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Wed, 13 Oct 2021
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The real reason why giant Wall Street firm Blackstone is courting the Pentagon

Blackstone
The sudden push by Wall Street's largest private equity firm to heavily lobby the Pentagon and State Department for largely unspecified reasons is part of an increasingly visible conflict within the U.S. establishment regarding how to handle the Artificial Intelligence "arms race."

One of Wall Street's largest private equity firms, the Blackstone Group, has been making a series of moves that have left mainstream analysts puzzled, with the most recent being Blackstone's hire of David Urban, a Washington lobbyist with close ties to the Trump administration.

Blackstone's courting of a Trump ally was not surprising given that the firm's CEO, Steven Schwarzman, recently donated $3 million to Trump's re-election efforts and had previously chaired the President's now-defunct Strategic and Policy Forum of "business leaders" and advisors. The close ties that have developed between Schwarzman and Trump following the latter's election in late 2016 have led mainstream media to describe Schwarzman as a confidant of the President.

However, what was odd about Blackstone's hiring of David Urban was its murky reason for doing so, as the firm plans to task Urban with lobbying the Pentagon and State Department on "issues related to military preparedness and training." This is odd, as CNBC noted, because Blackstone "doesn't have any publicly listed government contracts, and its known investments don't appear to have direct links to the defense industry." However, Urban has extensive experience in dealing with both Departments in addition to his close ties to the current administration and the fundraising apparatus of the Republican Party.

Mr. Potato

Puppet Biden says he would shut US down amid pandemic if scientists said it was needed

Biden
© Getty
Former Vice President Joe Biden, fresh off of formally accepting the Democratic Party's 2020 nomination, said he would shut down the U.S. to blunt the spread of the coronavirus if scientific advisers said such a move was necessary.

"I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus," Biden told ABC News's David Muir in an interview that will air in full Sunday.

"That is the fundamental flaw of this administration's thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus," Biden said.

"I would shut it down, I would listen to the scientists," he added.


Comment: So keep the country running by shutting everything down. Got it.



Comment: Its a veritable guarantee that this very dangerous nincompoop would put the already divided and declining US on the fast-track to hell if he should become president. He is so obviously a puppet for the worst most totalitarian interests in the US, we're still kind of shocked that the Dems couldn't find anyone a little more convincing or credible in any regard.


Snakes in Suits

Irish ministers resign after violating coronavirus rules at golf dinner - day after signing lockdown legislation

Calleary
© Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images
Dara Calleary was among more than 80 guests at a hotel event hosted by the Irish parliament’s golf society.
Irish politics has been plunged into crisis after a parliamentary golf club dinner held in violation of the country's coronavirus social distancing rules forced the resignation of a minister and a senator.

As the Irish police announced an investigation into what has inevitably been labelled "Golf Gate", the agriculture minister, Dara Calleary, and Jerry Buttimer, the deputy chairperson of the Irish upper house, the Seanad, announced their resignations on Friday.

Under Ireland's Covid-19 regulations - in force since late June and updated on Tuesday - it is an offence to hold any event with more than 50 people in attendance.

Comment: Evidently the coronavirus isn't the threat it's made out to be; why else would they think it safe to attend such a frivolous event?


Light Saber

Lukashenko: Belarus is being used as 'trampoline' to attack Russia, amid post-election crisis

Alexander Lukashenko
© RT
President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko says he and Vladimir Putin "agree" that the forces allegedly directing the ongoing political crisis in Belarus are aiming to attack Russia next.

"In Russia, I often see the media saying: 'Oh, in Belarus, in Belarus...' But it's happening right here, on the western border [of Russia]," Lukashenko told RT in the city of Grodno, where he spoke at a supporters' rally on Saturday.

"We're being pressured, hounded. Myself and Putin have agreed that they're hounding us here to jump on Russia later. It's a trampoline, and we must destroy it. It's an opinion we share with President Putin," Lukashenko said.

Comment: Belarus is suffering the now-familiar tactics of color revolution, right down to the support of Tikhanovskaya, cast in the role of Juan Guaido. They just haven't gotten to the part where the West declares her president. He is being targeted for actually having an opinion on what is best for his country which, among other things, is not falling into line with the covid hoax, and championing conservative values.


Arrow Down

No wonder the Brexit talks are going so badly: BoJo and his Rule Britannia team actively want No Deal

Johnson Juncker Barnier
© Reuters/Yves Herman
Britain's PM Boris Johnson • EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker • EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier
Another round of negotiations between the UK and EU has just concluded with no progress. This should come as no surprise, as Boris Johnson has no intention whatsoever of agreeing any kind of deal.

In certain circumstances, you trust others blindly. On a plane, you don't ask the pilot to prove they're capable of navigating the skies, you take a leap of faith. It's the same when you're wheeled into hospital and a surgeon stands over you, wielding a scalpel.

The British public - regardless if they voted Remain or Leave - are doing the same with their government and Brexit. But it's becoming more apparent as every day passes that it has no genuine interest in making a deal with the EU.

The latest round of talks, the seventh so far, ended with the ironic agreement that nothing had been achieved. UK negotiator David Frost said:
"We have had useful discussions this week but there has been little progress. The EU is still insisting not only that we must accept continuity with EU state aid and fisheries policy, but also that this must be agreed before any further substantive work can be done in any other area of the negotiation."
Frost concedes that none of this was new to him; it's been the EU's position for some time. Yes, in any negotiation, one has to play cat and mouse to an extent to extract the maximum available. But only a fool would expect 27 nations to bend to the will of one.

Comment: Brits like to 'play out the hand', forgetting they are sitting on it.


Target

Lavrov: Fighting Russia has become an existential necessity for NATO, if tensions are reduced alliance has no purpose

Lavrov
© Sputnik/Press service of the Russian foreign Ministry
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Confrontation with Russia has become the sole reason for NATO's existence, and this encourages instability in Europe, creating artificial dividing lines on the continent. That's according to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

The veteran diplomat told the Moscow daily Trud that everyone knows there are no real threats to security in Europe but that NATO needs to invent them in order to keep itself relevant. Lavrov also drew attention to the fact that Russia has repeatedly proposed measures to reduce tensions and reduce the risk of incidents on the continent.
"Now, just like during the Cold War, fighting Russia on all fronts, including information and propaganda, has become the alliance's reason for existence. NATO has deployed extensive resources on the eastern flank, near our borders, including conducting exercises and improving military infrastructure.

"The alliance continues to expand its area of military and political influence, inviting all new countries under its 'umbrella' under the pretext of protecting them from Russia."
Lavrov further explained that the alliance adheres to the line of "containment and dialogue" in relations with Russia, although "as a result, there is practically no place for a real and open dialogue on pressing problems." In the same interview, the foreign minister accused Ukrainian authorities of not hiding their desire to use the conflict in the Donbass to preserve European Union sanctions pressure on Russia, by not fulfilling their obligations under the Minsk Agreements.

Comment: Russia is NATO's strawman. Always was. The war is in the mind, actionable via the collective.


Dollars

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey donates $10M to Ibram Kendi's 'Center for Antiracist Research'

Dorsey
© Matt Crossick/PA Images/Getty Images
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is donating $10 million to the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, launched in June by its director, Ibram Kendi.

Boston University announced the substantial donation in a press release issued on Friday. Kendi said the donation, given with "no strings attached," would be "transformative" to the newly-founded center. $1 million will go toward immediate use while $9 million will be placed in the center's endowment.

"I'm elated," Kendi said in the release.
"You want something, you work for something, you think something could be transformative — like a major gift to the center — but you never know when you're going to receive it. For Jack to commit to us and to trust us and invest in us, I'm still coming to grips with it."
Kendi also celebrated the gift on Twitter, saying,
"Racism is a juggernaut. Racist policies + ideas are ubiquitous. We need juggernauts combating racism. We need the ubiquity of antiracist research, policy innovation, narrative change, and activism. Thanks @Jack for supporting the @AntiracismCtr + so many racial justice orgs."

Comment: Kendi wrote: "The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination." How does that 'non' sense work, exactly? It promotes discrimination.


Kendi also insists that everyone, and every policy, is either "racist" or "antiracist." In his worldview, there are no neutral parties, even babies. He argues that if a government were truly antiracist, and not just "not racist," it would set up a 'Department of Antiracism,' whose unelected officers would have the power to monitor and punish politicians they deem racist.

Kendi declares that "Capitalism is essentially racist," and "racism is essentially capitalist." Under the current economic system, he insists that black people will "never" be equal to white people.
Besides spouting word salad, this guy has severe identification problems!

Here's another one:


Arrow Down

Germany, France, UK reject US push to reinstate UN sanctions on Iran

LeDrian/Maas/Raab
© Twitter
Foreign Ministers: Jean-Yves LeDrian, France• Heiko Maas, Germany • Dominic Raab, UK
The US exited the Iran nuclear deal and therefore has no right to demand a 'snap back' of UN sanctions on Tehran, the foreign ministers of three European powers involved in the JCPOA said in response to Washington's latest push.

"France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the so-called E3, note that the United States has not been a member of the JCPOA since their withdrawal from the agreement on May 8, 2018," their respective foreign ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian, Heiko Maas and Dominic Raab said in a statement on Thursday.

Therefore, the E3 "cannot support" the US demand for UN sanctions against Iran to be reimposed, as it is "inconsistent" with their current efforts to implement the deal, the trio added.

JCPOA stands for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the name given to the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated by the Obama administration, endorsed by all five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany.


Target

Arab tribes pledge to take action against 'American occupiers' in Northeastern Syria

Syria's clans/tribes
© SANA
Syria's clans and tribes
Earlier in August, Arab tribes accused Syrian Democratic Force (SDF) militants of assassinating tribal sheikhs in Syria's Deir ez-Zor and gave SDF units one month to withdraw from the northeastern province.

Prominent members of Arab tribes in the northeastern Syrian city of Aleppo have vowed to combat what they described as "American occupiers" and the US-backed militants from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In a statement on Thursday, they signalled readiness to support popular resistance against American troops and their allies, also blaming the SDF and other militant groups for stealing Syria's resources.

The tribes specifically pledged to extend moral and material assistance to the popular resistance forces to help them liberate Syrian territory from US-backed militants. The elders also welcomed a number of recent victories gained by Syrian government forces in Aleppo, Idlb, and other northeastern cities "under the courageous leadership" of President Bashar Assad.

Light Sabers

Reality split: Trump helps crush ISIS, end Korea nuke tests and avoid new wars but Republican haters warn he 'imperiled America's security'

Trump and crowd
© AP Photo/Evan Vucci
US President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at Wittman Airport, Monday, Aug. 17, 2020, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The mainstream media is giddy that a group of 70 neoconservative Republicans have joined together to blast President Donald Trump - as if reporters failed to notice the Never Trump creatures when they emerged in 2016.

The latest Never Trumper assault on Orange Man is a letter by 70 former "security officials" who said, you guessed it, he's bad. The letter signers identify as Republicans so the story is played up to suggest that even folks in Trump's own party have come to realize how bad he is.

It's sort of like the strategy deployed at the Democratic National Convention, bringing out a parade of has-been and never-were Republicans to show they are "putting country over party" by endorsing the presidential candidate whose party hates the country.