Puppet MastersS


Black Cat

Sorry, corrupt media: Sleepy Joe is the worst left-wing culture warrior since Obama

Tristan Justice
The Federalist
Fri, 30 Apr 2021 18:38 UTC
joe biden
© Evan Vucci/APJoe Biden pitching his infrastructure "plan".
In his first 100 days, Joe Biden has redefined what it means to run a progressive presidency. To those paying attention, his radicalism was clear from the start.

In a primary full of socialists, President Joe Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and rode his way to the White House on the appearance of a supposed moderate, a pragmatist who promised an American "return to normalcy" in a 21st-century digital version of the early front-porch campaigns.

To those paying attention, however, Biden's radicalism was clear from the start, with normal nowhere in sight. He ran on a platform cloaked in centrism only by virtue of what others were proposing on stage. Even McClatchy wrote in September 2019, "Biden's current set of policy prescriptions would likely be considered radical if they had been proposed in any previous Democratic presidential primary."

Comment: One might wonder if the snoozer-in-chief read even one of those Executive Orders.

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Meteor

'Perfect' for the job: VP Harris named head of National Space Council

Mary Kay Linge
New York Post
Sat, 01 May 2021 18:11 UTC
harris
© AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, FileVice President Kamala Harris has yet to visit the US-Mexico border after being tapped by President Joe Biden to be the nation’s migration czar.
She won't go to Mexico, but she'll try to get Americans to Mars.

Vice President Kamala Harris will chair the National Space Council, a cabinet-level advisory body, she confirmed in a tweet.

"In America, when we shoot for the moon, we plant our flag on it," Harris posted Saturday. "I am honored to lead our National Space Council."

The new role adds yet another task to the veep's bulging portfolio.

Harris has been slammed for her lackluster performance as the nation's migration czar, a job that President Biden gave her March 24 as illegal immigrants surged into border states like Texas and Arizona in record-breaking numbers.

While Biden called his No. 2, the former attorney general of California, "the most qualified person" to lead that effort, she has made no move to visit the US-Mexico border to speak with enforcement officers or evaluate overflowing detention centers as the influx intensified.

The White House has tried to recast her duties, insisting that she will focus on correcting the "root causes" of migration and not on the border crisis as a whole.

Comment: She's the 'perfect' pick, according to Sen. Bill Nelson.

Yes, she is about as perfect for the job as Hunter Biden was for his seat on the board of Burisma.

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NPC

'Private' sector tyranny: Most US & UK businesses to require at least some employees to get vaccinated - Biden mulling mandatory vaccines in military


RT
Sat, 01 May 2021 18:05 UTC
masks workplace
© ASU Workplace Commons / rockefellerfoundation.org
Many Americans and Brits will face de facto vaccine mandates, as a new poll shows that 56% of businesses will require at least some employees to be inoculated against Covid-19, in many cases under threat of losing their jobs.

The poll, which was conducted by Arizona State University and released on Thursday, showed that 40% of businesses will require all employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19, while 16% will mandate the jabs for at least some of their workers. All told, 88% of businesses will require or encourage their employees to be vaccinated, and 60% said they will demand some kind of proof of inoculation.

The survey, which was backed by the Rockefeller Foundation, paints a bleak picture for those who plan to resist getting the Covid-19 jabs. While the US and UK governments have refrained from making vaccines mandatory - and facing legal challenges that might ensue - the private sector may effectively do it for them. Businesses are already setting the stage to require so-called 'vaccine passports,' forcing customers to show proof of inoculation or a negative Covid test before accessing certain goods, services and events.

While many people can choose not to travel abroad or go to business venues that require proof of vaccination, an employer mandate could be more problematic. Arizona State said 31% of businesses plan to take disciplinary action, including possibly firing employees who refuse to comply with their vaccine policies.

Comment: Around one third of U.S. military service members have been vaccinated. Biden isn't committing one way or the other at this point as to whether or not to force the rest to do so:
"I don't know. I'm going to leave that to the military," Biden told NBC News's Craig Melvin in an interview broadcast Friday.

