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There is More to BlackRock Than You Might Imagine

F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:00 UTC
blackrock
A virtually unregulated investment firm today exercises more political and financial influence than the Federal Reserve and most governments on this planet. The firm, BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager, invests a staggering $9 trillion in client funds worldwide, a sum more than double the annual GDP of the Federal Republic of Germany. This colossus sits atop the pyramid of world corporate ownership, including in China most recently. Since 1988 the company has put itself in a position to de facto control the Federal Reserve, most Wall Street mega-banks, including Goldman Sachs, the Davos World Economic Forum Great Reset, the Biden Administration and, if left unchecked, the economic future of our world. BlackRock is the epitome of what Mussolini called Corporatism, where an unelected corporate elite dictates top down to the population.

How the world's largest "shadow bank" exercises this enormous power over the world ought to concern us. BlackRock since Larry Fink founded it in 1988 has managed to assemble unique financial software and assets that no other entity has. BlackRock's Aladdin risk-management system, a software tool that can track and analyze trading, monitors more than $18 trillion in assets for 200 financial firms including the Federal Reserve and European central banks. He who "monitors" also knows, we can imagine. BlackRock has been called a financial "Swiss Army Knife — institutional investor, money manager, private equity firm, and global government partner rolled into one." Yet mainstream media treats the company as just another Wall Street financial firm.

There is a seamless interface that ties the UN Agenda 2030 with the Davos World Economic Forum Great Reset and the nascent economic policies of the Biden Administration. That interface is BlackRock.
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Clipboard

Illinois governor signs law expanding curbside voting, permanent vote by mail

Jordan Williams
The Hill
Fri, 18 Jun 2021 23:30 UTC
pritzker
© Getty Images
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law on Thursday expanding curbside voting and establishing permanent vote by mail.

Senate Bill 825 lays out procedures for election authorities to establish curbside voting during early voting or on Election Day. The measure also establishes permanent voting lists that voters can choose to opt-in or opt-out of at any time.

The bill also directs authorities to establish central polling places where "all voters in its jurisdiction are allowed to vote on election day ... regardless of the precinct in which they are registered," according to its text.

The measure also allows sheriffs to establish temporary polling locations at county jails. These sites would be available to people who live in the county and are in custody, but have not been convicted of the offense for which they are detained.

Pritzker's office said that the practice is already in place in Cook County.

The legislation also establishes June 28, 2022, as the new date of the state's primary election.

The measure passed the Illinois general assembly on May 31, according to records on its website.

Comment: The one-party system is entrenching itself in American politics. The Democrats are pushing so that Republicans can never win another election and go back to playing the faux opposition.

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Vader

Report says US to withdraw Patriot systems from Middle East, repair them for eventual use against China

Morgan Artyukhina
Sputnik
Fri, 18 Jun 2021 19:21 UTC
patriot missile battery
© AFP / Sven Nackstrand / FileA US Patriot anti-missile battery is set up at a base in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv
Just weeks ago, the Saudi government asked the US to help defend them against the Houthis or a potential attack by Iran; now the Pentagon has said the Saudis are capable of shouldering most of their defensive needs in their war in Yemen.

The US has already begun withdrawing some of its air defense forces from several Middle Eastern countries as it shifts them back to the US for maintenance, according to a Friday report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Citing administration officials, the report notes that several MIM-104 Patriot air defense batteries have been pulled out of Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and that at least one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is also being pulled out of Saudi Arabia. Fighter squadrons are also being pulled out.
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Calendar

Biden and Trudeau agree to extend US-Canada border restrictions; American lawmakers slam move as 'bulls**t'


RT
Sat, 19 Jun 2021 01:15 UTC
The Peace Bridge
© Reuters/Brendan McDermidThe Peace Bridge between Canada and the US over the Niagara River, Buffalo, NY
Canada and the US have agreed to extend travel restrictions between the two countries for another month, with PM Justin Trudeau citing the need to meet vaccine targets, despite vocal demands from US lawmakers to reopen the border.

Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced in a tweet on Friday morning, again extending the regime first imposed in March 2020:

While Ottawa said it would make exemptions for fully vaccinated travelers by early July, until then, the restrictions will continue to apply to all "non-essential" travel between the two neighbors.

Comment: Borderline insanity!

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Arrow Up

Khamenei hails Iran vote after presidential race called for hard-liner Raisi, videos


RFE/RL
Sat, 19 Jun 2021 14:43 UTC
Raisi Supporters
© Abedin Taherkenarch/EPA/EFERaisi Supporters • Tehran, Iran • June 16, 2021
Iranian election officials have announced that hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi has beat out a narrow field of mostly conservative candidates to win Iran's presidential election with nearly 62 percent of the vote.

But the vote was marked by a historically low turnout that provided ammunition for critics of the country's clerically dominated leadership and its tightly guarded corridors of power.

The heavily vetted final group of four candidates and scattered calls for a boycott had been expected to favor 60-year-old cleric and judiciary head Raisi, who has been accused by rights groups of crimes against humanity for his part in execution trials three decades ago.

Amnesty International responded to reports of Raisi's victory by repeating its call for an investigation into his role in those alleged disappearances, tortures, and murders and a "spiraling crackdown" on human rights.

Official turnout was announced at just 48.8 percent, lowest for any presidential ballot since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The previous low for turnout in any Iranian presidential election had been 50.6 percent in 1993.

But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran's political and religious affairs, called the vote a defeat of "enemy propaganda." He praised people's "epic and enthusiastic" presence in the voting, and said in a statement:
"The great winner of yesterday's election is the Iranian nation, which once again stood up against the propaganda of the enemy's mercenary media and the temptation of ill-wishers, and showed its presence in the heart of the country's political arena."

Comment: RFE/RL is a west-leaning news organization as we note the slant in the above videos.

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Green Light

Iran, ready to send envoy to Saudi Arabia 'tomorrow', awaits signal from Riyadh

Tim Karso
Sputnik
Sat, 19 Jun 2021 10:53 UTC
al-Nimr image
© Vahid Salemi/APIranian Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr image
The two states cut ties in 2016 following a series of bilateral conflicts that peaked with Riyadh's execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and the attack on the Saudi Embassy in Tehran by angered Iranians that followed the event. Iran has been trying to restore relations in recent years.

Tehran is ready to send its envoy to Saudi Arabia tomorrow, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif stated during a speech at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. He noted, however, that in order to do so, Iran requires a green light from Riyadh itself. Iran's foreign minister added that, in his view, it was possible to restore the country's relations with Saudi Arabia.

Zarif said that Tehran had carried out three rounds of talks with the Saudis in Baghdad and that he was ready to send in the ambassador. Yet, the minister noted that everyone is currently waiting for the outcome of Iran's presidential election.

Yesterday's election showed that Ebrahim Raisi, chief justice of Iran, who is perceived as anti-West hardliner, secure a confident victory. He will replace the moderate Hassan Rouhani after eight years in office. While it is so far unclear how Tehran's attitude towards Riyadh will change under the new government, Zarif assured that Iran's foreign policy of "reconciliation" with regional powers will stay in place.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Justice Department argues Arkansas and West Virginia transgender restrictions are unconstitutional


Just the News
Thu, 17 Jun 2021 10:09 UTC
Scale
© Unknown
One law prohibits transgender individuals competing in female scholastic sports, while the other prohibits doctors from giving youth transgender treatments or surgeries.

The Justice Department has filed a statement of interest in a lawsuit challenging a West Virginia law that bars transgender athletes from competing in female scholastic sports. The DOJ has also filed a statement of interest in a suit opposing an Arkansas prohibition banning physicians from supplying so-called gender-confirming hormone treatments, puberty blockers or surgeries to individuals younger than 18.

