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Giuliani, Bannon, Flynn, Lindell pushed pro-Trump election lies at Guo Wengui social gathering

Giuliani, Bannon, Flynn, Lindell pushed pro-Trump election lies at Guo Wengui party

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon (R) greets fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui before introducing him at a news conference on November 20, 2018 in New York, on the death of of tycoon Wang Jian in France on July 3, 2018.

Don Emmert | AFP | Getty Images

It was supposed to be a celebration for a movement that opposes the Chinese Communist Party.

Instead, the swanky private party, held in June at the top of One World Trade Center, served as a platform for several of former President Donald Trump’s allies, including former advisor Steve Bannon and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, to spew anti-government rhetoric and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

The invitation-only event was hosted by a couple of shadowy nonprofits, the Rule of Law Foundation and the Rule of Law Society. They are linked to Guo Wengui, a wealthy exiled businessman from China who is an ardent opponent of that nation’s ruling Communist Party.

CNBC obtained a copy of the invitation, which lists Guo, Bannon and the two new chairs of the nonprofit organizations as speakers for the event. You can view the invitation here.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Trump national security advisor Mike Flynn, both known for pushing the false theory that claims the election was stolen from Trump, also spoke at the June 3 gathering.

“It’s like on the battlefield because this is warfare,” Flynn said at the event, which included lunch, dinner and afternoon tea. “This is warfare that we are in.”

It was streamed on YouTube, which has 30,000 views so far. Neither the YouTube video nor the invitation to the event have been reported on.

Read some of the remarks made at the event:

A person familiar with the event said there could have been up to 200 people in attendance at Aspire, a catering hall located on the 102nd floor of One World Trade Center.

A sales manager at Aspire would not confirm details of the Guo-supported event, although the manager said a 12-hour, 200-guest event with lunch and dinner stations could cost nearly $185,000.

The Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation describe themselves as a resource for whistleblowers who want to safely speak out against the Chinese government. Guo fled China in 2014 in anticipation of corruption charges. After he blasted China’s leadership, warrants were reportedly issued for his arrest on charges that included corruption and bribery.

Press representatives for the Guo-linked foundations, Bannon, Flynn and Giuliani did not respond to requests for comment.

A misinformation offensive

The conspiracy theories and speakers heard at the event fit a pattern for the Guo-backed organizations. The nonprofits are cited in a report by Graphika, which describes a “network [that] acts as a prolific producer and amplifier of mis- and disinformation, including claims of voter fraud in the U.S., false information about Covid-19, and QAnon narratives.”

Bannon left his role as chair of the Rule of Law Society last summer. His departure from the board came around the time he was arrested on Guo’s yacht for allegedly defrauding donors through his “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign. Bannon pleaded not guilty at the time and was later pardoned by Trump.

The invitation to the June event lists Dinggang Wang, a Guo associate and anti-Chinese government YouTube star, as a new chair of the Rule of Law Society. Wang, according to a report by NBC News, appears to have previously helped spread Covid misinformation and conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, during the election.

The invitation lists among its topics the “Chinese Communist Party Virus” and “CCP’s existential threat to the US and the world.” But there is no clear indication that people would discuss the 2020 election. Biden defeated Trump, who has continued to lie about how it was stolen from him.

The event was described as a commemoration of a Guo-linked movement known as the New Federal State of China.

“It is with great pleasure and joy that we invite you to join us in New York City for the first anniversary of The New Federal State of China (NFSC),” the invitation read.

At the event, Bannon and Lindell contended that China interfered in the election.

CNBC Politics

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:

A government report, declassified in March by the director of national intelligence, said there were “no indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 U.S. elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation or reporting results.”

The report also noted that intelligence agencies found that China “did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.” The report does note that intelligence analysts also assessed that “China did take some steps to try to undermine former President Trump’s reelection.”

Flynn at the Guo-backed party falsely claimed that Trump won the election over Biden. Giuliani took aim at Hunter Biden and the Biden family as a whole, among other conspiracies.

The election claims made by Trump, Bannon, Lindell, Flynn, Giuliani and other allies of the former president have been debunked across the board, including by Republicans and one-time members of the Trump administration.

Then-Attorney General Bill Barr told The Associated Press shortly after Biden was projected to be the winner of the 2020 election that the FBI found no signs of widespread voter fraud.

Trump’s campaign still went on to spend millions to fight a losing battle against the election results. As Congress was signing off on the election results Jan. 6, Trump encouraged his supporters to march on Capitol Hill. The ensuing riot and invasion of Congress led to several deaths and hundreds of federal prosecutions.

Here are some of the notable things said by the leading pro-Trump voices at the One World Trade Center event.

Steve Bannon

Steve Bannon speaks at one year anniversary celebration of the New Federal State of China.

Source: Rule of Law Society | YouTube

“The quality of people that you have brought here today. You are going to have Gen. Mike Flynn. You are going to have Mike Lindell,” Bannon said. “He’s [Lindell] suing Dominion because of the Chinese Communist Party. He’s going to show in court that the Chinese Communist Party actually did cyberattacks on our Nov. 3 election,” Bannon noted.

Moments before Lindell spoke at the event, Bannon said that Lindell’s lawsuits against voting machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic will prove that China interfered in the 2020 election to defeat Trump. Dominion is also suing Lindell.

“Here’s what’s important. He has a lawsuit that he’s going to take to the Supreme Court that’s going to show the Chinese Communist Party interfered in the 2020 election to defeat Donald J. Trump,” Bannon said of Lindell.

Lindell’s claims have been debunked.

Mike Flynn

Source: Rule of Law Society | YouTube

Before Lindell took the stage, Flynn, whom Trump forced out barely a month into his administration, gave his take on the election and suggested that people are planning further fights against the federal government.