"I'm not saying I won't. I think you're going to see more and more of them getting it. And I think it's going to be a tough call as to whether or not they should be required to have to get it in the military, because you're in such close proximity with other military personnel."


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Bad Guys

Al-Qaeda promises 'war on all fronts' after Biden misses US troop withdrawal deadline and extends occupation of Afghanistan by 5 months


Yahoo
Fri, 30 Apr 2021 12:00 UTC
Taliban
© AFP / Javed TanveerFILE PHOTO: Afghan Taliban militants and residents stand on a armoured Humvee vehicle of the Afghan National Army (ANA) as they celebrate a ceasefire, Kandahar, Afghanistan, June 17, 2018
As the United States' "war on terror" enters a new phase as President Joe Biden has begun withdrawing all US forces from Afghanistan, al-Qaeda has claimed that its war with America is far from over.

In an exclusive interview with CNN conducted through intermediaries, an al-Qaeda official said that "war against the US will be continuing on all other fronts unless they are expelled from the rest of the Islamic world".

Terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank, editor-in-chief of West Point's CTC Sentinel, who reviewed al Qaeda's answers, says it is possible "they feel buoyed by the Biden administration's decision to pull out troops from Afghanistan, but they may also be seeking to deflect attention from the many recent losses."

Comment: RT provides a more objective news report:
Saturday marked Trump's planned withdrawal date from Afghanistan, which the former US leader announced last year. With Biden pledging to withdraw American troops by September 11, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declared that all bets are off between now and then.

"As withdrawal of foreign forces from #Afghanistan by agreed upon May 1st deadline has passed, this violation in principle has opened the way for [Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] Mujahidin to take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces," he tweeted.


The Mujahidin of IEA will now await what decision the leadership of Islamic Emirate takes in light of the sovereignty, values and higher interests of the country, and will then take action accordingly, Allah willing," he added in a follow-up tweet.

Coming directly from the Taliban's spokesman, Mujahid's warning is about as clear as threats get in Afghanistan. Other warnings have been more dubious, as was the case last year after Trump struck a deal with the militant group and announced his withdrawal plans. Immediately afterwards, the New York Times claimed that Russia was offering cash bounties for Taliban-linked militants to attack US forces. The anonymously sourced story drew condemnation from Trump's opponents in Washington and the national media, but turned out to be completely bogus. Nevertheless, it spurred a bipartisan group of representatives to pass an amendment forbidding a withdrawal from Afghanistan before Trump's term was up.


And so the propaganda served as a pretext for the US to claim it was necessary to stay in the country, but it wasn't the only lie used to justify extending the 20 year war on the country: 'Woke imperialism strikes again': CNN faces backlash after it defends keeping US troops in Afghanistan by citing 'women's rights'


Similar stories warning of an imminent terrorist "resurgence" surfaced in the runup to the May 1 deadline, amplifying the concerns of US intelligence and military officials who aren't on board with either Trump or Biden's pullout plans.

The Taliban have not agreed to Biden's withdrawal date, failing to show up at a peace conference in Turkey last month. Nevertheless, Mujahid told Reuters last month that Taliban officials are still in contact with the US, and were still discussing whether or not to hold off on attacks until September.

If all goes to plan and US forces leave Afghanistan in September, they will depart a month before the conflict turns 20 years old. They will also leave the Taliban in a stronger position and in control of more territory than at any point since the beginning of the war.
The war on Afghanistan never was intended to make either the US nor Afghanistan a safer place, it was, in part, to serve as yet another base for deep state chaos creation in the Middle East and beyond: US begins 'withdrawal' from Afghanistan... by sending MORE troops & gear for 'temporary force protection'

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Attention

Brave new cancel culture world

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Fri, 30 Apr 2021 20:53 UTC
If we need a date when the West started to go seriously wrong, let's start with Rome in the early 5th century.
Cancel Culture
© Gary Varvel.com
In 2020, we saw the enshrinement of techno-feudalism - one of the overarching themes of my latest book, Raging Twenties.

