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, who is faltering in the latest polls behind Biden.

G News, a website owned by Guo Media, has in recent months churned out Trump-friendly headlines, including a claim that Biden’s victory would allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to “take over the world”.

Its articles sounded alarms about reported business ties between Biden’s son Hunter and China, and released images and videos supposedly of Hunter Biden’s sexual indiscretions.

Guo, a property tycoon, became a high-profile target for Beijing when he made a series of provocative claims about corruption at the highest levels of the Chinese elite in 2017, after saying he had fled from China to the US in 2015. The Chinese government issued an Interpol red notice for the New York-based Guo in 2017.

Pan migrated to Australia from China in 2010 and ran his own YouTube channel that focused on Chinese politics. In 2018, he joined an inner circle of Guo’s network of Chinese influencers, almost all based outside China, which Guo dubbed the “whistle-blowing revolution committee group”.

According to Pan’s estimates, the group began with 18 people, but by last December only two of the original members remained, with the rest, including Pan, having fallen out with Guo.

As of December, Pan said, the group included at least 84 known members with a combined 500,000 YouTube subscribers – including 197,000 from the US-based Chinese YouTuber Lude’s channel – and about 200,000 followers on other social media platforms.

(continued)

>>11419724

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Pan said that after severing ties with Guo he was the target of threats of violence and defamatory claims that he was a CCP “foreign agent”. Following the latter claims, at least a dozen Guo supporters and investors gathered near his Brisbane residence in protest on several days in October, according to Pan.

Researchers from First Draft, a Google News-backed non-profit project that fights misinformation and disinformation online, traced the first mentions of the Hunter Biden hard drives to Lude, who mentioned the claimed leak on September 24.

This was weeks before a October 14 New York Post story based on a copy of a hard drive provided by former New York mayor and conservative politician Rudy Giuliani. The story has been criticised over a failure to verify the authenticity of the hard drive and its use by Trump supporters to discredit Joe Biden.

“That is actually good enough proof that someone already knew about these hard drives before the so-called Western media reported on it,” said a First Draft researcher who analysed the Guo influencer network but did not want to be named.

Photos of Guo and Giuliani meeting have circulated online, and Pan said that there was a possibility that Guo, Bannon, Lude and Giuliani had met before the publishing of the New York Post article.

The First Draft researcher said it was unclear how much of an effect Guo’s circle may have had on the US election, especially given that most of the audience was the Chinese-speaking community and only a few unverified claims, such as the claimed Hunter Biden leaks, received wider coverage.

In an emailed statement, Lude said he had “exposed” not only the younger Biden but also Republican representatives and Trump administration officials.

“So is all this done for political reasons?” he wrote. “As an independent self-media figure, I am not paid a salary by anyone, and rely only on my own channels to expose and report on the truth, provide deep analysis and forward-looking predictions.”

Zhuang Liehong, another New York-based Chinese dissident and former Guo affiliate, told the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) on Sunday that Guo had asked people in his circle to “spread his bombshell revelations” even though “most of them were unverifiable”.

“Due to my disgust of the CCP, I chose to trust him,” ABC quoted Zhuang as saying. Pan and Zhuang have filed lawsuits against Guo for defamation, it reported.

Guo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tycoon published a music video on Sunday cut with scenes of him smoking a cigar and shadowboxing on his yacht, with the lyrics: “We will fight till they’re all gone, we rejoice when they’re no more, let’s take down the CCP.”

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3108139/chinese-fugitive-guo-wengui-spread-biden-china-claim-impact-us

NSW police officer probe over virus letter

An officer is in hot water after purportedly penning a COVID-19 conspiracy-laden open letter to NSW Police boss Mick Fuller.

The letter, uncovered by AAP FactCheck, questions the legitimacy of Australia's actions to curtail the spread of coronavirus, the severity of the disease and the police enforcement response.

Senior Constable Alexander Cooney, a Coffs-Clarence Highway Patrol officer, signs off on the six-page letter.

NSW Police have confirmed to AAP the duty status of an officer from the northern region is under review as part of an investigation into the matter.

Within the letter, the "Cops for Covid Truth" group calls on Commissioner Fuller to consider challenging ongoing rules to "restore community trust".

It claims many NSW Police members are "fed up" with enforcing "oppressive rules … in the name of COVID-19" and "looming mandatory vaccinations".

"Many of us believe that we are removing our own rights and freedoms by enforcing these rules upon the community, including our family and friends," the letter says.

"And the community are (sic) confounded by the intensified police enforcement around peaceful freedom protests and how inconsistent this was when compared with the Black Lives Matter protests.

"This contradiction is further destroying public confidence."

The letter pushes for assurances from Mr Fuller that police members and the general public will be given a "choice" to receive coronavirus vaccines or not.

It also infers officers may be called upon to force vaccines on people and seeks to "raise the alarm that there is a global dictatorship occurring and the police force is being used as a tool to push these global and corporate agendas upon the population".

When approached by AAP, NSW Police said it was aware of the letter.

"The officer, who is attached to a specialist command in the northern region, has been spoken to," a spokeswoman said.

"His duty status is currently under review. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."

An abridged version of the letter has been widely shared on social media by a political party that the Australian Medical Association previously labelled "anti-vaccine".

https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/6995907/nsw-police-officer-probe-over-virus-letter/

https://advocateme.wixsite.com/copsforcovidtruth

https://12224e9c-a5fa-4daf-962b-f9379e0c0efa.filesusr.com/ugd/e12357_e100de2b3f224d05830eee3cbd38d18f.pdf

George Papadopoulos Tweets

Matt Bevan @MatthewBevan

So Alexander Downer, the man @GeorgePapa19 @dbongino and their fans think was a secret Hillary Clinton-backing spy on a mission to destroy Trump has come out and backed… Trump.

https://twitter.com/MatthewBevan/status/1322738520738295810

Why I would grit my teeth and vote for Trump - Alexander Downer

https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/why-i-would-grit-my-teeth-and-vote-for-trump-20201101-p56afm

—

Replying to @MatthewBevan and @dbongino

My testimony against the errand boy helped launch Durham’s probe. Downer was too sloppy and I had to report him to US authorities who foolishly notified me downer was in on it.

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1322782657814556672

—

Matt Bevan @MatthewBevan

Replying to @GeorgePapa19 and @dbongino

OK but how does him writing an opinion piece in a national newspaper in favour of Trump fit into that?

https://twitter.com/MatthewBevan/status/1322782964090982400

—

Replying to @MatthewBevan and @dbongino

If you had an entire counter investigation zeroing in on your actions would you want to stir up the hornets nest or try to deflect? Downer’s commentary has zero impact on the election. His actions in 2016 have a big impact on himself and the US-Australia relationship in 2020

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1322783687805526016

—

Matt Bevan @MatthewBevan

So Downer is writing an op-ed in favour of Trump to try and save himself from the people investigating him for spying. Got it.

https://twitter.com/MatthewBevan/status/1322787614257131520

Q Post #4948

Nov 2 2020 17:48:50 (EST) NEW

https://twitter.com/TimMurtaugh/status/1323313186259480577

Q

—

Tim Murtaugh Tweet

Biden's early vote lead is not enough & they know it.

Dems plan to call @realDonaldTrump's Election Day surge a "Red Mirage" to delegitimize his wave of support.

They'll try to create a smoke screen post-Election Day, even running TV ads to cast doubt on Nov. 3 vote.

Be ready.

https://twitter.com/TimMurtaugh/status/1323313186259480577

>>11421409

How Trump could push button on 'red mirage' strategy and send US election to Supreme Court

By Mark Saunokonoko - Nov 3, 2020

President Donald Trump has denied he plans to execute a "red mirage" strategy on election night, where he declares himself the winner early and sets up a potential Supreme Court battle.

The red mirage entails Mr Trump declaring victory before midnight if he finds himself ahead in a clutch of key battleground states.

A report by Axios, which Mr Trump has rejected as false, claims the president's team have been discussing the plan for weeks.

The story was based on three sources familiar with the discussions, Axios claimed.

For red mirage to occur, Mr Trump would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.

But it will all be about Pennsylvania, Professor Wesley Widmaier, an international affairs expert at Australian National University, said.

"Pennsylvania is the keystone here, no pun intended," Professor Widmaier told nine.com.au, referring to the state's nickname.

Professor Widmaier said Mr Trump could "plausibly tip" the handful of key states that would set up Pennsylvania as a potential trigger point.

"Then they'll know they just have to take that risky strategy in Pennsylvania," he explained.

According to Axois, Mr Trump's team is preparing to falsely claim that mail-in ballots counted after November 3 are evidence of election fraud and a stolen election.

Speaking to reporters to deny the story, Mr Trump added it was a "terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election".

A former Obama staffer this week said the red mirage strategy sounded like a "super villain" and would be just as "insidious" if used.

Professor Widmaier said if Mr Trump did go early, it could be part of a public relations strategy that declared his presidency as "a social fact".

That claim could then ostensibly lead to the US Supreme Court, just like George W. Bush and Al Gore's infamous ballot dispute in the 2000 US election.

Mr Gore lost Florida and the 2000 presidential election by 537 out of a total of almost six million votes.

In his ruling, Justice Antonin Scalia stated that continuing to recount the votes risked illegitimising Mr Bush's presidency.

Key times (AEDT) to watch for during the US election:

11am - Most of Florida closes, and Georgia closes too.

12 noon - all of Florida closes. Watch for results in the Panhandle. If there is a swing back to Biden, this could be a big indicator.

2pm - pretty much all other important states will have closed and counting will begin.

Some states, such as Florida and Ohio, allow this process to start weeks before election day, so the votes are ready to be counted.

Other states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, don't allow early votes to be processed until polling day.

Those crucial counts could take days.

https://www.axios.com/trump-claim-election-victory-ballots-97eb12b9-5e35-402f-9ea3-0ccfb47f613f.html

https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-election-2020-what-is-red-mirage-and-what-happens-donald-trump-calls-victory-early/b5ed81be-2229-46f9-ae44-cfac4a014062

If there's a disputed US election result, Australia must take action: Rudd, Turnbull

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A disputed US election result could spark an Australian debate over whether to speak up for a smooth transition of power amid growing fears of violence if Donald Trump is thrown from office.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd said the Morrison government should prepare to add its voice to global calls for all sides to respect the election result, saying a crisis would only help strategic rivals such as China and Russia.

But the US ambassador to Australia, Arthur Culvahouse, said leaders had taken an oath to defend the country's constitution and would respect the result.

Mr Trump has warned of fraud on polling day and declined to commit to stepping down if he loses to Democrat candidate Joe Biden.

Mr Rudd said Australia would usually avoid comment on internal electoral processes in other democracies but the Morrison government might have to take a different approach.

"If, however, a leading democracy begins to suspend its normal democratic processes, then I think it is incumbent on Australia to add its voice," he said. "And that's because the issues at stake for Australia are so fundamental. It will depend, of course, on the nature of the actual outcome.

"We cannot simply stand idly by while the good name of democracy gets flushed down the toilet."

Mr Rudd said the Australian national interest lay in defending the election result against any threats that undermined confidence in US democratic institutions and thereby helped rivals such as China and Russia.

"It would represent manna from heaven from the point of view of authoritarian capitalist systems around the world, principally China," he said of a disputed result.

"It would enable them to say, both at home and abroad, that the fountainhead of 20th century liberal democracy, the United States of America, has failed in its most elementary tests to ensuring a smooth transition of government."

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull also expressed concern over a potential refusal to hand over power.

"This is one of the reasons why people are becoming increasingly apprehensive about the way Trump is challenging, in a prospective manner, the legitimacy of the election," he said.

"Once you start challenging the legitimacy of your democratic processes, then you're basically undermining the legitimacy of your country, of your democracy."

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the democratic process should be respected, although he did not name either presidential candidate.

"I am concerned at any questioning that occurs about democratic values and democratic processes," he said. "They are precious and they should not be undermined by any leader."

(continued)

>>11422013

2/2

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne responded with caution on October 23 when asked if she was confident Mr Trump would hand over power in an orderly way if he lost.

"What I can say, and what I absolutely believe, is that the Australian people and the Australian government are confident that we will have a very positive, very productive relationship with the United States continuing into the future, as we have for well over a century," Senator Payne told the ABC.

Mr Culvahouse, who was appointed ambassador by Mr Trump two years ago, expressed concern about the violence.

"The fact that people are planning for violence is concerning, I wish it weren't the case," he said at the US embassy in Canberra on Tuesday morning.

"But look, our '68 election, our '72 elections were very contentious. Politics in the US is a rough business, in part because we don't have compulsory voting so much of what's going on is to drive turnout.

"I've been involved in the hurly-burly and I can suggest counterparts to almost everything that's been said from back over the past 50 years.

"I don't think there'll be replication of the worst days of the '60s and '70s and that's my hope and my prayer."

The International Crisis Group this week said global leaders should prepare to call for a smooth transfer if Mr Trump lost the election.

"Trump might try to declare victory pre-emptively on November 3, claiming that only votes tabulated that day should count, and pressuring his foreign counterparts to recognise his purported success," wrote the group's president, Robert Malley, and senior director Stephen Pomper.

"They must resist doing so. Until one candidate concedes or the process has run its course, foreign officials should refrain from making any congratulatory calls.

"And should things take a turn for the worse, those with direct channels to Trump and his inner circle should send a clear message: 'If you interfere with the vote count or refuse to accept a peaceful transfer of power, you will be on your own'."

Mr Malley and Mr Pomper are former members of the Obama administration.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/if-there-s-a-disputed-us-election-result-australia-must-take-action-rudd-turnbull-20201103-p56b22.html

Germany refuses to turn a 'blind eye' to China, teams up with Australia

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German officers are expected to be deployed with the Australian Navy and a German frigate will patrol the Indian Ocean under Berlin's plan to manage China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the German Defence Minister, said the Indo-Pacific had become crucial to the world’s well-being.

"We believe that Germany needs to mark its position in the region," she said in an exclusive interview.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, popularly known by her initials AKK, said that Europe had become increasingly aware of China's economic agenda and geopolitical tactics in the past year.

"China is an important trading partner for Germany and we have strong economic ties which are in the interest of both sides," she said.

"At the same time, we do not turn a blind eye on unequal investment conditions, aggressive appropriation of intellectual property, state-subsidised distortion of competition or attempts to exert influence by means of loans and investments."

In 2018 the 58-year-old became the secretary general of the Christian Democratic Union, Germany's largest political party. Subsequently she was touted as a successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, in February she announced she would not run for chancellor in the expected 2021 election and would relinquish the party leadership.

Kramp-Karrenbauer is the first German minister to confirm publicly that restrictions on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei would effectively exclude the company from Germany's 5G network.

"Germany is, in principle, open to investment from all sides. But if the technology offered to us is not beyond reproach, it cannot be used," she said.

"The political ramifications would simply be too grave. China is a country that understands very well the political dimension of IT networks and data flows. I am sure our counterparts in Beijing understand that we Europeans can only operate technology we trust."

Australia was the first western country to ban Huawei over national security concerns in 2018. The United States and Britain have since followed suit.

Kramp-Karrenbauer will speak at a virtual Australian Strategic Policy Institute event co-hosted by the Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung foundation on Thursday evening alongside Australia’s Defence Minister Linda Reynolds.

She said a German naval presence in the Indo-Pacific would help to safeguard the rules-based international order. The region stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Coral Sea and includes India, China, Japan and Australia.

"We hope to be able to deploy next year," she said. "We will be spending more on defence in 2021 than in 2020 despite the fact that [coronavirus] has hit our budgets. Now the key is to translate this into real muscle."

(continued)

>>11422350

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Kramp-Karrenbauer would not comment specifically on whether the frigate would conduct freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea, where China has made territorial claims that are disputed by countries across Asia, the European Union, Australia and the US.

"Given the rising security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, it is my goal to intensify our bilateral and multilateral collaboration. That could include, for example, the embarkation of German officers on Australian Navy units – a project that is being negotiated as we speak," she said.

Germany is working within NATO to expand relations with like-minded states such as Australia in the Indo-Pacific, Kramp-Karrenbauer confirmed. The alliance has historically involved 30 North American and European countries.

"We share the same values, principles and interests. As a consequence, we stand united against those who challenge us," she said.

"I am convinced territorial disputes, violations of international law and China’s ambitions for global supremacy can only be approached multilaterally."

The comments by Kramp-Karrenbauerare are the most direct by a German or European minister on China to date. China is Germany's largest trading partner and Germany has historically opted for a more cautious foreign policy and defence outlook since World War II.

Merkel has faced criticism from German MPs and within her party for not speaking out strongly enough on Beijing’s new security law imposed in Hong Kong and the detainment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.

Europe is also increasingly concerned about the future of Taiwan after Beijing imposed new national security laws on Hong Kong, increased its military presence in the Taiwan strait and released a stream of propaganda videos preparing the Chinese public for a potential invasion.

The Chinese Communist Party reinserted the word “peaceful” in its desire to unify with Taiwan through its Five Year Plan last week, after omitting it in May.

