Puppet MastersS


Vader

Biden's officers launch partisan power grab

Ryan Girdusky
Washington Examiner
Fri, 05 Feb 2021 22:50 UTC
Roger Severino
© Jacquelyn Martin/APRoger Severino
The media loved to complain that former President Donald Trump was always violating long-standing political norms. President Biden, we were told, would end such chaos and reinstate normality and respect at the heart of government power.

Perhaps not. On Wednesday, Biden broke a presidential norm that Trump never dared violate. Biden did so by firing members of independent agencies appointed by the previous administration. In the days preceding the firing, Biden's deputy director of the Presidential Personnel Office, Gautam Raghavan, asked for the resignation of several Trump appointees. These included Roger Severino, Jennifer Dickey, Andrew Kloster, and Dan Epstein. In an apparent violation of federal law, Raghavan threatened to fire them if they didn't resign. This, even though the appointees are serving fixed terms.

Firing appointees serving fixed terms that have not expired would be unprecedented. But when several refused to resign, they were indeed fired. Severino, who served on the Administrative Conference of the United States council, is now suing the Biden administration over his termination. "The Council does not wield any executive power — indeed, it does not wield any power at all as a purely advisory entity — so President Biden has no constitutional power to terminate Mr. Severino or any other member of the Council," Severino's lawsuit said. "President Biden's attempt to remove me contrary to law exposes his lofty promises of healing and uniting all Americans as nothing more than cynical manipulation," Severino said in a statement.
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Bad Guys

Schumer announces Senate power-sharing agreement has been reached — allows Democrats to officially control committees

Henry Rodgers
Daily Caller
Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:46 UTC
Schumer
© Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday that he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reached a power-sharing agreement that would allow Democrats to take control of committees.

"I am happy to report this morning that the leadership of both parties have finalized the organizing resolution for the Senate," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "We will pass the resolution through the Senate today, which means that committees can promptly set up and get to work with Democrats holding the gavels."

Democrats officially regained a majority in the Senate after three Democrats were officially sworn in as U.S. senators on Jan. 20, hours after President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Comment: Now that the US government has that whole problem of representation out of the way it can get back on track with unimpeded aggression against people both foreign and domestic.

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Brick Wall

Investigators struggle to build murder case in death of US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick

Evan Perez, David Shortell
CNN
Tue, 02 Feb 2021 09:56 UTC
DC Capitol
© artpal
Investigators are struggling to build a federal murder case regarding fallen US Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, vexed by a lack of evidence that could prove someone caused his death as he defended the Capitol during last month's insurrection.

Authorities have reviewed video and photographs that show Sicknick engaging with rioters amid the siege but have yet to identify a moment in which he suffered his fatal injuries, law enforcement officials familiar with the matter said. Soon after Sicknick died on January 7, prosecutors in Washington opened a federal murder investigation, dedicating a team inside the US attorney's office to build out a case, authorities have said.

To date, little information has been shared publicly about the circumstances of the death of the 13-year veteran of the police force, including any findings from an autopsy that was conducted by DC's medical examiner.

In a statement the day after the insurrection, Capitol Police said that Sicknick had been "injured while physically engaging with protesters" and collapsed as a result of his injuries sometime after returning to his office. He died the next day in a local hospital.

Sicknick will lie in honor at the Capitol beginning Tuesday evening, Congressional leaders announced late last week, bestowing on him a sacred tribute that's typically reserved for dead American political leaders.


Comment: This is CNN reporting with its usual bias management. Other articles have stated Sicknick's demise was the result of a medical precondition rather than a victim of murder at the Capitol. The holdup in reporting (hush order?) may be an optics ploy for the current administration's MAGA slam. The longer a lie is repeated, the harder it becomes to replace with truth.

Another unmentioned inconvenient fact: Sicknick's family stated he was a huge Trump supporter!

