Puppet MastersS


Bizarro Earth

US-China confrontation may only get worse under Biden as West's sanctions force Beijing into 'war mode'

Tom Fowdy
RT
Fri, 26 Mar 2021 12:01 UTC
china US flag
© Getty Images / narvikk
Joe Biden's policy on China might not be as inflammatory as Trump's, but the principle remains the same and the US will continue its attempts to contain China's rise as a perceived challenge to the international order.

During his first press conference as the US President, Joe Biden opted for what he described as the "foreign policy priorities" of both China and North Korea. Stating that he knew Chinese premier Xi Jinping well from his days as Vice President, he called him a "smart guy" but added that he "doesn't have a democratic bone in his body."

He then spoke about "stiff competition," vowing to "build alliances" that challenge Beijing and push back against China on a number of fronts. "They have an overall goal...to become the leading, wealthiest and most powerful country in the world," Biden said, adding that he's not going to let it happen on his watch. The president framed the situation as a 21st century battle of autocracies vs. democracies, vowing to "never back down from speaking out on what's happening" with the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Hong Kong.

Comment: See also:

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Snowflake

Snowflake Ted Lieu has melt-down at mention of Harvard Asian-discrimination case during hearing on diversity

Tobias Hoonhout
National Review
Fri, 26 Mar 2021 18:48 UTC
Ted Lieu
© Doug Mills/Pool via ReutersRep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) questions witnesses during the House impeachment inquiry hearings on Capitol Hill, December 9, 2019.
Representative Ted Lieu (D., Calif.) bristled at a witness for bringing up Harvard's alleged discrimination against Asian Americans during a House hearing on diversity on the federal courts.

"Stop bringing in irrelevant issues, there are more Asian Americans at these Ivy Leagues than in the federal judiciary — they're unrepresented. These are different issues happening," Lieu yelled at civil rights attorney Peter Kirsanow. "Don't bring in these college issues because this is not what the hearing's about."

Kirsanow said he agreed with the assessment that Asian Americans are "underrepresented" in the judiciary, but argued that his prior point was relevant "based on the fact that there's been discrimination in the pipeline."

Comment: It's not the first time Lieu has demonstrated his competence may be questionable for the office he holds:

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Broom

Netanyahu fails to win a majority as talks to break election deadlock in Israel begin

Elan Ben Zion
Independent
Fri, 26 Mar 2021 02:30 UTC
Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu
Final election results yesterday showed Israel in political deadlock once again, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponents falling short of a governing majority.

Tuesday's vote, Israel's fourth parliamentary elections in two years, was widely seen as a referendum on Mr Netanyahu's fitness to rule while on trial for corruption.

He put Israel's highly successful vaccination drive at the centre of his campaign but was criticised for earlier missteps during the pandemic and for refusing to step down after being indicted.

Comment: See also:

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Network

Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill: Parler says warned FBI, Zuck and Dorsey defend censorship and deny blame in new hearing

Mairead McArdle
The Daily Wire
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 18:21 UTC
US Capitol 'rioters'
Parler, the social media platform popular with right-wing users, worked with the FBI to target accounts suspected of encouraging violence prior to the January riot at the Capitol, making more than 50 referrals leading up to the violence, the company said Thursday.

In a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Parler accused "Big Tech" of waging a "coordinated and widespread disinformation campaign" against the platform intended to "scapegoat" it for the deadly riot.

"Far from being the far-right instigator and rogue company that Big Tech has portrayed Parler to be, the facts conclusively demonstrate that Parler has been a responsible and law-abiding company focused on ensuring that only free and lawful speech exists on its platform," Parler's attorneys Michael S. Dry and Ephraim "Fry" Wernick wrote in the letter.

From December to the weeks leading up to the Capitol riot, Parler fostered a working relationship with the FBI and alerted the agency to many posts that appeared to encourage or plan violence, according to emails and other documents obtained by The Daily Wire.

Some of the posts called for killing government officials and their families, including one from a user who said he would kill President Biden. Another user called for "not just a peaceful march" on January 6 in Washington, saying "I want to start eliminating people." Yet another lengthier post called for an "armed force" of 150,000 "American Patriots" to be "prepared to react to the congressional events of January 6th."