"Anything outside a peaceful settlement of issues across the Taiwan Strait would be seen as a major failure of statecraft," said Kramp-Karrenbauer. "A purely military logic in this confrontation would produce only losers."

The Defence Minister, who was member of the German Bundestag for almost two decades and the head of her state of Saarland between 2011 and 2018, said that China's own recent actions, rather than increasing pressure from the United States, had triggered a "rethink across Europe".

"What will be crucial, regardless of the outcome of the [Wednesday AEDT] US presidential election, is whether the West can be more unified in its dealings with Beijing," she said.

"We have always had our tiffs across the Atlantic. That won’t change. What’s key is that we get the big stuff right. China is big stuff."

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/germany-refuses-to-turn-a-blind-eye-to-china-teams-up-with-australia-20201102-p56apf.html

Coronavirus: Dozens arrested at Melbourne anti-lockdown protest

Violence erupted at an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne on Tuesday, despite the city enjoying its first week of freedom from harsh restrictions since stage four lockdown was implemented.

Police and protesters clashed at Parliament House on Tuesday, with capsicum spray used and protesters forced to the ground and arrested.

The rally started at 12pm in the city centre on Melbourne Cup Day, a public holiday in Victoria.

It escalated to violent clashes in the street in front of Parliament House on Spring Street about 1.30pm.

One man who was arrested claimed police were trespassing as he scuffled with officers telling him to stop resisting.

Another yelled “I can’t breathe” as he was pinned to the ground by five police.

He appeared unharmed as he was led away in handcuffs.

Protesters also turned on the media and chanted, “tell the truth”.

The persistent anti-lockdown protesters said they “will not forget” Melbourne’s strict 112-day measures as they descended on Parliament House for another rally.

Hundreds were seen gathered at the base of Parliament steps in Melbourne, demanding Premier Dan Andrews resign.

Protesters carried signs saying “don’t trust the government” and chanted for police to join them in their rally.

Dozens were seen being arrested, who formed a circle around the protesters and were earlier seen deploying capsicum spray.

Organisers of the demonstration planned for 12pm on Melbourne Cup Day said they were carrying on even after the citywide lockdown was lifted to call for the Premier to resign.

They said they believe not enough of the coronavirus restrictions have been eased and are calling for greater freedoms.

“We will keep fighting (until) Daniel Andrews is gone,” they said.

“Daniel Andrews presided over the worst response to the pandemic of any state leader by an extraordinary margin.

“We will not forget. Of all the Australian states and territories, Victoria endured the harshest and longest lockdowns.”

On Monday, a single message in an encrypted thread being used to communicate to the hundreds of protesters read: “Cup Day. Midday. Parliament. This isn’t enough, Dan.”

By 2.20pm on Tuesday the protest appeared to have fizzled out.

The remaining 100 demonstrators were arrested and taken away individually by public order response police.

About a handful remained chanting at police into the afternoon.

After the rally dispersed, protesters discussed planning another action on social media.

One of the group organisers told the others in a chat, “Next time we’re thinking the shrine again”.

An anti-lockdown protest on October 23 which started at the Shrine of Remembrance in the Melbourne CBD drew hundreds and also ended in dramatic clashes between protesters and police.

Victoria Police said on Tuesday morning it was aware of the planned rally and would be running a significant public order operation in response.

“Everyone has a right to protest peacefully, as long as it is in accordance with the chief health officer directions and does not impact the rest of the community, who also have the right to go about their daily business,” a spokeswoman said.

“Anyone coming into the city in blatant breach of the directions or looking to disrupt others, create conflict and incite violence can expect a very firm response from police.

“The chief health officer directions are very clear for the need to avoid groups of more than 10 gathering in public places across metropolitan Melbourne to prevent the spread of coronavirus.”

A police officer had to be taken to hospital during the last anti-lockdown protest on October 23 after clashes between cops and protesters turned ugly.

Sixteen people were arrested and 96 were fined.

https://twitter.com/jackpayn/status/1323450951227772928

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/coronavirus-dozens-arrested-at-melbourne-antilockdown-protest/news-story/330a00e5780a8afe229d094385110e7a

Police target known arsonists as danger season begins in parts of SA

Police are targeting known firebugs — including those still in jail and soon to be released — in a bid to prevent bushfires as the danger season begins.

South Australian police are turning up the heat on known arsonists in an operation aiming to stamp out bushfire threats.

As the fire danger season has begun in some parts of the state, officers from Operation Nomad will work to stop deliberate, reckless and negligent acts that have the potential to cause a bushfire.

Patrols will be deployed on total fire ban days — which includes severe, extreme and catastrophic fire danger ratings — throughout the season.

Acting Assistant Commissioner John Venditto said known arsonists would be a focus as well as preventing accidental bushfires that could be avoided, with police acting in an educative role.

There are currently 83 people of interest that SA Police will continue to monitor, including some currently in jail who may be released in coming months.

“When the temperature rises and there are high risk areas, so does the police resources directed in those areas,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Venditto said.

“The public will see an overemphasis of police vehicles guided by the fire ban districts … (and) a lot of police activity as a deterrent and highly visible presence.”

After last summer’s tragic blazes, prosecutions commenced against 39 people, with one-third of those criminal charges, he said.

Penalties for lighting bushfires or maintaining a fire in the open range from one year behind bars plus a $5000 fine to 20 years imprisonment.

“Many fires which started last year were not criminally motivated and classified as non-suspicious – this can be anything from use of power tools or farming equipment when restrictions are in place, to parking a hot car on long grass during summer.”

To assist SA Police, 42 SES personnel will also be involved in the operation.

Police and Emergency Services Minister Vincent Tarzia said the paid volunteers strengthened police capability to detect firebugs.

“Bushfire prevention is a community effort and while SA Police will proactively monitor and detect risky and deliberate bushfire activity, we rely on the information for the public to keep our community safe,” Mr Tarzia said.

As of November 1, the Fire Danger Season began in the Eastern Eyre Peninsula, Flinders, North East Pastoral, North West Pastoral and West Coast districts.

In the Lower Eyre Peninsula, Mid North, Murraylands, Riverland, Upper South East and Yorke Peninsula, the season will begin on November 15 while the Lower South East will begin on December 1.

A start date is yet to be announced for metropolitan Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and the Mount Lofty Ranges.

Anyone who sees anything suspicious or activity that increases the risk of bushfires should contact the police assistance line on 131 444 or to report anonymously, phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/police-target-known-firebugs-as-danger-season-begins-in-parts-of-sa/news-story/41a1f3f0f2d060eb8e8ebda4d1a73ebb

US Embassy Canberra Tweet

“The commitment to the alliance with Australia is bipartisan, it’s strong, it’s enduring, and it will continue regardless of the outcome of the election.” - Ambassador Culvahouse #USwithAUS

https://twitter.com/USAembassyinOZ/status/1323483399214952449

Elise Thomas Tweet

US president-elect camwilson @cameronwilson

I have been thinking about what happens to QAnon and the conspiracy faction of the Republican Party if they lose tomorrow and I think it’s hard to imagine anything but a supercharging of the movement.

https://twitter.com/cameronwilson/status/1323362747237625856

Most conspiracies have an anti-authority element. QAnon has flourished while Republicans hold most of the branches of power. Imagine what’ll happen when Democrats are in charge

https://twitter.com/cameronwilson/status/1323362749573820416

—

Replying to @cameronwilson

It'll be interesting to see how they manage the Q device/character. The whole thing about Q is that they're high up military intel working with Trump. If Trump loses, does fictional Q go with him or stay working with the Deep State?

https://twitter.com/elisethoma5/status/1323363617845075968

Founder of hacktivist group Anonymous is trying to take down far-right cult QAnon

Freya Noble - Nov 3, 2020

The founder of hacktivist group Anonymous has "come out of retirement" to take down far-right conspiracy theorists QAnon.

Aubrey Cottle was unmasked as the mastermind behind the notorious hacker group in a report in The Atlantic in August. The group caused chaos on and offline from the late 2000s.

This week, Cottle is taking part in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on forum site Reddit, and revealed he made the decision to go public to bring "the QAnon game to a conclusion".

What is Aubrey Cottle doing now?

Cottle's AMA covered everything from whether he is married (yes) to the worst thing he uncovered hacking (child pornography).

But his focus going forward is to discredit and de-platform the charlatans crafting this out-of-control ARG (Alternate Reality Game) gone wrong.

"Right now my only end-goal is bringing the QAnon game to a conclusion," he wrote.

When asked how dangerous the group could become, he said: "Given the US is on the verge of a full-blown civil war and these QAnon 'useful idiots' are on the frontlines?

"Extremely (dangerous)."

What is Anonymous?

Anonymous began on internet message board 4chan in the early 2000s and reached its height as an activist/hacking collective with thousands of members by 2012.

The group is know for its signature Guy Fawkes mask from the graphic novel and film V for Vendetta.

One of Anonymous' most notable attacks was on the Church of Scientology, and the group also took on Paypal and Mastercard for blocking WikiLeaks donations in 2010.

Dozens of people have been arrested for their involvement in the group internationally, including two men from Australia.

In 2012, Time called Anonymous one of the "100 most influential people" in the world but it has faded into the background in recent years.

What is QAnon?

QAnon is a far right conspiracy theory group that believe a cabal of Satan-worshipping paedophiles run a global child sex-trafficking ring.

The theory also claims the cabal are plotting against US President Donald Trump, and has attracted high profile supporters.

Members believe that a person or people who use the pseudonym "Q" and claim to be a high-ranking government official "drops" coded information on forums such as 4chan.

None of the group's theories are based in fact and older and more vulnerable people have been lured into spreading the claims of the far-right cult.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/founder-of-anonymous-hacker-group-aubrey-cottle-says-taking-down-qanon-in-reddit-ama/f104e6d5-6f7b-4df2-a178-1821ce921376

>PANIC

>>11414771

Just a funny news clip i picked up yesterday

President Donald Trump Tweet

We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1323864823680126977

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who endorsed QAnon, wins uncontested seat of Georgia in US election

"Wires" / abc.net.au - 4 November 2020

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories in a series of online videos, has won a US House seat representing north-west Georgia.

Her candidacy was bolstered by President Donald Trump, who has called her a "future Republican star".

Ms Greene was heavily favoured in the conservative district even before Democratic challenger Kevin Van Ausdal suddenly dropped out in September, saying he was moving out of state.

Ms Greene is a businesswoman and political newcomer who has gained large followings on social media, in part by posting incendiary videos and comments.

Ms Greene has claimed in online videos that Black and Hispanic men are being held back by "gangs and dealing drugs", alleged an "Islamic invasion" of Government offices, and accused Jewish billionaire George Soros of collaborating with Nazis.

She has also embraced QAnon, a far-right US conspiracy theory centred around the debunked belief that Mr Trump is fighting a secret campaign against "deep state" enemies and a child sex trafficking ring of satanic paedophiles and cannibals.

In more recent videos and posts, she has attacked everything from the Black Lives Matter movement to the use of face masks to protect against coronavirus.

After some of her comments came to light, Ms Greene was condemned by some future House colleagues within her own party, but many other Republicans, including Mr Trump and Republican senator Kelly Loeffler, have embraced her.

She had a blunt message for her detractors in a speech after winning a Republican primary run-off in August: "I will not apologise."

The President took to Twitter then to congratulate Ms Greene.

"Congratulations to future Republican Star Marjorie Taylor Greene on a big Congressional primary win in Georgia against a very tough and smart opponent," Mr Trump tweeted after her primary win.

"Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up — a real WINNER!"

Ms Greene initially started campaigning for a different House seat, challenging Democratic representative Lucy McBath in Georgia's 6th Congressional District, made up of suburbs north of Atlanta.

She switched to the more conservative 14th District after Republican Tom Graves announced he was not seeking re-election.

Democrats were unable to replace Mr Van Ausdal on the ballot because he dropped out too close to the election, leaving Ms Greene essentially unopposed in the race.

The seat has been open since Mr Graves stepped down in October.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-04/us-election-2020-marjorie-taylor-greene-wins-seat-of-georgia/12847590

US election: Australian politicians react as votes continue to be counted to decide next president

9News Staff - Nov 4, 2020

Australian politicians have spoken out against US President Donald Trump's declaration of victory and urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison not to recognise his claim as counting continues in key undecided states.

The race to the White House remains on a knife's edge between Mr Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden with many votes yet to be counted in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Mr Trump has called the election "a fraud on the American public" and urged vote counting to stop.

He said he would take legal action in the Supreme Court over certain ballots.

"Our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation, this is a very big moment, this is a major fraud on our nation," Mr Trump said in a media briefing hours after polls closed across America.

Mr Biden's campaign says it will fight any efforts by Mr Trump to go to the US Supreme Court to prevent ballots from being tabulated.

In the hours since Mr Trump's claims, a number of Australian politicians have taken to social media to express their support for the democratic process.

"Count every vote," former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a simple tweet.

Mr Morrison is yet to publicly comment on Mr Trump's claims.

Labor Senator for South Australia Penny Wong focused on the gravitas of the election and the importance of respecting the political process.

"Americans have voted in historic numbers in this election. They deserve to have their voices heard. The democratic process must be respected, even when it takes time," Ms Wong tweeted.

"It's in Australia's interest that America remains a credible, stable democracy."

Opposition Health Minister Chris Bowen also backed the need for respect.

"If this were a developing democracy, Australia would probably issue a statement about now demanding that rule of law be respected, that every vote be counted, that we will be closely monitoring….," Mr Bowen said.

NSW Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi labelled Mr Trump's stance as "disturbing".

"Donald Trump is a fascist. Tonight's turn of events, disturbing as it is, should not surprise anyone. Hope sanity prevails & all votes are counted," Ms Faruqi tweeted.

"Democracy must not be shut down."

Victorian Greens Senator Janet Rice accused Mr Trump of "trying to steal the US election" and says Mr Morrison "must not recognise Trump's premature claim of victory".

"Australia must wait until the voices of the American people are heard and stand by our democratic values," Senator Rice wrote on Twitter.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/us-election-australian-politicians-and-former-pm-weigh-in-on-donald-trumps-election-claims/ad44e8ed-a6fe-4aac-80ac-20468349cef1

MESSAGE OF ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGANÒ TO AMERICAN CATHOLICS AND TO ALL AMERICANS OF GOOD WILL

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As devout Christians and faithful citizens of the United States of America, you have intense and heartfelt concern for the fate of your beloved country while the final results of the Presidential election are still uncertain.

News of electoral fraud is multiplying, despite the shameful attempts of the mainstream media to censor the truth of the facts in order to give their candidate the advantage. There are states in which the number of votes is greater than the number of voters; others in which the mail-in vote seems to be exclusively in favor of Joe Biden; others in which the counting of ballots has been suspended for no reason or where sensational tampering has been discovered: always and only against President Donald J. Trump, always and only in favor of Biden.

In truth, for months now we have been witnessing a continuous trickle of staggered news, of manipulated or censored information, of crimes that have been silenced or covered up in the face of striking evidence and irrefutable testimony. We have seen the deep state organize itself, well in advance, to carry out the most colossal electoral fraud in history, in order to ensure the defeat of the man who has strenuously opposed the establishment of the New World Order that is wanted by the children of darkness. In this battle, you have not failed, as is your sacred duty, to make your own contribution by taking the side of the Good. Others, enslaved by vices or blinded by infernal hatred against Our Lord, have taken the side of Evil.

Do not think that the children of darkness act with honesty, and do not be scandalized if they operate with deception. Do you perhaps believe that Satan’s followers are honest, sincere, and loyal? The Lord has warned us against the Devil: “He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44).

>>11471969

In these hours, while the gates of Hell seem to prevail, allow me to address myself to you with an appeal, which I trust that you will respond to promptly and with generosity. I ask you to make an act of trust in God, an act of humility and filial devotion to The Lord of Armies. I ask that all of you pray the Holy Rosary, if possible in your families or with your dear ones, your friends, your brothers and sisters, your colleagues, your fellow soldiers. Pray with the abandonment of children who know how to have recourse to their Most Holy Mother to ask her to intercede before the throne of the Divine Majesty. Pray with a sincere soul, with a pure heart, in the certainty of being heard and answered. Ask her – she who is the Help of Christians, Auxilium Christianorum – to defeat the forces of the Enemy; ask her – she who is terrible as an army set in battle array (Song 6:10) – to grant the victory to the forces of Good and to inflict a humiliating defeat on the forces of Evil.

Have your children pray, using the holy words that you have taught them: those confident prayers will rise to God and will not remain unheard. Have the elderly and sick pray, so that they may offer their sufferings in union with the sufferings that Our Lord suffered on the Cross when he shed His Precious Blood for Our Redemption. Have young ladies and women pray, so that they turn to her who is the model of purity and motherhood. And you, men, must also pray: your courage, your honor and your boldness will be refreshed and strengthened. All of you, take up this spiritual weapon, before which Satan and his minions retreat furiously, because they fear the Most Holy Virgin, she who is Almighty by Grace, even more than Almighty God.

