Puppet Masters
The Department of Justice (DOJ) will issue a series of proposed rules aimed at restricting the proliferation of so-called ghost guns, encouraging states to adopt red flag laws and tightening loopholes around certain modified pistols.
The department is also expected to issue a comprehensive report on firearm trafficking for the first time since 2000, and Biden will make official his intent to nominate David Chipman, a gun control advocate, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Israel will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court's investigation of Israel for alleged war crimes, top ministers decided on Thursday.
The state will argue in a letter of response to The Hague that the court has no jurisdiction to open the probe, consistent with Israel's longstanding position.
The letter will also declare that Israel rejects the accusation that it committed war crimes.
Israel is not a member of the ICC, and has a policy of not cooperating with it, such that it was unclear that the government would respond at all to the letter Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda sent to last month.
Comment: Israel's been singing this tune for a while, but still warning its officials to be careful, with some even canceling foreign trips for fear of being arrested.
- Israel prepares for first-ever ICC visit, but insists ICC has no authority in Israel, because Palestine doesn't exist
- Seriously? Top IDF lawyer tells The Hague to back off, says Israel can probe own alleged war crimes
- A pro-Palestine Malaysian NGO brings ICC lawsuit against Israel, the first ever filed
- Calling in markers? Israel to ask allies to pass 'discreet message' to ICC not to open alleged war crimes probe
- Israeli mafia lobbying member-states to cut funding to ICC
- EU backs ICC after Netanyahu's 'anti-Semitism' smear
- Gearing up for imminent ICC probe: 'Israel' drafts list of hundreds of Israeli war criminals
- List of Israeli targets leaked: Tel Aviv fears the worst in ICC investigation of war crimes
- Palestine's Interpol membership worries Israeli media - fears arrest warrants could be issued over war crime allegations
- Tzipi Livni cancels Brussels trip, war crimes summons scare her off?
- Even with ICC investigation looming, Israel refuses to behave itself

Representatives attend the Iran nuclear talks in Austria on April 6.
On Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that the U.S. is prepared to "take the steps necessary to return to compliance" with the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Though Price said he is "not in a position here to give you chapter and verse on what those might be," those measures will include "lifting sanctions that are inconsistent with" the stipulations of the Iran Deal secured by Barack Obama.
The idiocy began when Trump, campaigning, remarked that it would be better to get along with Russia than not. A sentiment that would not have surprised Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan or any of the others who recognised that, like it or not, Moscow was a fact. A fact that had to be dealt with, talked to, negotiated with so as to produce the best possible result. Why? Well, apart from the diplomatic reality that it is better to get on with your neighbours, the fact that the USSR/Russia was a nuclear power that could obliterate the USA was adequate reason to keep communications alive. If relations could be improved, all earlier US Presidents would agree, so much the better. But for Trump - the outsider - to dare to say so was an outrage. Or more accurately, a hook on which to hang enough simulated outrage to cost him the election. Then, upsetting all expectations, he won. Immediately pussy hat protests, blather about tax returns, Electoral College speculations, 25th Amendment, psychiatrists opining unfitness (COVFEFE: Bizarre Trump Behavior Raises More Mental Health Questions): an entire industry was created to get Trump out, or, if he couldn't be got out, then at least prevented from doing any of the things he campaigned on. All the swamp creatures were mobilised. The most enduring of these efforts was the Russia allegation. A Special Counsel was created to investigate Russia, Trump and the election. Leaks from this and other investigations fuelled outrage and talk shows.
On April 2, Politico reported that the firebrand New York Congressional representative had donated $160,000 to members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) 'Frontline' program.
Frontline provides Democrats most at risk of losing their seats in the November 2022 mid-terms with "resources and cutting-edge information they need to execute effective reelection campaigns" - in other words, it aims to ensure they can survive the toughest races.
Comment: It's likely hapless Occasional Cortex has very little say in where her organization's donations go. She has been a figurehead from the very start.
- AOC hit with three ethics complaints within first three months in office
- Saikat Chakrabarti, the brain behind Ocasio-Cortez to leave office
- CIA Democrats: The plan to stack Congress with ex-spooks and military operatives (UPDATES)
- The CIA Democrats running in the 2020 elections

