Arizona’s Mark Kelly Sat on Advisory Board of Company That Partnered With Chinese Tech Giant

Mark Kelly under scrutiny for China-linked business interests, investments

Senate candidate Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.) sat on the advisory board of and held a significant financial interest in a Colorado company that partnered with a Chinese state-financed tech giant to bring supersonic aerospace technology to China in 2018, according to his financial disclosure reports.

Kelly, a former NASA astronaut, served on the advisory board for Boom Technology, a high-speed aircraft company in Colorado from 2015 to 2019 and owned private stock in the company worth between $115,000 and $300,000 as of last year.

In 2018, Boom Technology partnered with the Shanghai-based travel company Trip.com Group Limited, formerly known as Ctrip, to help "bring supersonic flight to China," according to a joint announcement from the companies.

Ctrip has also been a key player in the Chinese government’s ongoing "Belt and Road Initiative," a massive multi-country infrastructure project that the U.S. government has described as a global security threat.

Kelly, who is challenging Republican incumbent Martha McSally for an Arizona Senate seat, has faced scrutiny for other China-linked business interests and investments. World View Enterprises, a company he cofounded and holds investments in, received funding from Chinese tech company Tencent, the Washington Free Beacon reported last October. Tencent has been accused of espionage and of censoring antigovernment sentiment on its WeChat app.

A Kelly spokesman said the candidate was an adviser to Boom but never sat on the company’s board, calling this a "misleading" attack by supporters of Kelly’s Republican rival Martha McSally.

"Senator McSally’s allies continue to make inaccurate and misleading political attacks. Mark was not a ‘board member.’ He was an adviser with a limited role advising primarily on technical matters given his expertise as a former combat pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. He had no role in investments," said Kelly’s communication director Jacob Peters in an email to the Free Beacon on Friday.

Peters declined to comment on Kelly’s duties as an advisory board member. Typically advisory boards exist alongside a company’s formal corporate board and provide strategic advice to leadership.

A spokeswoman for Ctrip declined to comment on the company's financial relationship with the Chinese government or provide details on its partnership with Boom.

"The deal was made more than two years ago," said Ctrip spokeswoman Wendy Min in an email. "For further inquiries, please contact Boom."

In a financial disclosure report filed with the Senate last year, Kelly wrote that he was an "Advisory Board Member" at Boom from Oct. 2015 to Feb. 2019. He also disclosed between $115,000 and $300,000 in investments he held in the company, including corporate stock options and nonpublic stock.

A spokesperson for Boom confirmed that Kelly was a Boom adviser from 2015 until February 2019 when he resigned. She told the Free Beacon Kelly was not on the company's board of directors and had no voting or governance input. She also confirmed Ctrip's partnership with Boom.

"CTRIP made a minority investment in Boom in 2018 but had zero voting or governance rights, which is standard Boom protocol for any foreign investors. There was no involvement nor contact with anyone in the Chinese government as part of the CTRIP investment," said Megan Young, Boom's vice president for marketing.

"Regarding the Belt and Road initiative: Boom has never had any involvement with that initiative or any contact with Chinese officials related to the initiative," she added.

Ctrip, which was founded in 1999, is the largest online travel company in China with a virtual monopoly over the travel booking industry. The company disclosed in 2003 that one of its primary shareholders was the Shanghai municipal government, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records.

Ctrip is also deeply involved in the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative. The company entered into strategic partnerships with the Italian and Hungarian governments last year, in concert with the countries signing on to the initiative. Ctrip has pledged its support for the Xi Jinping administration plan and also publishes an annual report on the state of Chinese international travel as it relates to Belt and Road.

The nationalistic initiative involves setting up Chinese-built ports, roads, high-speed railroads, airports, and other infrastructure projects in countries that enter into agreements with the Beijing government. U.S. officials and cybersecurity experts have called it a global security risk, noting the potential for Chinese "debt traps," espionage, and military encroachment.

In April 2018, Ctrip announced that it had made a "strategic investment" in Boom Technologies to develop the company’s  Mach-2.2 airliner, a supersonic aircraft capable of traveling over 1,400 miles per hour.

"Ctrip offers valuable expertise in the Chinese travel market, and we’re excited to work with their passionate, entrepreneurial team to bring supersonic travel to the region," Boom CEO Blake Scholl said in a press release.