Do not allow yourselves to be discouraged by the deceptions of the Enemy, even more so in this terrible hour in which the impudence of lying and fraud dares to challenge Heaven. Our adversaries’ hours are numbered if you will pray, if we will all pray with Faith and with the true ardor of Charity. May the Lord grant that one single devout and faithful voice rise from your homes, your churches, and your streets! This voice will not remain unheard, because it will be the voice of a people that cries out, in the moment when the storm rages most fiercely, “Save us, Lord, we are perishing!” (Mt 8:25).

The days that await us are a precious occasion for all of you, and for those who unite themselves spiritually to you from every part of the world. You have the honor and privilege of being able to participate in the victory of this spiritual battle, to wield the powerful weapon of the Holy Rosary as our fathers did at Lepanto to repel the enemy armies.

>>11471980

Pray with the certainty of Our Lord’s promise: “Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you” (Lk 11:9). The King of Kings, from whom you ask the salvation of your Nation, will reward your Faith. Your testimony, remember this, will touch the heart of Our Lord, multiplying the heavenly Graces which are, more than ever, indispensable in order to achieve victory.

May my appeal, which I address to you and to all people who recognize the Lordship of God, find you to be generous apostles and courageous witnesses of the spiritual rebirth of your beloved country, and with it the entire world. Non praevalebunt.

God bless and protect the United States of America!

One Nation under God

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

Former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America

November 4, 2020

Saint Charles Borromeo

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/vigano-america-is-in-midst-of-colossal-electoral-fraud-we-must-pray-now-to-defeat-enemy

https://www.lifesitenews.com/images/pdfs/Message_Election_2020_-_4_Nov_2020.pdf

Australia expresses 'great confidence' in US institutions as Trump challenges votes in pivotal states

Scott Morrison says Australia will ‘respect the decisions’ of the American people as other government members call for all votes to be counted

Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison says he has great confidence in American institutions to deal with the challenges posed by Donald Trump calling for the vote count to be stopped.

Asked on Thursday whether he believed Trump was trying to undermine democracy with his unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and the attempts to stop the vote count, Morrison pointed to his cordial relationship with the Republican incumbent, and said Australia was not a participant in the presidential election, it was “a partner with the United States”.

“We respect the decisions that the American people make in their democracy and we’ll be patient and we’ll await the outcome of their process,” the prime minister told reporters in Sydney.

“It’s not for me to run a commentary on those things and I won’t,” Morrison said.

“I work with the president of the United States as the prime minister of Australia, and I enjoy a very productive working relationship with the president, and I will always put Australia’s interest first in that relationship.”

Asked by a reporter how concerned he was about the attempt to stop the vote count in one of the greatest democracies in the world, Morrison backed American institutions to weather any political crisis.

“The great thing about the United States, it is a great democracy and it does have great institutions and we have a deep and wide relationship with the United States which is incredibly important to Australia,” he said.

“We are both like-minded and like in so many ways – our values, our partnerships, economics, security … and I have great confidence in the democracy of the United States and I have great confidence in their institutions, and the thing about great institutions and democracies is they deal with whatever challenges come, just like our own does.”

Morrison pointed to the record voter turnout in the contest as evidence democracy in the US was not imperilled. “A great democracy, having a great election with the greatest turnout it’s ever seen in its history is actually a demonstration of democracy working.”

Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, was more direct on Thursday. She said all votes in the contest should be counted, and it was her expectation that would be the case.

“There have been hotly contested and difficult elections in the US before, but those systems and processes that are in place have always ensured that every vote is counted, and they should be, and I’m sure that they will deliver an outcome,” Payne said.

“What is important is that every vote is counted. And I’m sure that they will be. I’m absolutely confident that they will be.”

Trump’s baseless declaration on Wednesday night that there had been electoral fraud in the contest, his call for the vote count to stop, and the foreshadowing of supreme court action, triggered alarm in Australia and around the world.

Australia’s shadow foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, rebuked Trump without naming him, and said American voters “deserve to have their voices heard”.

“Americans have voted in historic numbers in this election,” the Labor senator said. “They deserve to have their voices heard. The democratic process must be respected, even when it takes time. It’s in Australia’s interest that America remains a credible, stable democracy.”

The Labor leader Anthony Albanese adopted a similar diplomatic line about the strength of American institutions to Morrison when he addressed reporters in Sydney on Thursday.

“I’m very confident that American institutions and, indeed, the American people will come through this,” the Labor leader said. “Of course everyone would like to see results clearly on election night, but often that doesn’t happen.”

But the Labor leader was more direct on social media. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re the world’s oldest democracy or the world’s youngest, the people’s right to be heard must be respected – and the democratic process must be allowed to run its course.”

“Australia should always speak out on the democratic values we hold dear.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/05/australia-expresses-great-confidence-in-us-institutions-as-trump-challenges-votes-in-pivotal-states

First person charged under foreign interference laws

A 65-year-old Melbourne man has become the first person in Australia to be charged under foreign interference laws.

The Australia Federal Police allege the man, Duong Di Sanh, has a relationship with a foreign intelligence agency but have not named which country.

The man was charged with preparing for a foreign interference offence, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

He appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court this afternoon where it is understood he was granted bail and will return to court in March 2021.

Police said the charge followed a year-long investigation by the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce which was led by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the AFP.

AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney said the man was the first to be charged with a foreign interference offence since the laws were passed in 2018.

"The CFI Taskforce has taken preventative action to disrupt this individual at an early stage," Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.

"Foreign interference is contrary to Australia's national interest, it goes to the heart of our democracy.

"It is corrupting and deceptive, and goes beyond routine diplomatic influence practiced by governments."

The laws, which were rushed through Parliament in 2018, were designed to strengthen foreign espionage offences, and force people working for foreign companies and governments to declare their activities.

Intelligence chiefs have repeatedly warned that the threat of foreign interference has been intensifying.

In its annual report, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) warns "almost every sector of Australian society is a potential target of foreign interference, and the threat manifests itself in different but equally unacceptable ways".

In June, the Australian Federal Police and intelligence agents raided the home and parliamentary office of NSW Upper House MP Shaoquett Moselmane as part of a separate foreign interference investigation into his part-time staffer John Zhang.

Mr Zhang has denied any wrongdoing and launched a High Court challenge to the validity of the investigation. Mr Moselmane has said that he is not a focus of that investigation.

Australian authorities also revoked the two visas of two Chinese scholars and raided the homes of four Chinese journalists.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-05/first-person-charged-foreign-interference-laws/12852974

—

Melbourne man charged with preparing for foreign interference

The AFP has today charged a 65-year-old Melbourne man with preparing for a foreign interference offence, contrary to section 92.4 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth). The maximum penalty for this offence is 10 years imprisonment.

The man appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today.

The AFP executed a number of search warrants in the greater Melbourne area on 16 October 2020.

It follows a year-long investigation by the Counter Foreign Interference (CFI) Taskforce, led by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the AFP, working with taskforce partners into the man’s relationship with a foreign intelligence agency.

AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney said the man was the first person in Australia to be charged with a foreign interference offence since the Commonwealth Parliament passed the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill in 2018.

“The CFI Taskforce has taken preventative action to disrupt this individual at an early stage,” Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.

“Foreign interference is contrary to Australia’s national interest, it goes to the heart of our democracy.

“It is corrupting and deceptive, and goes beyond routine diplomatic influence practiced by governments.’’

The matter remains an ongoing investigation.

As the matter is before the court, no further comment will be made.

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/melbourne-man-charged-preparing-foreign-interference

Resignations in the news

‘Totally dysfunctional’: CFMEU boss Michael O’Connor resigns

CFMEU national secretary Michael O’Connor has quit, declaring the union “totally dysfunctional”.

Mr O’Connor, who has been one of the country’s most influential union leaders, resigned after months of bitter divisions within the militant union and will be succeeded by maritime official, Chris Cain.

The CFMEU’s construction and maritime divisions had used their numbers on the union’s national executive in recent months to pass no-confidence motions against Mr O’Connor to try to force him out.

His resignation follows a major split with the union’s Victorian construction division secretary, John Setka.

Supporters of Mr O’Connor have said the no-confidence motions are “revenge” by Mr Setka who remains angry that he did not publicly support him after Mr Setka was charged with harassing his wife and the ALP moved to expel him.

Mr O’Connor, a significant figure within the ALP and brother of Labor frontbencher Brendan O’Connor, said on Thursday that he had tendered his resignation as national secretary but would continue as head of the union’s manufacturing division.

“Sadly, what has been an effective organisation, united in purpose is now totally dysfunctional,” he said.

“The organisation has now failed the test of political maturity with people unwilling to work together, listen to each other or compromise for the sake of the organisation and its members.

“We have held this organisation together through some tough times, but unfortunately the differences are irreconcilable.”

Mr O’Connor retained the backing of the union’s manufacturing and mining and energy divisions.

Tony Maher, the union’s mining and energy division president, said on Thursday said Mr O’Connor’s departure was a “real blow”.

“His skill and patience in steering and uniting our large, complex and diverse union will be sorely missed,” Mr Maher said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/totally-dysfunctional-cfmeu-boss-michael-oconnor-resigns/news-story/b697271b455ab2abfae711cc682f66ea

D-Day for China trade ban fears

Aussie producers of red wine, copper ore, sugar and timber are staring down a ban from China despite denials from Beijing.

Scott Morrison has responded to fears China could slap a wide-ranging trade ban on Australian products.

Exporters of seafood, red wine, copper ore, sugar, timber and barley are on alert following reports that products arriving after Friday will not be cleared by customs.

Beijing authorities rejected claims of a discriminatory ban, prompting the Prime Minister to say he would accept their response on “face value”.

This is despite state-owned media reporting that a visit from Australia’s ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher, came after “a halt on several categories of Australian goods”.

But Mr Morrison said China denied any ban.

“I can only can take that at face value, out of the respect of the comprehensive strategic partnership we have with China,” he said.

“Those issues are matters that the trade minister and I, obviously, have concerns about.

“(We) are working closely with industry to pursue the appropriate channels within the relationship … to get some clarity and some resolution.”

Australia exports $1.07bn worth of wine to China and $3.4bn of copper.

The sweeping trade strike threatens to wipe millions from those and other industries.

China’s state-sponsored Global Times wrote on Wednesday that Mr Fletcher’s attendance at China’s International Import Expo reflected Australia’s “need for the Chinese market” amid worsening diplomatic ties.

“Analysts warned that Chinese consumers’ confidence in Australian products would significantly drop if Australia continues to sabotage bilateral relations, which would cost Australia its best and biggest market, jobs and an opportunity to quickly recover from the pandemic,” it wrote.

East China Normal University Australian Studies Centre director Chen Hong told the outlet that if Australia continued to sabotage bilateral relations, “it will pay an unbearable price”.

“Australia has been releasing messages urging its business community and international education community to ‘diversify’ its market, which encourages and promotes the so-called ‘decoupling’ from China,” he said in the report.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/dday-for-china-trade-ban-fears/news-story/5660478d1cdb802ca139684841057e23

Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz who baptised Justin Bieber sacked

The Hillsong pastor who baptised pop star Justin Bieber has been sacked due to a series of ‘moral failures’ it has been revealed in an email to members.

The Hillsong pastor who baptised pop star Justin Bieber has been sacked.

The action to fire New York pastor Carl Lentz followed the recent discovery of “moral failures”, Australian pastor and Hillsong founder Brian Houston wrote in an email to Hillsong East Coast church members.

“I am very sad to inform you that Hillsong Church has terminated the employment of Pastor Carl Lentz,” Mr Houston wrote.

“I know this will come a shock to you, but please know that this action was not taken lightly and was done in the best interests of everyone, including Pastor Carl.

“The action has been taken following ongoing discussions in relation to leadership issues and breaches of trust, plus a recent revelation of moral failures.”

Mr Houston said it was not appropriate to detail events that led to the decision.

“You can be assured that this decision was made in order to honour God and pastorally care for you, our East Coast family, Pastor Carl and his family.”

Mr Houston added he had “no doubt in my heart” it was the right course to take even though it brought personal sadness, given he has known Pastor Carl more than 20 years.

“As sudden as this feels to us, we must remember that it’s not a shock to God,” he said.

Mr Lentz baptised pop star Justin Bieber in NBA star Tyson Chandler’s bathtub, telling Oprah Winfrey on her SuperSoul Sunday program: “It was probably one of the most special things I’ve been a part of”.

Mr Lentz has been described as the singer’s friend and confidant and the pair were pictured together at the church’s convention in Sydney in 2017.

The Hillsong NYC pastor is credited with making the Pentecostal Christian organisation trendy with LA and New York’s millennial socialites and celebrities, with thousands of New Yorkers turning out to the church every week.

In a statement to church members, Mr Houston thanked Mr Lentz and his wife, Laura, for their service.

“They have a heart for people and we are confident that after a time of rest and restoration, God will use Carl in another way outside of Hillsong church. In terminating his tenure, we in no way want to diminish the good work he did here.”

Hillsong was founded in Australia in 1983 but in recent years has branched into the United States and Britain.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/hillsong-pastor-carl-lentz-who-baptised-justin-bieber-sacked/news-story/b388e38e5614d7fee513b90937958481

https://twitter.com/AndrewBeckNYC/status/1324117813502578689

>>11474232

US election 2020: Joe Hockey’s voter fraud comments are dangerous

CAROLINE OVERINGTON - NOVEMBER 5, 2020

Joe Hockey is wrong.

Moreover, his remarks this morning were alarming.

On Ben Fordham’s 2GB breakfast show, Australia former ambassador to Washington said there had “for sure” been electoral fraud in the US overnight.

This closely echoes Donald Trump’s words: “This is a fraud on the American public.”

Hockey added: “There’s plenty of good reason to have litigation.”

This is such a damaging and dangerous thing for Australia’s immediate past top official to say.

Where is the evidence?

Well, Hockey said, Washington DC had voted 93 per cent for Biden, and “I find it hard to believe”.

“Even my best booth in Longueville (NSW) I got 83 per cent,” he added, all jocular. Asked if there must therefore have been fraud, he said: “For sure.”

This is just ignorant.

The vote in DC has always been heavily Democratic.

No Republican has ever won there.

In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton received 90.5 per cent of the vote.

In 2012, Barack Obama received 90.9 per cent of the vote.

In 2008, Obama got 92. 5 per cent.

It’s entirely plausible that Biden got 93 per cent.

How is it that Joe Hockey seems not to know this?

Haven’t we only just stopped paying him -handsomely – to represent our interests there?

But let’s put that aside for a moment.

Australian officials, and ex-officials, should not be making mischief of this kind.

The path to the presidency in the US is properly via the ballot box.

The US is as we speak a nation under immense stress, with half the votes going one way, and half the other way.

Australia’s role here isn’t to plant seeds of doubt, and disunity.

The last thing Australia as a nation needs is headlines across the world: “Australia’s former top official sides with Trump on allegations of fraud!”

We are not meant to have a dog in the fight.

We can get on with whomever they choose.

In the meantime, serious commentators, respectful of democracy, are urging the vote-counters to simply carry on.

Count every vote.

Keep going and do not stop and not be distracted. Give the people their US birthright, which is to decide.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/us-election-2020-joe-hockeys-voter-fraud-comments-are-dangerous/news-story/44b62904cc5c72added7ec6ddfa22a00

Pope moves against secretariat of state amid finance scandal

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has given the Vatican secretariat of state three months to transfer all of its financial holdings to another Vatican office following its bungled management of hundreds of millions of euros in donations and investments that are now the subject of a corruption investigation.

Francis summoned the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, his deputy as well as the Vatican’s top finance officials for a meeting Wednesday and gave them a three-month deadline to complete the transfer, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

The Vatican released the letter that Francis wrote to Parolin on Aug. 25 in which he announced he was stripping the secretariat of state of its ability to independently manage the money.

Francis cited the “reputational risks” incurred by the department’s previous investments in speculative operations that have cost the Holy See tens of millions of euros, some of it money from the Peter’s Pence donations from the faithful.

Francis’ decision was an embarrassing blow to the secretariat of state’s standing as the most powerful Holy See office, reducing it to essentially any other department that must propose a budget and have it approved and monitored by others.

Its financial holdings are now to be held by the Vatican’s treasury office, known as APSA and incorporated into the Holy See’s consolidated budget, Francis wrote. The economy ministry will oversee spending.

The outcome is essentially that which was sought years ago by Cardinal George Pell, Francis’ first economy minister who clashed with the secretariat of state over his financial reforms and efforts to wrest control of the department’s off-the-books funds. He famously boasted in 2014 that he had “discovered” hundreds of millions of euros that were “tucked away in particular sectional accounts and did not appear on the balance sheet” — a reference to the secretariat of state’s in-house asset portfolio.

Pell had to abandon those reform efforts in 2017 to face trial for sexual abuse in his native Australia, but he was acquitted and returned triumphantly last month to Rome, where he was granted a well-publicized audience with Francis.

Francis moved against his own secretariat of state amid a year-long investigation by Vatican prosecutors into the office’s 350-million-euro investment into a London real estate venture.

Prosecutors have accused several officials in the department of abusing their authority for their involvement in the deal, as well several Italian middlemen of allegedly fleecing the Vatican of tens of millions of euros in fees.

