Puppet MastersS


Eye 1

Biden regime plans to mandate 'slashing amount of nicotine in cigarettes'

Graeme Massie
Yahoo
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 03:35 UTC

Comment: Again, we note that laws banning smoking, 'fighting' climate change, 'fighting' Covid, and 'providing' social justice all go hand-in-hand. There's a tight set of topics that a certain cohort of every population is obsessed with forcing all to conform with...


smoking
The Biden administration may force tobacco companies to slash the amount of nicotine contained in cigarettes, a report says.

The White House is considering implementing a measure that would force cigarette companies to adjust the levels of nicotine in their products to a non-addictive or minimally-addictive level, according to The Wall Street Journal.

They are also reportedly considering a total ban on menthol products, which have long been considered a gateway product for younger smokers.


Comment: This move was 'pioneered' by the Irish govt last year, during the first week of lockdown.


The Food and Drug Administration, which has regulatory oversight of tobacco, must respond in court by 29 April to a citizens' petition to ban menthols.

Comment: Curiously, New Zealand, seemingly at the forefront of the totalitarian agenda, just announced similar moves: New Zealand govt 'considering' outlawing tobacco altogether by 2025

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Toys

Banning ALL Russians from EU would hurt economy, Moscow warns, after ex-Estonian president pitches radical policy


RT
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:47 UTC
checkpoint estonia
© REUTERS / Vincent Kessler Sputnik / Sergey Stepanov; (inset) Toomas Hendrik IlvesNarva 2 pedestrian checkpoint on the Estonian-Russian border.
An iron curtain has descended across Europe. Or at least it will if Estonia's former president is able to convince Brussels to completely close its borders to Russian students, workers and tourists amid growing political tensions.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who led the Baltic nation for a decade until 2016, proposed the policy on Saturday. "Maybe there should be a 'time out' for any and I mean any visits from Russia," he said. "Just freeze visas except for family emergencies. It is Europe's security at stake."

Ilves, who was raised and educated in the US, served as the head of the Estonian desk for Washington's state-run overseas media service Radio Free Europe during the final years of the Cold War. He was later appointed as Tallinn's ambassador in Washington. Since stepping down from his country's top job, he has taken a number of roles with prestigious think tanks and as a co-chair of the World Economic Forum.

Comment: It certainly appears that some force is working overtime to foment discord for Russia of late:

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Hiliter

How Substack revealed the real value of writers' unfiltered thoughts

Jack Shafer
Politico
Fri, 16 Apr 2021 06:13 UTC
Stacks
© Leon Neal/Getty ImagesThe Stacks
What sort of journalist who has been filing brilliant, scoopy copy about technology, privacy and politics for the past two years on the New York Times editorial page would leave that main-course for the side-dish of a newsletter? Charlie Warzel made that leap this week, resigning from the paper to take up residence at the newsletter publisher Substack, where he intends to expand the coverage of his beat with a newsletter titled "Galaxy Brain."

Warzel commented on Twitter that he was "honestly terrified" of his move, but he needn't be.

In recent months, a slew of accomplished writers have migrated to Substack, including Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Matthew Yglesias, Heather Havrilesky, Roxane Gay, Andrew Sullivan, Bari Weiss and others. Given the reader base Warzel formed at the Times, readers will likely accept his change of venue with the sort of enthusiasm they bestowed on the other runaways, and he'll be filling his moneybag with cash as readers line up to subscribe.

The rise of Substack — and of platforms of its competitors — signals a new juncture in journalism, one that combines the power and mystique of the byline with the editorial independence afforded by the blog. After being lectured forever about how information wants to be free, Substack is teaching us that not only will readers pay for top-drawer copy, but that the work of some writers was actually undervalued in the market before readers were given the opportunity to purchase journalism a la carte instead of from a prix fixe menu.

Comment: 'The pen is mightier than the sword.' Substack is proving this metonymic to be true: no censorship, more lucrative!

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X

Supreme Court rejects lingering 2020 election challenge case


AP
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00 UTC
US Supreme CT
© AP/Scott Applewhite/fileUS Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not hear a case out of Pennsylvania related to the 2020 election, a dispute that had lingered while similar election challenges had already been rejected by the justices. The high court directed a lower court to dismiss the case as moot.

The justices in February, after President Joe Biden's inauguration, had rejected a handful of cases related to the 2020 election. In the case the court rejected Monday, however, the court had called for additional briefing that was not complete until the end of March.

The case involved a federal court challenge to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision requiring election officials to receive and count mailed-in ballots that arrived up to three days after the election. More broadly, however, the case concerned whether state lawmakers or state courts get the last word about the manner in which federal elections are carried out.

The Democratic National Committee was among those that argued the case should be rejected as moot because the 2020 election is over. Those that brought the case said the justices should hear it because the issues involved are important and recurring. The court had previously rejected other cases that had involved the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision to extend the deadline for mail-in ballots. Three of the court's conservative justices dissented, saying they would have taken up the cases.
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Snakes in Suits

George W. Bush: Today's GOP is 'isolationist, protectionist, and to a certain extent nativist'

Olafmihan Oshin
The Hill
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 09:43 UTC
GW Bush
© Stewart F. House/Getty ImagesFormer US President George W. Bush
Former President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that today's Republican Party is far from what it used to be.

