Vigilant News

Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty.

Ryan Delarme

Presidential Immunity Case: The Supreme Court Will Not Hear Immediately Despite Jack Smith’s Speed Plea
A ruling in favor of former President Donald Trump has prevented the Supreme Court of the United States from hearing his case for presidential immunity immediately.

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On Friday, the high court denied Smith’s request for an expedited review. Consequently, the case will proceed through the customary proceedings in the appeals court and will likely ultimately reach the SCOTUS.

This outcome represents a triumph for Trump and a substantial setback for Smith, who is pressed for time to present Trump to a preponderantly Democratic jury prior to the election.

According to polling, a conviction could cost Trump millions of votes, and if he fails to appeal the conviction by November, there is a possibility that it will harm his campaign on Election Day. The timing of Smith’s prosecution has been characterized by Trump as “election interference,” an effort to manipulate the forthcoming presidential election.

The SCOTUS denied an immediate review of Trump’s presidential immunity claims less than two weeks after Smith initially requested that the justices ascertain expeditiously whether Trump could be legally prosecuted on the charges pertaining to January 6. Those charges allege that Trump allegedly attempted to tamper with the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to stay in power,” the indictment claims. “So for more than two months following Election Day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election that he actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false.”

In that particular case, Trump was indicted on four counts. “One of obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; one of conspiracy to defraud the United States; one of conspiracy against rights; and one on obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.”

Smith, attempting to stick to his ideal trial date of March 4, 2024, is requesting an expeditious review of the case out of concern that it may be postponed until 2025, following the presidential election.

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“It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,” the prosecutors implored.

However, Trump’s attorneys pushed back on Smith’s request:

Importance does not automatically necessitate speed. If anything, the opposite is usually true. Novel, complex, sensitive, and historic issues — such as the existence of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts — call for more careful deliberation, not less.

They argued that SCOTUS adoption of the case is unnecessary “before the lower courts complete their review.”

 

3.4 Million Acres of US Farmland / Forests Purchased by Foreign Entities in 2022 According to Agriculture Department

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A report by the US Department of Agriculture’s (DAG) agricultural Service Agency has brought attention to the startling rate at which foreign interests have been buying US agricultural and forest land, amid growing worries over foreign land purchases within the US.

According to the research, these foreign entities added 3.4 million acres of U.S. soil to their holdings between December 31, 2021, and the same day in 2022. Foreign parties possessed over 43.4 million acres in total, of which 28% was farmland, 21% was pasture and other agricultural property, 2% was non-agricultural land, and 48% was forest land.

The DAG previously projected that 1.2 billion of the approximately 2.3 billion acres of U.S. land were utilized for agriculture; hence, as of the end of 2022, foreign ownership of property used exclusively for agriculture accounted for just less than 1.8% of the country’s total land area.

The percentage of foreign-owned land to privately held domestic land topped ten percent in two states. Hawaii recorded a 12.8% percentage, while Maine recorded a 21.1% percentage. With 8.6% and 8.3% respectively, Alabama, Michigan, and Kentucky completed the top five.

Rhode Island stood as the state with the least amount of foreign-held land, with external parties controlling a mere 14 acres of agricultural land, which the DAG listed as a rounded 0.0%. Connecticut placed second with 0.1%. Massachusetts placed third with 0.2%, while Delaware posted 0.4%, tying New Hampshire.

Who Are the Foreign Buyers?

The majority of foreign-owned land in the United States was held by Canadian investors; their combined holdings accounted for 14.2 million acres, or 32% of all agricultural and non-agricultural land held by foreigners.

The next four biggest foreign groups held a total of 13 million acres, or 29% of the land. Dutch investors held 12% of the total, followed by Italians with 6%, British investors with 5%, and Germans with 5%.

Lawmakers around the country have expressed particular concerns about Chinese-based corporations’ acquisitions of American land, particularly those parcels close to U.S. military facilities. According to The Washington Post, lawmakers in 33 states have submitted 81 proposals this year that would restrict the purchase of agricultural land or real estate close to military facilities by the Chinese government, some Chinese-based companies, and a large number of Chinese citizens.

“There were no filings directly by the government of China,” the report stated.

State governments, on the other hand, have taken action out of concern that land acquired by China could be used as a staging area for espionage operations. In May of this year, Florida, for example, prohibited the sale of land to Chinese nationals, with significant exceptions.

“Florida is taking action to stand against the United States’ greatest geopolitical threat — the Chinese Communist Party,” GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said at the time. “I’m proud to sign this legislation to stop the purchase of our farmland and land near our military bases and critical infrastructure by Chinese agents, to stop sensitive digital data from being stored in China, and to stop CCP influence in our education system from grade school to grad school. We are following through on our commitment to crack down on Communist China.”

 

 

Poll: 54% of Democratic Voters Desire Joe Biden Replaced as Their 2024 Nominee

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Democratic party voters are dissatisfied with the 81-year-old presumptive nominee, President Joe Biden, who will likely challenge former President Donald Trump, according to polling released by Fox News on Sunday.

