DOJ Shutting Down China-Focused Anti-Espionage Program Due Racism Concerns

The Biden administration is shutting down a Justice Department program that focused on countering Chinese espionage, following stumbles in a series of criminal cases and accusations that it amounted to racial profiling.

Officials said Wednesday that the three-year-old effort, known as the China Initiative, was being cast aside largely because of perceptions that it unfairly painted Chinese Americans and U.S. residents of Chinese origin as disloyal.

“By grouping cases under the China Initiative rubric, we helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to that country or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic or familial ties to China differently,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said in remarks prepared for delivery at George Mason University in Virginia.

However, Justice’s top national security official insisted that the decision amounted to a reframing and recalibration — not an abandonment — of a muscular law enforcement response to the national security threat posed by the People’s Republic of China. (Read more from “DOJ Shutting Down China-Focused Anti-Espionage Program Due Racism Concerns” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Laughable: Hillary Clinton Claims Putin Motivated to Invade Ukraine by Trump, January 6

Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in a Friday Atlantic op-ed blamed Russia’s assault on Ukraine on former President Donald Trump, tying Vladimir Putin’s ongoing invasion to the January 6 Capitol riot.

In an opinion piece that used the word “democracy” 47 times, Clinton claimed Putin, the “implacable enemy of democracy,” attacked Ukraine in part because “Republican leaders are abandoning core tenets of American democracy even as the stakes in the global contest between democracy and autocracy are clearer and higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War.”

It should be noted that Ukraine has struggled to enter NATO. According to Biden, Ukraine needs to reduce nationwide corruption to enter NATO. “The fact is they still have to clean up corruption,” Biden said in 2021.

“Trump has always had a personal attachment to Putin,” Clinton continued, “which we don’t need to belabor here, and a long-standing admiration for dictators and disdain for democracy—going all the way back to his admiration for the brutal Chinese crackdown in Tiananmen Square decades ago.”

Clinton highlighted Putin as a threat to “the promise of democracy — freedom, rule of law, human rights, self-determination” and proceeded to praise Democrat-allied Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for “braving the ire of their party,” which she deemed was “determined to discredit or co-opt the idea of democracy.” (Read more from “Laughable: Hillary Clinton Claims Putin Motivated to Invade Ukraine by Trump, January 6” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Russians Have Mobile Crematoriums in Ukraine to Cook the Books on Their Casualty Count

We have the first casualty reports from Ukraine. They’re very preliminary but so far, the Ukrainians claim that they’ve lost 137 civilians and soldiers so far. They also claim that they’ve killed close to 1,000 Russian soldiers. These numbers are sure to spike in the coming days, but the Russian campaign is reportedly not going well. . .

That being said, the true Russian death toll might not be known as we have reports of Russian mobile crematorium that is aimed to cook the books on the true butcher’s bill Moscow facing Moscow with this invasion (via Fox News):

Russia’s cache of weaponry and machinery includes a mobile crematorium, which is mounted on a vehicle and can be deployed if needed during the ongoing, devastating invasion of Ukraine, Fox News has confirmed.

The mobile crematorium has been seen among the Russian troops that, led by President Vladimir Putin, continue their advance onto the neighbor country, The Telegraph reported and Fox News has confirmed.

Ben Wallace, the British secretary of defense, told The Telegraph the mobile crematorium could be used as a way to minimize the appearance of Russian military casualties. Footage taken in 2014 provides a glimpse into the machinery and its capabilities.

(Read more from “Russians Have Mobile Crematoriums in Ukraine to Cook the Books on Their Casualty Count” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Russian Propaganda Claims No Fighting in Kyiv, Major Ukrainian Cities

The world watches Russian rockets and shells rain down on Ukrainian cities, yet Russian state media are telling domestic audiences that Kyiv is “quiet and calm,” Kharkiv had “an ordinary day,” and footage of Russia’s savage attacks is all just a “background of lies from the Western media.”

The Moscow Times described Russian state media coverage of the war as downright “surreal”:

Taking their cue from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation early Thursday morning, when he announced a limited “special military operation” to “demilitarize” Ukraine and protect citizens in the Donbas from what he said was a Ukrainian “genocide,” the country’s state TV channels have gone into overdrive to peddle a similar message to a somewhat hesitant Russian public.

“​​Ukrainians do not need to fear Russia’s special operation,” said a correspondent for rolling news channel Rossiya-24, as headlines flashed across the screen announcing Russia’s military successes and an apparent imminent Ukrainian threat.

“Ukraine launched three missiles at the Donetsk People’s Republic in the last seven minutes,” a breaking news banner read.

(Read more from “Russian Propaganda Claims No Fighting in Kyiv, Major Ukrainian Cities” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Elon Musk Can’t Get Enough of China: Tesla Plans to DOUBLE Production in Communist Country

A recent report claims that Tesla plans to start the development of a new facility in Shanghai as soon as next month, more than doubling its production capacity in China. Elon Musk has frequently praised China’s genocidal communist regime. In one meeting with the government, Musk said “I love China very much and I am willing to come here more.”

Reuters reports that Tesla plans to begin construction on a new plant in Shanghai soon as part of its efforts to grow its presence in China. The new facility will more than double its production capacity in China to meet the growing demand for its vehicles in the country and other markets.

The new plant will give Tesla the capacity to produce as many as 2 million cars per year at its Shanghai facility, which is the company’s main export hub. The new plant will be located near the existing production plant in Lingang, Pudong New Area.