The Associated Press reported that the Justice Department claimed that the states' laws breach the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, and that the West Virginia law additionally runs afoul of Title IX, which forbids discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that get federal money.
"A state law that limits or denies a particular class of people's ability to participate in public, federally funded educational programs and activities solely because their gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth violates both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause," the Justice Department filing declared, claiming that the state law "does exactly this."
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Attention

A Brief History of Hopium

James Corbett
Corbett Report
Sat, 19 Jun 2021 19:14 UTC
US Presidents
© USA Today
With all these decades and — in the case of the oldest democracies — centuries of broken political promises, you'd think that the public would have caught on to the game by now. But, if anything, recent events have revealed that people are becoming more addicted to this politician-peddled hopium even as the lies and broken promises become ever more ridiculous. . . .

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Light Saber

Obama-era ethics chief sends blistering message about Biden's hiring practices


Just the News
Fri, 18 Jun 2021 19:06 UTC
Walter Shaub
© Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesWalter Shaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics under Barack Obama
In a profanity-laced series of tweets, Walter Shaub excoriates the Biden administration for hiring so many relatives of top White House staffers.

Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics under the Obama-Biden administration and a frequent critic of President Trump, often appearing on CNN, said on Friday that the Biden administration is sending a "f--- you" to ethics experts by hiring so many relatives of top White House officials.

The list of those officials with at least one direct family member working for the administration includes, according to Fox News, Press secretary Jen Psaki, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, senior adviser Anita Dunn, White House counselor Steve Richetti, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed and presidential personnel office director Cathy Russell.

Comment: More from the Fox News report that set off Shaub's ire:
The most recent White House hire with family ties to the administration is J.J. Ricchetti - the son of White House counselor Steve Ricchetti - who joined the Treasury Department as a special assistant in the Office of Legislative Affairs.

"It feels like the taxpayers are funding a career-building charity for the Ricchetti family," Shaub previously told Fox News. "Add to that the fact that you've got Ricchetti's brother lobbying the administration, and this feels like a very special episode of the Partridge Family where they all pile in the van and go visit Washington — only they should call this show the Patronage Family."

J.J. Ricchetti included a link to a document about supporting the Defund the Police movement and donating to bail funds for protesters in his Instagram bio, though the link was taken down after a comment request to the Treasury Department from Fox News.

Another of Steve Ricchetti's sons, Daniel Ricchetti, is a senior adviser in the office of the undersecretary of State for arms control and international security, and his daughter Shannon Ricchetti is deputy associate director at the office of the White House social secretary.

Psaki on Friday defended the administration's decision to appoint her sister, Stephanie Psaki, to a senior adviser role within the Department of Health and Human Services in March.

The press secretary wrote on Twitter that she "can confirm my job over the last 5 months did not retroactively get my brilliant sister a masters degree from Harvard, a PhD in public health from John's Hopkins and decades of published work and respect in the field."

"She is more qualified than I am to be here," Psaki added.


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Briefcase

Supreme Court surprises: Justices break ideological lines in key ObamaCare, religious liberty decisions

Tyler Olson
Fox News
Sat, 19 Jun 2021 18:08 UTC
2021 US united states supreme court roster
© Erin Schaff / POOL / AFPSeated from left: Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, standing from left: Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett pose during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on April 23, 2021
Amid liberal calls to pack the Supreme Court, the justices handed down two more landslide rulings Thursday on an attempt to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and a Catholic foster agency that was banned from Philadelphia's program over its religious beliefs.

Justice Stephen Breyer led a 7-2 court in upholding the ACA, also known as ObamaCare, saying that the states challenging the law didn't have the standing to do so. And Chief Justice John Roberts led a 9-0 court in siding with the foster agency, Catholic Social Services (CSS) over Philadelphia, in what was widely viewed as a victory for religious freedom advocates.

"CSS seeks only an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the children of Philadelphia in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs; it does not seek to impose those beliefs on anyone else," Roberts wrote in the majority opinion for the case, officially called Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. "The refusal of Philadelphia to contract with CSS for the provision of foster care services unless it agrees to certify same-sex couples as foster parents cannot survive strict scrutiny, and violates the First Amendment."
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