See also:

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Arrow Up

Xi and Putin make the case for win-win vs. zero-sum

Pepe Escobar
The Saker
Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:00 UTC
Xi/Putin
© Free Press KashmirChinese President Xi Zinping • Russian President Vladimir Putin
So the Davos Agenda has come and gone. That was the virtual Great Reset preview, hosted by Kissinger acolyte cum World Economic Forum (WEF) oracle Herr Klaus Schwab. Still, corporate/political so-called "leaders" will continue to wax lyrical about the Fourth Industrial Revolution - or its mild spin-offs such as Build Back Better, the favorite slogan of the new White House tenants.

The WEF co-sponsors - from the UN and the IMF to BlackRock, Blackstone and the Carlyle Group - will continue to expand their synchronicity with Lynn Forester de Rothschild and her corporate-heavy Council for Inclusive Capitalism with the Vatican - pop Pope Francis at the helm.

And yes, they accept Visa.

Predictably, the two really crucial events at Davos received minimal or non-existent coverage across the wobbly West: the speeches by President Xi and President Putin.

We have already highlighted Xi's essentials. Aside from arguing a powerful case for multilateralism as the only possible road map to deal with global challenges, Xi stressed nothing substantial may be achieved if the inequality gap between North and South is not reduced.

Comment: Pepe Escobar provides another example of 'How the West has lost'.

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Stop

Biden halts support for Saudi strikes on Yemen


DW
Thu, 04 Feb 2021 00:00 UTC
Jale Sullivan
© Carolyn Kaster/AP/picture allianceNational Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that the United States was ending its support for offensive operations in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The president said the six-year conflict "has to end," but stressed Washington would continue to back its long-standing ally Saudi Arabia.
"We're stepping up our diplomacy to end the war in Yemen, a war which has created humanitarian and strategic catastrophe. This war has to end, and to underscore our commitment, we are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales."
Biden made his remarks in a speech to State Department diplomats. The new policy marks a departure from the position of his two predecessors.

Saudi Arabia has itself recently been hinting at a willingness to reach a "political solution" in the drawn-out conflict. In the aftermath of Biden's speech, the official Saudi press agency reported:
"The kingdom has affirmed its firm position in support of a comprehensive political solution to the Yemeni crisis, and welcomes the US emphasis on the importance of supporting diplomatic efforts to resolve [it]."

Comment: Does this mean Obama's Yemen war is ending? Maybe not. Critics of the US intervention in the Arabian peninsula pointed out that details are where the devil usually hides:
Sullivan claims the decision does not apply to US operations against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Actually ending the war in Yemen would involve ending US weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition, as well as refueling, repairs and assistance with targeting, for example. All of those were extended to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt by the Obama administration - in which Biden was vice president - in March 2015, when the coalition led by Riyadh invaded Yemen on behalf of the ousted president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.


One of the last acts of Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was to designate Ansarallah a terrorist organization, arguing that doing so would "advance efforts to achieve a peaceful, sovereign, and united Yemen that is both free from Iranian interference and at peace with its neighbors." The Biden administration issued a one-month waiver of this decision on January 26, but has yet to revoke it.


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Briefcase

Smartmatic targets Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Fox News and others in lawsuit

Alex Nitzberg
Just the News
Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:16 UTC
Giuliani/Powell
© Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty ImagesAttorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell • November 2020
Smartmatic is targeting attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, along with Fox News, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro in a lawsuit alleging that the defendants were involved in pushing false claims that the company had been involved in rigging the 2020 election.

A Thursday press release stated:
"Smartmatic today initiated a lawsuit against Fox Corporation (Nasdaq: FOXA), owner of Fox News Network LLC, seeking in excess of $2.7 billion, plus an additional amount for punitive damages, for defamation and disparagement as a result of the disinformation campaign against Smartmatic by Fox and other named defendants following the 2020 US presidential election.

"In November and December 2020, Fox News broadcast multiple reports stating and implying that Smartmatic had fixed and rigged the 2020 election. They repeated the false claims and accusations on air and in articles and social media postings that were together seen by millions in the US and even more around the world.

"For the US 2020 election, Smartmatic provided election technology manufacturing, systems integration, software development and logistics only for Los Angeles County, California. The company did not provide any products or services to any other states or jurisdictions."
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X

The UK 'will not exist in 10 years' without reform, warns former Welsh First Minister

Jason Dunn
Sputnik
Tue, 02 Feb 2021 14:55 UTC
Union Jack
© AP/Ted S. Warren
Since the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership in the European Union and subsequent withdrawal, sentiment within Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland has drifted further towards support for breaking away from the union.