Tesla reportedly plans to produce around 1 million vehicles this year. The company aims to bring its weekly production at the Shanghai facility to around 22,000 vehicles in the coming months. This would result in around 1.1 million vehicles produced over a full year at the Shanghai facility, more than doubling its original projected capacity. (Read more from “Elon Musk Can’t Get Enough of China: Tesla Plans to *Double* Production in Communist Country” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Russia: It’s Too Late for Sanctions

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Russia is not worried about U.S. and European sanctions as punishment for invading Ukraine because Russia long ago gamed out every possible sanctions move and fortified its economy to withstand them.

“The emotional reaction of the markets and in the financial sector was predicted. All necessary measures have been taken to ensure this period is over as quickly as possible,” Peskov said at a press conference.

The Kremlin spokesman scoffed at the notion of Western diplomatic and economic sanctions isolating Russia from the rest of the world in retaliation for invading Ukraine.

“It’s simply impossible to cut off a country like Russia with an iron curtain,” Peskov said, referring to the famed Iron Curtain metaphor for the Cold War.

“Of course, we may have problems with a number of states, but we had problems with these states even before that,” he said. (Read more from “Russia: It’s Too Late for Sanctions” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Taiwan Reports Chinese Aircraft in Its Air Defense Zone After Russia Invaded Ukraine

Nine Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, Taiwan’s defense ministry said Thursday, on the same day that Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tawian reported eight J-16 sorties and one Y-8 reconnaissance aircraft flying over an area to the northeast of the Pratas Islands, at the top end of the South China Sea, which prompted the island nation to scramble its air force. According to Reuters, the number of aircraft involved in the incursion is smaller than the last large-scale incident, when 39 Chinese aircraft flew into Taiwanese territory on Jan. 23.

China claims Taiwan, the seat of the exiled Republic of China government, as its own territory, and over the past two years it has regularly conducted fly-over missions in Taiwanese air space.

Taiwanese fighters were deployed to warn the Chinese aircraft to back off and air defense missiles were set up to “monitor the activities,” the defense ministry said, according to Reuters.

The government in Taipei is paying close attention to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the response from Western governments over concerns that China may use the situation to move against the island. (Read more from “Taiwan Reports Chinese Aircraft in Its Air Defense Zone After Russia Invaded Ukraine” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Has Putin Miscalculated His Ability to Take Ukraine Swiftly?

The invasion of Ukraine by the armed forces of Russia at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders marks the first time since 1945 that Russia has engaged in a conventional war with a near-peer nation. . .

Putin, by choosing to reach beyond the ethnic-Russian majority separatist provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas Basin, has decided to end the independent, Western-looking Ukrainian government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and install a pro-Putin quisling.

And while the fog of war, some deliberate mis-and disinformation operations by the combatants, and the far-from-perfect filter of Western media leaves much unknown at this time, what is known is that Zelenskyy is still in power a day after the Russian offensive. Further, the Ukrainian military appears to be taking a toll on the Russians invading from three sides: south across the Pripyat Marshes from Russian satellite Belarus; west from Russia, including Donbas; and north from the Black Sea in the region of Odessa and Transnistria, a Russian client breakaway state in Moldavia.

Modern conventional war is extremely difficult to do well. Imagine being a conductor of an orchestra, all while the audience was lobbing soccer balls at you and your musicians as you perform J.S. Bach’s Chaconne in D — that’s modern warfare. Putin is attempting a highly complicated operation over large distances in the face of a determined foe. Further, he’s doing so with an army largely composed of conscripts serving for only one year.

Since Putin has decided to oust the Ukrainian government, this means that every day Zelenskyy remains in office is another day that adds to Ukrainian national confidence to resist — and another day that Putin looks to have miscalculated. (Read more from “Has Putin Miscalculated His Ability to Take Ukraine Swiftly?” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Ukraine: Chernobyl Power Plant Has Been Captured by the Russians

Russian forces have reportedly captured the Chernobyl power plant, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said Thursday.

The announcement coincides with a full Russian invasion of Ukraine that began early Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced “a special military operation in Donbas.”

Shortly after Putin’s announcement, the Russian military descended upon Ukraine via land, sea and air, The New York Times reported. U.S. officials have predicted that Putin’s goal is to fully dismantle the Ukrainian government and replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with someone controlled by Russia, the newspaper added.

Amid a continued Russian attack against Ukraine, the Ukrainian president has tweeted out updates. In one, he reported that “Russian occupation forces are trying to seize the” Chernobyl power plant, a highly radioactive zone with a nuclear reactor that melted in 1986 and sparked the worst nuclear reaction disaster in history.

(Read more from “Ukraine: Chernobyl Power Plant Has Been Captured by the Russians” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Dutch Air Force Deploys Storied ‘MiG Killer’ To Eastern Europe

The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) is deploying two F-16AM Fighting Falcons and two armed F-35A Lightning II aircraft from Leeuwarden Air Base to further reinforce NATO’s presence across Eastern Europe.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense announced the plan to deploy the 5th generation jets to Graf Ignatievo Air Base in Bulgaria through March and April, according to the NATO Allied Air Command. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Thursday altered these plans. It is now unclear whether the aircraft will go to Bulgaria, as the official statement from the Ministry of Defense noted they have been moved “in the vicinity of Poland,” the Aviationist reported.

The F-16s and F-35s are part of a contingent of eight aircraft to be deployed to protect NATO airspace in Eastern Europe at a moment’s notice, the outlet described. (Read more from “NYC Underground: Hundreds of People Are Living in Subway Stations and Tunnels, Survey Shows” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.