Ctrip "holds near-total control of the Chinese travel market," according to researchers at Berkeley University. Last year, Ctrip joined Tencent and other major Chinese companies in boycotting the NBA after the general manager of the Houston Rockets tweeted his support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Kelly was publicly silent on the controversy at the time, the Free Beacon reported.

https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/dem-senate-candidate-sat-on-advisory-board-of-company-that-partnered-with-chinese-tech-giant/

HATEFUL MUSLIM Suing Major Corporation For HIS MISTAKE!

Everyone wants to get a cheap payday for something, and a lot of the time they try to get it from a big corporation.

Now, there’s a difference between someone trying to get a payout from something that actually caused them some kind of damage like fall or food poisoning or the like.

For example, one of my sisters got a small settlement and medical bills paid for from a place she ate at last year that gave her food poisoning so bad she ended up in the hospital for a day or two. That’s a good reason.

A bad reason is when you have a no harm, no foul situation. According to the pork subsection of Islam, if you unknowingly eat pork and then realize halfway through that you did, you’re supposed to basically spit it out, brush your teeth and that’s the end of it. You don’t call the cops or a lawyer.

A “devastated” Muslim man is demanding an apology and compensation after he bit into a pork sausage McMuffin that McDonald’s accidentally served him.

Fida Hussein, 49, says he ordered an egg and cheese McMuffin without any meat, but a McDonald’s employee accidentally added pork sausage to the breakfast sandwich.

Hussein said he immediately knew something was wrong when he took a bite of the pork and said it left him “devastated.”

McDonald’s has offered Hussein food vouchers, but he’s not happy with their offer and said it’s not enough.

Hussein called the mistake McDonald’s made “diabolical” and said the employees should never make mistakes.

The Daily Mail reported:

A Muslim man has hit out at McDonald’s after he was given a sausage McMuffin instead of his meat-free order.

The former self-employed courier claims he returned immediately to the restaurant  and spoke to both a female and male manager who advised him to complain online via details on the reverse of his receipt.

‘The woman tried to tell me ‘can we keep it quiet and deal with it in store’ but obviously I was not happy at all.’

The father-of-four added: ‘I am a practising Muslim with a nice, long beard and proud of it so they knew.

‘I’ve kept myself away from it [pork] all my life. McDonald’s is a big name, it’s a huge retailer. They shouldn’t make mistakes like this.’

He said he was given a replacement egg and cheese McMuffin and contacted the company’s head office which, he alleges, has since emailed him to say the matter is resolved as he accepted a replacement meal.

McDonald’s refute this and said it is still working to resolve the complaint.

Although the chain has offered Mr Hussain meal vouchers, he is not happy with the outcome.

He said: ‘I would like an apology and financial compensation. I’m devastated. It’s put me off McDonald’s and I’m mortified.

‘It’s diabolical for a professional retailer that’s worldwide.’

Muslims have turned eating pork into a cash pig.

http://patriotnationpress.com/hateful-muslim-suing-major-corporation-for-his-mistake-2-2/?utm_source=Mailer-PNP&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:848066&utm_campaign=5-12%20PNP

Rose Shaped Bread Muffin

Easy Sweet Dough for ROSE BUNS :
NOTE : one cup AP flour = 125 grams.

312 g (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
5 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
3/4 cup warm milk (separate 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup for two additions)
1 large egg, whisked
3 tbsp soft butter
Extra flour for dusting
Little bit oil for greasing the bowl

1. In a large bowl make three wells, add sugar, salt, yeast separately. Stir briefly with a wooden/strong spoon.
2. Add 1/2 cup of warm milk (first addition)  and whisked the egg. Stir again.
3. Add 1/4 cup warm milk (last addition). Adjust the consistency of your dough. If you think it too sticky, please don't pour all the milk.
Stir until combined. Stir about 2 minutes or so.
4. Add soft butter, stir again until combined well. This is a very soft sticky dough.
5. Grease your clean bowl with little oil, put the soft dough in the greased bowl and cover about an hour in a warm place.
6. An hour later the dough will hollow and rise well. This is what you want.
7. Transfer into the dusted work surface and dust with extra flour to help form to baa ll.
8. Ready to make any shape you like for a sweet bread/buns
For the Rose Buns method, please watch the video. Thanks.

