I covered the news of Montana beef producers’ (with Republican Senator Daines apparent instigation) plans back in 2017 atRefugee Resettlement Watch and warned that if China built (or financed a slaughterhouse in the state of Montana) it would not be a source of employment for local low skilled workers, but would be a draw for more refugee labor.
I also said that I would expect the Chinese to send in many of their own workers as well.
Daines won reelection on November 3rd, but in the lead up to the contest, the Democrats blamed Daines (and Trump) for ruining the deal (so far at least!).
Montanans must be watchful because apparently snuggling up to do business with China is a joint venture of both political parties.
Here is the newsfrom the Billings Gazettefrom October explaining where that deal stands now (emphasis below is mine):
Democrats brand beef deal a Daines blunder
The Montana Democratic Party says a trade-war-plagued sales agreement between the Montana Stockgrowers Association and online China grocer JD.com has all but fallen apart, for which Democrats blame U.S. Sen. Steve Daines.
In a press conference this week, Democrats said the agreement between the state’s largest cattle association and JD.com had produced nothing after three years. Three Montanans who currently own cattle or have owned cattle in the past shared their disappointment.
Trade disputes with China have stifled the sale. The Montana Stockgrowers Association said their agreement is still alive, despite a tough two years of trade disputes between the United States and China.
“This would have been a very big deal to us. We would have been able to sell 80,000 to 90,000 cattle through this deal to China,” said Ben Peterson, a Judith Gap-area rancher. “We should be able to count on our elected officials to keep their word, but Daines seems to not think so.”
The big deal Peterson referred to is a November 2017 agreement between the Montana Stockgrowers Association and JD.com, the world’s third-largest internet retailer behind Amazon and Google. The agreement stemmed from a meeting that September between Montana Stockgrowers Association President Fred Wacker and the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai.
The meeting took place in Maudlow, northwest of Bozeman, and was arranged by Daines, who had presented a small cooler of Fred Wacker’s steaks to China Premier Li Keqiang during a trip to Beijing.
Rancher Fred Wacker
Wacker told Cui and members of the China Chamber of Commerce that the Stockgrowers wanted a sales agreement for Montana-branded beef. Those talks resulted in a memorandum of understanding between the Stockgrowers and JD.com for $200 million in cattle sales from January 2018 through the end of 2020.
Additionally, a $100 million investment in a Montana packing plant was part of the trade.
[….]
Several things have complicated the Stockgrowers’ beef agreement, President Trump being the first.
[….]
Further complicating the beef agreement was a shake-up of the JD.comhierarchy. The company’s president, Richard Liu, was accused of rape and arrested in Minnesota in August 2018. Liu was never charged, but a civil lawsuit followed. Liu resigned in late 2019.
[….]
Democrats didn’t mention JD.com’s scandal in their press conference. They focused on Daines supporting trade with China early, but more recently siding with Trump on the trade war. The senator’s support for China has been a part of the Democrats’ campaign messaging against Daines, as they promote the Senate candidacy of their own Steve, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.
Democrats have branded Daines the “China Cheerleader,” at a time when U.S. sentiment toward China is low, particularly for Republicans. A Pew Research Center study in April found that 72% of Republicans had a negative view of China, as did 62% of Democrats.
[….]
Tyson was a potential processor for the first carcasses the Stockgrowers produced, a plan A, while the partners worked out the details of a meatpacking plant located in Montana. The packing plant plans got as far as siting potential locations.
[….]
“I guess in answer to your question, the China beef deal is not dead. It’s on hold and we’re still working on it,” Wacker said.
[….]
Former Montana U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat, worked for 11 years to get China’s ban [they had banned US beef—ed] dropped. Baucus left office to become U.S. ambassador to China in 2014. Daines took up the ban after winning the seat Baucus vacated. That continuity is crucial to Montana agriculture, Wacker said.
A China-loving Biden/Harris White House could easily make Montana the new home of a Chinese slaughterhouse! Montana will get all the environmental problems along with the invasion of a socially and culturally disruptive migrant labor force!
One final note: I say this all the time at RRW, if you want to eat beef, buy from a reputable local grower. I traveled the West and Midwest a few years ago primarily to have a look at meat packing towns and the impact on the towns of refugee labor. Do not support the BIG BEEF globalist meatpackers—a driving force for importing migrant labor.
And Biden taps Awan’s collaborator Xavier Becerra for HHS boss.
“Congress Pays $850,000 to Muslim Aides Targeted inInquiry Stoked by Trump,” reads the November 25 New York Times headline. According to the story, the previously unreported settlement is one of the largest to resolve discrimination or harassment claims, in this case by people who “lost their jobs and endured harassment in part because of their Muslim faith and South Asian origins.”
