by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
Screenshot: NBC News
China has reportedly been making significant preparations for a full-scale invasion of Taiwan, according to The Telegraph.
This preparation includes not only military vessels but also an unusual incorporation of civilian ferries, hinting at a large-scale invasion strategy.
China carried out a two-day large-scale exercise involving 111 aircraft and 46 naval vessels around Taiwan, signaling a sharp escalation in tensions across the Taiwan Strait, according to VOA News.
It further vowed to intensify its measures until “complete reunification” is accomplished.
According to Taiwan’s National Defense Ministry, this marked one of the most provocative maneuvers in recent years, with 82 Chinese military aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, edging dangerously close to the territorial boundaries defined by Taiwan.
The exercises, described by Chinese state media as a “punishment” for Taiwan’s newly inaugurated president, Lai Ching-te, come amid growing concerns over increased military posturing by Beijing.
Channel News Asia reported:
China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, carried out the military drills on Thursday and Friday, calling them “punishment” after Lai’s inauguration speech on Monday which Beijing called another push for the island’s formal independence.
China has repeatedly lambasted Lai as a “separatist”. Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future. He has repeatedly offered talks but has been rebuffed.
Speaking at a meeting of his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the southern city of Tainan, Lai called on China to “share the heavy responsibility of regional stability with Taiwan”, according to comments provided by his party.
Just days after China concluded significant military drills around Taiwan, a U.S. congressional delegation led by Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, arrived on the island.
“We are moving forward on those weapons systems,” Rep. Michael McCaul said at a news conference in Taipei. “I’d like to see them faster, but they are forthcoming.”
“President Lai and I have always had a very sobering and yet very direct conversation about the threat that this island faces from its neighbor to the north,” McCaul added.
Earlier this week, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, issued a stark caution to the United States, urging it to “seriously abide by the one-China principle” and avoid facilitating visits by congressional members to Taiwan. Wang explicitly stated that ignoring such directives would lead to “consequences,” according to Sky News.
Now, The Telegraph is reporting that China is reportedly preparing an “armada” of ferries and civilian vessels for a potential invasion of Taiwan.
Telegraph reported:
China is preparing an armada of ferries and civilian vessels to invade Taiwan as Beijing steps up its pressure campaign against the island nation.
While the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) lacks the numbers of amphibious landing craft needed to stage the sort of invasion seen during the D-Day landings, it could bridge the gap with civilian vessels, including dozens of gigantic roll-on, roll-off ferries that can each carry hundreds of armoured vehicles.
“Amphibious landings under fire are among the most difficult of military manoeuvres,” said Ray Powell, the director of SeaLight, a Stanford University project focused on grey zone activities in the South China Sea.
Civilian ferries “would normally be poor choices for such a mission” but could be used to transport troops en masse across the Taiwan strait after its coastal defences are destroyed, or to overwhelm the island’s military “with sheer mass,” he said.
Read more here.
On May 26, 2024, the U.S. Navy’s formidable 100,000-ton aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, assigned to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet, has made a significant transit through the South China Sea for “routine operations” as Chinese military activities in the area began to subside.
“The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) transits the South China Sea, May 26, 2024. Theodore Roosevelt, flagship of Carrier Strike Group Nine, is underway conducting routine operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations. U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” said an official statement.
NBC News’ Ken Dilanian discussed with a geopolitics expert who suggested that a real invasion might conclude before the U.S. has an opportunity to react.
WATCH:
The post China is Reportedly Preparing Large Military Fleet to Invade Taiwan — Expert Predicts Invasion Could Conclude Within an Hour appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
Welcome to The Gateway Pundit’s Week-in-Review with Elijah Schaffer, where he covers the top 5 stories throughout the week in around 10 minutes.
ARTICLE 1: UNBELIEVABLE: Reality Show ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Features Woman With Chopped Off Boobs Carrying Bloody Breasts on Runway and Promotes Double Mastectomies for Teen/Young Adult Viewers (VIDEO)
ARTICLE 2: “USA! USA! USA!” President Trump Receives Rock Star Welcome at NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (VIDEO)
ARTICLE 3: ‘Highway Robbery’ by U.S. Police Gets Green Light, Thanks to Ruling
ARTICLE 4: Fever Coach Christie Sides Destroys the Greatest Basketball Scorer of All Time – Takes Down Caitlin Clark and the WNBA League in 7 Games – Bravo, Christie! Bravo!
