Vigilant News

Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty.

Vigilant News

Michigan Supreme Court Maintains Trump’s Presence on the 2024 Primary Ballot

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Former President Donald Trump was reinstated to the Republican presidential primary ballot in Michigan on Wednesday, as the state’s highest court declined to hear an appeal to disqualify him.

The court denied the appeal in a concise order, stating that it was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court.”

Trump expressed his approval of the ruling in a Wednesday post on Truth Social, stating, “The Michigan Supreme Court has strongly and rightfully denied the Desperate Democrat attempt to take the leading Candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election, me, off the ballot in the Great State of Michigan.”

Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court excluded Trump from the state’s primary ballot on the grounds that his participation in an uprising against the country (despite never being charged let alone convicted) restricts him from holding federal office under the insurrection clause of the United States Constitution. The ruling was pledged to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Trump.

A dissenter from the majority was Justice Elizabeth Welch, one of the four justices nominated by the Democratic Party to comprise the seven-member Michigan Supreme Court.

She contended that although she would affirm the Court of Appeals’ decision that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is not obligated to ascertain the eligibility of a presidential primary candidate, such a high court ruling would enable “appellants to renew their legal efforts as to the Michigan general election later in 2024 should Trump become the Republican nominee for president of the United States or seek such office as an independent candidate.”

France Finalizes Withdrawal of Troops from Niger, Complies with Demands
France completed the withdrawal of its troops after they were asked to leave Niger by the country’s new junta, ending years of on-the-ground military support

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The junta that severed ties with Paris following the July coup in Niger demanded that all French military aircraft and personnel withdraw from the country by December 22, according to an email from the French Army General Staff to The Associated Press. This week, France made the preliminary declaration that its diplomatic mission in Niger would be suspended indefinitely.

Despite this, the nation would maintain its involvement in the Sahel – the extensive region south of the Sahara Desert that has been a breeding ground for violent extremism – President Emmanuel Macron stated Thursday while visiting a Jordanian base.

“I decided on some important reconfigurations,” Macron said. “We will continue to protect our interests over there but our armies won´t be as present permanently, will be less stationary and also less exposed,” he said.

The termination of military collaboration with France was hailed by the Niger junta as the commencement of “a new era” for the Nigeriens.

“Niger stands tall, and the security of our homeland will no longer depend on a foreign presence,” the Junta proclaimed on X, formerly Twitter. “We are determined to meet the challenges before us, by consolidating our national military and strategic capabilities.”

However, western analysts naturally assert that the withdrawal of the forces will result in a void, as is the case whenever western hegemony is booted from a region. As Niger was the final Western ally in the ten-year war against jihadi groups in the region, it will “leave Niger and the entire Sahel worse off” in terms of overall counterterrorism efforts, according to Ryan Cummings, director of Africa-focused security consulting firm Signal Risk.

A base for counterterrorism operations in the region was envisioned in Niger, where approximately 1,500 French forces were providing training and support to the local military. This decision was made in response to the rise of anti-French sentiment in Burkina Faso and Mali, both of which are ruled by juntas that have also expelled French troops.

It would seem that Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger see the French, and by extension the West, as more of an existential threat than the jihadis in the region, though you will likely not hear such analysis in establishment media.

Upon deposing Mohamed Bazoum, largely seen as an installed puppet president beholden to Western interests, the nation’s junta severed military ties with France and other European nations. Conversely, they pursued defense collaboration with Russia.

All of these coups taking place throughout the third world inevitably play into the larger silent war between BRICS and the West.

Together with the military administrations of Mali and Burkina Faso, the Niger junta has established a security alliance in order to coordinate counterterrorism efforts throughout the Sahel.

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.

Former Biden COVID Official: A Breach in a Wuhan Laboratory Could Have Triggered a Pandemic

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Former White House National Security Council pandemic official Dr. Raj Panjabi has now publicly speculated that a laboratory breach in Wuhan, China, may have been the source of COVID-19.

Yesterday at the annual Forbes Healthcare Summit, Panjabi stated, “It is plausible that Covid originated in a laboratory accident in Wuhan,” as reported by The Daily Mail. “We have got to do more to keep labs safe.”

Recall that in May 2020, Biden referred to former President Donald Trump’s assertion that Covid originated from erroneous Chinese experiments as “nakedly xenophobic.” However, numerous scientists and US government officials, including the FBI and the Department of Energy, now consider it to be the most probable source of the pandemic.

Panjabi further cautioned that the likelihood of future pandemics increasing globally is expanding.

“There is a 50 percent risk one will happen in the next 25 years. This is because of globalization, or what I call the three Ps,” he said.

These “three Ps” given by Panjabi are “pathogen spillover,” when diseases leap from animals to humans; “planes,” since they encourage global travel; and “poor public health systems that are shattered and lack investment.”

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wuhan Institute of Virology was subject to scrutiny due to its failure to furnish mandatory safety and security information after receiving funding from the U.S. government.

The U.S. government has appeared divided regarding the laboratory or natural origin of COVID.

It is worth noting that intelligence agencies initially provided assurances regarding the Wuhan wet market as the authentic source of COVID-19. However, similar to the “intelligence experts” who endorsed a letter speculating on the Russian origin of the Hunter Biden Laptop, intelligence agencies seem to have an unsatisfactory history of informing the public about the truth.