In lightning speed, the techno-feudalism virus is metastasizing into an even more lethal, wilderness of mirrors variant, where cancel culture is enforced by Big Tech all across the spectrum, science is routinely debased as fake news in social media, and the average citizen is discombobulated to the point of lobotomy.

Giorgio Agamben has defined it as a new totalitarianism.

Top political analyst Alastair Crooke has attempted a sharp breakdown of the broader configuration.

Geopolitically, the Hegemon would even resort to 5G war to maintain its primacy, while seeking moral legitimization via the woke revolution, duly exported to its Western satrapies.

The woke revolution is a culture war - in symbiosis with Big Tech and Big Business - that has smashed the real thing: class war. The atomized working classes, struggling to barely survive, have been left to wallow in anomie.

The great panacea, actually the ultimate "opportunity" offered by Covid-19, is the Great Reset advanced by Herr Schwab of Davos: essentially the replacement of a dwindling manufacturing base by automation, in tandem with a reset of the financial system.

The concomitant wishful thinking envisages a world economy that will "move closer to a cleaner capitalist model". One of its features is a delightfully benign Council for Inclusive Capitalism in partnership with the Catholic Church.

As much as the pandemic - the "opportunity" for the Reset - was somewhat rehearsed by Event 201 in October 2019, additional strategies are already in place for the next steps, such as Cyber Polygon, which warns against the "key risks of digitalization". Don't miss their "technical exercise" on July 9th, when "participants will hone their practical skills in mitigating a targeted supply chain attack on a corporate ecosystem in real time."
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Take 2

Don't Look Now

James Howard Kunstler
Clusterfuck Nation
Sat, 01 May 2021 00:20 UTC
audit ballots
© Jerod MacDonald-Evoy/Arizona Mirror/KJNMaricopa County Ballots for Audit
There was Joe Biden, all masked-up at the Virtual Climate Summit Meeting, the only world leader with his face covered, like he was fixing to rob the joint. In reality — if such a place in space-time still exists — Joe was sitting all by himself in an otherwise empty room in front of a video camera, all vaxed-up, too, as is everybody else who comes and goes in the White House. So, what was the mask all about? Surely not the virus. Does Ol' White Joe bethink himself some kind of international Lone Ranger?

This was only one of countless mysteries orbiting around the dimming star that is Joe Biden. The biggest one, the planet Jupiter of all puzzlements, is how the guy managed to get elected occupant of the oval office. Or, more to the point, how did others manage to get him elected? I mean, considering those few embarrassing campaign forays from the basement to a bunch of empty parking lots back in the fall of 2020, not to mention the supernatural victory on Super Tuesday that rescued his pitiful old ass from the glue factory of broken-down political war-horses.

We may be about to find out as Arizona's State Senate finally got around to approving a full audit of the November 3rd vote in Maricopa County, comprising Phoenix and its asteroid belt of suburbs, which amounts to more than two-thirds of the state's population.
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X

Biden cancels military-funded border wall projects

Niv Elis
The Hill
Fri, 30 Apr 2021 03:32 UTC
Biden/Migrants/Wall
© MPR News/Getty Images/KJNBiden seen hypothetically at the wall he has never visited.
President Biden is canceling projects to build a wall along the southern border using diverted defense funds and will use some funding to counter environmental damage from the wall's construction.

Then-President Trump had diverted billions in defense and military construction funds toward building the wall, using emergency powers after Congress refused to fully fund the project directly. A Biden administration official said Friday:
"Consistent with the President's Proclamation terminating the redirection of funds for border wall, no more money will be diverted from other purposes to building a border wall. Today, the Department of Defense will begin cancelling all wall projects using the diverted funds, and will take steps to return remaining unobligated military construction funds to their appropriated purpose as permitted by law."
A Defense Department spokesperson said the funds would be returned to accounts designated for "schools for military children, overseas military construction projects in partner nations, and the National Guard and Reserve equipment account," but added that the department was reviewing projects to determine priorities.

Upon entering office, Biden canceled the state of emergency Trump had declared along the southern border and paused construction on the wall in order to conduct a review, though the 60 day period for the review's completion has long passed.