Bush said to host Hoda Kotb during an appearance on NBC's Today:
"I would describe it as isolationist, protectionist and to a certain extent nativist,"Well, that's not exactly my vision, but you know what, I'm just an old guy they put out to pasture. So just a simple painter."
The former president also said that he thinks a GOP candidate with progressive positions on immigration laws, young immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents, gun reform and funding for public schools has a shot to win the White House in 2024.
"I think that it depends upon the emphasis. I think if the emphasis [is] integrity and decency and trying to get problems solved, yeah, I think the person has a shot."

Comment: George W., compared to Joe B., comes across as a fairly intelligent and knowledgeable speaker (with no tricks up his sleeve)!


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Boat

'Not anti-China': EU defends plan to step up activity in Indo-Pacific region amid South China Sea tension


RT
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 16:16 UTC
Frigates
© Reuters/StringerPLA navy frigate (front) Royal Thai navy frigate (back)
The EU has defended a newly-unveiled plan to increase its activity in the Indo-Pacific region, insisting the measures are not targeted at China, despite rising international tensions over the South China Sea.

Officials said the proposal, headed up by France, Denmark and Germany, is aimed at bolstering EU ties with Australia, India and Japan, and would raise the bloc's presence in the Indo-Pacific area amid an escalating regional spat with Beijing over control of the South China Sea.

Outlining the plan on Monday, EU officials said member states agree "that the EU should reinforce its strategic focus, presence and actions in the Indo-Pacific", emphasising the importance of "the promotion of democracy, rule of law, human rights and international law."

Despite the potential for this to be seen as a challenge to Beijing's position and activity in the region, the EU was swift to add that the plan is not "anti-China" but is about focusing on working with "like-minded partners".

The suggestion from the EU that the bloc will become involved in "responding to challenges to international security, including maritime security" could be seen as Brussels giving its backing to the US in Washington's increasingly confrontational relations with China over military movements in the South China Sea.
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Pirates

New York Post: 'Impeach and remove Maxine Waters for inciting violence'

Editors
New York Post
Sun, 18 Apr 2021 15:34 UTC
Maxine Waters
In supporting the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters said he was "inciting" his followers, and was "trying to create a civil war."

By her own standards, Maxine Waters should be impeached and removed.

On Sunday in Minnesota, Waters, breaking the law by violating curfew (because "she didn't agree with it"), said that if ex-police officer Derek Chauvin is not found guilty of murdering George Floyd, "We've got to get more confrontational."

There's been rioting, looting, graffiti — what did Waters mean by "more confrontational"? In Portland, they set fire to an Apple store. They're trying to take over government buildings.

Comment: See also:

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Gold Coins

Pharmaceuticals earn $152 billion from the pandemic


teleSUR
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 20:00 UTC
Johnson astrazeneca
© Twitter/@StopTechnocracyJohnson & Johnson had a stock market value of $436 billion,10 percent more than the $384 billion registered before the beginning of the health crisis.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, pharmaceutical companies have accumulated a profit of $152 billion, immune to the uncertainty caused by the effectiveness of some of their vaccines against COVID-19.

According to market data, the stock market value of pharmaceutical companies will not be affected by the problems presented in some places, given their efficacy.

Comment: As detailed above, Western pharmaceutical companies involved with coronavirus vaccines can't seem to lose. Politicians in the West have also been found to have been involved in dodgy PPE deals where it's highly likely they'll reap some benefits. Overall, it would appear that there are numerous incentives for the establishment to keep the appearance of a crisis going, despite the data showing otherwise:

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Black Cat

Boris Johnson's office goes to war with UN group that said race report 'normalizes white supremacy'

Lizzy Buchan
Mirror
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 13:11 UTC
BLM protest
© AFP via Getty ImagesA UN group of human rights experts criticised a Government-backed review into racism in the UK
Downing Street said the response by human rights experts 'misrepresents' the findings of a widely-panned Government-backed review into racism in the UK

Downing Street has hit back at a UN group of human rights experts who claimed a controversial report into racism in the UK attempted to "normalise white supremacy".

The UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent said the recent report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (Cred) could "license further racism, the promotion of negative racial stereotypes, and racial discrimination".

No10 rejected the criticism and said the UN group "misrepresents" the findings of the commission.

A major row erupted last month over the report - commissioned in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests - which found there was no longer institutional racism in the UK.

Comment: Johnson checks nearly all the boxes of globalist woke/green/reset policies but this one! Maybe he should pay more attention to how the Biden administration is implementing critical race theory so that he too may claim the now vaunted mantle of wokeness and make the UN technocrats happy... And let's not forget so-called Biden's commitment to gender equality:

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Bad Guys

Czech PM backtracks saying Russia did NOT attack country, alleged blowing up of munition depot was 'not act of state terrorism'


RT
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 17:12 UTC
czech republic
© Global Look Press / CTK / Dalibor Gluck
Russia "did not attack" the Czech Republic and the 2014 explosions at the Vrbětice arms depot were "not state terrorism," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters, but insisted the 'GRU' was still involved in the blast.

"It was not an act of state terrorism, which means that Russia did not attack the Czech Republic," Babis said on Monday. "Once again - it was not an act of state terrorism, it was an attack on goods belonging to a Bulgarian arms dealer."

He maintained, however, that the presence of 'GRU' agents in Czechia is "absolutely unacceptable" and that they "messed up" the alleged attack.

Comment: See also: Are the Brits behind Czechia's surprise decision to expel Russian diplomats?

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