“I’m fed up with our government. I’m fed up with the corruption that we’ve experienced and that has been exposed,” Flynn told the crowd. “We have hundreds of millions of people in this country that they see it for what it is. They see the authenticity of a Donald Trump. They know President Trump won this last election. There’s no doubt about it.”

He added: “Where are we as America today? Where are we? And I will tell you. There are hundreds of millions of people around this country that are not about to give this country up. There are patriots everywhere. And I mean 10’s, 20 million people.”

Trump pardoned Flynn in November, two years after the retired lieutenant general pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Mike Lindell

Steve Bannon and Mike Lindell speak at one year anniversary celebration of the New Federal State of China.

Steve Bannon and Mike Lindell speak at an event celebrating the first anniversary of the Inauguration of New Federal State of China.

Lindell, the pillow kingpin who became a leading voice on the extreme right, showed a clip from his new film titled “Absolutely 9-0.” In the film clip, Lindell speaks to an anonymous cybersecurity expert who claims to have proof that China interfered in the election.

The conservative-leaning outlet The Dispatch spoke to experts who questioned the legitimacy of many of Lindell’s claims in the film. This month, Lindell hosted what he called a “Cyber Symposium,” where he said he would make public the evidence he had showing that China hacked the 2020 election. Reporters who attended the event said Lindell did not show any evidence proving his claims.

The private anti-China event in June proved to be another moment for Lindell to push his election claims. Lindell claimed in his speech that he found evidence showing China’s attempts to interfere in the election.

“When this does get to the Supreme Court the biggest win here is that they look at it. They have to look at it and they’re going to be heroes because we are going to show them that the CCP used the Democrat Party to attack our country through these machines,” Lindell said.

Lindell explained in a phone interview Wednesday with CNBC that he was invited to the event by Bannon himself and he did not know Guo.

Lindell stood by his belief that China interfered in the election. However, he would not commit to a specific date to release his purported evidence to the public. He also said he had not seen the report by the U.S. intelligence community that explains China did not interfere in the presidential election.

“This happened. It’s real,” Lindell told CNBC. “It’s one of the biggest cover-ups of the biggest crime in history.”

Rudy Giuliani

Source: Rule of Law Society | YouTube

Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York, was among the last speakers at the event. Giuliani’s license to practice law was suspended both in New York and Washington, D.C., due to the false election claims he is spreading.

At the Guo-backed event, Giuliani took aim at Covid restrictions that were put in place by Democratic governors.

“You could see what I call the dictatorial instincts of socialists in Gov. Newsom, in Gov. Whitmer, in Gov. Cuomo. Just give them a little opportunity to exercise authority and they are going to slam down on you,” Giuliani said, slamming his hand onto the podium.

“Arresting people in handcuffs for not wearing a mask?” Giuliani asked the crowd. “Looks a little like Berlin in the 1930s, huh?” he later added, referring to Nazi Germany.

Giuliani then revisited the Hunter Biden conspiracy. Giuliani’s New York City apartment was raided almost two months before the Guo event. It was reportedly part of a probe into the former New York mayor’s dealings in Ukraine. Giuliani had been trying to dig up dirt on Biden’s son’s business dealings in Ukraine during the election.

“You can’t go through three days without a crime being committed by one of the Bidens,” Giuliani said while describing the evidence he has reviewed against the Biden family, including a hard drive, a copy of which was purportedly provided to the New York Post.

“They are basically a crime family. They started 30 years ago selling his office, for little money. Then big money. Then when he became vice president, there’s a pattern to it.”

Video of the event:

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Entertainment

Songs to Accompany a Dreamy Summer season Dinner Get together

Songs to Accompany a Dreamy Summer Dinner Party

“Kris’s wife, Lisa Meyers, sent this to me several months ago and told me it reminded her of her father. We’re both daddy’s girls so she thought I would enjoy it and think about my dad. And just a few days ago, my boyfriend, Craig, played it for me and I said, ‘oh my gosh, this song is haunting me.’ I would love to record it some day.”

“Cmon Let’s Go” — Girlschool

“A fist-pumping rager that’s fun, fun, fun. Who doesn’t want to listen to something like this while hanging out with pals and eating barely cooked Greenmarket corn straight off the cob in someone’s backyard?”

“Far From Right” — Habibi

Rahill Jamalifard, Habibi’s vocalist, is a Superiority Burger alum from way back when we first opened in 2015. This track is from 2014, and it still hits really hard in 2021. It has a very difficult to achieve kinetic nonchalance with a vocal delivery that asserts the influence of Rahill’s Michigan upbringing.”

“Dressed in Black” — Teengenerate

“Greatest band of all time? Tokyo’s Teengenerate. No question. And Fifi, the former guitarist and vocalist, currently operates the greatest bar on the planet — Poor Cow, also in Tokyo.”

“Wiwasharnine” — Mdou Moctar

“This plays pretty much once every other day on the Superiority Burger iPod. The groove on this track is relentless. They are playing in Brooklyn in mid-September, a not-to-be-missed gig.”

“Clair de Lune” — Claude Debussy

Various — Sly & The Family Stone

“When you’re listening to folks nattering about, talking over one another and getting louder and louder, it’s time for Sly & The Family Stone to take over the room — quick! Take your pick — ‘Family Affair,’ ‘Everyday People,’ ‘If You Want Me to Stay,’ ‘Everybody Is a Star’ — or just put on all of them!”

“HUMBLE.” — Kendrick Lamar

“Reason to Believe (feat. Courtney Barnett)” — Vagabon

“As if the Karen Dalton version weren’t dreamy enough, this one makes me tear up instantly.”

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Entertainment

China’s Communist Celebration Turns 100. Cue the (State-Authorized) Music.

China’s Communist Party Turns 100. Cue the (State-Approved) Music.

Yan Shengmin, a Chinese tenor, is known for bouncy renditions of Broadway tunes and soulful performances in operas like “Carmen.”