Making dough is simple but sometimes can be tricky. I do try and error until I found the right dough that mostly I shared here in my channel.
Practice make it better!

1 Month After Chicago Mayor Threatened to Shut Down Those Leaving Home, Look What City Is Doing for Rioters

At the beginning of May, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had a message to those who were in contravention of a stay-at-home order due to the novel coronavirus:

“We will shut you down.”

Now we’re at the end of the month and things have improved, but not by that much. This is why Mayor Lightfoot’s latest message is an interesting one: If you’re a Windy City resident protesting the death of George Floyd last week in Minnesota, the Chicago police will give you your space.

According to WBBM-TV, Chicago police officers have been instructed “no longer use force to disperse large gatherings” in the wake of Floyd’s death and the rioting that’s occurred since.

The Chicago Tribune reported Sunday that the National Guard was to have a “limited presence.”

“Until further notice, large gatherings will only be monitored until the crowd disperse on it’s own. Please ensure that all supervisors under your command are made aware of this instruction,” top police officials wrote in a Thursday memo, according to WBBM.

As of Sunday, there have been 240 arrests in Chicago, according to WMAQ, and one fatal shooting connected with the protests, in addition to six shootings involved.

Lightfoot, however, had requested the National Guard to be involved in keeping the peace.

“At the request of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, I am activating the Illinois National Guard to support the City of Chicago in protecting our communities and keeping people safe,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said.

“This is an immensely challenging moment for our city, our state, and our country, one born from decades and centuries of systemic racism. To those peacefully expressing the pain, fear, and rage of this moment, I hear you. Your voices matter. We must address the profound injustices in our society and bring about real and meaningful change.”

The Tribune reported the 375 National Guard members would “help manage street closures and will not interfere with peaceful protestors exercising their first amendment [sic] rights.”

This is an interesting tack to take inasmuch as First Amendment rights wouldn’t necessarily have been at the top of Lightfoot’s agenda before this.

We know a bit more about the novel coronavirus than we did at the beginning of the month and we know it’s a bit less dangerous than it was then.

However, it’s not so much less dangerous and so much more contained that we can let people out en masse to participate in protests that turn into riots, at least not if we couldn’t at the beginning of May.

This is especially true when you consider that Cook County, Illinois — where Chicago is located — has the most confirmed cases of infection with the novel coronavirus of any county in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University data. It’s third in terms of deaths.

What changed, then? The reason to go outside and assemble, that’s why.

George Floyd’s death is a national tragedy. Unfortunately, it’s a tragedy that’s easy to exploit, at least when it comes to Democrat politicians. No, they don’t like riots — although don’t dare call them riots.

What this means is that two months and change of destroying our economy so that we could get our COVID-19 numbers down and so we could flatten the curve are potentially out the window.

𝖆𝖋𝖋𝖆𝖓 @swiftiewdstyle

O.M.G THE POWER THIS HOLDS.. A VIEW OF THE #chicagoprotest #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER

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6:55 PM - May 30, 2020

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So this is what’s happening now. Earlier this month, Lightfoot — and, indeed, Chicago — was singing a different tune involving those congregating in contravention of a stay-at-home order.

“We will shut you down, we will cite you, and if we have to, we will arrest you,” Lightfoot said May 2, according to WMAQ-TV. “Don’t make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and refuse to do what’s necessary to save lives in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail. Period.”

“If you host a party, promote a party, or go to a party, we are not playing games. We mean business, and we will shut this down one way or another,” she added. “The time for educating people into compliance is over. Don’t be stupid. We’re watching you, and we’re going to take decisive action.”

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown made it clear this was also about reducing the body count.

“This isn’t something CPD is going to take lightly,” he said. “Staying at home means saving lives. Period. CPD will be on the lookout for gatherings large and small. If you are caught attending a party or congregating, you’re going to be asked to disperse.”

Where’s that rhetoric now, you may ask?

The novel coronavirus is no less deadly now than it was then. It’s also no less contagious. The difference is the city’s willingness to engage those breaking the rules.

“This chaos and destruction is not the right tactic to bring change,” Lightfoot said of the protests, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Just don’t ask her to shut it down, however.

https://www.westernjournal.com/1-month-chicago-mayor-threatened-shut-leaving-home-look-city-rioters/