The scandal has exposed the incompetence of the Vatican’s monsignors in managing money, since they signed away voting shares in the deal and agreed to pay exorbitant fees needlessly to Italians who were known in business circles for their shady dealings.

In his letter to Parolin, Francis cited the London venture as well as the secretariat of state’s investment in a Malta-based investment vehicle, Centurion Global Fund, headed by the Vatican’s longtime external money manager.

According to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Centurion invested in such ventures as the “Rocketman” film on Elton John as well as a holding company headed by Lapo Elkann, one of the more flamboyant members of Italy’s Agnelli clan.

https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-320ffb610bd191cd22b7ee49b3a56819

>>11479859

Declaration of the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, 05.11.2020

The Holy Father, yesterday evening, 4 November 2020, presided at a meeting attended by His Eminence Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin; Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute of the Secretariat of State; Bishop Fernando Vergez, secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State; Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See; and Fr. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. The purpose of the meeting was to promote the implementation of what the Holy Father requested by letter (attached) to the Secretary of State, dated 25 August 2020, on the transfer of the administrative management of the funds of the Secretariat of State to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and their control to the Secretariat for the Economy.

At the same meeting, the Pope constituted the "Commission for transfer and control", which will come into operation with immediate effect, in order to complete the provisions of the letter to the Secretary of State over the next three months. This Commission is made up of Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute of the Secretariat of State; Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See; and Fr. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/11/05/201105b.html

http://press.vatican.va/content/dam/salastampa/image/Lettera%20Santo%20Padre%20al%20Segretario%20di%20Stato.pdf

>>11479859

>>11479906

The Pope has cleaned up Vatican cash on Cardinal George Pell’s orders

Advice from Cardinal George Pell has led The Pope to strip funds from a top-secret bank inside the Vatican that hid millions in Swiss accounts.

The Pope has stripped funds from a secretive bank inside the Vatican, as he follows through on financial transparency recommendations made by Australian Cardinal George Pell.

The Secretariat of State, which operated its own finance arm inside the Holy See, has now had its cash moved into one central bank in the Vatican.

Pope Francis chaired a high powered meeting in Rome on Wednesday night local time, where the money was signed over.

The meeting followed through on an official letter that the Pope sent on August 25 demanding the clean up.

A Vatican statement said that the meeting dealt with “the transfer of the administrative management of the funds of the Secretariat of State to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and their control to the Secretariat for the Economy.”

“At the same meeting, the Pope constituted the “Commission for transfer and control”, which will come into operation with immediate effect, in order to complete the provisions of the letter to the Secretary of State over the next three months,” the statement said.

The move comes after Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu resigned following claims about questionable financial deals, including a $363 million investment in a commercial property deal in London that went sour.

The money for the London deal came from the Secretariat of State, where Cardinal Becciu was a key figure until his shock departure in September.

Cardinal Pell had moved to Rome in 2014 and had raised concerns about the money in the Secretariat of State’s control, suggesting that it be moved into one central fund for transparency and oversight.

The Vatican’s former chief auditor, Libero Milone, blew the whistle on the Secretariat’s finances, after he found hundreds of millions of dollars hidden in Swiss bank accounts.

Mr Milone was accused of “spying” in 2017, but the Vatican withdraw all charges the following year.

“Some people got worried that I was about to uncover something I shouldn’t see,” he told London’s Financial Times in 2019.

Cardinal Pell has returned to Rome to clean out his apartment, but it was expected he would stay for several months after he won a High Court appeal to quash a conviction on child sex abuse charges that he had denied.

He spent more than 400 days in prison before he was acquitted.

Cardinal Becciu has denied any wrongdoing in regards to finances at the Vatican.

He has also denied reports in Italian media that he authorised more than $1.1 million in payments to Australia that were linked to Cardinal Pell’s case.

One of Cardinal Pell’s complainants has denied he received any payments.

Austrac, the Australian government authority responsible for investigating money laundering, has probed the payments and passed information on to Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police.

Victoria Police said last month that it would not investigate the payments.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/the-pope-has-cleaned-up-vatican-cash-on-cardinal-george-pells-orders/news-story/933cad90527fb22b3aeecb0b78759556

David Duchovny on the election, his new anti-Trump single, and if Fox Mulder would join QAnon

Yahoo Entertainment - Nov 6, 2020

David Duchovny took to songwriting roughly 10 years ago and is about to release his third album, "Gestureland" which includes his new anti-Trump single, "Layin' on the Tracks."

The actor and recording artist spoke with Yahoo Entertainment the day after the election, when results were still very much in flux.

"I can't put up with another four years of this guy," Duchovny said, adding that he went to bed depressed but woke up with renewed hope that Joe Biden may win.

Duchovny also weighed in on one of his most beloved characters, Fox Mulder of "The X-Files," who was an avid conspiracy theorist. With misinformation and conspiracy theories abounding on social media, Duchovny thought Mulder would find fertile ground in today's world.

"I'd be sitting here going, 'So Mulder, he'd be like a QAnon [member]?'" he said. "And that bothers me. And I'd like to think that's not true … because Mulder was on to something true."

He added, "[But] the QAnon people would say the same thing, they'd say, 'we're on to something true.'"

https://sports.yahoo.com/david-duchovny-election-anti-trump-200600731.html

David Duchovny on the election, his new anti-Trump single, and how Fox Mulder would adapt to 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agce0FTy-3w

Layin' On The Tracks - (Official Lyric Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjgPHPAPrIA

The unchecked disinformation pandemic driving America to the edge

It's not just fringe groups spreading dangerous conspiracies that benefit Donald Trump — Australian media is playing a central role too.

DAVID HARDAKER - NOV 06, 2020

1/2

In a presidency marked by a daily assault on the truth one set of figures stands out: by July this year, one third of Americans did not believe the official death toll from COVID-19, even as infections and hospitalisations surged to a new high.

The figures from polling company Ipsos are an indicator of the central role which misinformation and conspiracy theory have played in the United States election, as President Donald Trump has taken scepticism of official sources and honed it into a lethal political tool, combined with an appeal to the American ideal of individual freedom. Mask. No mask. Are you with us? Or against us? Do you believe in science or do you believe in me?

Perhaps the worst and most dangerous has been left until last, with Trump peddling the deadly fictions that he has already won the election and that it is now being “stolen” by the Democrats with “illegal” ballots.

In the face of Trump’s attack on the very fundamentals of democracy, Facebook has reacted by removing a Republican-linked account where people have been spreading misinformation about the election process and calling for violence.

The group, called “Stop the Steal”, gained more than 350,000 members in less than 24 hours starting on Wednesday before it was taken down on Thursday afternoon US time, according to US reports.

Meanwhile, Twitter suspended the account of Trump loyalist Steve Bannon who called for Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray to be beheaded “as a warning to federal bureaucrats”.

In Maricopa county, Arizona, where ballots were being counted, the sight of a crazed Trump supporter denouncing “the Biden crime family” — a QAnon conspiracy catch-cry — was as good an epitaph as any of the Trump years.

In 2017, the QAnon conspiracy theory was little more than a fevered idea with its central implausible tenet that Donald Trump was in the White House to cleanse the world of Satan-worshipping paedophiles who had infiltrated the institutions governing America.

Four years on it has mushroomed into a movement with up to 3 million followers according to a study conducted by Facebook. It has also been given the nod of approval by Trump himself.

QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor has been elected as a Republican party representative for Georgia. Among other things she has attacked the Black Lives Matter movement and the use of face masks to protect against COVID-19 as well as alleging that there has been an “Islamic invasion” of government offices and accusing Jewish billionaire George Soros of collaborating with Nazis. Other QAnoners are emerging at state level politics, with Arizona a hotspot.

But who needs QAnon when you’ve got Fox News — America’s most popular cable network?

The Ipsos poll which revealed that 30% of Americans did not believe official COVID-19 death figures also found that Fox News — owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp — had been a key accomplice in spreading the disinformation. Of Fox viewers, 62% doubted the official numbers.

The same poll showed that 30% of those who get their information from online sources doubted the official figures, a finding which suggests that Fox is just as culpable in the war on truth as online actors such as Breitbart and Alex Jones’ conspiracy website Infowars.

In Australia, Murdoch’s Sky News Australia has weighed in with its own Trump-aligned disinformation campaign. A week out from the US elections it ran a special “investigation” into the alleged dealings of Joe Biden’s son Hunter, a story which it claimed was “covered up” by social media.

The story, ignored by US networks, was viewed more than 600,000 times on YouTube drawing grateful comments from Americans complaining about “CNN, NBC, NPR, and the rest of the leftist fake news” who had not covered the story.

(continued)

>>11494091

2/2

On election day, Sky commentators lined up to spout Trump rhetoric. Biden had cognitive issues. He was a lunatic, a prisoner of the left. Star commentator Miranda Devine, beamed in from New York, mimicked Trump’s dangerous line, without challenge, that mail-in ballots meant there would be electoral fraud.

So what of this pile-on? Is there anything to stop the gush of bias and bile? It would appear not.

As a subscription TV broadcaster, Sky News Australia is subject to almost no regulation. It is the closest you can get to a broadcast free-for-all.

Industry regulator the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has done a deal whereby Sky and other subscription broadcasters operate under a code of practice which is drawn up with industry body the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association.

The deal makes special allowance for the nature of subscriber television, which the industry characterises as a “voluntary relationship” between the provider and subscriber, with the subscriber able to exercise freedom of choice.

“In this sense,” the code says, “subscription TV is in the nature of an invited guest, brought into the home in the full and prior knowledge of the guest’s character.”

In theory Sky News should be presented “accurately, fairly and impartially”. It should also “clearly distinguish” news from commentary and analysis. Beyond that Sky commentators are pretty well free to say whatever they like. And if you don’t like it you can cancel.

(Sky is also now available on the free to air WIN television network covering regional Australia. According to ACMA, Sky is subject to the slightly tighter controls of the free-to-air industry code when it is on WIN, but subject to the subscription code when broadcast on Foxtel.)

Sitting atop the disinformation factory that is Sky News Australia are three directors. One of them, Siobhan McKenna, has long had a close business association with Lachlan Murdoch. She is a director of his private investment company Illyria Pty Ltd and other of his interests.

In tandem with Fox, it would appear that subscription television, based on a model of unregulated far-right outrage and misinformation, is the way of the future for Murdoch the younger.

Fox Corp’s September quarter financial results as reported by Crikey yesterday revealed a 2% rise in revenue to US$2.7 billion with Fox News again the star, driving revenues in Fox’s cable business up by around 3% to US$1.325 billion for the quarter.

When it comes to the digital sewer of “news” and conspiracy peddled through Facebook and Twitter, ACMA has absolutely no power at all. Australian regulators have been working up a voluntary code of conduct with the tech giants for over a year, to establish some brake on the AI-driven mess of lies and distortions that are shaping views and actions.

Ultimately though it will be up to big digital to self-regulate — something it has struggled to do, as the Trump presidency has demonstrated.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/11/06/who-needs-qanon-when-you-have-murdoch/

Biden will be more nuanced on China: Bob Carr

Former foreign ministers Bob Carr and Julie Bishop believe the likely next US president Joe Biden will be warmly disposed towards Australia and, while less aggressive, will maintain a firm stance on China.

Mr Carr and Ms Bishop both met Mr Biden in their official capacities when he was vice-president.

Both found him incredibly charming and across his brief, and believe Mr Biden is someone who values personal connections with fellow leaders.

"He was a politician's politician," Mr Carr said of his March 2013 meeting at the White House.

"He is breezy, knowledgeable, and all about making friends."

Mr Carr recounted how Mr Biden in their 2013 meeting had spoken of his "special relationship" with Xi Jinping.

Mr Biden had invested effort in getting to know Mr Xi because at the time both were vice-presidents.

According to Mr Carr, Mr Biden said Mr Xi had questioned him in detail about America's civilian control of the military. Mr Biden had told him "Xi had the look of someone terrified at taking over as President", Mr Carr said.

"I have settled on the view Biden will be quite confident talking to Xi Jinping," Mr Carr said.

"He will be strong and he will know what he wants. There will be areas of co-operation with China that don't exist now, but he will maintain the tech war, I think.

"Biden has probably absorbed the view that China is now a challenger but I don't know what he will do about the two Ts – trade and Taiwan."

During their meeting, Mr Biden told Mr Carr he believed Australia had a good knowledge of China and he admired Australia for its gun control laws.

Mr Carr said the biggest irritant that would loom between Mr Biden and Scott Morrison was climate change.

"He knows Australia is a laggard and he believes sincerely in the climate agenda," Mr Carr said.

Ms Bishop first met Mr Biden in 2012 during the annual Australian American Leadership Dialogue at the vice-president's residence when she was still the opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman.

The event stood out in Ms Bishop's mind as, towards the end of the meeting, a US marine brought out a cake to celebrate her birthday.

"It was extraordinarily charming, and showed his team did their homework on who was attending," Ms Bishop recalled, noting Mr Biden's attention to detail.

"He went out of his way to connect to me. He is very entertaining company."

As foreign minister, Ms Bishop escorted Mr Biden during his July 2016 visit to Melbourne and Sydney, including attending an AFL match at the MCG.

During that trip, Mr Biden gave a speech at Paddington Town Hall where he declared the US was "not going anywhere" and its continued presence in the Indo-Pacific was essential to maintaining peace and stability to preserve economic prosperity.

"He regards Australia very warmly and he recognises the importance of the relationship and the alliance," Ms Bishop said.

"He is the sort of person who would welcome early connection, and Australia is well-positioned to do that."

Ms Bishop said Mr Biden would take a "less combative approach to international relations" and Australia would welcome him as a "constructive supporter of the international rules-based order and the United Nations and its bodies".

As Mr Biden continued to inch towards the White House, Opposition leader Anthony Albanese urged Mr Morrison contact Mr Trump and convey "Australia's strong view that democratic processes must be respected".

Mr Albanese also called on the Prime Minister to stop federal backbenchers George Christensen and Matt Canavan from repeating conspiracy theories casting doubt on the integrity of the election.

"Scott Morrison has said that he has a close relationship with President Trump," Mr Albanese said."

"Scott Morrison, as a democratically elected leader, has a responsibility to support democracy."

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/biden-s-high-regard-for-australia-20201105-p56bs1

Australian politicians watching US count

Senior Australian politicians are closely watching the United States election count but insist the alliance will remain solid regardless of the outcome.

Joe Biden is on course to become US president, but Donald Trump has launched legal action to challenge results in several battleground states.

Mr Trump continues to make baseless claims about "illegal votes" and the election being stolen from him.

As the president peddles conspiracy theories, Mr Biden is urging Americans to remain patient and calm as mail-in ballots are tallied.

"The people will not be silenced, be bullied, or surrender. Every vote must be counted," he said.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese wants the prime minister to contact Mr Trump and convey Australia's view that democratic processes must be respected.

"It is absolutely in Australia's national interest that the United States remains a stable and a credible democracy," he told reporters in Sydney.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton described the protracted US contest as "an amazing spectacle".

"Obviously some matters are heading to the court and votes are shifting around," he said.

"Whatever the outcome, our friendship will be as strong as ever.

"Let's hope it's resolved sooner than later, but that's a question for the US."

Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles is content to wait for a result.

"Elections sometimes take time to get the result, this is playing out as was expected in the US," he said.

"Our job at the moment is to just give them the space to land this, and I'm sure they will."

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said he had confidence in America's democratic institutions to withstand the claims of voter fraud and tampering.

"I have no doubt that elections will be conducted and counted fairly, and that the democratic will of the American people will ultimately be what we see upheld," he told 5AA radio.

"Whether that involves legal challenges or not, we will end up with the president, I'm sure, who reflects what the majority opinion in the US is as a result of votes cast freely and fairly.

"And that's what we should all see."

Senator Birmingham reflected on a concession speech the late John McCain gave after losing to Barack Obama in 2008.

He described the former US senator as a wonderful man and "the greatest president, perhaps, that America never had".

"I think we can all hope that, at the end of this very fraught election period, whoever the loser is, is able to muster the type of strength of character and goodwill to be able to repeat some of those very admirable sentiments."

https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7001109/australian-politicians-watching-us-count/

>>11473631

Melbourne man with Liberal Party links charged under foreign interference laws

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A Melbourne man with suspected links to Beijing's overseas influence arm has become the first person charged under Australia's landmark foreign interference laws.

The arrest of Di Sanh Duong, a former Liberal Party candidate, comes as relations between China and Australia have deteriorated to the worst point in decades as Chinese authorities threaten Australian exporters with billions of dollars in trade strikes.

Mr Duong has previously been named as sitting on the board of key Chinese influence organisation, the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification. Fellow directors have previously included Huang Xiangmo, who Australian security agencies have banned from re-entering Australia.

The arrest will have international reverberations, after other countries have eagerly awaited to see how Australian authorities would prosecute the nation's foreign interference laws passed in 2018.

Mr Duong, who also goes by the Chinese name of Yang Yisheng, was on Thursday charged with preparing an act of foreign interference within Australia after a year-long investigation by counter-espionage agency ASIO and the Australian Federal Police. He faces a maximum of ten years in prison.