But lately, Mr. Yan has been focusing on a different genre. He is a star of “Red Boat,” a patriotic opera written to celebrate the 100th anniversary this week of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Yan has embraced the role, immersing himself in party history and binge-watching television shows about revolutionary heroes to prepare.

“I feel a lot of pressure,” Mr. Yan said in an interview between rehearsals. “The 100th anniversary is a big occasion.”

A wave of nationalistic music, theater and dance is sweeping China as the Communist Party works to ensure its centennial is met with pomp and fanfare.

Prominent choreographers are staging ballets about revolutionary martyrs. Theaters are reviving nationalistic plays about class struggle. Hip-hop artists are writing songs about the party’s achievements. Orchestras are performing works honoring communist milestones like the Long March, with chorus members dressed in light-blue military uniforms.

The celebrations are part of efforts by Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian leader, to make the party omnipresent in people’s lives and to strengthen political loyalty among artists.

Mr. Xi, who has presided over a broad crackdown on free expression in China since rising to power nearly a decade ago, has said artists should serve the cause of socialism rather than become “slaves” of the market.

In honor of the party’s centennial, Mr. Xi’s government has announced plans for performances of 300 operas, ballets, plays, musical compositions and other works. The list includes classics like “The White-Haired Girl,” a Mao-era opera about a young peasant woman whose family is persecuted by a cruel landlord. There are also new productions like “Red Boat,” which chronicles the party’s first congress in 1921 on a boat outside Shanghai.

The outpouring of artistic expression comes amid rising nationalism in China. Many artists have little choice but to comply with the government’s demands for more patriotic art, with officials in China’s top-down system wielding considerable influence over decisions about financing and programming.

“It has become very important for artists to follow the political line,” said Jindong Cai, director of the U.S.-China Music Institute at Bard College. “The government wants artists to focus on Chinese works that relate to people’s lives and positively reflect China’s image.”

Critics have denounced the so-called “red” works as propaganda. But Chinese artists say that is partly the point.

“China is very strong now and people should respect that,” said Warren Mok, a Chinese tenor who is embarking on a national tour to celebrate the centennial.

Mr. Mok said he hoped to use music to remind people about the party’s success in improving living standards in China. Still, he said it was important that patriotic works are balanced with Western music and other art forms.

“Anything you do should not be too extreme,” he said. “If you’re so insecure about your own culture, your own nationalism, you close your door. Isolation is not good for any country.”

Hundreds of performances related to the party’s centennial have already taken place, and scores more are expected by year’s end.

In Suzhou, a city west of Shanghai, the choreographer Wang Yabin recently staged “My Name is Ding Xiang,” a new ballet about a 22-year-old martyr who died during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In Nanjing, an eastern city, an orchestra recently performed “Liberation: 1949,” a symphony about the Communist revolution by the composer Zhao Jiping.

Some works deal with contemporary themes, including the party’s efforts to eliminate extreme poverty and its success in fighting the coronavirus, which Mr. Xi has held up as evidence of the superiority of China’s authoritarian model. A play called “People First” depicts the heroism of medical workers in Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged in late 2019.

Propaganda art has a long history in China, and some of the country’s most celebrated works emerged during periods of intense political control, including the decade of bloody upheaval in the 1960s and 1970s known as the Cultural Revolution. During that time, classical music was attacked as decadent and bourgeois, and many Western composers and instruments were banned.

In modern China, music and dance from the Cultural Revolution still resonates with the public, including works such as the “Yellow River Piano Concerto” and “The Red Detachment of Women,” a revolutionary ballet.

“These cultural products have their own artistic value,” said Denise Ho, assistant professor of history at Yale University who studies 20th century history in China. “For many Chinese, there is a nostalgia for certain aspects of the Mao era.”

By reviving older works, Mr. Xi appears eager to remind the public of the party’s glory days. His government has redoubled efforts to fortify ideological loyalty among artists. This year, a government-backed industry association released a moral code for performing artists — dancers, musicians and acrobats included — calling on them to be faithful to the party and help advance the socialist cause.

China’s Tightening Grip

    • Xi’s Warning: A century after the Communist Party’s founding, China’s leader says foreign powers would “crack their heads and spill blood” if they tried to stop its rise.
    • Behind the Takeover of Hong Kong: One year ago, the city’s freedoms were curtailed with breathtaking speed. But the clampdown was years in the making, and many signals were missed.
    • One Year Later in Hong Kong: Neighbors are urged to report on one another. Children are taught to look for traitors. The Communist Party is remaking the city.
    • Mapping Out China’s Post-Covid Path: Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is seeking to balance confidence and caution as his country strides ahead while other places continue to grapple with the pandemic.
    • A Challenge to U.S. Global Leadership: As President Biden predicts a struggle between democracies and their opponents, Beijing is eager to champion the other side.
    • ‘Red Tourism’ Flourishes: New and improved attractions dedicated to the Communist Party’s history, or a sanitized version of it, are drawing crowds ahead of the party’s centennial.

Mr. Xi, in a ceremony this week at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, handed out centennial medals to 29 party cadres, including Lan Tianye, an actor often described as a “red artist,” and Lu Qiming, a patriotic composer known for the piece “Ode to the Red Flag.”

“For Xi, as for Mao, art is first and foremost a political instrument,” Professor Ho said.

The Chinese government has tried to use music, dance, television and movies in recent years to improve its image, especially among young people, many of whom have no direct connection to the Communist revolution of 1949.

A rap song celebrating the centennial, titled “100 Percent,” has been widely shared on the Chinese internet in recent days. But the 15-minute track, featuring 100 artists, has been mocked for its wooden propaganda slogans.

“Our spaceships are flying in the sky,” says one lyric. “The new China must get lit.”

Performers say they hope the high caliber of the centennial productions, including elaborate costumes, sets and visual effects, will appeal to younger audiences.

Wang Jiajun, 36, a principal dancer at Shanghai Dance Theater who plays a martyr in a revival of the dance production “The Eternal Wave,” said young people could identify with the work.

