China Suppresses Catholics Under COVID-19 Cover

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Hundreds of underground Catholics in mainland China were stopped from celebrating the Feast of the Assumption on Aug. 15 in the latest example of communists suppressing Christians under cover of Covid-19.

Although most public places, including movie halls, remain open, churches are yet to function in most parts of China. The Marian feast is a day of obligation for Catholics when they are required to take part in Eucharistic liturgy.

Traditionally, the Feast of the Assumption is considered one of the major Catholic celebrations in China along with Christmas and Easter, when hundreds gather in their parish churches for solemn liturgical celebrations and exchange greetings.

However, this year most churches of the underground communities in Shenyang, Liaoning province, were closed. Officials presented it as a step to avoid large gatherings to check the spread of Covid-19.

A few churches were opened but police beefed up patrols to restrict the number of people gathering in them, local Catholics told UCA News. (Read more from “China Suppresses Catholics Under COVID-19 Cover” HERE)

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Declassified FBI Documents Show ‘Double Standard’ for Clinton and Trump Campaigns

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Following the release of recently declassified documents, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he believes the FBI showed a double standard in its investigations into reports of foreign interference at the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and now-President Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Calling it “the ultimate double standard,” Graham said that the documents reveal that leaders at the FBI sought to give the Clinton campaign a defensive briefing before it could pursue a FISA warrant related to a threat posed to the campaign by a foreign government.

But instead of doing the same for the Trump campaign, the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane operation and pursued a number of FISA warrants against people working with Trump’s campaign.

While Graham would not reveal which foreign government wanted to assist Clinton in getting elected, he said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that FBI leadership shot down a request for a FISA warrant until Clinton was briefed on the matter.

“They never did to Trump,” Graham said. “As a matter of fact, not only did they not tell Trump, they used a generic briefing to spy on Trump.” (Read more from “Declassified FBI Documents Show ‘Double Standard’ for Clinton and Trump Campaigns” HERE)

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Gym Becomes Campaign Rally Location to Keep Doors Open Due to COVID Regulations

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New Jersey’s Atilis Gym co-owners Frank Trumbetti and Ian Smith have fought to keep their doors open during the coronavirus pandemic and now, partnering with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rick Mehta, the gym has become an official campaign rally location.

“We took a stand for our constitutional rights and for the rights of all small business owners throughout the country,” Smith told “Fox & Friends Weekend” Sunday. “And it wasn’t intended to become political. We were trying to offer a solution to a problem where the government was failing, and it turned political. And that was because of Gov. Murphy’s actions. So now we made it political just as much as he has.”

The owners are leaning on the fact that state officials cannot interfere with a political campaign, declaring the gym a campaign rally location for candidate Mehta who is looking to unseat Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., but Trumbetti said that doesn’t mean local officials won’t try to shut their Bellmawr gym down again. . .

Smith said Atilis members are excited to be a part of the campaign since Mehta is supportive of the fight small businesses have been facing during the pandemic. Mehta told Fox News’ Pete Hegseth that he believes it’s “time to put policy over politics.” (Read more from “Gym Becomes Campaign Rally Location to Keep Doors Open Due to COVID Regulations” HERE)

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Pleading to Keep Testimony Secret, Ghislaine Maxwell Says, ‘Don’t Let Cat Out of the Bag’; Maxwell’s Nephew Worked Under Hillary Clinton at State Department

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By The Miami Herald. Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, the jailed alleged madam to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, have asked an appellate court to keep sealed a controversial deposition of hers but failed in a much-anticipated filing to present new information they had learned in a separate criminal case that they said would bolster their argument for keeping the material under wraps.

The new filing from Maxwell hit the court docket Thursday night, hours before a deadline imposed by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. It is hearing her appeal of an order by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska to unseal most documents in a civil lawsuit settled in 2017 between Maxwell and Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

Maxwell contends the 413-page deposition, taken in 2016, was given with the expectation that it would not be used against her in other proceedings. In the new appeal filing, her lawyers warned that allowing the deposition into the public realm, especially as she faces criminal prosecution, would have a chilling effect on future witnesses.

