Puppet MastersS


Red Flag

Obama's Biden scandal: When did the 44th president know about his VP's foreign business dealings?

Obamiden
© Linas Garsys/The Washington TimesObama's Biden scandal
OPINION:

Mounting evidence demonstrates that then-Vice President Joe Biden illegally used his office to make millions for his family, and those financial interests affected U.S. policy. Investigators in Congress, legitimate journalists and ultimately prosecutors can't form a complete picture of the wrongdoing without incorporating the actions of then-President Barack Obama and his staff.

It increasingly looks like the man who famously said "Never underestimate Joe's ability to f — - things up" allowed the Biden family to operate with impunity right under his nose. It's another blemish for the 44th president's legacy, which is more and more in shambles.

"Obamacare" was a failure, raising health care costs by an average of 40% and eliminating health care choices for tens of millions of Americans.

Mr. Obama was in on the Russia collusion scheme and spying operation against then-candidate Donald Trump. Claims he made about his personal story have been brought into question. His acquiescence to Russia's conquest of the Donbas in 2014 helped pave the way for the current war in Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands. His so-called red lines on foreign policy were a mirage, and they emboldened radical Islamists.

Perhaps worst of all, an additional 600,000 Black families were living below the poverty line when he left office to live an elitist, Martha's Vineyard life.

Now the question is what Mr. Obama and his staff at the White House, State, Justice and Treasury departments knew and when they knew it about the Biden foreign business dealings.

Ice Cube

GoFundMe freezes donations for The Grayzone, sparking free speech debate

money pitch
© gofundmegofundme pitch for donations
GoFundMe froze a fundraising campaign for the far-left news outlet The Grayzone due to "external concerns", in the latest case to highlight the contentious role of tech companies in regulating controversial speech.

The Grayzone says it was unable to access more than $90,000 that about 1,100 contributors donated to support the work of three reporters.

Max Blumenthal, the founder and editor of The Grayzone, said the California-based crowdfunding company informed him in mid-August that he would not be allowed to transfer the donations pending a review of the fundraiser related to unspecified "external concerns".

The donations were ultimately refunded to the donors after The Grayzone moved the fundraising campaign to a rival crowding funding platform.

Blumenthal said he believes the review was undertaken for "political reasons" related to the website's coverage of the war in Ukraine. He told Al Jazeera on Friday:
"They only told me due to some external concerns, and I assume that someone would have to be fairly powerful to get GoFundMe to overlook the profit motive that usually governs companies like this to cancel a fundraiser that is extremely successful."
Blumenthal added that The Grayzone's managing editor Wyatt Reed had similar problems with payment platforms Paypal and Venmo following his reporting on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

Comment: FYI, according to their website and 'the far left' label:
The Grayzone is an independent news website dedicated to original investigative journalism and analysis on politics and empire. "With The Grayzone, Max Blumenthal, Anya Parampil, Ben Norton, and Aaron Maté have put together an honest, investigative news site... It's exactly what its title implies - a thinking person's arena, indicating that area of the mind in-between black & white."



Black Magic

Best of the Web: Hotel Ukraine: 'Sure, check-out any time, but you can never leave'

zelensky nato burning tanks abrams
© Strategic Culture Foundation
In the case of Ukraine, the U.S., it seems, is tilting towards a more permanent (yet less intense) war. The so-called 'Israeli formula'.
(Lyrics from The Eagles' Hotel California song)

"Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place ...

They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise
Bring your alibis"
And she said, "We are all just prisoners here
Of our own device"
And in the master's chambers
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast
... Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door.
"Relax", said the night man "We are programmed to receive
You can check-out any time you like
But you can never leave!"
Well, the West is running for the door. But leaving the Ukraine consequence is not possible - 'Relax' Team Biden, the night man says; we are programmed only 'to receive'. You can't just 'go'.

Mark Feygin, who daily hosts former Ukrainian Presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovich, on his show, sums up a general consensus:
"Biden and his administration want to end the war by the end of 2023. This is their settlement plan. I mean [the end to] the active military phase ... [and] calmly to hold elections, even in January [2024], in February, but to finish it before the U.S. elections, so that Biden would have something to sell, so that he could say: 'we saved Ukraine, Ukraine has been preserved as a state. A sovereign state. It is there. Yes, 18.6% of the territory is occupied, but more might [have been] occupied': That's what Biden needs, it's very simple, there is no 'mysterious casket here'.
This, however, represents but one of two 'camps' in the U.S.: the first proposes to freeze the conflict in place, and shout 'Mission Accomplished'; and the second, to fight on, until Russia cracks, and flees the battle space.

Magnify

Armenia's Three Latest Anti-Russian Provocations Risk Sparking Another Karabakh Conflict

Prime minister of Armenia, Pashinyan

Pashinyan is dangerously gambling that Russia will either swoop in to protect Armenia despite all of his provocations against it or NATO will deter his neighbors from attacking, but there are reasons to expect that neither will materialize and Armenia might thus be left alone to fight Azerbaijan and possibly also Turkiye.


Russian-Armenian ties are rapidly deteriorating in the aftermath of Prime Minister Pashinyan's interview late last week where he slammed his country's CSTO mutual defense ally. It was analyzed here and also included links to several background briefings that readers who haven't been following this situation would do well to review. Armenia then abruptly recalled its CSTO envoy, Russia asked why Yerevan plans to ratify the Rome Statute, and joint drills with the US were suddenly announced for 11-20 September.

Comment: See also:


Padlock

The next crisis is anyone's guess, but the government is ready to lockdown the nation

lockdown
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." — H.L. Mencken
First came 9/11, which the government used to transform itself into a police state.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which the police state used to test out its lockdown powers.