“These heroes were only in their teens, 20s or 30s when they lost their lives,” Mr. Wang said. “The stories of young people will attract young people.”

For artists taking part in the centenary, the effort has at times been laborious.

Xie Menghao, a Chinese-born graduate student in music composition in Germany, spent six months repurposing a suite of Red Army songs into a piano concerto about the Long March, a 6,000-mile retreat of Communist forces that began in 1934 and established Mao’s pre-eminence. He said he was proud of the piece, which the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra premiered last month, but added that the experience was “more like a job.”

“I just did what they said,” he said in an interview. “Every composer just thinks about the music.”

Mr. Yan the tenor starring in “Red Boat,” said he has found it easy to connect with his character, Chen Duxiu, a founder of the party. But he said rehearsals have not always been easy. Younger performers, for instance, have needed help better understanding the emotional experience of being part of the early communist struggle, he said.

“They don’t have the ideas to fight or sacrifice for the nation’s destiny,” Mr. Yan, 56, said. “I can do it in one take.”

Mr. Yan said he was confident that the show would have success in China and perhaps beyond.

“We’re depicting history, not just lecturing how great the Communist Party is,” he said. “This isn’t a communist slogan-type performance. It’s plain storytelling.”

Javier C. Hernández reported from Taipei, Taiwan, and Joy Dong from Hong Kong.

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World News

Chinese language Communist Occasion at age 100 confronts rising contradictions

Chinese Communist Party at age 100 confronts growing contradictions

It must be said bluntly: The Chinese Communist Party, which turns 100 this week, represents the most successful authoritarians in history.

So why does President Xi seem so restless?

It is a time when there are no obvious challenges to its authority, and China has never enjoyed such international reach, economic strength, or military might. Yet in a marked departure from his predecessors, Xi was in a hurry to tighten the screws on dissenting opinions, expand technological surveillance of his people, enforce new controls over the private sector, and enormously strengthen his party’s prerogatives and power.

It is this contradiction between China’s overwhelming authoritarian achievements and President Xi’s head-scratching nervousness about the future that is most worth watching as the systemic competition of our time unfolds.

In these global sweepstakes for the future, the ruthless, technology-assisted efficiency of autocratic capitalism and the permanent (albeit dangerously questioned) attractions of democratic capitalism with its magnetic stimuli of individual rights and freedoms are juxtaposed.

The question of our time is whether these two systems, as represented by China and the United States, can agree on a number of terms that will enable them to compete peacefully, and sometimes even to work together. Even if they do, one system or another will emerge as the dominant rule-maker for an evolving global order. One or the other is likely to turn out to be a more successful provider for the needs of citizens.

While the fragility of democratic societies has come to its fullest in recent years, most dramatically on January 6th during the uprising and violent attack on the US Congress, the less transparent challenges may be more crucial to President Xi’s ambitions.

The Economist cover story this weekend sets out the contradictions.

“No other dictatorship,” it says, “has been able to transform itself from a famine-ridden catastrophe like China under Mao Zedong into the world’s second largest economy, whose state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure of America’s creaky roads and railways to shame. “

At the same time, the Economist under President Xi adds: “The bureaucracy, army and police have been cleared of dissenting and corrupt officials. Big business is being reconciled. Mr. Xi has rebuilt the party at grassroots level, creating a network of neighborhood spies and cadre smuggled into private companies to monitor them. Society has not been so strictly controlled since Mao’s days. “

History suggests that if Xi steps up his domestic repression and his assertiveness abroad, something will have to give way.

Jude Blanchette writes in Foreign Affairs: “His belief that the CCP should run the economy and Beijing should curb the private sector will limit the country’s future economic growth. His demand that party cadres adhere to ideological orthodoxy and demonstrate personal loyalty to him. ”The flexibility and competence of the system of government will be undermined. Its emphasis on an expansive definition of national security will steer the country in an internal and more paranoid direction. His unleashed ‘Wolf Warrior’ nationalism will create a more aggressive and isolated China. “

However, recent history also shows that the CCP has demonstrated ruthless resilience, brutal efficiency, and ideological dexterity that has repeatedly puzzled its critics and enabled it to end Mao’s 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, with an estimated death toll of up to . 20 million to deal with, the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, the 2020 Covid-19 crisis that China spawned and then killed, and much more.

Not long after he came to power, President Xi gave up the studied patience of his immediate predecessors, who acted in the spirit of Deng Xiaoping by “biding their time and hiding their power” in dealing with world affairs. With that, the Communist Party’s power over society also waned.

President Xi’s dramatic decision to change internally and externally was the result of his own belief that the United States and Western democracies were in relative decline.

Xi’s worldview was shaped by the collapse of the Soviet Union and its communist party in 1989 and 1990, a lesson that guides almost everything he does in relation to his own communist party, as well as his own struggle for power.

As early as 2018, he reflected on how it was possible that the Soviet party with its 20 million members collapsed after it had defeated Hitler and the Third Reich with 2 million members.

“Why,” he asked. “Because his ideals and convictions were gone.” He mocked Gorbachev’s “so-called glasnost” policy, which allowed criticism of the Soviet party line. The implication was clear: there would be no such openness under Xi.

Although he has said less about the experience of his own accession to power in 2012, when the party faced the biggest political scandal in a generation, the only way to get away from it is to learn how dangerous power struggles and corruption are for the leadership of the Communist Party can be together. His consolidation of power eventually included disciplining 1.5 million civil servants.

One can now only understand his rush to smash any possibility of internal disagreement and use all opportunities of international gain as a keen reading of his own political lifeline, measured against the emergence of the Biden government and its efforts, the Western democratic decline and Allied disorder to reverse.

Xi probably only has a window of about a decade before his country’s demographic decline, structural economic downturn, and inevitable internal upheaval are the historic opportunity now presented to him by his country’s technological advancement, geopolitical achievements, and his own current stance to diminish threatening threat performance.

