Turkey’s Erdoğan

In Turkey, this Cover Page of the Charlie Hebdo publication would be a crime because Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is afraid of ridicule (the headline caption translates as “In private, he’s very funny”). In France and much of the West, it’s a matter of free speech and free press. Here, too.

The joke is on Erdoğan. Or he is the joke. You pick ’em.

Some Biden-Related Concerns

…as outlined in Just the News.

There are at least three instances where there is now public evidence that Joe Biden met with foreigners his son was courting for business.
The first occurred in 2011 when Obama White House entry logs show several Chinese businessmen involved with Hunter Biden checked in to meet the vice president.
The second occurred in 2013, when Hunter Biden rode aboard Air Force II with his father and then introduced the vice president in Beijing to a Chinese businessman that was helping him start an investment fund.
The third, alleged in an email purportedly recovered from Hunter Biden’s old laptop, indicates Hunter Biden arranged for an official from Burisma to meet his father in April 2015. …the Biden campaign now acknowledges the encounter may have happened though insists it was fleeting.

These predate the People’s Republic of China National Intelligence Law, enacted in June 2017, that requires all PRC companies to answer PRC intelligence community requests for information. Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden still has not repudiated, or even terminated, these ties. That they may appear to have died on the vine on their own, may be just that: appearance.

Biden needs to positively repudiate these connections.

And this:

At least two pieces of evidence have emerged in the last two weeks that suggest Hunter Biden believed his father was getting a cut of his business. The first, which remains uncorroborated by Just the News, is an email found on the purported Hunter Biden laptop in which the vice president’s son suggests he shared half of his income with his father.
The second piece of evidence, now authenticated by Just the News, is a proposal in May 2017 for a joint venture between a Chinese energy firm and a Hunter Biden-tied company called Sinohawk Holdings that stated that 10% of the venture’s equity was being reserved for the “big guy.” Sinohawk’s CEO Tony Bobulinski has confirmed the reference to the “big guy” is Joe Biden, and that the then-former vice president was supposed to be a silent investor in the venture.

The “purported Hunter Biden laptop” itself has been confirmed to be his; although its provenance once it left the repair shop’s hands remains unclear. The joint venture proposal was made just before the PRC’s intelligence law was enacted. It seems unlikely that the Bidens would not have known the law was imminent, but it seems likely the PRC’s energy firm—CEFC—would have known, especially given the connections between Ye Jianming, CEFC’s Chairman and controlling shareholder (through his Shanghai Energy Fund Investment Ltd company) and the Communist Party of China.

Biden has yet to positively repudiate any of this, also.

There’s more at the link.

Eviction Moratoriums

Recall that the CDC has issued a ban on evicting tenants during the present Wuhan Virus situation, saying that the ban is needed to curb the spread of the virus. Landlords, of both the apartment and house variety, are suing over that.

Luke Wake, of the Pacific Legal Foundation, claims

It’s unconstitutional[.]

He and his landlord clients will need a stronger argument than that. Good policy, bad, or indifferent, the concept of temporary bars against tenant evictions is a long-established concept. Iowa, for instance, bars tenant evictions during the winter months. Every winter.

Briar Patch

Throw me in that one, Br’er Xi. He’s upset that the US is selling arms to the Republic of China so that nation would have a better chance to defend itself against a People’s Republic of China physical invasion effort.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday that Beijing has decided to impose sanctions on Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co’s defense division, and Raytheon Technologies Corp, as well as other US entities involved in the planned $1.8 billion weapons package.

Zhao added

[The People’s Republic of] China “firmly opposes” and condemns US arms sales to Taiwan, which “severely damage Chinese sovereignty and security interests[.]”

Not so much. There’s no damage to the PRC’s sovereignty from helping a nation to defend itself against attack.

Throw me on into that patch. Our high tech companies—not only our military-oriented or dual-use tech companies—don’t need to be doing business with our chiefest enemy under any circumstances. That trade is only a means of transferring our tech to our enemy.

We need also to work with the RoC to develop offensive and defensive cyber weapons so that both of us can better defend against and counterattack to decisive victory against a PRC cyber invasion.

Vengeance

The Progressive-Democrats are interested in it.

Shortly after Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the US Supreme Court on Monday, Democrats warned Republicans that they would regret their decision to hold a vote so closely to an election.

And

“My colleagues may regret this for a lot longer than they think,” [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY] added.

Senator Chris Murphy (D, CT):

Will Democrats go to new, extraordinary lengths to maximize their power given the extraordinary lengths Republicans have gone to maximize their power? …what do Republicans expect?

Revenge. Not the business of the people.

Think about that as you vote.