Federal police officers raided a number of properties in greater Melbourne on October 16 in connection with the case.

The AFP alleges Mr Duong has a connection to a foreign intelligence agency, but has not named which country.

Mr Duong, 65, ran for the Liberal Party in the state seat of Richmond in 1996, party sources confirmed. Multiple Liberal sources confirmed he has been close to the party for a number of decades.

Mr Duong is the President of Oceania Federation of Chinese Associations and is on the board of the Museum of Chinese Australian History in Melbourne. Other directors of the museum have included Mike Yang, a former senior adviser to Premier Daniel Andrews.

Mr Yang said he may have met Mr Duong, but didn't know him well.

The Oceania Federation of Chinese Associations is a global group for Chinese people from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Government sources confirmed there had been growing concern about the organisation being influenced by United Front figures.

Mr Duong appeared in a June media conference at the Royal Melbourne Hospital with Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge to announce a $37,450 donation to the hospital.

"Thank you very much Mr Tudge and Christine, the CEO of the Royal Melbourne Hospital. I'm the President of the Oceania Federation of Chinese Organisations … Our organisation [inaudible]… regularly organising so many fundraiser charity work for a lot of the country, including Victoria a few years ago, the bushfire [inaudible]. And even January, we donate $200,000 for Victoria rural fire appeal," Mr Duong said, according to a transcript of the press conference.

"We are living in Aussie for 38 years, even myself, and that's why we always care. We care about what's happening for Australia. And that's why we, right away, fundraising for the hospital to show our thank you for the frontline workers."

Mr Tudge thanked Mr Duong for the "incredibly generous" donation and called the Chinese association a "terrific community organisation".

"I want to say a very big thank you to you directly Sunny Duong and your organisation … We live in the greatest multicultural nation on earth bar none and I think this pandemic is another great illustration of how we've come together," Mr Tudge said.

Mr Duong is currently a director of a company called D/Z Construction Materials and Stone Wholesale and was formerly a director of Melbourne Community Television Consortium.

Mr Duong appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday afternoon and was granted bail. He will appear for a committal mention hearing on March 11 next year.

(continued)

>>11494902

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The leafy Surrey Hills street where Mr Duang resides was calm on Thursday night. A woman watched from the window of his home after refusing to speak with The Age.

Neighbours, who did not want to be identified, said multiple AFP cars and officers descended on the well-manicured street around 7am on October 16.

"At least 12 officers minimum went in," they said. "They came in with equipment for asking questions, they were checking computers. Coming and going for hours."

On the day of his arrest, just two police cars and a small number of officers spent around one hour at the house, according to the neighbours.

Neighbours said the family had only moved in two years ago and that there was a period where they were not seen for weeks.

"There was a stage where they disappeared for a few weeks but they came back."

The arrest follows a year-long investigation by the Counter Foreign Interference taskforce, led by ASIO and the AFP, which was probing his relationship with a foreign intelligence agency.

AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney said he was the first person in Australia to be charged with a foreign interference offence since the federal parliament passed wide-ranging foreign interference laws in 2018. The AFP said the matter remains an ongoing investigation.

"The CFI Taskforce has taken preventative action to disrupt this individual at an early stage," Mr McCartney said.

"Foreign interference is contrary to Australia’s national interest, it goes to the heart of our democracy.

"It is corrupting and deceptive, and goes beyond routine diplomatic influence practiced by governments."

ASIO was questioning a number of Chinese-Australians late last year and earlier this year about the actions of at least one figure close to senior Victorian politicians earlier this year.

In 2018, the Turnbull government passed legislation targeting foreign interference in politics and other domestic affairs.

The measures responded to repeated warnings from intelligence chiefs that foreign countries were trying to access classified information about Australia's global alliances and military, as well as its critical infrastructure.

Espionage, treason and treachery offences were expanded, while acting with a foreign country to influence Australia's democracy was criminalised and carried penalties of up to 20 years' jail. Mr Duong could be subject to a lesser maximum penalty of ten years because authorities allege he was planning to commit an offence but did not carry it out.

Government sources confirmed the evidence won't suggest alleged plans to engage in foreign interference were advanced, but only preparatory.

Unlike other high-profile investigations of national importance, the AFP chose not to call a press conference or issue any detail about the alleged offending or the foreign state linked to it.

One official source questioned why the AFP had taken a deliberate decision to release almost no information about the matter. In other major cases - such as terror, drug or paedophile busts - a significant charge is announced in a press conference where more detail is usually given about the alleged offending.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/melbourne-man-first-person-charged-under-australia-s-foreign-interference-laws-20201105-p56bxv.html

Aneurin Wells, Little Athletics life member, found guilty of child sexual abuse

A West Australian man who was heavily involved in Little Athletics, recognised as a life member, sexually abused an Adelaide girl, a court has heard.

A West Australian Little Athletics life member and convicted paedophile sexually abused an Adelaide girl, a court has found.

Aneurin Benedict Wells, 69, has been found guilty by a jury of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

Wells, of Westminster in Perth’s northern suburbs, sexually touched the girl on three occasions between 2011 and 2013.

She was aged under 15 at the time.

The Adelaide District Court on Thursday heard Wells was also convicted in 2018 of similar offending against a six-year-old in WA.

In submissions, Wells’ counsel, Christopher Allen, said the father-of-four had a long association with Little Athletics in WA.

He said Wells became involved with the organisation through his son, who he took to training for 10 years.

“He was recognised for his contribution to Little Athletics by the association and, in fact, has done other voluntary work including as a senior walks judge for what was called the Telstra A-Series,” Mr Allen said.

The Telstra A-Series was a national event that helped select Australian athletics participants in the Olympics.

He is a life member of the Inglewood Little Athletics Club in WA.

Prosecutor Gary Phillips said Wells had a “complete lack of remorse … and that should be considered from the background of the other offending”.

“We have a man here who appears to have no remorse for the significant acts he has done,” Mr Phillips said.

He said Wells’ “truly appalling” behaviour had “escalated” over the three years of his offending.

Mr Phillips also said the former army lance corporal had suggested during his trial that he had served in the Vietnam War when the Defence Department’s nominal roll of Vietnam service did not include his name.

“That says something about the character of Mr Wells and that he is prepared to manipulate the facts,” Mr Phillips said.

Wells will be sentenced later this month.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/messenger/city/aneurin-wells-little-athletics-life-member-found-guilty-of-child-sexual-abuse/news-story/42e921ebd273ebfbe750cf467224f4f2

China warns Australian economy could 'suffer further pain' after reported export ban

Chinese state media has warned "Canberra only has itself to blame" in an editorial published on China Daily.

It comes after a Communist Party tabloid seemed to confirm unprecedented suspensions this week on seven Australian export products to China, including wine and coal, in a multi-billion-dollar blow.

The editorial accused Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of "rash participation in the US administration's attempts to contain China".

"Canberra should realise it will get nothing from Washington in return for its collusion in its schemes, while Australia will pay tremendously for its misjudgement," the editorial said.

"With Australia mired in its worst recession in decades, it should steer clear of Washington's brinkmanship with China before it is too late.

"To put it simply, if Canberra continues to go out of its way to be inimical to China, it's choosing [of] sides will be a decision Australia will come to regret as its economy will only suffer further pain as China will have no choice but to look elsewhere if the respect necessary for cooperation is not forthcoming."

The import ban reportedly targets Australian lobsters, sugar, wine, coal, barley, timber and copper ore and concentrate, which would be a $5-6 billion blow to the value of Australian exports.

China's Commerce Ministry has publicly refused to confirm the reports, but the state-owned Global Times confirmed the "import suspension" yesterday, plunging Australian industries into uncertainty.

The China Daily, an English-language paper run by the Chinese Communist Party, described these as "normal trade investigations" and said they only cover "a small part" of Australian exports.

China is Australia's largest trading partner, with 30 per cent of Australia's exports destined for China.

"The impatience Canberra has demonstrated earlier this week in urging China to accelerate the customs clearance for tons of Australian rock lobsters only betrayed its guilty conscience, since this is merely precaution on China's part," the China Daily editorial said.

"Imported seafood has been confirmed as the source of a number of novel coronavirus outbreaks in the country, which were fortunately quickly contained."

The Prime Minister's office and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade referred the ABC to comments made by Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, who said Chinese authorities had denied "rumours" of instructions to ban Australian products.

"What we hope to see is that, given the denials from Chinese authorities, they work as effectively as possible to help, where there are regulatory issues, resolve them in a timely way," he said.

"It would indeed reflect poorly, given the assurances that have been made, were these issues not to be satisfactorily resolved."

Senator Birmingham had not been able to contact his Chinese counterpart, and said, "the ball is very much in China's court".

"It is disappointing that China refuses to engage at a ministerial level," he said.

The editorial also claimed that: "Canberra has undermined what were previously sound and mutually beneficial ties by prejudicially fuelling anti-China sentiment at home, baselessly sanctioning Chinese companies and aggressively sending warships to China's doorsteps.

"Unlike Washington, Beijing is not offering Canberra an either-or choice, but just reminding it to maintain its diplomatic independence and follow the norms of international relations. To be an ally of the US does not necessarily mean it has to be a roughneck in its gang."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-06/china-daily-warns-australia-economic-pain-export-ban/12857988

>>11495067

Canberra only has itself to blame: China Daily editorial

chinadaily.com.cn - 2020-11-05

Although Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared that his government's approach to foreign policy is defined by "strategic patience and consistency", particularly regarding China, his government's rash participation in the US administration's attempts to contain China belies that.

It is Canberra that has undermined what were previously sound and mutually beneficial ties by prejudicially fueling anti-China sentiment at home, baselessly sanctioning Chinese companies and aggressively sending warships to China's doorsteps.

If this is Canberra's "strategic patience", how will it act in a fit of pique?

Canberra should realize it will get nothing from Washington in return for its collusion in its schemes, while Australia will pay tremendously for its misjudgment.

As Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said, although the Chinese government always thinks healthy and stable Sino-Australian relations are consistent with the interests of the peoples of both countries, mutual respect is the foundation and guarantee for pragmatic cooperation.

Those calling the normal trade investigations China is conducting into some Australian imports "economic coercion" or "retribution" are simply viewing Beijing's actions in the same light as Canberra's actions.

But China is Australia's largest trade partner and all of the investigations so far only cover a small part of the imports from Australia — bilateral trade was $159 billion last year, among which Australia's export to China accounts for $104 billion, 30 percent of its total exports.

And the impatience Canberra has demonstrated earlier this week in urging China to accelerate the customs clearance for tons of Australian rock lobsters only betrayed its guilty conscience, since this is merely precaution on China's part. Imported seafood has been confirmed as the source of a number of novel coronavirus outbreaks in the country, which were fortunately quickly contained.

Unlike Washington, Beijing is not offering Canberra an either-or choice, but just reminding it to maintain its diplomatic independence and follow the norms of international relations. To be an ally of the US does not necessarily mean it has to be a roughneck in its gang.

With Australia mired in its worst recession in decades, it should steer clear of Washington's brinkmanship with China before it is too late.

To put it simply, if Canberra continues to go out of its way to be inimical to China, its choosing sides will be a decision Australia will come to regret as its economy will only suffer further pain as China will have no choice but to look elsewhere if the respect necessary for cooperation is not forthcoming.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202011/05/WS5fa3e92ca31024ad0ba83601.html

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Tweet

Kirby Sommers @KirbySommers

Today, November 5, is the day Robert Maxwell fell or was pushed off his yacht, 'The Lady Ghislaine' in 1991.

In your opinion,

a) Did he have an accident and fall over?

b) Did he get suddenly ill and fall over?

c) Did the Mossad climb on board and push him over?

https://twitter.com/KirbySommers/status/1324362863935447040

—

Replying to @KirbySommers

Just like the cameras accidentally not working & the guards falling asleep while on suicide watch for #Epstein we know that the truth is being covered up. Too many coincidences & I don’t believe in coincidences.

https://twitter.com/VRSVirginia/status/1324607938430857217

General Angus Campbell Tweets

Today I have received the Afghanistan Inquiry report from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. I intend to speak about the report’s findings once I have read and reflected on the report.

https://twitter.com/CDF_Aust/status/1324634113790210051

—

Replying to @CDF_Aust

I strongly encourage current and former serving ADF members, their families and anyone else affected by the IGADF Afghanistan Inquiry to access welfare support.

Statement: https://bit. ly/IGADFS

Welfare: https://bit. ly/IGADFWS

https://twitter.com/CDF_Aust/status/1324634115694489601

—

Statement - IGADF Afghanistan Inquiry report

6 November 2020

The Chief of the Defence Force

Angus J. Campbell, AO, DSC

Statement

Today I have received the Afghanistan Inquiry report from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF).

The independent inquiry was commissioned by Defence in 2016 after rumours and allegations emerged relating to possible breaches of the Law of Armed Conflict by members of the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan over the period 2005 to 2016.

I intend to speak about the key findings once I have read and reflected on the report.

Welfare and other support services are available to those affected by the Afghanistan Inquiry.

More information is available at: https://afghanistaninquiry.defence.gov.au

https://news.defence.gov.au/media/media-releases/statement-igadf-afghanistan-inquiry-report

—

Afghanistan Inquiry - Welfare Support

Defence, with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA), cares about the welfare of all personnel involved in the Afghanistan Inquiry and remains committed to ensuring current and former serving Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel and their families have access to welfare support, especially those who are vulnerable or at risk.

ADF personnel and their families involved in, or affected by, the Afghanistan Inquiry are supported by their chain-of-command and also have access to a range of other assistance including mental health, medical, legal, pastoral and social work services.

Former serving ADF personnel and their families involved in, or affected by, the Afghanistan Inquiry have access to support from DVA and Defence, who provide medical and mental health services, and in some cases, legal support.

Ex-service organisations also provide a critical role in supporting our people and their families.

Ex-service organisations are independent of the Department of Defence. Contact details for some ex-service organisations are available at:

https://www.dva.gov.au/civilian-life/find-ex-service-organisation

Please ask for help if you need it.

To ensure you have access to the support that best fits your needs, please visit the relevant page below for further information.

https://afghanistaninquiry.defence.gov.au/welfare-support

>>11494320

US election: Idiot genius Donald Trump’s forces will continue their wrecking

BOB CARR - NOVEMBER 6, 2020

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A country poisonously divided by a deliberately divisive, deeply damaging leader. Populism embedded in its politics. Two different peoples under one creaky constitution. Chronic deadlock. Culture wars.

We’ve been through the above. There is worse to come.

President Joe Biden will have his economic stimulus package torn to pieces in a Republican- dominated Senate headed by legislative mortician Mitch McConnell.

Under McConnell, Republicans will use their Senate power to ruthlessly­ harass the new administration, regardless of Biden’s big popular vote majority. Their aim will be to expand their Senate majority­ and recruit a House of Representatives majority in the 2022 mid-terms. That would enable­, if they can work up a scandal, a revenge impeachment.

Outside the congress, Donald Trump’s populist movement will stage frequent­ mega-rallies and maxim­ise TV and Twitter exposure to hold the Republican base and entrench­ Trump, or a handpicked successor, as its candidate­ for president in 2024.

President Biden should be prepared for Republican resistance as venomous and cunning as that directed­ at the first-term Clinton presidency by Newt Gingrich. Or as malevolent as Tea Party-infused­ Republicans directing hostility at Barack Obama and his plans for healthcare.

Both Bill Clinton and Obama beat them off. They used the excesses of ideological congressional Republicans to successfully argue for second terms.

Biden has the opportunity to prove the equal of his two Democratic predecessors. He will have to construct a case in support of his plans for the pandemic, economic disaster, systemic racism and the reality of climate change confirmed by mega-fires in California and hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. Plans that were blocked, he’ll argue, by a do-nothing congress.

This is a toxically divided nation­. Not since the 1850s, the decade preceding the Civil War, have the fissures run as deep. Americans are two peoples with different views of everything from the value of masks to statues of Thomas Jefferson, under a con­stitution designed by white men in powdered wigs in the 1780s. America’s friends and partners in ­Europe and Asia now have to weigh up some big questions.

Biden is likely a one-term president who will be succeeded by running mate Kamala Harris or Donald Trump returning from the polit­ical grave. If not Trump, another Trumpian Republican.

US allies know Biden will be perpetually distracted by gridlock in congress. He will also be challenged by the white nationalism likely to be stirred up by a rampaging Trump, focused especially in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Divided government is popular with Wall Street but ruinous for a president who needs to respond to a gasping economy and a ­pandemic that’s claiming every hospital bed in the nation.

Here’s betting that Biden installs­ a bust or portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Oval Office. But, elected in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression, Roosevelt had fat Democratic majoritie­s in the house and Senate and a new medium, radio, to broadcast his persuasive words to every living room in the nation.

Biden is handicapped: a divided congress; Trumpism defeated not banished; the insanity of social media infecting the feverish air.

In a White House meeting I relished with Biden in March 2013 — fire crackling in the grate, snow falling outside — he projected all his Irish-American political charm, confirming his gifts as a politician’s politician. Biden loves the very process of American politics­. As then ambassador Kim Beazley told me, he would run for president even for the fun of it, for the hoopla.