ARTICLE 5: ‘General Hospital’ Actor Shot and Killed in Downtown Los Angeles While Interrupting Catalytic Converter Theft
Please leave your opinions/comments on these stories below, as Elijah reads every single one and appreciates your perspective.
The post SHOCKING: Trans Surgery BREAST REMOVAL Promoted on TV to Teens?! | Elijah Schaffer’s Top 5 (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
A manhunt was launched following an incident where a driver left tire marks on a pride mural (Screenshot: St. Petersburg Police Department)
A manhunt is underway for a driver accused of deliberately defacing a Pride mural, marking the second act of vandalism against the same artwork within a week.
The St. Petersburg Police Department reports that the latest incident involved a blue two-door vehicle performing donuts over the mural at the 2500 Central Avenue roundabout. This act of vandalism, occurring early on May 22nd, follows a similar incident on May 17th involving a truck.
St. Petersburg Police Department released the following statement:
Over the last week, two different vehicles have left tire marks damaging the Progressive Pride street mural at the 2500 Central Avenue roundabout.
The first occurred on May 17th at 9:36 a.m. when a truck accelerated through the mural. The second incident happened on May 22nd at 2:41 a.m. involving a blue two-door vehicle doing doughnuts on the mural.
Investigators have no reason to believe the incidents are related.
It’s going to cost the City of St. Petersburg $1100 to restore. The City aims to have the mural repainted in time for Pride month festivities.”
If found, the individual responsible will face a felony charge of criminal mischief.
WATCH:
BREAKING: A manhunt is underway after a driver left tire marks on a pride mural in St. Pete, FL.
He will be charged will a felony count of criminaI mischief if they find him. pic.twitter.com/6e1sYsCXhh
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 27, 2024
Democrat Mayor Ken Welch took to social media to condemn the vandalism.
“In light of the recent vandalism targeting our Progressive Pride flag mural, I want to emphasize that there is no place for hate in St. Petersburg. We stand united in valuing and appreciating every resident, regardless of their orientation, gender identity, or expression. Our differences make St. Pete the vibrant and diverse community we cherish,” the mayor said.
“The flag mural will be cleaned and refreshed in time for Pride Month. As we look forward to the Pride celebrations, let’s continue to spread the message of love and acceptance even further. Join us as we kick off the festivities with our Pride flag raising ceremony at City Hall on Friday, May 31. Together, we can show that love always wins,” he added.
A notable backlash has emerged on social media, where users are drawing parallels between this incident and other forms of political expression like flag burning or statue defacement, which receive less legal scrutiny or even praise.
One user pointed out, “Burn an American flag or tear down statues: you might be hailed as a hero. Leave tire marks on a pride mural: face a manhunt and felony charges.”
Another added, “If burning the U.S. flag is considered free speech, shouldn’t the same apply to a burnout on a Pride mural? This is about freedom of expression.”
Criticism also touches on the use of taxpayer money for what some see as divisive symbols on public property.
“Why spend taxpayer dollars on a Pride mural when we could be enhancing community safety or showing equal recognition for patriotic symbols?” another comment read.
The post Manhunt Underway for Driver Who Performed Donuts and Defaced Pride Mural in Florida — Will Face Felony Charges (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
President Trump enters court in the Democrats’ latest lawfare case in New York City. Democrats hope to keep Trump off the campaign trial and send him to prison over a yet undefined crime.
Alvin Bragg is attempting to charge President Trump with a Class E felony, which is a crime under New York state law. Felonies are typically crimes punishable by more than a year in prison. We know by now that Bragg’s case is riven with errors – and it remains inexplicable why, to the extent President Trump has violated any criminal statute at all, he is still being charged with a felony, rather than a misdemeanor. Of course, the reality is that President Trump committed no crime. But even the statute that Alvin Bragg has cited to base his alleged theory of liability, Penal Law § 175.10, expressly states “a person is guilty of falsifying business … in the second degree, and when his intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.” Bragg must not have the attention span (or intelligence) to read the rest of the statute, which blatantly spells out: “Falsifying business records in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.” A misdemeanor at most, not a felony. So, why the bloody hell are Bragg and Merchan treating this like a criminal felony?
Part of the reason we still do not know so much of anything about this case is because the presiding judge, Juan Manuel Merchan, has not allowed any discussion whatsoever of Bragg’s criminal theory of liability through expert witnesses. We have so far heard ad nauseam from Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, who were the prosecution’s one-two punch used to assassinate President Trump’s character in the courtroom and deny him the presumption of innocence, about how bad a man Donald Trump supposedly is. But hardly anything from the Defense! Why? Because Merchan would not allow it!
