On Saturday night, Dr. Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man on the moon after Neil Armstrong in July 1969 from the immortal Apollo 11 flight, endorsed Arizona GOP Senator Martha McSally, who was a fighter pilot herself, over her Democratic challenger, former astronaut Mark Kelly, who had flown the NASA Space Shuttle.
Aldrin tweeted, “Martha, check six &#8211; Mark? Buzz &#8211; over 100 jet hours in Arizona. 12 o’clock is straight ahead. 6 o’clock is behind. Fighter pilots understand what ‘check six’ means in FTR lingo talk. Martha, wave as you move ahead past Mark, to 12 o’clock, and you win for Arizona!&#8221;
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12 o’clock is straight ahead. 6 o’clock is behind. Fighter pilots understand what “check six” means in FTR lingo talk. Martha, wave as you move ahead past Mark, to 12 o’clock, and you win for Arizona!
&mdash; Dr. Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealBuzz/status/1320192550121197569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2020</a></blockquote>
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McSally delightedly replied, “Absolute honor to have the support of hero astronaut Buzz Aldrin in this mission! We must hold this seat, the Senate, and save the country. It&#8217;s a dog fight, and as we fighter pilots say: Fight&#8217;s On!&#8221;
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Absolute honor to have the support of hero astronaut Buzz Aldrin in this mission! 
We must hold this seat, the Senate, and save the country. It&#39;s a dog fight, and as we fighter pilots say: Fight&#39;s On! 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/np7Nu1Kt9i">https://t.co/np7Nu1Kt9i</a>
&mdash; Martha McSally (@MarthaMcSallyAZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarthaMcSallyAZ/status/1320200796630376449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Aldrin, who was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, was a fighter pilot in the Korean War before he became an astronaut. He was the first astronaut with a doctoral degree. When he landed on the moon, he became the only person to hold a religious ceremony on the Moon. He used a kit given him by his pastor to take communion and read from the Bible, &#8220;I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.”
Aldrin recollected in his 2009 book, “Magnificent Desolation,” &#8220;Perhaps, if I had it to do over again, I would not choose to celebrate communion. Although it was a deeply meaningful experience for me, it was a Christian sacrament, and we had come to the moon in the name of all mankind – be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists. But at the time I could think of no better way to acknowledge the enormity of the Apollo 11 experience than by giving thanks to God.”
On the way back to Earth he read from Psalms on the broadcast: &#8220;When I considered the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him.&#8221;
Aldrin, a Republican, attended the 2019 State of the Union address by President Trump. He tweeted afterward, “What an honor to be at the #StateoftheUnion, and to hear @POTUS resolve to pursue America’s greatness in space. #PresidentTrump – thank you for your commitment: ‘This year American astronauts will go back into space on American rockets!’ #Godbless the USA #Wecameinpeace #Apollo11.”
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What an honor to be at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StateoftheUnion?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StateoftheUnion</a>, and to hear <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> resolve to pursue America’s greatness in space. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PresidentTrump?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PresidentTrump</a> &#8211; thank you for your commitment: ‘This year American astronauts will go back into space on American rockets!’ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GodblesstheUSA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GodblesstheUSA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Wecameinpeace?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Wecameinpeace</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Apollo11?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Apollo11</a>
&mdash; Dr. Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealBuzz/status/1092999830362882050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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In June, it was reported that Mark Kelly had advised and held significant stock in Boom Technology, a high-speed aircraft company that has partnered with the Shanghai-based travel company Ctrip, which according to <a href="https://freebeacon.com/2020-election/dem-senate-candidate-sat-on-advisory-board-of-company-that-partnered-with-chinese-tech-giant/">The Washington Free Beacon</a>, has been “a key player in the Chinese government’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative,&#8217; a massive multi-country infrastructure project that the U.S. government has described as a global security threat.”