The poll underscores the discord and disconnection that have gripped the Democratic Party since Biden declined to relinquish his leadership and permit an alternative Democrat to do so.

The survey showed:

  • 54 percent of Democrat primary voters prefer an alternative to Biden.
  • Just 43 percent of Democrat primary voters want to keep Biden.

The polling showed a slight uptick in negative sentiment against the president:

  • October: 53 percent prefer an alternative, while 45 want to keep Biden
  • March: 52 percent prefer an alternative, while 44 want to keep Biden

Prominent Democrats urged Biden to reconsider a second campaign against Trump in December, at which time he informed reporters that he was obligated to run for reelection. A reporter questioned Biden, “Would you be running if Trump weren’t running?”

“I expect so,” Biden replied. “But he is running, and — I just — I have to run.”

Conversely, Biden informed donors the day before his remark that he would likely abstain from running should Trump withdraw. Biden added that Democrats “cannot allow him [Trump] to win.

National and battleground state polling shows Biden losing to Trump:

  • Morning Consult: Trump leads Biden in six of seven crucial swing states.
  • NBC News: Trump leads Biden by two points.
  • Fox News: Trump trounces Biden by four points.

Suspicious Israeli Stock Market Activity Suggests Possible Foreknowledge of Conflict

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The results of a recent academic study are startling and controversial, to say the least. The precarious Israeli stock market activity observed in the days leading up to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 suggests that a specific, nameless entity possessed knowledge of the impending assault and exploited the ensuing hysteria for personal gain.

The paper, authored by Robert J. Jackson Jr. and Joshua Mitts of New York University School of Law, concludes that unidentified individuals were cognizant of the impending operation and intended to illicitly profit, as evidenced by a “significant spike” in short selling of listed Israeli companies. By short selling, or shorting, investors wager that a particular stock will underperform and profit if their prediction is accurate.

Contrary to conventional trading, shorting is an exceedingly uncommon practice, and justifiably so. Numerous investment advisors caution against the practice under all circumstances, as breaches of projected poor performance can result in enormous losses. Remarkably, the researchers discovered that the volume of short selling on Israeli companies in the days leading up to October 7 “far exceeded short selling that occurred during numerous other periods of crisis, including the recession following the financial crisis, the 2014 Israel-Gaza war, and the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Now, Israeli authorities are investigating the allegations made by the U.S. researchers.

As per Reuters:

Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University found significant short-selling of shares leading up to the attacks, which triggered a war nearly two months old.

“Days before the attack, traders appeared to anticipate the events to come,” they wrote, citing short interest in the MSCI Israel Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that “suddenly, and significantly, spiked” on Oct. 2 based on data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

“And just before the attack, short selling of Israeli securities on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) increased dramatically,” they wrote in their 66-page report.

The TASE subsequently directed Reuters to the Israel Securities Authority, which issued the following statement: “The matter is known to the authority and is under investigation by all the relevant parties.”

The securities regulator’s spokesperson refrained from providing further details, and the Israeli police did not respond promptly either.

They wrote that Leumi (LUMI.TA), the largest bank in Israel, generated profits of $3.2 billion shekels ($862 million) from the additional short-selling of 4.43 million new shares sold short between September 14 and October 5.

“Although we see no aggregate increase in shorting of Israeli companies on U.S. exchanges, we do identify a sharp and unusual increase, just before the attacks, in trading in risky short-dated options on these companies expiring just after the attacks,” they said.

“Our findings suggest that traders informed about the coming attacks profited from these tragic events, and consistent with prior literature we show that trading of this kind occurs in gaps in U.S. and international enforcement of legal prohibitions on informed trading.”

The academics concluded: “Our evidence is consistent with informed traders anticipating and profiting from the Hamas attack.”

Aside from concerns regarding the paper’s potential to skew profit totals, this finding is exceedingly persuasive. A multitude of datasets examined extensively demonstrate that there was, in fact, a “significant spike” in short selling immediately preceding Operation Al-Aqsa Flood – and one that was extremely dubious, to say the least.

Prior to the attack, the shorting of dozens of Israeli companies listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange “significantly increased.” From September 14 to October 5, 4.43 million new shares were shorted on a single company. Additionally, just prior to the attacks, there was an “abnormal and sudden increase” in U.S. exchanges in the volume of extremely risky short-dated options placed on Israeli equities. These options expired almost immediately after the attack began.

A graph showing shorting of the Israeli stock exchange ETF pre-Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, as part of the wider market

In a similar vein, the shorting of the MSCI Israel Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which is a passive investment vehicle that mirrors the overall performance of the Israeli stock exchange, “suddenly, and significantly, spiked.” on October 2. In the 3,570 trading days preceding Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, this was the 30th-highest daily shorting volume ever witnessed by the ETF, according to the authors. In other terms, it was one of the largest wagers placed since 2009 on the underperformance of the Israeli stock exchange.

Israeli stock shorting at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which momentarily precipitated one of the largest global stock market catastrophes in history, was “significantly” dwarfed by this shorting. A “largest intraday trading decline ever recorded” occurred in March 2020, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 2000 points, evaporating trillions of dollars from the global economy.

The authors’ conclusion is unsurprising.