Instead, the Defense has only been allowed to bring in one witness, Robert Costello, a battle tested defense attorney of the SDNY and former legal adviser of Michael Cohen. For his part, Cohen’s testimony arguably did more to discredit the People’s theory of the case than Donald Trump’s – after all, he admitted to lying on the stand under Congressional oath years ago, stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization, committing perjury, and profiting off the trial, among a litany of other damning revelations. Costello drove the nail in the coffin, corroborating Cohen’s own testimony that his former client is a liar, fraudster, and perjurer – who acted totally independently and without President Trump’s knowledge.
Nevertheless, the Defense has every right to bring in cooperative witnesses of their own – expert witnesses, who can speak to the propriety of the laws being applied, for example, and clarify both to jurors and the press from whom the rest of the world is loath to rely upon to hear about these proceedings (given that no television cameras are allowed in the courtroom), about how a certain law should be interpreted. In fact, not only is a criminal defendant permitted to bring in cooperative witnesses: he has a constitutional prerogative to do so. Yet, those fundamental rights are being made into mincemeat by Merchan and Bragg, in real time – with impunity.
Thus, Merchan’s decision last week to bar expert testimony from a former FEC commissioner, who was a cooperative witness for the defense, was a blow to the justice system. Already, Merchan’s show trial has repeatedly (and rightly) been called a “sham trial” and “kangaroo court” for his flagrant disregard of judicial norms, professional ethics, due process, and the rule of law.
It is bad enough that the Judge gagged the defendant, hamstringing the presidential frontrunner from using his social media platform, Truth Social, to expose the innumerable conflicts implicating Merchan that would normally disqualify any other sitting judge from being allowed to continue presiding over a criminal trial of this kind. But now, the judge has decided to take things one step further by unilaterally denying the Defendant’s right to bring expert witnesses into the courtroom. Merchan has declared like a tinpot dictator, almost verbatim according to those with intimate knowledge of the proceeding, that “only I can say what the law means!” To hell with longstanding legal precedent, to say nothing of the rules of evidence and criminal procedure that are supposed to regulate a trial of this sort – and which, given the importance of the Defendant, should be rigorously upheld. This, especially considering what devastation a trial involving the next President might wreck on the integrity of the justice system overall.
Merchan has so far run roughshod over the rule of law, making a casualty of the legitimacy of the New York State criminal system in the process. The statute cited above requires two crimes to raise the falsification scheme to a first-degree felony. The fraud must have been done with “an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.” Bragg’s prosecutors are now claiming that the second crime is some ill-defined FEC violation, which raises a slew of separate legal questions. But not being able to interrogate an expert on federal election law in court is the ultimate miscarriage of a justice system already loaded with abuses and unprecedented violations.
Especially now with the FEC issue front and center, it raises the separate issue of why this case is being brought in state court altogether, and not federal court? If the case involves a federal issue, the jurisdiction here is all wrong: state courts have no authority over the subject matter. This is a case that would normally get preempted or barred by federal courts – the FEC, a federal agency, has its own intricate rules over election-related questions and thus exclusive jurisdiction over any such matters.
At a bare minimum, an expert witness should be allowed to opine on the issue in state court – and not be prohibited because it hurts the judge’s ego. This is a clear reversible error because the President’s fundamental rights have been so callously violated. This abuse alone should have prompted a mistrial – it is the reason, as well, why so many legal commentators and scholars have said this case will be easily tossed on appeal, because of the widespread, undeniable prejudice that was allowed to take place under these unprecedented conditions.
All of which only further underscores that Judge Merchan is not acting like a reasonable judge taking seriously his constitutional oath to apply the law faithfully and impartially, but as a political hack overseeing the weaponization (and corruption) of the rule of law in the once free Republic known as the United States. Merchan has retrofitted his office into another partisan instrument to suppress enemies of the Biden Regime, nothing more. This trial is a witch-hunt, a hatchet job, and a kangaroo court of the highest order. It is a colossal waste of money and time, and an egregious misallocation of precious resources – like NYPD personnel and vehicles – that should be used to patrol the streets of violent crime and illegal migrants.
Every single American should be enraged by the corruption of justice being done in real time, and no matter the verdict of this trial, it will go down in infamy as a permanent blotch on the justice system, one that will take at least a generation to restore back to the glory it once had prior to Juan Merchan, Alvin Bragg, and Joe Biden taking a battering ram to it with disregard for the rights of every American.