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky • Ukraine servicemen in NATO exercise
The following are the words and actions that the historians who may one day come to write how mankind blundered its way into a major conflict in 2021 will need to know, to understand its origins and the parts played by the shortcomings and strategic missteps of ill-suited leaders.
On March 24, 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law Decree 117/2021, "On the Strategy of de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol." While the stated primary goal of this decree is the "restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized state border, ensuring the state sovereignty of Ukraine," the reality is that the issue of restoring Ukrainian "territorial integrity" is merely a vehicle toward "gaining full membership of Ukraine in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization."
Comment: Will Ukraine become ground zero? Indications seem to suggest this possibility as restraint may be in short supply. Russia's military power and logistical advantage would provide the only effective deterrence to a fool's war.
Three experts from Russia, Ukraine and USA insightfully weigh in on many aspects of the current situation in Ukraine:
Biden has inched so close to the deadline that his indecision amounts almost to a decision to put off, at least for a number of months, a pullout of the remaining 2,500 troops and continue supporting the Afghan military at the risk of a Taliban backlash. Removing all of the troops and their equipment in the next three weeks — along with coalition partners that cannot get out on their own — would be difficult logistically, as Biden himself suggested in late March.
"It's going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline. Just in terms of tactical reasons, it's hard to get those troops out. And if we leave, we're going to do so in a safe and orderly way."James Stavridis, a retired Navy admiral who served as NATO's top commander from 2009 to 2013, says it would be unwise at this point to get out quickly:
"Sometimes not making a decision becomes a decision, which seems the case with the May 1 deadline. The most prudent course of action feels like a six-month extension and an attempt to get the Taliban truly meeting their promises — essentially permitting a legitimate 'conditions based' withdrawal in the fall."There are crosscurrents of pressure on Biden. On the one hand, he has argued for years, including during his time as vice president, when President Barack Obama ordered a huge buildup of U.S. forces, that Afghanistan is better handled as a smaller-scale counterterrorism mission. Countering Russia and China has since emerged as a higher priority.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) • Gun Barrel • Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who released a report last year detailing Biden's shady business dealings, have been pressing for answers from the Secret Service following reports that agents may have attempted to intervene on Biden's behalf in 2018 when they no longer protected now-President Joe Biden or his family. Grassley and Johnson said in their new letter:
"We received the U.S. Secret Service's March 31, 2021, response to our March 25, 2021, letter regarding reports that Secret Service agents were involved in an October 2018 incident regarding Hunter Biden's discarded firearm when he was no longer a protectee. Although Secret Service could not locate any records about the alleged October 2018 incident, questions still remain regarding whether any individuals connected to the Secret Service were aware of or took any action relating to this matter. It would seem particularly unusual and inappropriate if any individuals connected with the Secret Service were involved in light of your office's acknowledgement that" it hadn't found any relevant records.
Comment: If there was favoritism in operation, by Secret Service agents no longer assigned to Hunter Biden, who authorized it and why?
Officials in Tehran said on Wednesday that the MV Saviz had been targeted in the Red Sea, a day after media reports said the ship had been damaged by limpet mines. Images broadcast by Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency showed parts of the ship on fire. Tasnim said an explosion had targeted the hull.
In a state TV report, an anchor cited a New York Times story, which quoted an anonymous US official telling the newspaper that Israel had informed the US it attacked the vessel on Tuesday morning. The strike on the vessel came as Iran and world powers sat down in Vienna for a first round of talks about the US potentially rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal. Israel is bitterly opposed to a return to the agreement.
Asked by reporters on Wednesday if Israel, Iran's arch foe, was involved in the attack, the country's defence minister, Benny Gantz, twice refused to comment on it specifically. However, he added: "The state of Israel must defend itself. Every place we find an operational challenge or operational need, we will continue to act."
Comment: Israel may not be able to stop the reinstatement of the 2015 nuclear deal, but it is certainly capable of sabotaging Iran's assets any time it chooses.
"The government is not now, nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential. There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.The White House has been clear that it would defer to private companies if they wanted to implement some type of vaccine passport system in which individuals would have to provide proof that they received one of the coronavirus shots.
"Our interest is very simple from the federal government, which is American's privacy and rights should be protected so that these systems are not used against people unfairly."
The federal government will provide guidance about privacy related to the coronavirus vaccines, Psaki said, though she did not provide a timeline.
Comment: The WH could have put an end to this controversial and divisive protocol plan that negates citizen rights. Instead, it left open an avenue for businesses and venues to require proof of vaccination. Meanwhile, a multi-state boycott against Covid passports is currently gaining steam, as constitutional guarantees demand.
See also:
- States rebuke vaccine passports
- 'Question of discrimination': WHO dismisses Covid passports, as governments consider them to reopen travel
- Biden admin working on vaccine passports - with scannable code similar to airline boarding passes
- Papers, please: Airline groups embrace 'digital health passports' over quarantines, Covid shutdowns continue to cripple industry
- Governor DeSantis is taking executive action against COVID passports













Comment: See also: