Puppet MastersS


Dollar

Bloomberg raises millions to fight Florida voting law, helps pay former felons legal fees UPDATES

Adam Barnes
Daily Caller
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 09:45 UTC
Bloomberg
© CHESNOT/Getty ImagesFormer New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg
Former Democratic presidential candidate and billionaire Mike Bloomberg helped raise millions to fight a Florida law that prohibits former felons from voting until all legal fees are paid.

Bloomberg's nearly $17 million contribution to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition gives the group over $20 million to restore the franchise of 32,000 felons before the Nov. 3 election, according to the Associated Press. Bloomberg had already dumped nearly $100 million into the Florida race.

"Working together with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, we are determined to end disenfranchisement and the discrimination that has always driven it," Bloomberg's spokesperson said.

The news comes after a 6-4 ruling from the panel of 10 judges on a federal appeals court reversed a lower-court ruling that granted voting eligibility to Florida felons despite any remaining expenses.

Comment: Bloomberg funds a 'bucked up' system - where anything and everything can be bought for a price.

Update 22/9/2020 Question is: Will any Republican have the guts to press charges?
Legal analyst J. Christian Adams argued that Michael Bloomberg is breaking federal and likely Florida state law by buying votes from felons.


Update 23/9/2020: Rep. Matt Gaetz called out this illegal vote buying scam:
J. Christian Adams also argued that Bloomberg is putting the felons in legal and financial jeopardy by paying off their debts for votes.




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Red Flag

Best of the Web: The coming social credit system

Rod Dreher
The American Conservative
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 22:59 UTC
china social credit
© ABC News In Depth screengrabIn China, artificial intelligence uses facial recognition to monitor citizens for the social credit system
We are just over one week away from the release of Live Not By Lies, and I'm gearing up for swatting down the "Dreher's just being alarmist" accusations. Fortunately — or, to be honest, unfortunately for us all — 2020 is making my job a lot easier. A reader forwarded some information to me this morning that made my jaw drop. I'll tell you about it in a second, but first, I want to share with you a passage from the book.
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Eye 2

Bill Clinton reportedly met secretly with Ghislaine Maxwell for 'intimate dinner'

Kate Sheehy
NY Post
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 20:52 UTC
Bill Clinton and Ghislaine Maxwell
© The Mega AgencyBill Clinton and Ghislaine Maxwell pose at the door of Epstein's private jet
Bill Clinton secretly met socialite-turned-accused sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell for an "intimate" dinner in 2014 — well after allegations that she and perv pal Jeffrey Epstein had abused at least one teen, a report said Tuesday.

The former president joined Maxwell — who is now cooling her heels in a Brooklyn jail cell on charges involving the alleged sex abuse of young women — and a small group of friends for the meal in Los Angeles after a celebrity gala that February, sources told the Daily Beast.

"This is an intimate dinner with Clinton in LA," an aghast source told the website. "Think of all the people [Clinton] knows in LA — and Ghislaine gets to attend."
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Clipboard

Rank-and-file union members snub Biden for Trump

Holly Otterbein, Megan Cassella
Politico
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 04:30 UTC
trump supporters
© Carolyn Kaster/AP1 Trump supporters at a union training center in Hermantown, Minnesota Sept. 18, 2020.
In some unions, especially the building trades, support for the president remains solid despite the efforts of labor leaders to convince members otherwise.

Joe Biden has pitched himself to voters as a "union man," a son of Scranton, Pa., who respects the dignity of work and will defend organized labor if he wins the White House. To rank-and-file members in some unions, especially the building trades, it doesn't matter. They're still firmly in Donald Trump's camp.

Labor leaders have worked for months to sell their members on Biden, hoping to avoid a repeat of 2016 when Donald Trump outperformed among union members and won the White House. But despite a bevy of national union endorsements for Biden and years of what leaders call attacks on organized labor from the Trump administration, local officials in critical battleground states said support for Trump remains solid.

"We haven't moved the needle here," said Mike Knisley, executive secretary-treasurer with the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council, who estimated that about half of his members voted for Trump in 2016 and will do so again.
"Even if given all the information that's been put out there, all the facts — just pick an issue that the president has had his hands in — it doesn't make a difference."
Among members of North America's Building Trades Unions, there is a dead heat in six swing states, with Biden receiving 48 percent of the vote and Trump 47 percent, according to an internal poll shared with POLITICO.

Comment: In this political season who is up and who is down can change in an instant. The vote churners are out there working overtime spouting what they want you to hear and believe. It is up to the voter to decipher the truth and vote (or not) accordingly.

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Briefcase

Barr, AGs to meet on fragmenting case against Google

Leah Nylen
Politico
Tue, 22 Sep 2020 08:23 UTC
AG Barr
© Aaron P. Bernstein/ReutersUS Attorney General William Barr
DOJ is preparing an expected antitrust suit targeting the company's dominance in search, but Democratic-led states may decline to sign on.

Attorney General William Barr will meet with Republican attorneys general Wednesday to kick off three days of discussions between his Justice Department and dozens of states about their looming antitrust lawsuits against Google, three people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO on Tuesday.

But the talks also come amid new signs that the case against Google is splintering along partisan lines.

DOJ is preparing to file a suit as soon as next week centered on the company's dominance of online search while putting off a decision on Google's command of advertising technology, the area where state AGs are most inclined to sue. That divide could undermine hopes for a rare bipartisan fight in which attorneys general from heavily Democratic states like New York would line up with President Donald Trump's attorney general against one of the United States' largest companies.

The individuals, who asked for anonymity to candidly discuss the probes, said Barr and the states have made no final decisions on either suit. They said crucial debates also remain ongoing about what remedies to seek — which could include requiring Google to sell off parts of its business, such as the Android operating system or YouTube.
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Target

Hoping to force an outcome, US sanctions opposition parties in Venezuela ahead of elections

Alan Mcleod
MintPress News
Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00 UTC
mural
© ariana Cubillos/APMaduro
Elections for Venezuela's National Assembly are fast approaching. But the United States does not want them to go ahead at all. Sanctions on Venezuela are nothing new. But yesterday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took the unusual step of sanctioning leaders of local opposition parties in an attempt to pressure them to pull out of the contest in December.

Remarkably, considering the well-documented flaws with the same problems in the U.S., Pompeo's statement dubiously claimed that Venezuelan voting machines are unreliable, that millions of voters remain unregistered, and that the country's supreme electoral council is politicized and hand-picked by the executive branch.

That many parties are contesting the upcoming December elections to the National Assembly (that the opposition already controls) seems to undermine Pompeo's claim that Nicolas Maduro is a "desperate and illegitimate dictator." The 56-year-old former CIA Director, however, explained that they are merely "puppet parties" participating in an "electoral charade." The National Assembly is roughly akin to the French Assemblée Nationale or the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Arrow Up

Alexander Lukashenko sworn in as Belarusian president

Henry Baryaev
Sputnik
Wed, 23 Sep 2020 08:38 UTC
Lukashenko
© Press service of the President of the Republic BelarusLukashenko begins his 6th term as President of Belarus P
Lukashenko garnered the support of 80 percent of voters in the 9 August election, according to the official results, which were widely rejected by the opposition as falsified. The controversial outcome of the vote has caused nationwide protests.

Alexander Lukashenko has been inaugurated as the president of Belarus, Belta News Agency reported Wednesday. The official ceremony at the Independence Palace was attended by several hundred people, including senior lawmakers, top executives of state organisations as well as scientists, artists and athletes.

The media outlet said that Lukashenko put his hand on the constitution and took an oath in the Belarusian language. He then received the certificate of the President of Belarus from the chair of the Central Electoral Commission. The president, who entered his sixth term, said that he was assuming the office with pride for Belarusians
"who had the courage of their convictions. I cannot, have no right to leave behind the Belarusians who linked their political sympathies, their fate, the future of their children to the government's course."

Comment: See also:

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Light Sabers

Fauci clashes with Rand Paul again at coronavirus hearing: 'You are not listening'

Ronn Blitzer
Fox News
Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00 UTC
PaulFauci
© GOPUSA/Joshua Roberts/Getty Images/KJNSenator Rand Paul • Dr. Anthony Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House coronavirus task force, showed frustration with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., while disputing the lawmaker's assertion that lockdowns are not effective in combating COVID-19.

Paul said that while people claim that lockdowns helped in New York and New Jersey, those states were hit quite hard, with New York having the highest death rate in the world. He then said that Sweden, which did not lock down, has a lower death rate, and asked Fauci if he now regrets any of his recommendations for combatting the pandemic.


Comment: There have been many studies, many viewpoints, many revisions. The outcome is pointing to a non-plus virus and over-reaction to its implications. Fauci has a bias forged in selective beliefs. Paul shapes and revises his by looking at the facts.

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Attention

Belarus faces imminent sanctions as pressure mounts on Lukashenko

Arshad Mohammed, Matt Spetalnick
Reuters
Thu, 24 Sep 2020 11:58 UTC
Lukashenko
© BigstockPresident of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko
The United States, Britain and Canada may impose sanctions on Belarus as early as Friday, four sources told Reuters, and the European Union told President Alexander Lukashenko it did not recognise him as the country's legitimate leader.

Diplomatic pressure on Lukashenko mounted a day after he had himself sworn in for a sixth term at an inauguration ceremony that was kept secret until after it was completed.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that following the "fraudulent" inauguration, British, U.S. and Canadian officials were working on sanctions against those responsible for "serious human rights violations".

The four sources said the measures could come on Friday, though that might slip given the challenge of coordinating between the three countries.
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TV

What's the difference between 'villain' Assange and 'intrepid' Woodward

Lee Camp
Consortium News
Wed, 23 Sep 2020 00:00 UTC
CNN Blitzer/Woodward
© Twitter/CNNWolf Blitszer • Bob Woodward
The next time you see a mainstream-media talking-head fawn over Woodward, just remember that if they had any backbone, any moral core, they would be fawning over Assange instead.

The completely fair super awesome trial of Julian Assange continues in the U.K. as I write this. It's a beautiful blend of the works of Kafka, Stalin and Joseph Heller.

Seeing as Julian is kept in a glass container in the courtroom, like a captured cockroach, maybe Kafka wins the day.

The court clearly must keep Julian in that giant Tic-Tac container because he's undoubtedly as dangerous as Hannibal Lecter. If he weren't in there, no one would know when he might lurch forward and PUBLISH SOMETHING THAT'S TOTALLY TRUE!

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