This haste sees a turning point, but only if it acts with quick, determined determination and possibly recklessness.

And under Xi, China is not just sprinting to seize an opportunity. Xi, writes Blanchette, has at the same time put China “in a race to see whether its many strengths can surpass the pathologies that Xi himself has brought into the system.”

In short, the test is whether authoritarianism’s most compelling success story can overcome its fundamental flaws.

Frederick Kempe is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist, and President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, one of the United States’ most influential think tanks on global affairs. He worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent, assistant editor-in-chief and senior editor for the European edition of the newspaper. His latest book – “Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth” – was a New York Times bestseller and was published in more than a dozen languages. Follow him on Twitter @FredKempe and subscribe here to Inflection Points, his view every Saturday of the top stories and trends of the past week.

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Politics

Why Arkansas Is a Check Case for a Submit-Trump Republican Get together

Why Arkansas Is a Test Case for a Post-Trump Republican Party

When asked about Ms. Rutledge’s criticism, Ms. Sanders ignored her rival and trumpeted her own record-breaking early fundraising. “I don’t take anything for granted,” she said via text message.

Should Ms. Sanders emerge as the Republican standard-bearer, she could face a third-party opponent from far outside of pro-Trump orbit. Senator Jim Hendren, who left the GOP after the January 6 riot, and Davy Carter, a former State House spokesman, are both considering offers.

In separate interviews, they said that they would not compete with each other in the same race. “I am convinced that Trump and Trumpism is a slowly sinking ship even in Arkansas,” said Carter, spokesman who helped drive Medicaid’s expansion. He said that a successful challenge to Trumpism would only come if Liberals, moderates, and anti-Trump Republicans “organize on a track”.

When asked who he would ultimately have back in the governor’s race, Hutchinson said, “I expect to support the Republican candidate.”

But he admitted that he had spoken extensively with his nephew, Mr Hendren, and said that they share “the same frustrations” about the party, except that Mr Hutchinson is determined to fight out of the tent. He gave Mrs. Sanders barely disguised advice and said, “Leadership is about bringing people with you and not giving in to a lie.”

The governor and most observers are deeply skeptical that an independent could win nationwide. In fact, more than a year and a half before Mrs. Sanders took office, many insiders debated what kind of governor she would be.

Would she re-use Mr. Trump’s anti-media and complaint-oriented policies to stay in national headlines and perhaps promote her own presidential election, or would she reflect her father’s more pragmatic approach to the office? While now known for his own Fox News and social media profile, Mr. Huckabee ruled the political center and even aroused the ire of the far right, whom he described as “Shiite Conservatives.”

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World News

Modi’s Occasion Is Set to Lose a Key Election, Held Beneath the Cloud of Covid

Modi’s Party Is Set to Lose a Key Election, Held Under the Cloud of Covid

NEW DELHI – One of India’s liveliest opposition parties led the first results of the West Bengal state election on Sunday, a closely watched race that took place during a catastrophic spike in Covid-19 infections.

In West Bengal, one of the most populous states in India and a stronghold of the opposition to the powerful Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top parties had fought tirelessly. Even as cases skyrocketed and more people died across India, Mr. Modi and other politicians held enormous rallies across the state, which critics say contributed to the spread of the disease.

By early Sunday afternoon, Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was behind schedule despite their heavy investment in West Bengal, a prize they dearly wanted to win. The party is likely to win more seats in the state assembly than in the last election – a sign of how dominant it has become nationwide. Even so, the All India Trinamool Congress Party, which holds power in the state, certainly seemed to be ahead.

This party is led by Mamata Banerjee, India’s only female prime minister who has developed her own personality cult and reputation as a street fighter strong enough to fend off the BJP’s withered attacks, as is widely known by Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist party .

Three other states and one federal area also released early election results on Sunday that contained few surprises.

Kerala in the south seemed likely to remain under the control of the Left Democratic Front, an alliance of centrist and leftist parties.

Tamil Nadu, also in the south and home to some of India’s most innovative tech companies, is likely controlled by the centrist alliance Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, according to polls on the exit.

Assam, a northeastern region plagued by some very divisive religious and civic issues, will remain a stronghold of the BJP

And a regional party affiliated with the BJP appeared to be firmly in the lead in Puducherry, a former French colony on the east coast of India that is now controlled by the central government.

“Early trends suggest that Modi’s personal, divisive and aggressive campaign in West Bengal has not produced the expected results,” said Gilles Verniers, professor of political science at Ashoka University near New Delhi. “The BJP has failed to gain a foothold in the south, which shows that nationalist rhetoric alone is not enough to expand the base of the BJP.”

Many Indians were stunned that these elections were actually being held. The country is facing the biggest crisis in decades. A second wave of the coronavirus is causing major illness and death. Hospitals are so full that people die on the streets.

The cremation sites work day and night and burn thousands of bodies. New Delhi is suffering from an acute shortage of medical oxygen and dozens have died gasping for breath in their hospital beds.

On Sunday, India reported around 400,000 new infections and nearly 3,700 deaths, the highest daily number to date. Experts say that this is a tremendously outnumbered number and that the actual toll is far higher.

Mr Modi was due to meet with his health minister on Sunday to discuss the lack of oxygen and concerns that doctors and nurses are overwhelmed and exhausted. On Saturday, Indian officials announced that the first batch of Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, had arrived, fueling India’s declining vaccination campaign.

Critics have blown up Mr. Modi’s handling of the crisis. His government ignored warnings from scientists and its own Covid-19 task force did not meet for months. To signal that India is open to business, Mr Modi himself declared an early victory over Covid at the end of January, while a mere infection pause emerged.

Much of India dropped its guard. Coupled with the emergence of more dangerous variants and the sluggish vaccination campaign, this is likely to have fueled the staggering number of infections, the worst numbers the world has ever seen.