Comment: Facebook did nothing wrong, according to Facebook. In a statement government, Zuckerberg continued to blame Trump.
"How is it possible for you not to at least admit that Facebook played a leading role in the recruitment, planning and execution of the attack on the capitol?" Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) asked.

Pressed again, Zuckerberg passed the buck.

"I think the responsibility lies with the people who took the actions to break the law and do the insurrection," he said. "Secondarily, also with the people who spread that content, including the president but others as well, with repeated rhetoric over time, saying that the election was rigged and encouraging people to organize, I think that those people bear the primary responsibility as well."

Doyle wasn't having it, arguing that Facebook "supercharged" the dangerous rhetoric, which spread like wildfire on the platform before the January 6 attack. As Doyle pointed out, the FBI showed that insurrectionists used Facebook during the "recruitment, planning and execution" stages of the attack.
At the hearing, Dorsey defended Twitter's current anti-'disinformation' practices.

Here's Greenwald's take on the hearing:


The Capitol Hill "insurrection" was a tempest in a teapot. Trump is right, again, mostly:


But Democrats want to milk it for all it's worth.
Top House Democrats pressed federal agencies, including the Justice Department, the FBI, and the White House, for documents related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, asking Biden officials to hand over records from the waning weeks of the Trump administration.

Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, and the leaders of the Armed Services, House Administration, and Homeland Security committees signed the letters.

"In today's letters, the Chairs requested documents and communications from three key time periods — before, during, and after the attack — which relate to the counting of the Electoral College vote, or the potential for demonstrations, violence, or attacks in the National Capital Region on or around January 6, 2021," Democrats said Thursday.


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Megaphone

Lula slams Bolsonaro with over-the-top rhetoric over Covid deaths - worst 'genocide' in Brazil's history


RT
Fri, 26 Mar 2021 17:44 UTC
Bolsonaro lula
© Reuters / Ueslei Marcelino / Amanda PerobelliJair Bolsonaro / Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
The former president of Brazil says his incumbent successor is responsible for the "worst genocide in our history" due to a neglectful response to the epidemic. Brazil this week passed an overall tally of 300,000 Covid-19 deaths.

The scorching critique of President Jair Bolsonaro comes from Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, widely known simply as 'Lula,' on the pages of the German weekly Der Spiegel. The popular leftist politician said Bolsonaro has failed to take the pandemic seriously, and this has led to the deaths of over 300,000 people. The grim benchmark was passed by the Latin American nation on Wednesday, while, on the next day, its Ministry of Health recorded more than 100,000 new Covid-19 cases in a single day.


"If he had a bit of dignity, he would have apologized to the families of the 300,000 Covid dead and millions of infected people. He is responsible for that," said Lula. "Brazil can't stand it any longer if this man continues to govern like this."

The former president added that what was going on with Covid-19 in Brazil was the "worst genocide" in country's history. He used the same term about a year ago, when he explained his concerns with the Bolsonaro government's approach to the epidemic. The death toll stood at 14,000 at the time.

Comment: Lula sounds like the American Democratic Party. Brazil isn't even in the top 15 highest per capita deaths. Belgium, Hungary, UK, Italy, US, Spain - all experienced worse death rates, and all locked down harder than Brazil. (See the graphs here to compare Brazil's excess mortality with other countries.)

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Eye 2

Bill Gates predicts world will be 'completely back to normal' by 2022

Joe Middleton
Independent
Fri, 26 Mar 2021 10:40 UTC
Gates
© REUTERSMicrosoft co-founder Bill Gates said the pandemic was an “incredible tragedy"
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has predicted the world will be back to normal by the end of 2022 because of Covid-19 vaccines.

The billionaire described the pandemic as an "incredible tragedy" and added that the only good news has been the access to jabs.


Comment: Not quite: Pfizer vaccine in Israel: Mortality rate 'hundreds of times greater in vaccinated young people'


"By the end of 2022 we should be basically completely back to normal," Mr Gates said, in an interview for Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and television broadcaster TVN24.