In light of the government's tendency to exploit crises (legitimate or manufactured) and capitalize on the nation's heightened emotions, confusion and fear as a means of extending the reach of the police state, one has to wonder what so-called crisis it will declare next.

It's a simple enough formula: first, you create fear, then you capitalize on it by seizing power.

Frankly, it doesn't even matter what the nature of the next national emergency might be (terrorism, civil unrest, economic collapse, a health scare, or the environment) as long as it allows the government to lockdown the nation and justify all manner of tyranny in the so-called name of national security.

Cue the Emergency State.

Bad Guys

Documents link Georgia DA Fani Willis to massive election fraud and money laundering RICO enterprise

fani willis trump prosecution election fraud
© Associated PressGeorgia U.S. District Attorney Fani Willis
A bombshell investigation has uncovered jaw-dropping connections between Fani Willis and a sprawling web of election fraud and money laundering activities.

As I discussed this week on the Georgia Record and Creative Destruction Media, Fani Willis is a beneficiary of this massive criminal enterprise.

Fani Willis's involvement will be sure to send shockwaves through the political landscape.

The investigation, which spans across multiple states and multiple jurisdictions, has revealed a complex network of illicit operations aimed at undermining the very foundation of our Constitutional Republic and the rule of law. Sources close to the matter suggest that Willis was a massive beneficiary in the Federal and Georgia RICO enterprises. It appears that she is currently playing a key role in orchestrating a systematic scheme to manipulate election outcomes, casting doubt on the integrity of the entire electoral process.

Dominoes

Gabon's military leader is sworn in as Head of State after ousting the president last week

New pres
© unknownNew Head of State General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema
Gabon 's new military leader was sworn in as the head of state Monday less than a week after ousting the president whose family had ruled the Central African nation for more than five decades.

Gen. Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, took the oath in the presidential palace in front of a packed, boisterous room of government officials, military and local leaders in Gabon's capital, Libreville. Oligui is a cousin of the ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba, served as a bodyguard to his late father and is head of the republican guard, an elite military unit.

Speaking to applause and standing ovations Monday, Oligui said the military had seized power without bloodshed and promised to return power to the people by organizing free, transparent and credible elections.

"With the new government, made up of experienced people, we're going to give everyone a chance to hope," he said.

The mutinous soldiers who toppled Bongo last week said he risked leading the country into chaos and they then "unanimously" designated Oligui president of the transitional committee. Bongo, who had been president for 14 years, was ousted hours after being declared the winner of a vote that was widely seen as rife with irregularities and lacking transparency.

Russian Flag

N. Korean leader Kim may visit Russia for talks with Putin on arms deal: report

Kim and Shoigu
© Yonhap NewsNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un toasting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a reception for the minister and his military delegation in Pyongyang July 28, 2023.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may soon travel to Russia to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss a possible arms deal, a news report said Monday.

The New York Times reported that Kim may travel to Vladivostok next week to meet with Putin.

"In a rare foray from his country, Mr. Kim would travel from Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, probably by armored train, to Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast of Russia, where he would meet with Mr. Putin," said the report, quoting unidentified "American and allied officials."

"Both leaders would be on the campus of Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok to attend the Eastern Economic Forum, which is scheduled to run Sept. 10 to 13," it added.

The proposed visit follows Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's trip to Pyongyang in late July, when he and North Korean officials reportedly discussed a potential arms deal between the two countries, according to U.S. officials.

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, earlier warned that Pyongyang may be considering providing additional weapons and military equipment to Russia for use in the latter's ongoing war in Ukraine, also noting that the leaders of North Korea and Russia may have discussed such a deal in letters they have exchanged since Shoigu's trip to Pyongyang.

Comment: See also: Kim Jong Un shows off banned ballistic missiles to Russia's defence minister


Briefcase

Elon Musk hits Anti-Defamation League with suit for $22 BILLION: 'Trying to kill X by falsely accusing it and me of being anti-Semitic'

musk sues ADL
© Elon Musk/X'It looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … oh the irony!' the tech giant wrote in a tweet Monday evening
Elon Musk is threatening to sue the Anti-Defamation League for 'roughly $22billion' for trying to destroy X by accusing him and the social media giant of being anti-Semitic.

In a series of tweets sent out Monday night, Musk, 52, said he plans to launch a lawsuit against the ADL 'to clear our platform's name on the matter of anti-Semitism.'

'It looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League ... oh the irony!' the billionaire wrote.

He added: 'In our case, they would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.'

In May, it was reported that the app's value had fallen to one-third of what it was when Musk purchased it in October - from $45 billion to $15 billion in six months.

Comment: Greenblatt was in Tucker's crosshairs a long time ago:



Even Jewish folks are applauding the move:




Bad Guys

Trump prosecutor Fani Willis' dad was top Black Panther who called cops 'enemy'

fani willis da father black panther
© Courtesy of Fani WillisJohn C. Floyd III, the father of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, has told how he was a leading member of the Black Panther movement in Los Angeles in the late 1960s.
The father of the Georgia district attorney prosecuting Donald Trump was a prominent Black Panther who called police the "enemy," new recordings have revealed.

John C. Floyd III, whose daughter Fani Willis is the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney, told academic researchers that he considered police in his native Los Angeles in the 1960s to be an "occupying army" that was "nothing but trouble."

Floyd, now 80, also called a prominent white politician of the era a "Texas cracker." And he suggested that he believed conspiracy theories that Malcolm X was assassinated by the CIA.

Floyd is extremely close to his daughter Willis, who has brought a sprawling anti-racketeering case against the former president and 18 others — including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — alleging that they plotted to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Comment: Is Fani bucking to outdo her father? Hardly a good reason to be bringing bogus charges on wild legal theories.