“It is extremely unlikely that the volume of short selling on October 2nd occurred by random chance.”

The identification of “similar patterns” in the trading of the Israeli ETF in April 2023, precisely when Hamas was reportedly preparing to launch a similar attack, is an additional compelling finding. The strike, which had been scheduled to closely mirror the events of October, was canceled when Tel Aviv publicly issued a national alert level in response to Israeli intelligence agencies gaining advance notice.

Shorting activity on the Israeli ETF since October, 2022

The attack was timed to start on the eve of Passover, April 5. Two days earlier, the shorting of the Israeli ETF “peaked…at levels very similar to those observed” on October 2. The recorded volume “was far higher (by an order of magnitude) than other days prior”:

This evidence strengthens the interpretation that the trading observed in October and April was related to the Hamas attack, rather than random noise.”

House Republicans Blow It, Reward the FBI by Renewing FISA Process

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The U.S. Senate last Wednesday approved an annual defense policy measure that incorporated a temporary extension of a warrantless government surveillance authority, bringing its expiration date further into the distance by at least a few months.

Without congressional action, the controversial Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire at the end of the year. However, a vote of 87-13 by senators to approve a $886 billion defense authorization measure with a short-term renewal attached would extend its validity until April 19. It is anticipated that the House will now consider the measure tomorrow.

You might be wondering what Section 702 is, and that is likely due to the media’s unwillingness to report on any technicalities the Intelligence Community exploits to spy on American citizens. Given how intertwined the corporate media is with the Intel community, it’s not a huge surprise that these things go unreported.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorizes the United States government to conduct warrantless, mass surveillance of electronic communications, including phone calls, text messages, emails, and other correspondence, of both Americans and foreigners. Information obtained in violation of the law without a warrant may be utilized to indict and incarcerate individuals, even in cases unrelated to national security. In light of the nation’s documented history of surveillance authority abuse and the opaque nature of the program, it is reasonable to be apprehensive that Section 702 may be exploited to selectively target disadvantaged groups, including journalists, minority communities, and political activists.

Last week, 147 ineffectual Republicans cast a vote in favor of reauthorizing the FISA program, which had been exploited by the FBI for the duration of candidate and then President Donald Trump’s administration.

This morning, Attorney Alan Dershowitz and former Defense Department Chief of Staff Kash Patel joined Maria Bartiromo to discuss political assassin Jack Smith and his strategic maneuvers to depose Donald Trump.

Kash Patel reminded the FOX News audience that Republicans had just voted to reauthorize the FISA Program, which the FBI used to eavesdrop on President Trump from 2016 onwards, through the 2024 election.

Kash Patel: Yeah, it’s great to be with you, Maria. Look, the biggest concern I have going forward is the politicization and weaponization and creation of a two tier system of justice as a result. Back when Devin Nunes and I ran the Russia gate investigation and exposed the FISA corruption, we recommended a slew of fixes. So it never happened again. Unfortunately, Congress chose to allow 702 FISA to basically be reauthorized.

What does that mean? What is 702? It’s fancy for foreign intelligence surveillance. It means me, as a former national security prosecutor and intelligence operative, would go overseas and manhunt terrorists. That’s what it’s for. But the FISA court, in April of 2022, publicized an opinion that said the FBI used it illegally 275,000 times domestically against Americans, 16 different occasions against those affiliated with, January 6, 19,000 times domestically against donors to a congressional campaign, and, wait for it, 24,000 separate times against Americans and groups in and around January 6.

That FISA process has been turned on its head, redirected inwards. And anyone who says, oh, that’s just a Republican conspiracy speak, that’s the FISA court that rescinded Rod Rosenstein’s illegal surveillance of Donald Trump twice based on our investigation. And now they do it again, and they prove the FBI and DOJ have weaponized justice. And the Republican leadership in Congress allowed it to be reauthorized, essentially through the next election cycle…

…What Chris Ray has now done is weaken American national security and redirected one of the most sensitive intelligence apparatuses against elections and those protesting their free speech right within America. And every time the FISA court asked the FBI, why did you allow your agents to do this? Their answer was, I could not recall. And they gave them a get out of jail free card.

And the Republican majority, I know this is harsh, rewarded them for breaking the law and allowing this election interference to continue through 2024, mainly against Donald Trump.

To be fair, not all Republicans supported the bill.

Rep. Eli Crane, for his part, said that “FISA 702 is a violation of the 4th Amendment. Additionally, this bill continues to entangle us in forever wars abroad and even managed to abandon heroes from Northern Arizona, including the Navajo Nation, that sacrificed for our country during WWII.”

According to Rep. Matt Rosendale, “FISA Section 702 has allowed the FBI to spy on U.S. citizens more than 278,000 times without a warrant! FISA should not be combined with our national defense, and it is UNACCEPTABLE that the D.C. Cartel is bypassing regular order to jam Members by forcing them to vote on two unrelated bills in one vote.”

Additionally, we saw Reps Chip Roy, Andy Biggs, Randy Webber and Andrew Clyde make statements against the bill. Below is a list of Republicans who voted to renew the FBI’s right to spy on you and your families.

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