The former first minister of Wales has warned that the United Kingdom may cease to exist as a country within the next decade.

Labour MS Carwyn Jones told Radio Cymru on Tuesday that the UK needs to reform the relationship between its constituent nations to survive as a union, but added it may already be "too late" to prevent Scotland's withdrawal.

He said that while he doesn't support independence, he would not be in favour of a union between England and Wales and that if it came to pass "we would have to think about what's appropriate for the future."
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Network

The return of Marc Elias: Lawyer implicated in Clinton dossier scandal claims Dominion switched votes - against Dems

Jonathan Turley
jonathanturley.org
Fri, 05 Feb 2021 20:28 UTC
marc elias
© Robert Willett/The News & Observer via AP, PoolLawyer and long-time Democrat operative Marc Elias
It appears that Marc E. Elias is back. The Perkins Coie lawyer was the focus of stories related to the Steele dossier and the long-denial of the Clinton campaign that it actually funded investigation. Despite such false statements by the campaign before the election, the money was found to have been paid out as a legal expense through Elias as counsel for the campaign. Elias also reportedly was present when this funding was denied to the media and to Congress. The Biden campaign enlisted Elias to lead efforts in election challenges despite that history. He is now making a curious argument in New York for a Democratic lawyer: he is alleging that thousands of votes may have been switched or changed by Dominion voting machines.

I previously wrote about Elias' role in what many view as an effort to hide and deny the role of Clinton in the dossier, which was later discredited on many of its allegations. He was present that any connection to the Clinton campaign was denied to congressional investigators. No one was charged for many false statements in the interview.
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Bomb

Get woke or get bombed: Biden to call for protecting LGBTQ rights globally in memo


NBC News
Thu, 04 Feb 2021 20:23 UTC
lgbt protest
© Getty
U.S. President Joe Biden will announce a presidential memorandum on Thursday protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people worldwide, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

"It reflects his deep commitment to these issues both here in the United States and everywhere around the world. The United States will speak out and act on behalf of these rights as we go," Sullivan told reporters at a White House press briefing.

While a presidential memorandum is largely symbolic, Biden campaigned on a pledge to pass LGBTQ rights legislation known as the Equality Act in the first 100 days of his administration and to make LGBTQ rights a top priority.

His campaign pledge included protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination, ensuring fair treatment in the justice system and advancing LGBTQ rights globally.

Biden is expected to make the announcement during a visit to the U.S. State Department on Thursday.

Comment:



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Stock Up

Best of the Web: 'If we did it': TIME magazine reveals the 'shadow campaign' that 'saved' the 2020 election

Molly Ball
TIME
Thu, 04 Feb 2021 19:13 UTC
time election
© Ryan Olbrysh for TIME
A weird thing happened right after the Nov. 3 election: nothing.

The nation was braced for chaos. Liberal groups had vowed to take to the streets, planning hundreds of protests across the country. Right-wing militias were girding for battle. In a poll before Election Day, 75% of Americans voiced concern about violence.

Instead, an eerie quiet descended. As President Trump refused to concede, the response was not mass action but crickets. When media organizations called the race for Joe Biden on Nov. 7, jubilation broke out instead, as people thronged cities across the U.S. to celebrate the democratic process that resulted in Trump's ouster.

A second odd thing happened amid Trump's attempts to reverse the result: corporate America turned on him. Hundreds of major business leaders, many of whom had backed Trump's candidacy and supported his policies, called on him to concede. To the President, something felt amiss. "It was all very, very strange," Trump said on Dec. 2. "Within days after the election, we witnessed an orchestrated effort to anoint the winner, even while many key states were still being counted."

In a way, Trump was right.

There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans. The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day. Both sides would come to see it as a sort of implicit bargain - inspired by the summer's massive, sometimes destructive racial-justice protests - in which the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump's assault on democracy.

Comment: Un-be-lie-va-ble. It's almost as if they want you to know they stole the election, just to rub it in your face.





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