His memory was sharp. He was perfectly briefed — on details of the Arms Trade Treaty, for example, which Australia was pushing.

(continued)

>>11504726

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He spoke at length about his relationship with China’s Xi Jinping. Both vice-presidents, they had cultiv­ated their relationship. He recalled that Xi had quizzed him at length about the relationship between the military and the political leadership in the American system as if preparing himself. He said Obama had told him he thought Xi was frightened at the prospect of taking leadership of China.

Biden will be confident going into meetings with Xi. He has imbibed­ the current wisdom to treat China as a security rival and challenger. He will maintain the “tech war” with China. He will continue freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea. He will expand areas of co-operation with China on pandemic management and, above all, climate in the context of a deep commitment to climate diplomacy. What he does on trade and Taiwan is not clear.

Again, all foreign capitals will have to calculate that this president will be distracted by domestic politics, that Washington will be deadlocked and that Biden will be robbed of his house majority in 2022 to be replaced two years later, just possibly by Trump.

The forces unleashed with Trump’s 2016 candidacy are still strong. His family is resolved to continue the fight. They believe the mythology that the election was stolen.

Trump is an idiot of genius.

A genius, because he tapped the grievances of the country in economic and demographic transformation. He evangelised “we versus them” populism. He weaponised his nationwide name recognition gained in reality TV and a flamboyant career as property developer and casino owner. His platform oratory with its abusive satiric content projected a huckster brilliance. It won him the following of millions.

In debates, like a Sherman tank, he flattened rivals. In 2016, when Marco Rubio secured the endorsement of South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, Trump gave the media a bigger splash: he attacked the Pope. Evangelicals applauded. Genius.

But an idiot too. It took a resentful­, simmering stupidity to launch rhetorical war against an American hero senator, John McCain, and to pursue it even after McCain’s death. He rejected a reconciliation with his widow, Cindy McCain. She endorsed the Democrats in Arizona. At the time of writing, it looked like being narrowly lost to the Republicans.

It took genius to adopt Kim Jong-un as a buddy. But he lacked the genius to assemble a quality infrastructure package deploying private-public partnerships. It might have been a signature achievement, delivering high-paying, unionised jobs. A few kilometres of high-speed rail could have held Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

He lacked the political wit to design a healthcare package to take the place of Obamacare. The Republican Party might have clinched white working-class males, transforming itself into a culturally conservative “lunch pail” labour party.

Yet the election was not a repudiati­on of Trumpism, as confirmed by his first victory on election night, holding Florida. Even in defeat he’s the Bonapartist leader who has made his political party the adjunct to his billboard personalit­y. In four years he could wave off Republican senators such as Rubio, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley. They will look blank, cookie-cutter pretenders by ­contrast with his mischief-making Monkey King grandeur. It won’t even be a contest.

Bob Carr is the longest-serving NSW premier and a former foreign minister. He is Industry Professor of Climate and Business at the University of Technology Sydney

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/idiot-geniuss-forces-will-continue-their-wrecking/news-story/27cfbb588181ba373c68dab88b39d294

>>11474232

>>11474294

US election 2020: Voter suppression rife in deeply flawed system

JOE HOCKEY - NOVEMBER 6, 2020

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Over the next few weeks, the United States will tear itself apart as lawyers take the election battle into courts across the country. It’s a sad end to an amazingly competitive campaign that delivered the largest voter turnout since 1900.

To be clear, it’s usually the losing party that alleges fraud at the ballot box. Both the Democrats and Republicans have alleged plenty of fraud over the years. And inquiries, Department of Justice reports and many different courts have found that electoral fraud exists in a limited form. The challenge is to remain vigilant and make sure there is no opportunity for it to become mainstream.

The US electoral system is extremely complicated. More than 10,000 different entities are responsible for the administration of the presidential campaign. The voting rules are usually set by state governments and administered by counties and cities. The rules keep changing as each election approaches.

This is completely at odds with the Australian experience, where federal elections are handled by the Australian Electoral Commission. The AEC is an ­independent national entity with administrative responsibilities for every vote, polling booth and electoral boundary. Sounds simple enough.

The more complex the electoral system, the more susceptible it is to fraud. There are many mechanisms for electoral fraud but the one that Australians are not familiar with is ­illegal voter suppression. This has been a longtime hot-button issue in US politics.

Following the Jim Crow era and smack dab in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, the United States congress set into law the 1965 Voting Rights Act prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. The fact that legislation had to be enacted to protect the rights of people to vote, even though the US Constitution guarantees this right to vote, reflects the overt deep political and racial divisions evident at the time.

In 1965, the states in focus were mostly Democratic. In the south, the “Dixiecrats” that were backing Lyndon B Johnson for president were suppressing African-Americans’ voting rights. When Johnson eventually passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, “Dixiecrats” were furious with the president they helped elect. Johnson did the right thing. Even though African-Americans won the right to vote at the end of the US civil war 100 years earlier, voter suppression was rife. There were reading tests that black voters had to pass in order to vote, exorbitant poll taxes, voter intimidation and a wide range of measures taken to ensure it would be as hard and as dangerous as possible for black Americans to vote.

That’s why voter fraud, and in this case suppression, is such a sensitive issue in the US.

In Australia, compulsory voting removes the issue of voter suppression. Having an independent electoral agency also removes the issue of political bias, either in the location of ballot boxes or on the setting of electoral boundaries.

The most recent example of voter suppression in the US was a few weeks ago in Harris County, which houses the city of Houston, Texas, and is home to 4.7 million people. The local administrator set up 12 booths for early voting. Republican Governor Greg Abbott then ordered that there could be only one booth for each county. Keep in mind that in land area, Harris County is larger than the state of Rhode Island. And it has more citizens than 27 states and the District of Columbia.

After a lawsuit, the decision to remove the ballot boxes went to court and, on appeal, the Governor’s ruling was upheld.

Harris County is a Democratic oasis in mainly red Texas. This year some 56 per cent voted for Joe Biden.

Democrats claimed “fraud” and that the Governor was “suppressing” the vote. Democrats have already flagged that there will be further legal challenges to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to allow the Governor to set the booth limit.

(continued)

>>11508936

2/2

Voter suppression has bigger ramifications. It can lead to the impression that your vote will never count and there’s no good reason to vote anyway.

In Washington DC, 93 per cent of the people voted for Joe Biden. This is in line with the last three presidential elections, but for an entire city of 700,000 people to vote consistently around 90 per cent for one party is extraordinary.

This has prompted claims that DC residents are taking advantage of grey state residency rules to allow them to cast their ballots in cities where their vote will count at the federal level. (And despite having a population bigger than Wyoming and Vermont, Washington DC residents don’t have anyone voting for them in congress).

In Pennsylvania, in an appeal we are sure to hear more about, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a ruling that there was no need for the signatures on a person’s electoral file and on their mail-in ballot to match. And yet it is the only form of proof of identity that exists for ballots in the state.

That this change of rules took place just 10 days out from the election generated mass cries of fraud from Republicans. We will hear more about this over the next few weeks.

But it is not just voter suppression that gives rise to allegations of fraud. Complex ballot papers, booth locations and varying requirements for entitlement to vote are all weaponised for political purposes.

In Mississippi, a foreign-born citizen needs to be able to prove their naturalisation in order to register to vote.

In 11 US states, it is still unlawful for a convicted felon to ever be able to vote. Never mind that some people are convicted felons for minor non-violent crimes including unpaid traffic fines. It so happens that there is a disproportionate number of African-Americans that are convicted felons, largely due to the way the US justice system is set up.

In Florida, even though Floridians voted to allow felons to vote following the 2018 elections, the state legislature enacted laws in 2019 that forced felons to pay any and all court fees before being allowed to cast their ballot. This was tied up in the courts this year. The felony disenfranchisement clause had been in Florida’s state constitution since 1838.

Because of the highly decentralised American system, so much electoral reform seems to be political jockeying.

Everything to do with electoral reform in America is seen through the political prism.

The District of Columbia is 93 per cent Democrat and only the Democrats want to make it a state.

When Alaska and Hawaii were given full state rights in 1956, it came about only because the congress accepted that, politically, the then Republican Hawaii would offset the then Democrat Alaska. How the worm turns.

In modern US politics there is a lot of shouting. Feigned outrage and indignant lecturing is par for the course. Hyperventilating surrogates who have never run in an election are the worst offenders. Their outrage is 24/7. They usually interview each other on TV.

In a genuine democracy, everyone should be able to cast their votes freely. The ballot process and administration should be consistent across the entire jurisdiction where the candidates are running.

Every ballot lodged fairly should be counted and every voter should be given every opportunity to cast their ballot.

The complexity of American politics is nothing new. Nor is the allegation of electoral fraud. It’s just that these days it seems different. Social media has made the outrage louder and the criticism sharper.

Whatever the case, in a robust democracy elections should always have the same rules on the same ballot. The Americans still have a long way to go.

Joe Hockey is a former federal treasurer and ambassador to the US. He is president of advisory firm Bondi Partners. He will be appearing at The Australian’s Strategic Forum on November 18-19.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/us-election-2020-voter-suppression-rife-in-deeply-flawed-system/news-story/bb4bca949fd7d84953c01364feff1b06

>>11479859

>>11479906

Cardinal George Pell backs Pope on finance overhaul

The Pope has removed a Vatican department’s control over donations worth millions of dollars after it was involved in a corruption scandal.

He has given the secretariat of state, the central governing bureaucracy of the Catholic Church, three months to hand over its investments in funds and property. A department established by Cardinal George Pell will have oversight of the investments. “I am delighted by these developments,’’ Cardinal Pell told The Weekend Australian from Rome on Friday.

The secretariat of state is headed by Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, whose former deputy was disgraced Cardinal Angelo Becciu, whom Francis sacked in September.

Responsibility for managing the assets will be handed to APSA (Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See), the body responsible for the Vatican’s financial affairs. They will be consolidated in a balance sheet and overseen by the secretariat for the economy — the body established by Cardinal Pell when he arrived in Rome in 2014.

The assets to be overseen by APSA include a building in London’s Chelsea, which allegedly cost the Vatican millions of euros in losses, while the deal earned a fortune for consultants.

Cardinal Becciu is being investigated for payments he allegedly made to businesses run by three of his relatives and Cecilia Marogna, an Italian security expert who allegedly spent Vatican cash on handbags.

In Rome, the Catholic News Agency editor Ed Condon reported on Friday that handing control of financial affairs to APSA was part of the original reform conceived by Cardinal Pell and the Pope. “Those plans to split the secretariat of state’s diplomatic functions from its financial functions were vigorously fought off by the secretariat of state for years so this is an extraordinary step,’’ he reported.

Cardinal Pell, whose efforts to appoint professional auditors to the Vatican were thwarted by Cardinal Becciu, was battling to implement financial reform in the Vatican when he returned to Australia in 2017 to face trial in Melbourne on charges of sexually abusing choir boys. He was jailed, then acquitted by the High Court earlier this year.

Last month, the Italian ­ newspaper Il Messaggero quoted Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, the former right-hand man to Cardinal Becciu, claiming a bank transfer of €700,000 was made from the Vatican to a bank in Australia. Monsignor Perlasca claimed the transfer was made at the same time the child-abuse case against Cardinal Pell was developing in Australia.

A fortnight ago, The Australian reported that Vatican prosecutors investigating financial transfers were given details of more than $2m wired to Australia between February 2017 and June 2018. There were four transactions in that period, according to documents being considered by Vatican ­investigators.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/pope-moves-on-vatican-finances-after-scandal/news-story/7c17f369d345c143a7eedd3811dfd89e

As QAnon Copes With Trump’s Likely Loss, They Wonder Where Q Is

JUSTIN LING - NOVEMBER 6, 2020

As the first projections emerged declaring the U.S. presidential election for former Vice President Joe Biden, QAnon is wondering where their Q is.

On far-right and conspiracy channels, the legion of loyalists to President Donald Trump are ginning up any evidence they can find that widespread fraud delivered the election to Biden. Rallies are being planned in the states that are still too close to call. There is an emerging strategy to pressure Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Arizona, and elsewhere to ignore the results of the vote and send Republicans to the Electoral College anyway, in effect demanding that Trump be installed despite the official election results. Other followers are confident that the election results are all part of a plan devised by Q and Trump to smoke out the so-called deep state.

Generally speaking, however, QAnon hasn’t violently mobilized as many feared. Protests outside of state houses and county offices have been, in some cases, unruly but generally small. The only news of an extremist plot appears to have come via a pair of arrests in Philadelphia on weapons charges—researcher J.J. MacNab identified one suspected as an avowed QAnon believer. While promises that the coming weeks could “go hot” may yet be fulfilled, things have been relatively quiet.

QAnon’s unexpected malaise seems to correspond to silence from Q themself. The movement’s pseudonymous leader has not posted since the early-morning hours of Election Day, when they uploaded a picture of a massive American flag, a quote from Abraham Lincoln, and a promise that “together we win.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/06/qanon-coping-trump-likely-loss-where-is-q/

Sister of QAnon booster Tim Stewart says he’s old friends with Prime Minister Scott Morrison

Karen Stewart says her QAnon-promoting brother Tim Stewart is good friends with PM Scott Morrison, and they planned a family trip to Hawaii together.

Ellen Whinnett - November 7, 2020

The sister of a prominent Australian promoter of the bizarre QAnon conspiracy theory has disputed claims that her brother is just an associate of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, saying they were long-time family friends.

Karen Stewart, the sister of QAnon booster Tim Stewart, said it was “absolute rubbish’’ to claim her brother and Mr Morrison were just associates.

She said they were in fact close family friends for decades whose families had planned to holiday together in Hawaii last Christmas.

Ms Stewart said she had decided to speak out publicly because she was concerned at the “evolution” of QAnon and how it has permeated social media.

“It’s divisive,’’ she said.

And she said the involvement of her brother and her nephew, both prominent QAnon boosters who have been banned by Twitter for spreading misinformation, was deeply concerning.

“I don’t recognise my brother’s views now from those he held two years ago. Or my nephew’s,’’ she said.

“He was always a very loving, caring brother, and we enjoyed a close relationship. As I did with my nephew.’’

She said those relationships had been lost and “QAnon has taken hold.’’

Tim Stewart declined to answer specific questions about his views, and his relationship with Mr Morrison.

Mr Morrison’s office also declined to comment.

Tim Stewart’s wife Lynelle works for Mr Morrison’s wife Jenny at Kirribilli House and the couples have known each other for years, attending each other’s weddings.

Mr Morrison’s office has sought to distance the PM from Mr Stewart in recent months, describing the men as associates, but Karen Stewart said this was “absolutely not’’ true.

“That’s total rubbish. They went to the same church. Jen was bridesmaid at their wedding in the ‘90s. The couples have spent plenty of time together. Lynelle had a 50th birthday a few years back. Only eight people were invited. I didn’t get invited as a sister-in-law. My parents were there and so were Scott and Jen,’’ she said.

A social media exchange between the men on one of the Stewart family’s Facebook pages also shows Mr Morrison and Mr Stewart bantering over an historical photo, with Mr Morrison teasing Mr Stewart over his hairstyle.

“Happy birthday Tim Stewart – nice to see the mullet out of the time capsule,’’ Mr Morrison wrote, several years before he became prime minister.

“Thanks mate,’’ Mr Stewart replied.

“I have security out looking for who released that photo so they can be apprehended.’’

Mr Morrison’s family trip to Hawaii attracted controversy because it came in the middle of the nation’s bushfire crisis, and the PM cut the trip short and apologised when he returned to Australia.

While the Stewarts also went to Hawaii at Christmas, there is no evidence they holidayed together.

Ms Stewart, a self-employed accountant from Camden, is six years younger than Tim.

She said she had been present at conversations within her family when the Hawaii holiday was discussed.

“It was on the cards for a long time. I remember it being discussed at Easter in 2019. Tim and Lynelle weren’t sure if Scott and Jen would still go with them to Hawaii if they won the election.

“That was the last time I heard about it. It was not the first time.’’

Ms Stewart said the Morrisons and her extended family had known each other for years through church.

“Certainly they were at Tim and Lynelle’s wedding and kids’ birthdays over time. I spoke to Jen on the phone some years later when they were trying to have children. They know mum and dad and mum’s broader family,’’ she said.

“In their younger years, Lynelle, Jen and Scott had crossovers of church and schools in the eastern suburbs.’’

Ms Stewart said she was currently estranged from her brother.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/sister-of-qanon-booster-tim-stewart-says-hes-old-friends-with-prime-minister-scott-morrison/news-story/3749930628a6f4a6dcac6f01850ee180

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he won't be calling Trump over poll

Australia will patiently wait for an outcome in the United States election, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison refusing an opposition call to contact Donald Trump.

The Australian leader reiterated on Saturday that he will happily work with his US counterpart, regardless of who it is, as Democrat Joe Biden inched closer to the presidency.

Mr Morrison said it was "frankly a little bit odd" that Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese suggested he contact Mr Trump to convey Australia's view that the democratic process must be respected.