The post Entering Summations Week, One Thing Is Clear: Merchan’s Show Trial Is A Travesty Of The Justice System appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | May 28, 2024 | Aggregate
The Patriot Freedom Project, a nonprofit organization founded by Cynthia Hughes, is dedicated to advocating for January 6th political prisoners and their families. As part of its broader advocacy mission, the PFP recently produced a three-part documentary, “Due Process Denied,” which highlights the often harrowing and tragic stories of the J6 victims and their families. The third and final installment of Due Process Denied viscerally recounts how the persecution of the J6 victims is representative of a much deeper constitutional crisis afflicting our society at large.
Many of these victims have been deliberately targeted by Joe Biden and his weaponized DOJ and intelligence agencies. These institutions have been hijacked by Biden to persecute his political enemies with vengeance, which has done major, potentially irreversible, damage to the rule of law along the way.
From Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis’ ongoing show trials against President Trump to the thousands of prosecutions currently underway, which have all denied fundamental human rights to the overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrators who appeared at the Capitol on January 6th, the evidence of America’s plunge into a banana republic – where rule by might has displaced rule by right – is staggering and undeniable.
Ed Martin, who is president of the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles and serves as board member of the PFP, casts an understanding and discerning host throughout the series. An empathetic voice, Martin’s narration in Part 3 grounds the audience with a refreshingly levelheaded sensibility about what really happened on January 6th, pitching questions to his guests that bring out both the legal and personal sides to the story.
Congressman Louie Gohmert (L) explaining to host Paul Ingrassia (R) about how the Biden DOJ is currently relying on unprecedented methods to run roughshod around the rule of law, stripping J6 political prisoners without due process of law, and putting them behind bars. The entire film can be watched here on Rumble.
Martin, a Virginia-based lawyer who was recently appointed to senior position at the RNC, draws upon his legal expertise to walk through the countless constitutional violations committed by the Biden DOJ in the various interviews he conducts over the approximately hour-long final installment.
Martin’s commentary helps break down the thornier legal and due process issues for non-experts and confirms through his provocative conversations just how unprecedented and downright cruel the lawfare has been against those now being prosecuted. His conversations help shed light on the egregiously heavy-handed sentences being handed down against many political prisoners. On any other occasion, these political victims would be getting charged for trespassing (normally a misdemeanor), at the absolute worst. Now, they are facing potentially decades-long sentences behind bars.
“Now we turn to subject matter experts,” Martin begins his introductory remarks, “people who know the law and public policy, who understand the psychology of what’s going on when people are put in prison and their families have to deal with it.” He continues, “We’ll do all of that here, which will give us the context of why due process was denied for these political prisoners.”
The documentary is unique for being the only one to absolutely prioritize highlighting government weaponization and the painful personal costs associated with a weaponized justice system, on both the victims and the families. The whole documentary does a stellar job describing the lawfare presently taking place and personalizing it with the firsthand experiences of families barely getting by. These stories are told often by the children themselves, whose fathers and mothers have been forced out of the household, and locked behind bars, for months or years on end. In most cases, the parents are denied access to children during their most formative years. Some may never again get to see their children until they reach adulthood.
The third installment features legal commentary from a broad range of experts, from policymakers to lawyers to legal scholars. These commentators, albeit wide-ranging in backgrounds, are in consensus that what is being done right now with these political persecutions is reprehensible, unprecedented, and an affront to the rule of law in the worst possible way.
Congressman Louis Gohmert, who once served as a Texas state court judge for over a decade before entering public service, spearheads the legal analysis, painting a blistering portrait of the unprecedented methods being used right now to persecute otherwise law-abiding Americans on January 6th. The vast majority simply exercised their First Amendment rights to assemble peacefully on public property and voice their grievances, in keeping with what until five minutes ago was a longstanding and cherished American tradition.
Congressman Gohmert ominously analogized what is now going on in the nation’s capital – which is supposed to be a symbol of freedom for the entire world – to the gulags of Soviet Russia. He made repeated references to famed ex-communist writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet exile to the United States. Perhaps Solzhenitsyn’s most famous work, Gulag Archipelago, which Gohmert referenced by name, showcased in macabre detail what life was like under Soviet despotism for much of the twentieth century — a foreshadowing of the tyranny that has arrived on these shores. This is the high price we pay if we let our guards down and forget the high cost of preserving liberty, which must be renewed every single generation.
The third part of the film also featured commentaries from former senior Trump administration official, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, and political commentator Paul Ingrassia.
Dr. Gorka offered a brutal criticism of journalists, who have worked tirelessly over the past four years to portray the overwhelmingly peaceful demonstration on January 6th as a violent insurrection. Indeed, the reason why a sizable portion of the population referred to the events of January 6th as an insurrection in the first place (which it plainly wasn’t, based on the historical record and dictionary definition of the term that requires a violent overthrow of the government with force), was due to the mainstream media peddling a false narrative to demonize conservatives.
“The majority of them are actually propagandists,” says Gorka.
These propagandists jumped the gun and reflexively branded the demonstrations of January 6th an insurrection, before all the evidence came out – while also ignoring the untold billions of damages caused by far-left groups like Antifa and BLM the summer before.
Attorney Jeff Clark described how the media worked in collusion with the sham House Select Committee, which was tasked with investigating January 6th, but is now run “exclusively by Democrats.” The cooperation of the media coupled with the House Select Committee created a false narrative about the events of January 6th, a partisan hatchet job that was based on emotion and political bias, not reason and fact.
Ingrassia interviews many of the guests featured in the third installment, and inquires how “due process is being shredded by forces within our government, within our justice system, and within weaponized intelligence agencies, working in tandem against the American people.”
Also featured in this third installment is commentary from Dr. Gina Loudon, host of the daytime talk show American Sunrise on Real America’s Voice. Her perspective goes a long way towards personalizing the January 6th victims for viewers.
“The first thing they want to talk about is their prayer life,” Loudon explains of the families, “which has become key for the people enduring these hardships.”
The documentary makes tremendous strides towards dispelling and debunking so many of the myths peddled by the mainstream media over the past four years that have stigmatized the victims in the harshest and most ruthless of ways. This propaganda has villainized them in the worst possible light: casting them as dangerous threats to democracy and domestic terrorists, rather than patriotic Americans who care deeply about preserving our time-honored rights and freedoms.
After watching this film, viewers cannot help but see the light: what becomes crystal clear is that the vast majority of the January 6th victims, whom President Trump refers to as “hostages,” are far from the crazed lunatics routinely smeared on networks like CNN and MSNBC. To the contrary, they are devoted mothers and fathers; countless others are devout, God-fearing Christians and people of faith generally who wish to preserve the American experiment and pass down the freedoms and traditions they grew up with to their own children and grandchildren.
Many of the victims are veterans who selflessly served our country overseas, only to be treated like domestic terrorists by their own government at home.
The main takeaway from this documentary is that freedom is extremely delicate; the building blocks of our legal system that have long been responsible for our liberty have eroded away almost completely. Due process literally hangs by a thread.
That is why it is absolutely imperative that Americans of all backgrounds and ideologies understand the precarious situation our country faces. The documentary serves as an indispensable tool to educate audiences about the stakes of our ongoing constitutional crisis, and specifically how the Left systematically targets innocent Americans by weaponizing the justice system in pursuit of creating a one-party state that does not allow for dissent of any kind. This is the hallmark of every tyranny, past and present.
Back in January, Patriot Freedom Project received a personal endorsement from President Donald Trump. The organization has hosted many J6 fundraisers at Trump venues over the years, including his Bedminster golf club, with the approval of President Trump himself. The President has a perfect track record of speaking at these events, and has sung the praises of Cynthia Hughes as well as many of the guests featured in the film, including Louie Gohmert, Jeff Clark, Sebastian Gorka, and Paul Ingrassia.
The PFP is unrivaled in terms of the political advocacy it does for the most vulnerable people in our society today. Through films like Due Process Denied, the organization has led the charge in shifting the narrative, and changing public opinion about January 6th 2021, while also continuing to help in every possible way – financially, legally, emotionally, and spiritually – support the victims and their families.
The group has survived relentless attacks by the Left, Congressional Democrats, and the mainstream media. It relies, however, on the public’s generosity to keep pushing forward.
Readers who are interested in learning more about the organization and would consider making a donation should visit the PFP’s website at: https://patriotfreedomproject.com/donate/.
On behalf of Cynthia Hughes, the Patriot Freedom Project is deeply appreciative of any contribution generous readers might give. God bless.
The post Patriot Freedom Project Releases Third Part Of Documentary Showcasing The Personal And Legal Costs Of The Weaponized System Of Justice On Victims And Families appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