Republicans in Congress have accused Biden of illegally halting congressionally approved funds, and the Government Accountability Office is preparing a report on whether the pause was legal under the Impoundment Control Act.

Comment: Trump was effecting a solution to the runaway humanitarian problem Biden now has.

See also:





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Padlock

Russian terrorist finance investigators' new watchlist brands Navalny's political operations 'extremist'; to be dissolved


RT
Fri, 30 Apr 2021 12:48 UTC
Navalny
© Reuters/Maxim ShemetovRussian opposition politician Alexey Navalny
Russian officials responsible for tracking financial crimes like money laundering and funding foreign militants have added the political operations of jailed anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny to a list of extremist groups.

The decision made headlines on Friday, after Rosfinmonitoring, Moscow's state agency monitoring illicit transactions, included "the social movement of Navalny's headquarters" in their list of "active terrorists and extremists," along with 510 other organizations. Far-right political factions and radical religious groups are among those registered by the officials.

Under Russian law, a group can be included on the list on the grounds that it is involved in illegal financial activity if justified by prosecutors, criminal investigators, or government departments.

A case against Navalny's political campaign headquarters is currently being heard behind closed doors, with authorities seeking to have its operations banned under extremism laws. A judge is also considering whether to extend the same measures to two organizations set up by the jailed activist, the Anti-Corruption Foundation and the Foundation for the Protection of Citizens' Rights, both already designated as foreign agents by the country's Ministry of Justice over links to overseas funding.

Comment: As one of the West's notorious tools, Navalny's role is to foment disruption, create distraction and garner public influence.

See also:

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Mail

Florida joins Georgia in passing new voting restrictions, limits on vote-by-mail, drop boxes

Lexi Lonas
The Hill
Thu, 29 Apr 2021 11:09 UTC
Florida State Legislature
© Scott Keeler/Tampa Bay TimesFlorida State Legislature
Florida on Thursday passed new voting laws that place restrictions around vote-by-mail and ballot drop boxes.

Florida's state legislature passed a bill that specifies who can drop off a ballot at a drop box and where drop boxes can be placed. It also stipulates that drop boxes cannot be moved 30 days before the election and that an election official must be around when the drop box is opened, NBC News reported.

Along with drop boxes, voters will have to request to vote by mail more frequently. The bill also gives new powers to election observers and specifies that private funds cannot be used to pay election officials.

Other changes include giving Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) the power to appoint officials to local offices if the positions are left by those running for state office.

The bill was passed in the state House 77-40 and in the Senate 23-17, according to NBC News.

The bill was amended to be less strict, with the original version banning drop boxes completely.

Comment: See also:



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USA

Pentagon Chief calls for 'new vision' for American defense

Robert Burns
Military.com
Sat, 01 May 2021 00:00 UTC
Military brass in Hawaii
© Cindy Ellen Russell/Honolulu Star-Advertiser/APL to R: Adm. John C. Aquilino • Adm. Philip S. Davidson • U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin • Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley
In his first major speech as Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin on Friday called for developing a "new vision" for American defense in the face of emerging cyber and space threats and the prospect of fighting bigger wars.

Reflecting President Joe Biden's promise to put diplomacy first in dealing with foreign policy problems, Austin said the military should provide leverage that diplomats can use to prevent conflict. His comments suggested a contrast with what critics call the militarization of U.S. foreign policy in recent decades. He said:
"U.S. military isn't meant to stand apart, but to buttress U.S. diplomacy and advance a foreign policy that employs all of our instruments of national power."
He chose to spell out his ideas at Pearl Harbor, at the center of U.S. military power in the Indo-Pacific region, reflecting U.S. concerns that China's rapid modernization and growing assertiveness make it a powerful adversary. Notably, Austin in his speech did not explicitly mention China or North Korea.

In his first four-plus months as defense secretary, Austin has focused less on big policy pronouncements and more on immediate issues like the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and internal issues like extremism in the military, as well as launching broad reviews of defense strategy.

Comment: Prevent conflict. Will the MIC agree?

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