“If the unsealing order goes into effect, it will forever let the cat out of the bag,” they warned in a 74-page filing, adding that doing so would also hamper Maxwell’s ability to get a fair trial in the criminal case. (Read more from “Pleading to Keep Testimony Secret, Ghislaine Maxwell Says, ‘Don’t Let Cat Out of the Bag’” HERE)

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s Nephew Worked Under Hillary Clinton at State Department

By The Daily Beast. . .Now the celebrity tabloid OK! Magazine is reporting that ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “gifted” Maxwell’s nephew, Alexander Djerassi, a position within her department when he was just out of college and gave him “special treatment.”

A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Beast that Djerassi served as a “Staff Assistant” from May 2009 to June 2012. The Daily Beast could not confirm whether the role was in fact “gifted” by Clinton. . .

The report also appears to reference Djerassi’s LinkedIn profile, which lists his role as chief of staff for the “Office of the Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs” from May 2011 to June 2012. Djerassi served as special assistant to the office from May 2009 to May 2011, his online profile says.

Djerassi’s name also popped up in a collection of Clinton’s emails hacked via WikiLeaks. In a November 2011 message, Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Feltman referred to his “special assistant, Alex Djerassi.” Feltman mentioned Djerassi again in a January 2012 email, according to WikiLeaks. (Read more from “Ghislaine Maxwell’s Nephew Worked Under Hillary Clinton at State Department” HERE)

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John Brennan Claims He Isn’t Under Investigation by Durham

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U.S. Attorney John Durham interviewed former CIA Director John Brennan for eight hours on Friday as he wraps up his inquiry into the Russia investigation, according to a statement on behalf of the Obama administration intelligence chief.

Getting ahead of whatever report the federal prosecutor is expected to release, which President Trump and his allies believe will be a damning assessment of the actions taken by top intelligence and national security officials taken against Trump’s campaign and administration, Brennan also declared he confronted Durham about the politicization of his efforts.

A statement from Nick Shapiro, Brennan’s former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser, also claimed the former CIA director was told he is not under criminal investigation.

They met at CIA headquarters and discussed “issues related to Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” Shapiro said, adding that Durham informed Brennan that “he is not a subject or a target of a criminal investigation, and that he is only a witness to events that are under review.”

The statement, which was first obtained by Politico, said, “Brennan welcomed the opportunity to answer Mr. Durham’s questions related to a wide range of intelligence-related activities undertaken by CIA before the 2016 presidential election as well as the Intelligence Community Assessment published in early January 2017.” (Read more from “John Brennan Claims He Isn’t Under Investigation by Durham” HERE)

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Democratic Candidate, 19, Wins Primary After Admitting to Past Revenge Porn and Blackmailing Girl for Nude Photos

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A 19-year-old Democratic candidate, who confessed that he carried out abusive behavior toward multiple girls in middle school, won his primary race for the Kansas state House of Representatives. Community college student Aaron Coleman won his primary despite confessing that he engaged in “bullying, revenge porn, and blackmail.” . . .

However, Coleman has baggage that has his own party questioning whether he is fit to serve office. During the campaign, he told former Republican state lawmaker John Whitmer that he would “laugh and giggle when you get COVID and die,” according to the Kansas City Star. . .

But there are far darker allegations against Coleman, who is accused of harassing girls online in middle school. The Kansas City Star released an editorial earlier this month that detailed the accusations against the progressive Democratic candidate. . .

The woman said Coleman’s abuse included “calling me fat, telling me to kill myself, like I’m never going to find anyone, like I’m worthless, just downgrading me every day.” . . .

Another young woman alleged that Coleman attempted to extort her with one of her nude photos when they were in middle school five years ago. (Read more from “Democratic Candidate, 19, Wins Primary After Admitting to Past Revenge Porn and Blackmailing Girl for Nude Photos” HERE)

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Postmaster General Eviscerates Democrat Conspiracy Theories

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U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy reassured Congress on Friday that the Postal Service is not hindering any of its mail processes leading up to the November election.