Reporters Noam Scheiber and Nicholas Fandos give no date for settlement and do not explain why it was “previously unreported.” Congress reportedly made the payment but the only House member quoted is Florida Democrat Ted Deutch, a leading figure in Democrats’ charge that candidate Donald Trump was guilty of collusion with Russiaand a vocal proponent of impeaching President Trump.
“It is tragic and outrageous the way right-wing media and Republicans all the way up to President Trump attempted to destroy the lives of an immigrant Muslim-American family based on scurrilous allegations,” Deutch told Sheiber and Fandos. As they explain, the settlement was also “an attempt to bring a close to a convoluted saga that led to one of the most durable — and misleading — story lines of the Trump era.”
What started as “a relatively ordinary House inquiry into procurement irregularities by Imran Awan, three members of his family and a friend, who had a bustling practice providing members of Congress with technology support, was twisted into lurid accusations of hacking government information.” That side of the story could use more detail.
Of all the IT people in all the IT firms in all the world, House Democrats thought Imran Awan was best man for the job. Sometimes working from his native Pakistan, Awan and his family team accessed the computers of some 40 Democrats, including those on the intelligence and foreign affairs committees. Without their consent Awan and his team stashed the Democrats’ data on a server controlled by Xavier Becerra, chair of the House Democratic Caucus.
Capitol Police wanted a copy of the server but the one Awan produced turned out to be a fake. In February, 2017, Awan and his team got booted off the House computer network, but Becerra had already fled to California where Gov. Jerry Brown made him state attorney general. Becerra had nothing to say about Awan’s IT intrigue, and he got additional protection from federal judge Tanya S. Chutkan.
Interesting tidbit here:Shahid Imran Awan got here by ‘winning’ the green card lottery another immigration scam on the American people.
I wonder if there is more information about this case that the President might see fit to declassify? With the public no longer trusting the FBI/DOJ you never know what they might be hiding.
Now for your daily chuckle!
I have been itching for an opportunity to post the video of bumbling Biden announcing a big job for Becerra. Listen to him completely butcher the name and not even know that the Department of Health, Education and….. hasn’t existed since 1979!
It really is pathetic how the crooked Dems used this mentally incompetent man.
Not even “President Elect” yet and already filling imaginary cabinet positions with fictitious people… sure this was a fair & just election- nothing to see here! Exactly what is the department of “Health and education ggddhuuv”? pic.twitter.com/Im6FZWiQox
Three Republican leaders have refused to begin planning for a Biden/Harris inauguration and that has the Leftwing media throwing a hissy fit again.
By the way, it will be interesting to see what kind of inauguration will happen on January 20th in light of the COVID ‘crisis’ social distancing requirements.
Surely if its ol’ Joe and Kamala they will place circles on the Capitol lawn to keep the crowds (ha!ha!) down, but who would bother coming out under the circumstances.
Here is Yahoo Newsinsisting Biden won and so how dare the Republicans refuse to start planning:
As Biden passes ‘safe harbor’ milestone, Republicans on inaugural committee refuse to say he won
Republicans on the Joint Congressional Committee on the Inaugural Ceremonies voted on Tuesday against a resolution stating that the committee was preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
One more little stunt by Pelosi and Hoyer for the lapdog media to run with!
Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., all voted against the resolution. The three Democrats on the committee, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who introduced the measure; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., voted in favor. The measure, which would have recognized what Democrats and some Republicans say is obvious — that Biden won the election — failed to pass on a 3-3 tie vote.
“The extent to which Republicans are refusing to accept the outcome of the election and recognize Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president is astounding,” Hoyer said in a statement released after the meeting of the committee. “Their continued deference to President Trump’s postelection temper tantrums threatens our democracy and undermines faith in our system of elections.”
The presidential inauguration traditionally occurs on the Capitol steps, although, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, plans for the ceremonies on Jan. 20 are in flux.
And as if we didn’t already know….
Hoyer’s motion to recognize Biden and Harris as the winners was basically symbolic; the joint committee has no power to decide who gets inaugurated.
But there was one useful thing in the Yahoo story and it is this.
It directs us to a Washington Post surveyof Senators and Members of Congress where we learn The Post attempted to survey all Republicans to see who was willing to say that Biden has won.
Most never bothered to answer. However, a handful did and of the 26 lawmakers identified as either saying outright that Biden won, or The Post found comments they made in support of a Biden win and thus created this list of 26.
Now this is a very handy list for you! If one of the 26 represents you (even if they are retiring), get on the phone today and let them know that you are not happy, that you are in fact pissed.
If the their office claims they were erroneously placed on this list, then tell them to get the list corrected by calling the Washington Post.
The headline in the WaPosays 27, but when you actually go to the list there are 26 named. I’m guessing they originally fingered 27 and someone complained, but the story was never corrected.
I’ve screenshot them below in case they disappear.