Buzz Aldrin

Buzz Aldrin, 2nd Man On Moon, Endorses McSally Over Astronaut Mark Kelly

Mark Kelly

Martha McSally

Moon

Democratic and Republican leaders failed to negotiate a fourth round of coronavirus relief legislation ahead of the Senate adjourning for the weekend, leaving uncertainty about the long-term future of the $600 unemployment insurance boost expiring Friday. 
Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump expressed support for extending unemployment insurance as a temporary fix while negotiations continue and Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) attempted to do so on the Senate floor, reports <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/30/senate-gop-unemployment-extension-388170">Politico</a>. 
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has been engaging in negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, blocked the Arizona senator’s attempt, arguing that “a one-week fix can&#8217;t be implemented in time and the senator knows that,” according to <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2020/07/30/mcconnell-tees-up-debate-on-lapsing-covid-19-unemployment-benefits/">Roll Call</a>. 
McSally reportedly responded by saying that it was in fact Schumer “who&#8217;s against this on his path to become the majority leader. And that&#8217;s unfortunate.&#8221;
Negotiations between Democratic leaders and White House officials in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office were also unsuccessful. (Pelosi has reportedly compared the negotiation process to trying to mate a flamingo with a giraffe at the zoo, and Schumer has compared the Republican proposal to a chihuahua and the Democratic proposal to a lion.)
“In the discussions in Pelosi&#8217;s office later in the evening, Mnuchin and Meadows offered a longer extension of the $600-per-week benefit to cover several months, but only as a stand-alone measure, according to sources familiar with the talks,” reports Politico. “Pelosi and Schumer rejected the offer, saying they don&#8217;t want to negotiate an agreement in piecemeal fashion. Democrats also insist the federal payment should extend well into 2021, which Republicans are unwilling to do.”
The unemployment insurance proposal that has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mnuchin-supports-about-a-70-wage-replacement-for-unemployment-expects-new-stimulus-checks-by-august">floated</a> by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would replace up to 70% of a person’s wages beginning in September, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-to-release-coronavirus-aid-proposal-after-delay-11595860826?mod=hp_lead_pos1">The Wall Street Journal</a>. In the meantime, the $600 weekly unemployment boost would be reduced to $200 per week. 
With little to no progress made toward an actual bill, the legislative accomplishment of the night seems to revert to the Senate, which passed a “shell bill” — a piece of legislation that can be amended with the contents of an actual bill next week, reports <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senate-vote-on-unemployment-benefit-stalls-600-dollar-cares-act-provision-expires/">CBS News</a>. 
While empty, this shell bill can become helpful should a breakthrough in negotiations occur, or a preference for a stand alone bill instead of a comprehensive legislative package as envisioned by Democrats emerges. 
As it stands, the current bill Democrats have offered for negotiations is the Heroes Act, a House-passed legislative package that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has derided as a “multi-trillion-dollar <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mcconnell-outlines-coronavirus-relief-package-to-counter-socialist-manifesto-from-dems">socialist manifesto</a>.”
“This is the multi-trillion-dollar boondoggle that would tax and borrow in order to provide a massive tax cut to rich people in blue states — the SALT giveaway — fund diversity studies of the legal pot industry, and do a thousand other things with no relationship to this crisis,” said McConnell on the Senate floor Thursday.