“As we head into the election season, I want to assure this committee, and the American public, that the Postal Service is fully capable of delivering the nation’s election mail securely and on time,” DeJoy said.

Despite the fact that the left’s accusations about USPS and the election have been proven false or unfounded, many, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Taylor Swift, and members of Congress still latched onto the conspiracy theories as truth. The widespread hysteria of this issue led Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to call an emergency congressional hearing to question DeJoy, who fell prey to Democrats’ accusations that USPS and Trump are colluding to purposely remove mailboxes, slow mail delivery, and decommission mail-sorting machines.

When questioned by members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees about the integrity of USPS during the November election, DeJoy guaranteed that the allegations against him and Trump were unfounded. . .

The Postmaster General also denied claims that he ever colluded with President Trump to change USPS policies to meddle in the November election.

“I have never spoken to the president about the postal service,” DeJoy said. (Read more from “Postmaster General Eviscerates Democrat Conspiracy Theories” HERE)

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Former Green Beret Charged Spying for Russia

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A former Army Green Beret living in northern Virginia was arrested Friday, charged with divulging military secrets about his unit’s activities in former Soviet republics during more than a decade of contacts with Russian intelligence.

Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, told Russian intelligence he considered himself a “son of Russia,” according to an indictment made public after his arrest.

“Debbins thought that the United States was too dominant in the world and needed to be cut down to size,” prosecutors alleged.

The indictment also states that Debbins was motivated in part because of bitterness over his Army career and a desire to establish business contacts in Russia. . .

The case against Debbins is the second Justice Department prosecution announced this week accusing a government or military official of transmitting U.S. secrets to a foreign country. The other case, in Hawaii, charged a former CIA officer with spying for China. (Read more from “Former Green Beret Charged Spying for Russia” HERE)

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These Are Joe Biden’s Potential Cabinet Appointments

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Sherrod Brown, the progressive senator from Ohio, says he’s talking with the Biden campaign about “where he needs to look and who he needs to look at” as he begins to form a potential administration. . .

Biden’s White House and his Cabinet would likely lean on his connections from the Obama administration, including institutionalists who are palatable to centrist Democrats. But in the same way Biden shifted left on policy in recent months in response to the pandemic, he is also taking advice from the progressive wing of the party.

Interviews with more than a dozen Democrats familiar with his transition process describe an effort by his campaign to assemble a center-left amalgamation of personnel designed to prioritize speed over ideology in responding to the coronavirus and the resulting economic ruin. Think Susan Rice, but also Elizabeth Warren. Pete Buttigieg, but also Karen Bass. . .

Among those advising Biden on the transition are centrist-minded establishment figures such as Tony Blinken, the former deputy national security adviser in the Obama-Biden White House, and Lawrence Summers, the ex-Treasury secretary and bane of progressives who said last week that he will not go into the administration. Ricchetti, Biden’s former chief of staff, is a former lobbyist. (Read more from “These Are Joe Biden’s Potential Cabinet Appointments” HERE)

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Seattle Mayor Blocks Police Defunding

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Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan on Friday vetoed a City Council budget plan to slash funding to the police department and eliminate the city’s homeless outreach team, among other programs.

The nine-member council approved the rebalanced budget that would have reduced police funding by 14% for the remainder of 2020. The move also would have resulted in the loss of 100 police officers through layoffs and attrition.

The cuts would have totaled around $23 million of the remaining $127 million in the budget, KOMO News reported.

“This veto was because the bills, as passed, did not have the type of collaboration that I think we will have going forward, and that I’m hopeful we will have going forward,” Durkan said during a news conference. “There’s some flaws in each of these (bills) that I hope the council can correct, or with discussions, we can find a path forward together.

“I continue to have concerns about council decisions to make cuts before they have a plan,” she added. “I do not believe the 2020 budget in its current form moves us closer to those shared goals. I truly believe we can, and must, find common ground for the vision of SPD.” (Read more from “Seattle Mayor Blocks Police Defunding” HERE)

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