The elections in West Bengal took place gradually, beginning at the end of March and ending last week. Many reviewers said it should have been canceled, or at least rallies should have been stopped.

But that didn’t happen. Mr. Modi’s party went on the attack, telling Hindu voters that if they did not vote for Mr. Modi’s party, their deepest religious beliefs could be at risk.

Ms. Banerjee, 66, who has run the state for a decade, dismissed this as nonsense. It has long been popular with Muslims and other minorities and also appealed directly to Hindus. She painted the BJP as an outsider to their state, intent on causing trouble.

Mr. Modi traveled to West Bengal about a dozen times to attend rallies (often without a mask, with many people in the crowd). His face was so ubiquitous that people joked that he appeared to be running for prime minister, the top state executive in India’s decentralized system.

Ms. Banerjee’s campaign slogan was simple and nativist: “Bengal chooses its own daughter.”

Despite this likely loss, Mr. Modi’s party is by far the dominant political outfit in India, and there is no other political figure that comes close to his popularity.

Given the tough battle for West Bengal, some analysts saw Sunday’s results as a blow to him. Ms. Banerjee and other regional figures – notably MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu and Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala – gained strength.

“This government is now fighting a public backlash against the mistreatment of the Covid pandemic,” said Arati Jerath, a noted political commentator. “I think it is bad news for Modi that three powerful regional chiefs emerge from these elections.”

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World News

Raúl Castro to Step Down as Head of Cuba’s Communist Social gathering

Raúl Castro to Step Down as Head of Cuba’s Communist Party

MEXICO CITY – Raúl Castro announced on Friday that he was handing over the leadership of the ruling Cuban Communist Party to a younger generation “full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit”, leaving the island nation for the first time without Castro in a leadership role for over 60 years.

Mr Castro, who will turn 90 in June, reiterated his long-awaited intention to resign in a speech opening the Communist Party Congress on Friday. He is expected to officially resign and announce his replacement before the conference ends on Monday.

After two terms as President of Cuba, Mr. Castro resigned from this office in 2018 and was replaced by his hand-picked successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.

The Cuban leadership is likely to announce further reforms during the party congress that will allow for more free market activity and further divert the country’s economy from the strict, state model introduced after the revolution that brought Mr Castro and his brother Fidel to power in 1959.

The Communist Party has no choice but to reform itself or to face growing discontent as Cuba faces its worst economic crisis since the 1990s following the fall of the Soviet Union. By introducing a new, younger political class, Mr Castro hopes to put the country on track to fully and fully embrace the economic reforms he has put in place in the years since the death of his brother Fidel – the leader of the revolution – five years ago to be fully accepted and implemented.

Mr Castro is seen as more pragmatic than Fidel, who is more willing to turn Cuba away from the communist model his brother advocated, which has brought the country great development achievements, including high literacy rates and quality health care for all Cubans, but it’s gone the economy in ruins.

“Of course, Raúl will continue to have influence, as Deng Xiaoping did when he resigned,” said Carlos Alzugaray, a party insider and former diplomat in the Cuban government, referring to the Chinese revolutionary leader who took over and implemented China after Mao Zedong a time of far-reaching market reforms.

Mr Alzugaray added that Mr Castro could deliberate on fundamental issues such as relations with the United States and major economic issues from his retirement. But he is unlikely to interfere in everyday life in Cuba.

“It won’t be a clean affair, it’s not how the system works in Cuba,” said Alzugaray. “It’s not like the US, where the former presidents have no influence if they step down.”

Mr Castro announced in 2016 that he would give up his post as General Secretary of the Communist Party during this year’s party congress in order to hand over power to a younger generation. The Secretary General is the most powerful position in Cuba, more powerful than the Presidency, and is considered the second highest position.

Mr Díaz-Canel will likely be elected as the new general secretary of the Communist Party over the weekend to consolidate his leadership over Cuba. The two roles are often filled by the same person, with Fidel holding both positions for about 30 years.

Younger members are expected to be elected to the 17-member Politburo before the end of the congress to further clarify what Cubans refer to as the “historical generation,” the veterans of the armed revolution.

Cuba has been ruled by an aging political class for decades, many of whom sparked the revolution in the 1950s and are seen as resistant to the reforms Mr Castro sought to impose.

Maria Abi-Habib reported from Mexico City. Ed Agustin contributed from Havana, Cuba.

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World News

Indigenous Social gathering, Not on the Poll, Is Nonetheless a Huge Winner in Ecuador Election

Indigenous Party, Not on the Ballot, Is Still a Big Winner in Ecuador Election

TARQUI, Ecuador – Though its candidate was not elected, one big winner in Ecuador’s presidential election on Sunday was clear before the election result was even announced: the nation’s long-marginalized indigenous movement.

The indigenous party and its allies shook the nation in the first round of elections in February, won half of the states, became the second largest presence in Congress and changed the agendas of Sunday’s presidential competition finalists, left-wing Andrés Arauz and conservative Guillermo Lasso.

“Ecuadorian politics will never be the same,” said Farith Simon, an Ecuadorian law professor and columnist. “There is still racism, but there is also an affirmation of the value of indigenous culture, of pride in its national role.”

Early on Sunday evening, the country’s electoral council had not yet announced a winner in the race.

In an effort to bring indigenous voters to justice and to be aware of the need to work with the new powerful indigenous bloc in Congress, Mr Arauz and Mr Lasso had revised their messages and postponed competition from the polarizing socialist-conservative soil that politics has been nationally defined for years. Instead, debates arise about the deep-seated inequality of Ecuador and an economic model based on the export of oil and metals extracted from indigenous countries.

Both candidates had promised to take greater environmental protection measures and give indigenous communities a greater say in the extraction of resources. The 66-year-old banker Lasso pledged to improve economic opportunities for indigenous peoples who, despite decades of advances in access to education, health care and jobs, are well below national averages.