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Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, a Democrat who is challenging Arizona GOP senator Martha McSally this fall for her Senate seat, has been making noises about blaming China for suppressing information about the Wuhan coronavirus. But he has been much quieter regarding another issue involving China: The Chinese tech giant Tencent’s investment in World View Enterprises, a company Kelly cofounded.
<a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/05/13/mark_kelly_silent_on_firms_windfall_from_chinese_tech_giant.html">Real Clear Politics</a> (RCP) reports, “In the fall of 2014, the CEO of World View Enterprises, the company Kelly co-founded, <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014-11/11/content_18895633.htm">announced</a> during a visit to Beijing that Tencent had invested an undisclosed sum of money in the Tucson-based space travel venture. In April 2016, as part of a subsequent, $15 million investment round, World View <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/28/world-view-lands-15-million-series-b-to-bring-new-stratosphere-flying-platform-to-life/">announced</a> that it had received more funds from Tencent, along with three other venture capital firms.”
Tencent owns the Chinese social media platform WeChat, which has been accused of monitoring its users’ activities. Tencent suspending streaming of National Basketball Association games after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted, &#8220;Fight For Freedom Stand With Hong Kong.&#8221;
The Ringer <a href="https://www.theringer.com/platform/amp/nba/2019/10/6/20901828/daryl-morey-hong-kong-china-houston-rockets-tweet-controversy">reported</a>, &#8220;After general manager Daryl Morey expressed support in a since-deleted tweet for pro-democracy efforts in Hong Kong, the Chinese government, the Chinese Basketball Association, and various Chinese businesses quickly denounced Morey and moved to sever ties with the Rockets. As a consequence, league sources told The Ringer that Rockets ownership has debated Morey’s employment status and whether to replace him.&#8221;
Tencent’s efforts on behalf of the Chinese government have reportedly included censoring keywords related to the Wuhan coronavirus since January 1, according to a University of Toronto <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/china-tencent-wechat-yy-censorship-coronavirus">study</a>.
“Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley in late April introduced a bill aimed at preventing Chinese espionage by prohibiting U.S. federal employees from conducting official business over platforms run by Tencent, Huawei, ZTE and other Chinese companies and barring U.S. tax dollars from being used for any international contracts with those firms,” RCP noted, adding, “The United Nations in mid-April backed out of a deal with Tencent to provide videoconferencing and text services at the organization’s 75th anniversary after U.S. officials, lawmakers and human rights groups complained. Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director for Human Rights Watch, called Tencent ‘an enabler of Chinese government oppression.’”.
Kelly “maintains a personal financial stake in the company of between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of non-public stock and $15,001 and $50,000 worth of stock options,” RCP pointed out.
“Since 2016, World View has managed to win at least $51.8 million in government contracts, including $45 million from NASA for its Flight Opportunities Program,” RCP wrote. While Kelly has been silent about his company’s connections with Tencent, Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a fierce critic of China, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/07/mike-mccaul-stock-in-chinese-company-243602">disclosed</a> that his wife had bought between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of shares in Tencent.
The Hudson Institute has <a href="https://www.realcleardefense.com/2018/12/28/china_is_infiltrating_us_space_industry_305835.html">warned</a> about China’s investment in the U.S. space industry, writing,“China’s interactions with the U.S. space industry include commercial investment in U.S. startups, civil and commercial competition, and hostile cyberattacks.”
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On Monday, seven GOP senators sent a <a href="https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/sites/default/files/Letter%20to%20UN%20SecGen.pdf">blistering letter</a> to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres opposing the appointment of the Minister of the Chinese Mission in Geneva to the U.N. Human Rights Council Consultative Group.
Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz from Texas, Macro Rubio from Florida, James Inhofe from Oklahoma, Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee, Kevin Cramer from North Dakota, and Martha McSally from Arizona fired off a missive stating, “The Chinese government&#8217;s decision to deceive the international community about the grave dangers of the initial 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China, violates any credibility on human rights and should disqualify them from a position on the Human Rights Council Consultative Group.”
They continued, “Through intimidation of its medical first responders, censorship of online forums, and threats of severe punishment for anyone who dared to speak out with the truth, the Chinese Communist Party engaged in its most egregious human rights abuse: the unchecked spread of a new and dangerous virus on an unwitting global population.” They concluded, “all member states to condemn in strongest terms the human rights violations committed by Chinese Communist Party.”
The issue was brought to the fore by Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch, which monitors the U.N. Human Rights Council and has championed the rights of victims in China, who <a href="https://unwatch.org/china-joins-u-n-human-rights-panel-will-help-pick-experts-on-free-speech-health-arbitrary-detention/">stated</a>, “Allowing China’s oppressive and inhumane regime to choose the world investigators on freedom of speech, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief. It’s absurd and immoral for the UN to allow China’s oppressive government a key role in selecting officials who shape international human rights standards and report on violations worldwide.”
The full text of the senators’ letter is below:
<blockquote>We write to express our profound disappointment and opposition to the appointment of Jiang Duan, Minister of the Chinese Mission in Geneva, to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council Consultative Group. As you know, in this position, Jiang will provide China with the opportunity to play a central role in picking at least 17 human rights investigators, including those who look at freedom of speech, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention, rights abuses which the Chinese regime routinely perpetrates.
The Chinese government&#8217;s decision to deceive the international community about the grave dangers of the initial 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China, violates any credibility on human rights and should disqualify them from a position on the Human Rights Council Consultative Group. Through intimidation of its medical first responders, censorship of online forums, and threats of severe punishment for anyone who dared to speak out with the truth, the Chinese Communist Party engaged in its most egregious human rights abuse: the unchecked spread of a new and dangerous virus on an unwitting global population. Chinese government actions in the early days of the outbreak are not commensurate to influencing a council responsible for upholding human rights throughout the world. Even now, China withholds critical information about the spread and death toll of the virus and continues to silence and intimidate its critics.
In addition to its willful deceit and gross negligence regarding its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, China is guilty of widespread and well-documented cases of human rights abuses targeting the Uyghur Muslim community in Xinjiang province. Over one million Chinese Uyghurs sit in so-called re-education camps against their will, in what can only be described as ethnic cleansing on an industrial scale and millions more are treated as second-class citizens in their own country at the hands of the regime in Beijing. It is tragic such terrible crimes against humanity can be committed by a power wanting to be seen as a responsible international actor, and even more egregious such behavior can be rewarded.
The UN was created following the most devastating conflict humanity had ever endured and to safeguard against repeating the most aw l crimes ever perpetrated. We must expect more om its leadership and from its member states. China should not occupy a position of prestige or influence on the UN Human Rights Council while it engages in human rights violations of the worst kind both at home and abroad. We implore you to intervene on behalf of our shared values of freedom and dignity by suspending Jiang&#8217;s appointment to the Human Rights Council Consultative Group, and to implore all member states to condemn in strongest terms the human rights violations committed by Chinese Communist Party.
 </blockquote>

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Martha McSally

Buzz Aldrin, 2nd Man On Moon, Endorses McSally Over Astronaut Mark Kelly

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Chinese Tech Giant Invested In Company Mark Kelly Cofounded

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