Comment: 'Basically'? How is that possible when some governments are threatening a future controlled by vaccine passports? 'Health dictatorship': French citizens who refuse Covid-19 jab may be BANNED from public transport under 'Green Passport' plan


Comment: Governments told citizens that taking the experimental vaccines would allow them to return to their normal lives, however, with threats of masks and social distancing for years to come, even with the vaccine trials involving hundreds of millions of people and herd immunity up ahead, it would appear that those in authority have no intention of allowing citizens to return to any sense of normality, if they can help it:

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TV

Biden's press conference was elder abuse

Kelly Sadler
Washington Times
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 17:38 UTC
Biden
© EPA/OLIVER CONTRERAS / POOLPresident Joe Biden looks at notes as he answers questions from journalists during the first formal press conference of his presidency.
It was an hour of incoherent babbling — except for when President Joseph R. Biden read directly from his talking points. The questions were polite and predictable — from preselected, approved reporters. The answers were long-winded, listless and meandering — what we've come to expect from Mr. Biden.

It's clear Mr. Biden is not up to the job, that's why his team waited 65 days — the longest of any president in 100 years — to schedule his first solo press conference.

Mr. Biden came armed with a binder full of notes, which he read directly from while responding to questions about China, North Korea and Afghanistan. It was his cheat sheet, and he needed it. No reporter asked him about it.

Former press secretary Ari Fleischer tweeted he's never before seen a president bring a typed, multi-page question-and-answers document to a news conference. But this is Mr. Biden's White House, and his team knows their boss needs a study guide.

The 10 reporters who got to ask questions were preselected by Mr. Biden's team. Notably, Fox News' Peter Doocy was never called upon. Too controversial. He might have asked a pressing question that wasn't included in Mr. Biden's prewritten script.

Comment: And people thought Trump was embarrassing...



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Dollar

Facebook & Amazon emerge as 2 biggest corporate lobbyists, as Big Tech breaks own spending record in 2020 election cycle - report


RT
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 08:05 UTC
Amazon and Facebook
© Reuters / Charles Platiau; Reuters / Dado Ruvic
Big Tech's influence over government has only grown between the last two election cycles. Facebook and Amazon now outspend the largest tobacco and oil giants when it comes to buying political favor, a new report states.

Facebook and Amazon are now the two biggest corporate lobbying spenders in the country, according to a new report by Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit group.

Comment: The big tech corporations are in fact the ones who decide who will be on the top of the country. They were the ones who meddled in the last presidential elections in the USA and are still censoring Donald Trump on social media.

In this era when almost all our activities are digitalized and online, the big tech corporations became so powerful that they are a threat to our personal rights and personal freedom. This coronavirus plandemic is showing us how powerful and fast can they be in spreading the desired misinformation agenda of the PTB when needed.

See also:

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Map

Biden taps Harris to lead on immigration amid border crisis

Jonathan Easley
The Hill
Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:25 UTC
kamala harris
Vice President Kamala Harris
President Biden has tapped Vice President Harris to lead the administration's efforts to stem the flow of migrants seeking entry to the U.S. at the southern border and to form partnerships with Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries aimed at addressing the root causes of the surge in immigration.

Harris will spearhead the White House's immigration portfolio so that Mexico and the Northern Triangle will know "there is one single figure dedicated to this effort," a senior administration official said.

Biden announced the move on Wednesday from the White House after meeting with Harris, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and several other immigration advisers.

Comment: See also:

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Magnify

Philippines' Duterte raises concerns with Beijing as 220 Chinese vessels moor at reef in Manila's territorial waters


RT
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 13:12 UTC
Whitsun
© Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERSFILE PHOTO: Vessels seen in Whitsun Reef , which Manila calls the Julian Felipe Reef, in this Maxar handout
The Presidential Palace has spoken of its leader's "concern" after hundreds of Chinese boats, reportedly manned by maritime militia, anchored in Philippine waters. Beijing says "bad weather" forced the vessels to seek refuge.

"The president said we are really concerned. Any country will be concerned with that number of ships," presidential spokesman Harry Roque told a regular news conference on Thursday.

According to Roque, President Rodrigo Duterte had raised the issue with the Chinese envoy to the Philippines and Beijing said the ships had been forced to move into the Philippines-claimed territory because of "bad weather."

Comment: See also: China says it will respond to US admiral visit to Taiwan, Washington says it 'is not leaving' the South China Sea dispute

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