The 36-year-old economist Arauz, who was in the lead in the first round of voting, promised to lead Ecuador as a true “plurinational” country in recognition of its 15 indigenous nations. Though largely symbolic, the designation has been sought for decades by the country’s indigenous party, Pachakutik, as a strong recognition of their people’s central place in Ecuador.

Pachakutik’s rise on the national stage has not only drawn the attention of the country’s indigenous minority, but has also raised deeper identity issues for the entire electorate. Although only 8 percent of Ecuadorians identified themselves as indigenous people in the last census, a large proportion of the population is ethnically mixed.

“This is a difficult conversation for us as a nation, but there is no going back,” said Mr Simon.

The man most responsible for political change was environmental activist Yaku Pérez, the Pachakutik presidential candidate in the first round of elections in February.

Pérez, 52, narrowly missed the runoff election, but significantly expanded Pachakutik’s historic single-digit appeal by advocating for women’s rights, LGBTQ equality and efforts to combat climate change. Mr Pérez also supported abortion rights and same-sex marriages, which created tension in his socially conservative indigenous constituency.

“Pérez had a tremendous ability to open up his horizons and discourse to include topics that didn’t exist,” said Alberto Acosta, a former Pachakutik presidential candidate.

The rise of Mr. Pérez is part of a larger generation change in the left movements in Latin America. Driven in part by social media and political protests in the United States, where most Latin American nations have large diasporas, younger left-wing politicians are prioritizing environmental, gender, and minority issues over their mentors’ Marxist doctrine.

In neighboring Peru, 40-year-old Verónika Mendoza was one of the top candidates in Sunday’s presidential election, promising to grant land titles to indigenous communities and to protect the environment. In Bolivia, 34-year-old indigenous leader Eva Copa recently won a mayor’s race in El Alto, a melting pot town known as a bell tower.

This new generation of leaders is moving beyond the traditional left and right gap and questioning their country’s historic reliance on large mining, oil and agribusiness projects for economic growth, said Carwil Bjork-James, an anthropologist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee .

“These are big continental questions that the indigenous movements have been asking for a long time,” said Bjork-James. “To see how these questions are asked politically is a new level.”

Such a framework is short-sighted, say their rivals. South American nations have no choice but to rely on raw material revenues to recover from the pandemic. And only through economic development, it is said, can inequalities be fully addressed.

In Ecuador, Mr Pérez managed to win nearly 20 percent of the vote in February, but his party and its allies rose from nine to 43 congressional seats in the elections and became kingmakers in the country’s broken 137-seat legislature.

The campaign initially focused on the legacy of Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s longest-serving democratic president. He had lifted millions out of poverty during a raw materials boom in the 2000s, but his authoritarian style and the corruption allegations that haunted him had bitterly divided the nation.

Mr Correa, who stepped down in 2017, selected Mr Arauz to represent his leftist movement this year and catapulted the 36-year-old to the top of the polls despite his limited experience and national recognition. Mr Lasso focused his early campaign message on fears that Mr Correa would continue to exert influence.

However, the results of the first round showed that “a large part of the population does not want to be drawn into this conflict between the supporters and opponents of Correa, which reduces the problems of Ecuadorians to a binary vision,” said former candidate Acosta.

Pachakutik’s electoral success this year stems from a wave of national protests in October 2019 when the indigenous movement marched into the capital, Quito, to demand the lifting of a deeply unpopular cut in gasoline subsidies. The protests turned violent, killing at least eight people, but the government withdrew the subsidy cut after 12 days of unrest.

“We have shown the country that the indigenous peoples are looking for a transformation of this dominant system that only serves the wealthiest,” said Diocelinda Iza, a leader of the Kichwa Nation in central Cotopaxi Province.

The life of Mr Pérez, the presidential candidate, embodies the difficulties of the indigenous movement. He was born in a high Andean valley in southern Ecuador to a family of impoverished farmers. His father was Kichwa, his mother Kañari.

His parents worked on the estate of a local landowner with no payment for living on his property, a rural establishment that has changed little since the colonial days.

Since childhood, Mr Pérez said he remembered the seemingly endless work in the fields, the hunger pangs and the humiliation he felt at school when his mother came to parents’ meetings in traditional skirts.

“I was very ashamed to be local, to come from the field, to be a farmer, to have a father together,” said Pérez in an interview in March. In order to be successful in school, he said: “In the end I made myself white, colonized myself and rejected our identity.”

Mr. Pérez studied at a local university, practiced law and got involved in politics through local associations that defended municipal water rights. He rose to become governor of the Ecuadorian region of Azuay, the fifth most populous in the country, before quitting running for president.

Its story has resonated with other indigenous peoples, many of whom see today’s political endeavors in the context of the five centuries since the colonial conquest of Ecuador.

“We are not campaigning for a person,” said an indigenous leader, Luz Namicela Contento, “but for a political project.”

Jose María León Cabrera reported from Tarqui, Ecuador, and Anatoly Kurmanaev from Moscow. Mitra Taj contributed to coverage from Lima, Peru.

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Health

Merkel’s occasion fares badly in state elections, third Covid wave hits

Merkel's party fares badly in state elections, third Covid wave hits

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on September 30, 2020 in Berlin.

Michele Tantussi | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party collapsed after defeating two important state elections on Sunday, which put the country’s leadership in even more distress as Germany appears to be facing a “third wave” of coronavirus infections.

The ruling party of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Germany recorded the worst performance since the Second World War in the state elections this weekend and was behind the center-left Greens and the Social Democrats (SPD) in the vote in Baden-Württemberg Rhineland-Palatinate.

The results largely confirmed the political status quo in both federal states, with the incumbent Prime Ministers – Winfried Kretschmann from the Greens in Baden-Württemberg and Malu Dreyer from the SPD in Rhineland-Palatinate – winning the elections. The CDU took second place in both regional votes, followed by the right-wing alternative for Germany, although their support also declined.