"It's a suggestion that he may be trying to import the politics of the United States into Australia," Mr Morrison told reporters in Hobart of Mr Albanese's call.

"I don't know why you would want to do that. They have their domestic politics, we will leave that to them."

Mr Trump has already flagged legal challenges to the voting process and Mr Albenese wants Australia to contact the president.

"It is absolutely in Australia's national interest that the United States remains a stable and a credible democracy," he said on Friday.

Mr Morrison said such a move would be divisive and unnecessary.

"We are respecting their processes. Their institutions are incredibly strong," the prime minister said of the US voting procedure.

"I find it frankly a little bit odd that he (Mr Albanese) would think that Australia should take a different position to every other world leader … we should be patient."

Senior Labor MP Jason Clare echoed his party leader's call for intervention.

"What Donald Trump said the other day about stopping counting the votes, that's not how democracy works. And that's why political leaders around the world should be speaking up and saying we need to make sure the process is completed," he told ABC TV on Saturday.

"We also should be concerned about some of the language Donald Trump used yesterday, suggesting that the election was being stolen. In a country as divided and as angry as America, that's like a match on a tinderbox."

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern doesn't plan to contact Mr Trump.

"No one in New Zealand would expect any other leader in any other country to be seen to be interfering or commentating on anyone else's electoral process," she said.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/politics/donald-trump/prime-minister-scott-morrison-says-he-wont-be-calling-trump-over-poll-ng-b881715271z

Q Post 3387

Jul 9 2019 11:46:46 (EST)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2qIXXafxCQ

Listen very carefully (again).

Note past (2) years.

Note next (6) years.

You were told what was going to happen.

You were told what battles we face.

Strategic.

Pre_planned.

Patriots in control.

Q

https://qanon.pub/#3387

Australian leaders past and present congratulate Joe Biden on historic US election win

Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull tweeted “what a relief” after Joe Biden was declared to have defeated Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States.

Australian leaders past and present weighed in on the victory as the country woke up to the news on Sunday morning.

The race was called at about 3.30am Sunday AEDT.

There was a tense relationship between Mr Trump and Mr Turnbull, revealed in a heated phone call in 2017 during which the American President lashed a “dumb deal” struck between Mr Turnbull and Barack Obama.

The Washington Post published the complete transcript of the call, which became heated as the two men discussed the plan for the US to resettle refugees held on Manus Island and Nauru.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison also tweeted on Sunday morning to congratulate the Democratic nominee on his victory and Kamala Harris who will be the first female Vice-President of the US.

Mr Morrison said he looked forward to working with the new Biden government.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese also congratulated Mr Biden and Ms Harris on their victory, saying it showed record support for a “progressive agenda” including action on the pandemic and climate change.

Mr Biden passed the required threshold of 270 electoral votes on Saturday morning, US time, after he was declared the winner in the key state of Pennsylvania.

But Mr Trump, who was golfing at the time the race was called, has so far not conceded defeat.

He has continued to repeat baseless claims about election fraud since the results began to tilt towards Mr Biden earlier this week.

“I am honoured and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in vice President-elect Harris,” Mr Biden said in a statement.

“In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America.

“With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation.

“It’s time for America to unite. And to heal.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/australian-leaders-past-and-present-congratulate-joe-biden-on-historic-us-election-win/news-story/632df9f814ba03446012cd575b2bac2e

Found a list of ASIO and FBI infiltrators pretending to be Patriots.

A few used fake emails but most are legitimate.

Show those commies we aren't to be fucked with.

US election 2020: Trump supporters need to accept defeat

TROY BRAMSTON - NOVEMBER 6, 2020

>NOVEMBER 6

1/2

Donald Trump’s disastrous, degraded and divisive presidency has been dispatched to history. This is the voters’ verdict which has delivered Joe Biden a large popular vote margin and a likely clear electoral college majority.

Biden’s victory is one for the ages. Trump’s defeat, after just one term, makes him what he fears most: a loser. He is only the third president to serve a full term and not win re-election since 1932. In the US, the expression “one-term president” is a catchphrase for a failed presidency.

Biden has played the role of president-elect with grace and dignity. He asked for all votes to be counted, urged his supporters to be patient and called for calm. He has been strong but not boastful. He is ready to be president and begin healing a divided nation.

Trump has been flailing like a dying king, desperately making false accusations of ballot fraud and unable to face up to the reality of losing. However, Trumpism will survive. But it is time for Trump supporters to accept the result: their man lost.

Biden won the popular vote by a whopping four million margin and perhaps as much as six million or seven million. It reflects the will of a majority of voters across the nation — mainstream Americans who decide elections. Biden has won more votes than any other presidential candidate in history.

An anti-Trump vote helps explain Biden’s win. Yet he built a broad coalition of support in states from east to west and north to south, coast-to-coast and from the rust belt to the sun belt. Biden will win Michigan and Wisconsin, and almost certainly Pennsylvania, by bigger margins than Trump did four years ago.

While Biden made inroads into Trump’s support, a partisan divide remains on age, class, gender and race. Democratic strongholds in cities and suburbs strengthened, as did the Republican dominance in rural America. There was no blue wave. But as the US becomes more diverse, thereby altering demographics, several red states are ­becoming more blue.

Biden winning Arizona and possibly Georgia, holding Nevada, and being competitive in Florida, North Carolina and Texas, could represent a new Democratic pathway to the presidency. If Trump had not trashed John McCain and John Lewis — two genuine American heroes — he may have done better in Arizona and Georgia.

The US is deeply divided. What form Trumpism now takes is uncertain. Will Trump remain the head of his movement and run again for president in 2024? Will he inaugurate a dynasty of Trump politicians? Or will Republicans wrest back control and purge the populist nativism, protectionism and xenophobia from its ranks?

(continued)

>NOVEMBER 6

>>11531906

2/2

In February, before the pandemic, I argued Trump was vulnerable and his re-election far from assured. Trump had historically low approval ratings and most Americans thought the country was on the wrong track. He deserved impeachment. But it was Trump’s catastrophic response to COVID-19 that sealed his fate.

Above all, Trump failed the presidential character test. Former cabinet and staff members concluded he was not up to the job. He demonstrated poor judgment, was a narcissist on steroids and had near-zero empathy for others. The dishonesty, malice, bullying, chaos and dysfunction fatigued voters. He had no respect for presidential norms or conventions, his predecessors or opponents, or the electoral process.

Trump’s autocratic instincts are beyond the pale. The founders who won a revolution and created a republic would be appalled. Calling for votes not to be counted and declaring the election “rigged” and “stolen” is anathema to the ideal of the US as a beacon for democracy.

The challenge for Democrats was to select an experienced and moderate candidate who could ­expand the party’s support. Biden was this candidate. Moreover, he is a man of integrity, dignity and compassion — the anti-Trump.

Biden’s immense challenge will be to heal the wounds of the Trump years and try to bring Americans together. It is a difficult task. But at least Americans will now have a president who respects the office and other institutions, and respects them.

I have never been a Trump supporter. His character defects and policy failures are manifest. His style of governing is a repudiation of great Republicans such as Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and the Bushes. Trump betrayed their legacy and diminished the office of the president.

I had little doubt Biden would win. Other Australian commentators were certain Trump would win and prematurely said he had won. My criticisms of Trump were evidently shared by a majority of US voters. I also put my money where my mouth is and made a sizeable wager with Sportsbet months ago. It paid very well.

Biden’s election means the US can return to a more normal presidency. Trump’s defeat shows most Americans are still striving, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, to live up to “the better angels” of their nature. It is the first step on the path towards redemption.

Troy Bramston is a senior writer and columnist with The Australian and a contributor to Sky News. He is the author or editor of nine books, including Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics, Paul Keating: The Big-Picture Leader and Rudd, Gillard and Beyond. He co-authored the award-winning The Dismissal: In The Queen's Name with Paul Kelly. He is currently writing a biography of Bob Hawke.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/us-election-2020-trump-supporters-need-to-accept-defeat/news-story/4f72ed0e0432f7b7b7b64c225006777d

>Biden’s victory is one for the ages.

>NOVEMBER 6

Scott Morrison says he has ‘great confidence’ in US democracy as Trump refuses to concede

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has spoken out about the US election after Australians woke up to Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump on Sunday morning.

Jack Paynter - NOVEMBER 8, 2020

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has expressed “great confidence” in American democracy when asked what Australia would do if President Donald Trump refused to leave the office after his election defeat.

Mr Morrison congratulated Joe Biden on being elected the 46th President of the United States on Sunday morning and said he had “been a great friend of Australia over many years”.

Australia woke to the news on Sunday morning with Mr Biden declared the winner about 3.30am Sunday AEDT when Pennsylvania and its 20 Electoral College votes fell to the Democratic candidate, taking him past the 270 needed for victory.

But President Donald Trump is still yet to concede defeat, and continues to falsely claim he actually won with the election.

Despite some senior Republicans encouraging him to concede, President Trump has instead launched several legal challenges to the election result.

“I have great confidence in the American democracy and I have been expressing those consistently,” Mr Morrison said when asked what Australia would do in the event Mr Trump refused to leave.

“This is not a new process, it is time honoured and time established process and I have confidence it will resolve itself in time.”

Mr Morrison said he would continue to “work closely” with President Trump and his administration during the transition period between now and January 20.

He thanked Mr Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“Australia has enjoyed a strong working relationship with the current administration, one that has seen the strength of our alliance continue to grow and deepen,” he said.

The Prime Minister said he looked forward to strengthening the Australia’s relationship with the United States when Mr Biden takes office.

“The President-elect has been a great friend of Australia over many years, including when he visited Australia in 2016,” he said.

“I have every confidence because it is based on more than 100 years of successful partnership, that this partnership will only go from strength to strength under the new shared stewardship that President-elect Biden and I will share going into the future.

“Our partnership goes back more than a century. Next year, our countries will celebrate 70 years since the signing of the ANZUS Treaty – the foundation of our security alliance.

“We also look forward to working with President-elect Biden and his administration to continue to fight the COVID-19 global pandemic and recession, to develop a vaccine, drive a global economic recovery, and develop new technologies to reduce global emissions as we practically confront the challenge of climate change.

“We welcome the President-elect’s commitment to multilateral institutions and strengthening democracies.”

Mr Morrison also congratulated Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

The Prime Minister said he hoped President-elect Biden and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, would visit Australia next year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty.

“ANZUS has been the bedrock of our security foundations in Australia since that alliance was first established and I look forward to inviting the President-elect to join us next year in their formal capacities,” Mr Morrison said.

Australian Ambassador to the United States Arthur Sinodinos acknowledged the possibility of challenges in the courts when he spoke to ABC Insiders on Sunday morning, but said diplomats in Washington were proceeding on the basis that Joe Biden was the President-elect.

“We’re taking the position that the election has been called,” he told host David Speers.

“The President has the right to contest this in the courts, but we, the UK, New Zealand, Canada, India, France, Germany and others have taken a view based on the information that’s been provided by the networks and others who have called it that this is the case.

“Until the 20th of January, Donald Trump remains the President of the United States. My job here at the embassy, our people at the embassy, will continue to deal professionally with our colleagues in the state department, the White House.

“(After) the inauguration, there’s a new President, we will then move to work closely with the new administration.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/prime-minister-scott-morrison-congratulates-us-presidentelect-joe-biden/news-story/e4e2e1aafde8c387694437b029449e05

Scott Morrison thanks Donald Trump, congratulates Joe Biden on US election victory

Nour Haydar - 8 Nov 2020

1/2

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is thanking US President Donald Trump after his election defeat, while saying he looks forward to forging a great partnership with president-elect Joe Biden.

Mr Morrison said Australia's relationship with the United States would go from strength to strength under Mr Biden's stewardship.

"There are processes that will still continue in the United States and the institutions that sit around those are important to their democracy and that is important," Mr Morrison told media at Kirribilli House.

"But I join with other nations' leaders around the world in congratulating president-elect Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden, together with vice-president-elect Kamala Harris and her partner Douglas Emhoff for their election at this recent US election.

"This is a profound time, not just for the United States, but our partnership and the world broadly."

The ABC understands the Prime Minister will be sending a letter to Mr Biden today, inviting him to visit Australia for the 70th anniversary of the alliance next year.

Mr Morrison said his Government would continue to work closely with the Trump administration ahead of the official leadership change on January 20.

"I want to thank President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary Mike Pompeo … and the many other members of his cabinet with whom we have had a very good relationship over the years of the Trump administration and of course that will continue through the transition period," he said.

"President Trump equally showed a great commitment to this part of the world and the relationship between Australia and the United States."

When asked about Mr Trump's refusal to concede, Mr Morrison urged patience and respect while legal matters were resolved.

"I have great confidence in the institutions of Americas democracy," Mr Morrison said.

"This is a time for those processes to finalise and for us to move on with the important work, because there are so many challenges whether here in the Indo-Pacific when it comes to world trade, or dealing with the global pandemic and the global recession."

On Friday, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese called on Mr Morrison to contact Mr Trump and "convey Australia's strong view that democratic processes must be respected" — a suggestion rejected by Mr Morrison as divisive and unnecessary.

"It's good Scott Morrison has accepted the election outcome, and congratulated president-elect Biden, that is what I was calling for," Mr Albanese said on Sunday.

Mr Albanese said Mr Morrison should condemn Coalition MPs who had been sharing "conspiracy theories" similar to those spread by Mr Trump.

"Scott Morrison needs to disassociate and himself and his Government from members who are questioning the democratic process and continue to do so," he said.

(continued)

>>11534975

2/2

The election result has been welcomed by former Australian prime ministers from both sides of the political aisle.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has previously described Mr Trump as a bully, said his defeat was a relief.

"Ultimately I have no doubt that he will go," Mr Turnbull said on Insiders.

"There is no way that he is going to try to barricade himself into the White House, that's too absurd even in the rather surreal environment of the Trump administration," he said.

He also dismissed Mr Albanese's suggestion Australia should intervene, arguing Mr Morrison should "play it by the book" while waiting for Mr Biden's inauguration next year.

"I think that the best thing to do is to behave conventionally," Mr Turnbull said.

"I wouldn't be giving Donald Trump advice on the US Constitution and his rights.

"If Trump wants to go to the courts in the United States, well that's a matter for him.

"I can't see any evidence that there is much to appeal about, but he's entitled to the courts of law which are open to him."

Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd said a smooth transition of leadership would depend on whether Mr Trump "decides to put his big boy pants … and act like a grown-up".

"This is a great win and for those who seem to have inferred that this is going to be a narrow win, if you look at the outstanding states, Joe Biden is on track to end up with more of the electoral college votes than Trump did in 2016 and certainly a bigger slice of the popular vote," Mr Rudd said.

"He's been elected legitimately and it's time for everyone in the United States and around the world to move on because the challenges facing the world with a pandemic, with climate change, with global economic recovery, are massive."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-08/scott-morrison-thanks-donald-trump-congratulate-joe-biden-harris/12861342

George Papadopoulos Tweets

I have never seen so many triggered people. I mean, you “won”, right?

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1325226492125536256

—

The crash is going to be brutal

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1325247941364342784

—

I’m taking my wife @simonamangiante out to dinner tonight. Thinking Armenian. I suggest you all have some fun too and get ready for a long week coming up!

https://twitter.com/GeorgePapa19/status/1325279565430677504

Prince Andrew 'remembered seeing Spitting Image doll at centre of grope claim in Jeffrey Epstein's New York home', claims award-winning puppeteer Steve Wright

Prince Andrew recalled seeing a Spitting Image puppet of himself at the home of US paedophile Jeffrey Epstein during a function at Buckingham Palace, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Steve Wright, an award-winning puppeteer, says the Duke of York told him at the 2003 reception that his own puppet from the satirical TV show had been bought by a friend in New York and how it had been used to play a prank on him.

The puppeteer was one of 600 guests and had been nominated to attend because of his contribution to education.

The exchange appears to at least partly verify claims that socialite Ghislaine Maxwell presented the Prince with the puppet in April 2001 in Epstein's New York home.

It is alleged Andrew used the puppet to 'grope' Virginia Roberts, then aged 17, and Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein's former sex slaves, then 21, in the mansion's study.

In an unpublished book, Ms Roberts – who claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew on three occasions – wrote that 'when Andrew cupped my breast with a doll made in his image, I only giggled away'.

Ms Sjoberg testified to the alleged incident in a 2016 legal deposition, describing how Andrew and Ms Roberts – who now goes by her married surname Giuffre – were sitting on a couch with the puppet.

'And so then I sat on Andrew's lap – and I believe on my own volition – and they took the puppet's hands and put it on Virginia's breast, and so Andrew put his on mine,' she added. The Duke has always strenuously denied having sex with Ms Roberts and any other wrongdoing.

Mr Wright, 55, who uses puppet characters to teach young people about issues including sexual health, recalled how the Prince became animated when he told him about his work.

He said: 'I told him I was a puppeteer and how I just started making puppet shows and that people really liked them.

'Then I showed him a picture of one of my puppets and he had a clear facial reaction… the story literally exploded out of him. He said, 'Oh my God, puppets! Spitting Image – do you know that my friend bought my Spitting Image puppet and you'll never believe it, he played a trick on me.'

