Hillary Lies About Her Classified Emails, Ukraine Nuke Plant's 'Catastrophic' Risk, China's Economic Crisis
Three of my top articles from American Liberty News/Defense.
Hillary Lies Again – Yes, She Absolutely Had Classified Emails on Her Personal Servers
ANALYSIS – Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton stupidly jumped into the Donald Trump Mar-a-Lago controversy Tuesday when she falsely and shamelessly claimed that, unlike Trump’s holding of classified documents at his home, classified documents were not transmitted on her unsecured private email servers.
She went on to write that she “had zero emails that were classified.”
Why she would make such an outrageous and demonstrably false statement is beyond me, though Nazi propagandist Goebbels comes to mind. Many of her supporters won’t bother reading anything else and will simply take her word for it and repeat her lie.
Recall that former FBI director Jim Comey said in 2016 that Hillary absolutely had classified emails on her server in her basement. In his public statement he noted that:
FROM THE GROUP OF 30,000 E-MAILS RETURNED TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT, 110 E-MAILS IN 52 E-MAIL CHAINS HAVE BEEN DETERMINED BY THE OWNING AGENCY TO CONTAIN CLASSIFIED INFORMATION AT THE TIME THEY WERE SENT OR RECEIVED. EIGHT OF THOSE CHAINS CONTAINED INFORMATION THAT WAS TOP SECRET AT THE TIME THEY WERE SENT; 36 CHAINS CONTAINED SECRET INFORMATION AT THE TIME; AND EIGHT CONTAINED CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION AT THE TIME — THAT IS THE LOWEST LEVEL OF CLASSIFICATION.
Comey added that:
SEPARATE FROM THOSE, ABOUT 2,000 ADDITIONAL E-MAILS WERE “UP-CLASSIFIED” TO MAKE THEM CONFIDENTIAL; THE INFORMATION IN THOSE HAD NOT BEEN CLASSIFIED AT THE TIME THE E-MAILS WERE SENT.
This means that though they may not have been marked or noted as classified, they should have been. And Hillary, of all people, should have known it.
UN Warns of Potential ‘Catastrophe’ From Russian Control of Ukraine’s Largest Nuke Plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an independent organization that reports to the UN, Tuesday issued a report on the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station (ZNPP) in Ukraine, Europe’s largest.
Months of fighting near ZNPP have created extensive damage and an “unsustainable” situation going forward, the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency said Tuesday.
The report warns of the possibility of a nuclear emergency due to continued shelling and other military activity and strongly advises that an agreement be reached to create a demilitarized ‘security zone’ around the plant to protect it from potentially catastrophic damage.
The report follows a daring and unprecedented inspection by IAEA inspectors and its director general, Rafael Grossi, who crossed the front lines in a war zone under shelling to reach the plant.
The inspectors confirmed the presence of Russian soldiers and military equipment at the plant, including army vehicles.
In his statement Grossi said:
WE ARE PLAYING WITH FIRE AND SOMETHING VERY, VERY CATASTROPHIC COULD TAKE PLACE. THIS IS WHY IN OUR REPORT, WE ARE PROPOSING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A NUCLEAR SAFETY AND SECURITY PROTECTION ZONE LIMITED TO THE PERIMETER AND THE PLANT ITSELF.
The ZNPP has been held by Russian forces since early March, but its Ukrainian staff is continuing to operate the plant.
However, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward, told the security council the Zaporizhzhia staff were “no longer workers, but hostages being held at gunpoint.”
As the IAEA noted:
LAST WEEK, AFTER MONTHS OF EFFORTS, DIRECTOR GENERAL GROSSI ESTABLISHED AN IAEA PRESENCE AT EUROPE’S LARGEST NUCLEAR POWER PLANT WHEN HE LED A TEAM OF EXPERTS ACROSS THE FRONTLINE TO THE FACILITY. TWO IAEA EXPERTS REMAIN AT THE SITE, PROVIDING INDEPENDENT AND OBJECTIVE MONITORING AND ASSESSMENTS OF THE SITUATION THERE.
Based on information gained on the ground at the site by the recently arrived IAEA inspectors, the agency reported that:
RENEWED SHELLING HAS DAMAGED A BACK-UP POWER LINE BETWEEN UKRAINE’S ZAPORIZHZHYA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT (ZNPP) AND A NEARBY THERMAL POWER STATION, FURTHER UNDERLINING SIGNIFICANT NUCLEAR SAFETY RISKS AT THE FACILITY…
Communist China’s Economy is in Crisis – Let’s Keep It That Way
ANALYSIS – As a long-time critic of the communist regime ruling China and someone who regularly warns of the existential danger to America and its allies posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA), I have also noted some of its profound weaknesses.
And how we need to exploit them.
One of the major weaknesses facing the CCP is demographic. Due to its own draconian one-child policy, now belatedly rescinded, China’s population will soon start shrinking fast.
As reported by Fortune, in July, the head of population for China’s National Health Commission told a conference that the country’s population would start to shrink before 2025, according to state-run news outlet Global Times.
Earlier forecasts expected the decline to begin in 2027.
The Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences team predicts an annual average decline of 1.1% after 2021, pushing China’s population down to 587 million in 2100, less than half of what it is today.
While decades away, that will be catastrophic for China and its global role.
Some argue that CCP Chairman Xi Jinping’s obsession with reaching world dominance in the next decade or two is that he is racing against China’s demographic time bomb.
However, other than wait and hope the trends continue, there isn’t much the West can do about this long-term structural weakness.
A related but more short-term weakness is China’s limping economy.
After decades of overheated growth, aided by the West and partly built on smoke and mirrors, the CCP is now facing a Chinese economy in crisis.
CNN’s ‘Meanwhile in China’ newsletter reports that:
CHINA IS BESET BY SEVERE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. GROWTH HAS STALLED, YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IS AT A RECORD HIGH, THE HOUSING MARKET IS COLLAPSING, AND COMPANIES ARE STRUGGLING WITH RECURRING SUPPLY CHAIN HEADACHES.
THE WORLD’S SECOND-BIGGEST ECONOMY IS GRAPPLING WITH THE IMPACT OF SEVERE DROUGHT AND ITS VAST REAL ESTATE SECTOR IS SUFFERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF RUNNING UP TOO MUCH DEBT. BUT THE SITUATION IS BEING MADE MUCH WORSE BY BEJING’S ADHERENCE TO A RIGID ZERO-COVID POLICY, AND THERE’S NO SIGN THAT’S GOING TO CHANGE THIS YEAR.
WITHIN THE PAST TWO WEEKS, EIGHT MEGACITIES HAVE GONE INTO FULL OR PARTIAL LOCKDOWNS. TOGETHER THESE VITAL CENTERS OF MANUFACTURING AND TRANSPORT ARE HOME TO 127 MILLION PEOPLE.
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