Results of the state elections in Germany

CNBC

Paul Ziemiak, Secretary General of the CDU, admitted that the results for the center-right party were disappointing and said: “To be very clear, this is not a good election night for the CDU. We would have different and better results in the State wanted. ” Elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. “

The party’s poor performance can be seen in the preparations for the national elections in September – with four more state elections beforehand – and for the period after Merkel. The Chancellor announced in 2018 that she would not run for a fifth term, creating uncertainty about who would succeed her to take over Europe’s largest economy.

Arne Jungjohann, political scientist and member of the Green Academy of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, told CNBC that the results signaled that the CDU could get into trouble with the national vote in September.

“The CDU party under Angela Merkel built the image of being indispensable, of being the natural governing party, and this image has faded since last night (Sunday evening),” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe”. “We saw in both states … that the parties can actually form governments without the CDU, and that is the signal from last night.”

Push election year

For some parties in Germany, however, the latest results are encouraging, especially for the environmentalists Greens, who also achieved good results in the local elections in Hesse this weekend.

This could herald a change in the political landscape later this year as the Greens are likely to become a coalition partner for the CDU in the next government. Jungjohann told CNBC that the Greens had established themselves in Germany as a “hinge party” that could rule both center-left and center-right. They are already part of coalitions in 11 out of 16 federal states. “They have become a federal political force despite being in opposition at the national level,” he noted.

Robert Habeck, green The party’s co-chairman said the results were “a great start to the super election year for us, and hopefully we’ll be able to take the tailwind of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate with full sails and continue to gain momentum in the US. ” Months to come. “

He added that the results reflected a loss of public confidence in the ruling CDU party due to what he described as “mismanagement” of the government during the pandemic and a corruption scandal that the party had in recent weeks over allegations made by several CDUs Legislators have taken advantage of deals to procure face masks in the early days of the pandemic. The allegations have led to several resignations.

Winds of Change?

After the results of the weekend, the CDU is likely to be looking for the soul, as it is considering who could fill Merkel’s shoes as Chancellor after the elections in September.

Merkel, arguably the strongest and most respected leader in Europe, was generally seen as a safe couple during her leadership and is helping steer the euro zone through the financial crisis. However, she has been criticized in Germany for her decision to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the country in 2015. This move was seen as increasing support for the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland.

The CDU has not yet selected who it will lead in the federal elections, although the main candidates are Armin Laschet, chairman of the CDU, and Markus Soeder, chairman of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union.

Angela Merkel (CDU, lr), Armin Laschet (CDU), Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Markus Söder (CSU), Prime Minister of Bavaria, talk to the heads of government.

Image Alliance | Image Alliance | Getty Images

A decision is expected in April or May, although the CDU’s defeats this weekend will increase the pressure on party leaders to quickly nominate a candidate, according to Carsten Brzeski, global macro chief at ING.

“With the results on Sunday, the chances of the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder of being the third Bavarian to lead the CDU to national elections have increased significantly,” he said in a note on Monday.

“In our view, Sunday’s state elections … showed clear dissatisfaction with the national government,” he said, noting that “the main message for the September elections is that the electorate is seeking continuity, but it is unclear what continuity exists. “

Coronavirus suffers

Germany was lauded last year for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and for its robust system of tracking and quarantining contacts that helped contain the spread of the virus and modern hospital infrastructure that helped prevent the high number of deaths contributed, seen praised in other European countries, particularly Italy, Spain, Great Britain and France.

However, in recent months, like other countries, it has had to grapple with the spread of more infectious variants of the virus, which in some cases has spiked it, aided by the winter season and a slow roll-out of Covid vaccines across the country .

National surveys show that support for the CDU rose at the beginning of the pandemic and has remained relatively high over the past 12 months. Whether this continues, however, could be determined by the government’s handling of a third wave of infections, just as citizens are desperate to get their lives back to normal. On Friday, the head of the German health department warned that a third wave had already started.

The political scientist Jungjohann noted that support for the CDU is now waning. “Most people are now saying that the vaccination rollout is not going well and now we’ve seen the corruption scandal unfold and it’s still going on. It is still unclear who will try to follow Angela Merkel,” he said . “It looks like a moment of crisis (against this backdrop) towards the elections.”

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Business

My Spouse Was Cautious of My Lab-Made Dinner Occasion. The Fake Whiskey Gained Her Over.

My Wife Was Wary of My Lab-Made Dinner Party. The Faux Whiskey Won Her Over.

Cassandra said her drink was perfect. In fact, the foam made from the beta-lactoglobulin lasted longer than shaken egg white. I also pointed out to Cassandra that our bourbon has fewer carbon emissions. She didn’t find that interesting.

I needed her to like her drink so she could have another. Cassandra, a former vegetarian, wasn’t looking forward to our evening. “Wrong meat has a lot of crap. I don’t like highly processed foods, ”she said. “I know a lot of unhealthy vegetarians.”

To change her mood, I gave her a few pieces of diamond jewelry from the lab. Diamond mining is a brutal industry for all I’ve ever learned from a Leonardo DiCaprio movie. Mr DiCaprio is indeed an investor in Diamond Foundry, a Silicon Valley company that slowly grows diamonds in a reactor that heats the plasma to 10,000 degrees, the warmth of the outer layers of the sun.

Its diamonds sell for a little less than mined. This meant I had to gently tell Cassandra that the $ 6,400 tennis bracelet, $ 3,300 worth of earrings, $ 5,400 ring, and $ 4,500 necklace looked great to her, but the closest ones Day how celebrities had to be returned on the red carpet. Her mood wasn’t fixed.

However, she said – completely unsolicited – that my skin was glowing. I had no idea if it was due to the cobwebs, human collagen, two cocktails, or my concern about the return of the diamonds.

My son Laszlo was harder to argue with. “I wanted to heat up some chicken nuggets,” he said. But when he saw the food and thought about the hassle of microwave nuggets, he decided to give it a try. “It doesn’t look gross.”