Just 27 congressional Republicans acknowledge Biden’s win, Washington Post survey finds
Just 27 congressional Republicans acknowledge Joe Biden’s win over President Trump a month after the former vice president’s clear victory of more than 7 million votes nationally and a convincing electoral-vote margin that exactly matched Trump’s 2016 tally.
If you are not in the habit of reading the Washington Post (I’m not either) then it comes as kind of a shock that there is not even a pretense of reporting straight news. Reporters simply report their opinions as fact.
Those are the findings of a Washington Post survey of all 249 Republicans in the House and Senate that began the morning after Trump posted a 46-minute video Wednesday evening in which he wrongly claimed he had defeated Biden and leveled wild and unsubstantiated allegations of “corrupt forces” who stole the outcome from the sitting president.
[….]
In response to the congressional Republicans who have called Biden president-elect identified in the Post survey, Trump tweeted Saturday: “I am surprised there are so many. We have just begun to fight. Please send me a list of the . . . RINOS,” the disparaging acronym for Republican in name only.
See that a few, including Senator Sasse of Nebraska, did not respond and there is no supporting documentation for putting him on the list. Since he is a long-time anti-Trump R, did The Post just assume he is in the Biden-won camp?
Now let’s get to the list of Republicans who have said on record, one way or another (according to the WaPo), that Biden clearly won the election.
Notice that some of these did not respond, so The Postfound statements they made and used those as the basis of their placement on the pro-Biden Republican list.
Again, looking for something to do from the comfort of your home! Call some of these REPUBLICAN offices and tell them what you think—the election is NOT OVER!
I’ll try to remember to go back to the list in a week or so and see how many of your elected officials told The Washington Post that they want to be removed from the list.
“It had been decided. You peons shut up and obey.”
(Angelo Codevilla writing at American Greatness)
“They” are bipartisan political elites who run the country, says Codevilla in his classic opening salvo in 2010.
They think that by destroying Trump, they will destroy you, the country class, the peons, says professor, author and thinker Angelo Codevilla.
In an age where we don’t want to read more than a few sentences at Twitter (or anywhere), it is important to take a few minutes to read and digest the work of someone who has had your back for more than a decade.
I’ve snipped just a bit of the latest from Codevilla here at American Greatness. (hat tip: Richard)
He says we, the great United States has become an oligarchy, no longer a Constitutional Republic but a country governed by a small group of the ‘elite.’
(Emphasis below is mine)
From Ruling Class to Oligarchy
Roughly half the country is living under an alien regime that means to harm us socially, politically, and economically.
“By its campaign and conduct of the 2020 election, the ruling class ceased pretending to be part of a constitutional republic. By treating fellow Americans as inferiors through word and deed, its members renounced their common citizenship with us. Eschewing persuasion, they set about compelling obedience to an openly manipulated election.
Thus did they burn their bridges to the rest of America as surely as did Hernán Cortéz when he burned the ships that had carried his troops to conquer the Aztec empire. Henceforth, they must rule or ruin as the oligarchy they have become.”
Codevilla continues….
This is how it happened. It had been clear to that class that Trump was dangerous only because he represented his “deplorable” supporters. The ruling class sought to resist them by dispiriting them and discrediting them in their own and others’ eyes. Demonizing Trump was the means by which they sought to do this.
Arguably the American country class’ principal mistake between 2016 and 2020 was to suppose that the Left was actually after Trump, rather than set about crushing them and killing the American regime.
[….]
And then Election Night. As predicted, election officials in places controlled by the Left stopped counting until it was clear how many ballots it would take for Trump to be defeated. The requisite number came, filled out by no one knows who. And then . . . who wouldn’t have predicted it? The call came from all of society’s commanding heights: Trump’s defeat had been declared.By whom? By the folks on these varied heights—certainly not by the authorities designated by the Constitution to decide who wins and loses.
[….]
But the more instances of fraud the Trump campaign sought to investigate, the louder and from more sources sounded the judgment that there was nothing to investigate. It had been decided. You peons shut up and obey.
That is how oligarchies work.
What may be done about this is another story. But the story’s premise is that it must begin with the realization that the conservative more-or-less half of American life is living under an alien regime that means to continue harming us socially and morally just as much as economically. Plainly, we find ourselves in a (mostly not yet violent) state of war. The beginning of such safety as we may work out for ourselves is to regard our rulers as they regard us.
Yes, it is that serious. The ruling class wants people like you and me destroyed. People like those whomarched in Washingtona week ago.
And, I read Codevilla’s closing paragraph above to mean we have to understand the stakes and fight like our lives and the country we love depends on it.
I know its hard for decent people to consider that we must “regard our rulers as they regard us” which is a nice way of saying they HATE US and therefore….!
Long live America First!
Update! No sooner had I published this post, when this tweet came to my attention. Liz Cheney is a ruling class superstar!
The chair of the House Republican Conference became the latest high-profile Republican to publicly urge Trump to accept the results of the presidential election. https://t.co/XzyWGHl5K6