'He told me he went to an apartment in New York and saw the 'bloody thing' sitting up on the sofa and that he 'nearly had a bloody heart attack' as he was there looking at himself.'

Mr Wright, from Huddersfield, said he learnt of the allegations about the Spitting Image puppet earlier this year. 'Why would she [Ms Roberts] make up a story about puppets? It all just clicked,' he said.

Last night, a spokesman for the Duke declined to comment.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8925269/Prince-Andrew-remembered-seeing-Spitting-Image-doll-centre-grope-claim-claims-Steve-Wright.html

'G, what a memory: The day Joe Biden became a footy fan

US president-elect Joe Biden has become footy's latest (tenuous) connection to the Oval Office

Staff writers - Nov 8 2020

SHOULD the Blues make room for a new No.1 ticket holder?

After the news that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States, surely footy fans would excuse Carlton for making the most of his (admittedly loose) ties to the Blues that stem from his visit to Australia four years ago.

The former US Vice President received a Carlton jumper from then-skipper Marc Murphy on the MCG turf when he attended a round 17 game between the Blues and West Coast at the home of football in 2016.

Mr Biden was greeted by AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, the AFL Commission's then-chairman and Carlton great Mike Fitzpatrick and the Melbourne Cricket Club's then-president Stephen Smith.

He watched the game with Australia's Foreign Minister of the time, Julie Bishop, and Collingwood forward Mason Cox was on hand as a fellow American to talk Biden through the finer points of the game.

For the record, the Blues lost by seven points to Ms Bishop's Eagles, despite the best efforts of Patrick Cripps and Bryce Gibbs. Eagles star Andrew Gaff earned the three Brownlow votes for a 30-disposal game on the wing.

Mr Biden isn't the first leader of the US to get up close and personal with the red Sherrin.

Back in 2011, Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a fervent Western Bulldogs fan, showed Barack Obama – whose predominant passion is basketball – the art of handballing during a visit to the Oval Office.

Who knows – perhaps footy could get a foothold in the White House second time around?

https://twitter.com/masonsixtencox/status/754584634613047298

https://www.afl.com.au/news/523918/-g-what-a-memory-the-day-joe-biden-became-a-footy-fan

>>11536055

'Bulldog' Gillard gives Obama a football lesson

We usually play our great game on ovals but it moved into the Oval Office when Prime Minister Julia Gillard instructed Barack Obama on the finer points of AFL

Geoff Slattery - Mar 8, 2011

EVERY picture tells a story, but the story behind this remarkable moment in the Oval Office of the President of the United States has more depth than a mere photo opportunity.

Let's consider some of the key outtakes:

1. Our PM, Julia Gillard, is declaring her love of the AFL game beyond all others. She, a passionate Bulldogs fan, and No.1 supporter, is no Paul Keating or Gough Whitlam, who were happy to be decked out - for political purposes - in a Collingwood guernsey. The NSW-born pair had as much knowledge of the AFL game as does Barack Obama.

2. Gillard is also a canny politician. Handballing a Sherrin in the most powerful suite in the world, AND having the ball almost KO a bust of Obama’s inspiration, Abraham Lincoln, was always going to be lengths ahead of providing the Pres with a jar of home-made raspberry jam.

3. The Australian embassy in Washington must be well-equipped with the necessary pump, and jigger, to ensure the Sherrin was at optimum pumped-up shape and size for the photo op.

4. The PR experts will be wearing out calculators as to the value of this pic, video, and the accompanying Obama-Gillard banter. Sports and Governments of all sorts are forever dumping big numbers on us as to the economic value of events. We'll go out on a limb this time, and claim it as priceless.

5. We're not entirely sure about the techniques on offer, not being experts in bio-mechanics, but we reckon the post-handball pose put up by Mr Obama suggests this is not the first time he's had a football of irregular shape in his grasp: note the follow through of the hitting left hand, and the flick away of the right hand, the platform that starts all handballs. Not bad for a first shot. Ms Gillard is clearly a sport as well: her hands are firm, and capable of withstanding any last thrust by a defender. Her stance is strong, using her powerful lower body to ensure she has a firm foundation to flick the ball back to the Pres. As Bruce Andrew might have noted, we'll give each of them 9/10.

6. And finally, we're tipping this news cycle is not the last time you'll be seeing this pic, and the video accompanying. Not to be too superior, but our guess is that having the most powerful man in the world playing with a Sherrin on his home turf is of slightly more value than having the voice of Mr B. Jovi mouthing a B side ditty as noise above some rugby league "highlights".

The comments employed in this story are not necessarily those of the AFL or the AFL clubs.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/55709/-bulldog-gillard-gives-obama-a-football-lesson

In plain sight: how an alleged Chinese spy tried to build an Australian business empire

When Chunsheng Chen departed Australia last year after being publicly outed as a suspected Communist party operative, he left several threads behind that have baffled authorities

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As the private plane circled western New South Wales, where Australia’s lush seaboard makes way for its dusty heart, the men on board were keen to make a deal.

Chunsheng Chen and his five companions were on their way to a tyre recycling plant just outside the town of Warren.

The plant transformed old car and truck tyres into oil, carbon and steel using a process that was closely guarded by its operators, Green Distillation Technologies.

Chen, the company was told, was a billionaire Hong Kong businessman, who could invest hundreds of millions of dollars in their company to fund a series of plants internationally.

He had requested the tour three days earlier, during a meeting in a Melbourne office with the owners of GDT. During the same meeting, he agreed to provide full documentation about his identity and business assets within two weeks, according to multiple people who attended the meeting, so that these owners could independently verify who they were dealing with.

But after the tour of Warren in June 2017, the GDT owners never heard from Chen again.

Investors were known to emerge and recede without notice, so the owners had little cause to think of Chen again. Until two years later, when the gruff and stocky man in the brown coat who visited Warren was outed as a suspected Chinese Communist party spy.

Kumar Vaidyanathan, a director of the Australia-India Business Advisory Group, which organised a meeting that led to the Warren trip, did not know about the allegations regarding Chen until contacted by Guardian Australia.

“We always follow things down the rabbit hole to see where it will lead to, and that’s why this meeting took place,” Vaidyanathan said. “[But when] we were trying to do due diligence on this guy, everything went blank.”

Chen, who also used the name Brian, has previously denied the spying claims and did not respond to a request for comment from Guardian Australia. The investigation into him remains ongoing, but federal authorities do not expect he will return to Australia.

The journey to Warren, not previously reported, is one of several threads left behind by Chen when he departed Australia under the cloud of an Australian federal police and Asio investigation last year.

Those threads include his attempted business dealings with GDT and Imunexus, a biotechnology company which shared an office building with the CSIRO, Australia’s national science research agency. Then there are the global projects Chen said he was funding as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, his personal relationships, and his connections to a local network of Chinese Australian businesses which experts say could have unwittingly provided the interference for him to perform espionage work.

Under examination are all facets of Chen’s life in Australia, including his ability to buy property, operate companies and legally remain in the country. He is alleged to have operated in plain sight in Australia since the mid-2000s, seemingly working in telecommunications, as a military technology salesman, a journalist and an expert in manufacturing within the painting industry.

(continued)

>>11536599

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‘The noise for intelligence work to hide in’

In 2010, Chunsheng Chen had an application for permanent residency sponsored by multimillionaire Melbourne businessman David Jiang.

Three years later, he was granted permanent residency. According to supporting documents, Jiang wanted to employ Chen as a production manager on a $250,000 salary as it was vital to the expansion of his then-$80m company, Australian Brushware Corporation.

The corporation’s brands include Monarch Painting, which sponsored the NSW Blues rugby league team and the Seven network’s show House Rules, and Kaboodle and Flatpax, kitchen and cabinetry brands stocked by Bunnings.

Documents relating to Chen’s 2010 visa application, including case notes filed by migration review tribunal staff, show that Jiang submitted a significant amount of supporting information.

The documents were obtained under freedom of information laws by Guardian Australia. Many of the submissions by Chen and Jiang were redacted by the tribunal, as they contained private or business information.

An initial decision to deny the visa was overturned by the tribunal in 2013, largely on the strength of submissions by Jiang’s company regarding Chen’s suitability for the position given his English and Mandarin language skills and his manufacturing experience.

The application came at a key time for Chen – according to the tribunal, an Australian business visa he was issued in 2006 was due to expire in March 2010.

Documents tendered to the tribunal state that Chen was due to start the position at Australian Brushware Corporation on 1 January 2010.

Chen claimed in his application that he was working for a Melbourne telecommunications company at the time he was offered the role. But none of the documents released to Guardian Australia support this, and the company claimed it had never employed Chen.

The documents also make no mention of a company which Chen was operating in Australia at the time – Prospect Time International Investment. His partner in the business from 2004 to 2009 was a man named Wang Zhenhai.

Guardian Australia has confirmed that the Jiangs were also former business partners of Wang. David and his wife Michelle both appear to have had different interests in separate companies with Wang prior to Australian Brushware Corporation sponsoring Chen’s visa application.

Wang has been reported as having ties to the United Front Work Department, a foreign-influence body of the CCP described by Chinese president Xi Jinping as an “important magic weapon”.

Wang did not respond to a request for comment from Guardian Australia. He told the Nine network last year that he was a “long-time” family friend of Chen, and denied that Chen was a Chinese operative. He also told Nine last year that he took the Prospect Time position because company law required companies to have one Australian citizen as a director for it to be registered.

David and Michelle Jiang did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Guardian Australia.

Guardian Australia does not suggest any wrongdoing by Wang or the Jiangs.

But Chen’s extensive business and personal networks highlight a broader issue being grappled with by federal authorities: how and to what extent could a network of legitimate Australian businesses and community groups be used as cover by someone like Chen to carry out alleged CCP intelligence-gathering capabilities?

Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Alex Joske, a CCP-influence expert whose work has been cited by the US house intelligence committee, said a key focus of United Front department figures was to maintain legitimate relationships with Chinese-Australian businesses.

He said people who became business partners or employed others with links to the department or CCP activities could be more likely to do it for personal than party reasons.

“What we don’t know about United Front work is how it overlaps and integrates with intelligence work,” Joske said.

He told Guardian Australia that within these United Front networks there will likely be people working for the intelligence networks.

“United Front work … is the noise for intelligence work to hide in.”

(continued)

>>11536607

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Clive Hamilton, a professor at Charles Sturt University who researches CCP foreign interference, told Guardian Australia: “There’s a vast network of United Front and party-linked people throughout the community, particularly in Melbourne, and it’s quite dizzying when you look into the linkages.

“The CCP have been building that for a long time, and there’s been no resistance. It’s only in the last three years really that attention has turned to it.”

Both experts agreed – without commenting specifically about Chen – that the creation of seemingly legitimate business empires could be an important cover for anyone acting on behalf of the CCP.

The threat of foreign interference has become a key focus of intelligence and enforcement agencies in the US, UK and Europe, as it became clear that shifting resources to combat terrorism after the September 11 attacks left significant knowledge gaps.

In Australia, the AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, has said he plans to expand the joint taskforce, which currently has 65 officers, and would seek to recruit more Mandarin speakers.

Mike Burgess, Asio’s director general, told a Senate estimates hearing in October that there were more foreign agents and their proxies operating in Australia than at the height of the cold war, but did not go into further detail, declining to even name the countries responsible.

“The problem is simple. You’ve got foreign governments who covertly direct people to develop relationships, to try and curry favour, and one day they will call in that favour,” he said.

“Some good people may not even understand they have been influenced in a way that is counter to our national interests.”

Meanwhile, almost a year after leaving Australia, Chen appears to be back in business.

His website, which was not available for several months after he was publicly outed as a suspected spy, has recently been relaunched.

But there have been some changes: there no longer appears to be any reference to the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, nor to several projects he claimed to be doing in Portugal.

Entries regarding other potential Prospect Time ventures, the Australian companies GDT and Imunexus, remained.

“Being a responsible corporate citizen, Prospect Time International Investment Ltd assumes an indispensable role in the waste-to-energy industry,” the website states.

“Prospect Time is discussing cooperation opportunities as well as joining force [sic] with the renowned Australian recycling and waste to energy recovery company, Green Distillation Technologies Corporation Limited – where Prospect Time’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Mr Brian Chen, paid a visit in mid 2017.”

Despite Chen and his entourage being told not to take any photos at the Warren plant, he is pictured in a hard hat, standing before the GDT employee who led the tour, listening intently.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/08/in-plain-sight-how-an-alleged-chinese-spy-tried-to-build-an-australian-business-empire

The Australian Secret Intelligence Service: spying for Australia

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Spies are prey to principle, pride, passion and payment. Betrayal is driven by everything from cause to cash.

In a history of espionage, The anatomy of a spy, Michael Smith writes that spies spy for sex, money, patriotism, revenge or because it’s ‘the right thing to do’; spies can be ‘unconscious agents’ or ‘adventurers, fantasists and psychopaths’.

Behold the world of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and its director-general, Paul Symon.

In the ASIS interviews with ASPI, Australia’s chief spy has covered the formation of the service and its purposes and principles. In the third interview, Symon talks about spies and espionage, discussing:

• how ASIS recruits foreigners to spy for Australia, emphasising the safety and security of those agents

• the qualities ASIS looks for in recruiting its Australian officers

• the tradecraft and ethics of spying

• the growth of ASIS from a small firm to a mid-sized corporation.

Symon says some spies just walk in and volunteer: ‘History is replete with spies both good and bad who have literally been a walk-in and wanted to have that relationship.’

Seeking agents, ASIS considers datasets as it ponders people, ‘looking at profiles, thinking about the intelligence questions that we’re trying to answer, who might assist us and might be interested in assisting us answer those questions’. Then the careful work of ‘cultivation, potentially recruitment, and validation’.

The process, Symon remarks, isn’t that different to the way journalists cultivate sources. My response is that journos, like spies, want to get at the secrets, to understand what’s going on and who’s making it happen.

Yet while hacks and spies track across the same terrain, their purposes are different. What matters to hacks is what they can publish and make public; what matters to spies is what they can keep secret. Symon responds:

That’s very true. But at its very heart, your contacts are relying on your skills and your tradecraft, in some cases to project their voice if that’s what they want, or in some cases to protect their voice. In our case it’s not to project a voice but, if you like, the sanctity of the relationship, the trust, the care that we put into securing that relationship and making sure that their personal safety and security is uppermost in our mind. It’s a very key component of what we do.

A foreign correspondent axiom is that you can usually pick the spies masquerading as journalists: they never have deadline fever, rushing off to file; and spies are more willing to pay for all the booze, unlike hacks who must align thirst with expense account (the anatomy of a spy needs a category devoted to alcohol).

(continued)

Anthony Albanese calls on Scott Morrison to ‘dissociate’ himself from colleagues spreading Trump fraud claims

The federal Opposition leader has given Prime Minister Scott Morrison some firm advice following the US election.

Jack Paynter - NOVEMBER 8, 2020

Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has called for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to “dissociate himself” from members of his government who are questioning America’s democratic process.

The Labor leader congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday morning after his victory was declared at about 3.30am AEDT.

Mr Albanese said it was good that Mr Morrison had accepted the election outcome and also congratulated President-elect Biden.

“What I suggested was that Scott Morrison needs to stand up for democracy. He’s done that in acknowledging the election of President-elect Biden,” he said.

“The other thing that needs to happen is that Scott Morrison needs to dissociate himself and his government from government members who are questioning the democratic process and continue to do so.”

“The fact is that these conspiracy theories do nothing to advance our common interest of standing up for democratic values,” Mr Albanese said.

“You can’t have the leader of the Australian Government saying one thing and members of his own party saying something very different.”

Mr Albanese’s comments come after the federal Coalition MP for Dawson, George Christensen, continued to peddle misleading claims about the US election.

Mr Christensen posted to Facebook on Thursday that his prediction President Trump would win “didn’t take Democrat vote fraud into account”.

Joe Hockey, former Liberal treasurer and the Australian ambassador to the US for four years between 2016 and 2020, was widely criticised over his comments on 2GB about voter fraud.

He said there were “plenty of good reasons” for Mr Trump to challenge the results and said he found it “hard to believe” 93 per cent of people in Washington DC voted for Biden.

When asked about President Trump’s refusal to concede on Sunday morning, Mr Morrison said he had “great confidence” in American democracy.

“I have great confidence in the American democracy and I have been expressing those consistently,” Mr Morrison said when asked what Australia would do in the event Mr Trump refused to leave.

“This is not a new process, it is time honoured and time established process and I have confidence it will resolve itself in time.”

Mr Morrison said he would continue to “work closely” with President Trump and his administration during the transition period between now and January 20.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/anthony-albanese-calls-on-scott-morrison-to-dissociate-himself-from-colleagues-spreading-trump-fraud-claims/news-story/b536d504eb6c556140b5c0d5db8cc395

Elise Thomas Tweets

QAnon taking the news with all the calm, aplomb and good grace which you would expect

https://twitter.com/elisethoma5/status/1325185487389093890

>>11538465

Riiiiiight up to the line @_MAArgentino

https://twitter.com/elisethoma5/status/1325308245196509186