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Nancy Pelosi isn't going to let a global crisis go to waste

John Daniel Davidson
The Federalist
Tue, 24 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
The coronavirus relief bill congressional Democrats are pushing has all the hallmarks of Obama's 2009 stimulus package: welfare funding disguised as relief.
Pelosi
© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
So it turns out the real reason congressional Democrats blocked a Senate coronavirus relief bill on Sunday wasn't because they were concerned it favored corporations over individuals or because they wanted more direct aid to families and small businesses. It was because they want to use this crisis as pretext for passing a bunch of Democratic policies that have nothing to do with the pandemic.

On Monday, right around the time Senate Democrats blocked a $2 trillion coronavirus spending bill for the second time in as many days, we found out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fresh from a weeklong vacation, has her own bill, a 1,400-page monstrosity chock full of mandates, regulations, and nonsensical federal programs that leftists would enact if they were king for a day.

Many of the provisions in Pelosi's bill have no discernable relation to the coronavirus pandemic, much less helping families and small businesses facing economic ruin. There are sections mandating "risk-limiting audits" of election results, early voting, same-day voter registration, mandatory reporting for federal agencies on their use of minority-owned banks, new rules for the retirement plans of community newspapers, and even a section requiring airlines to provide passengers information about greenhouse gas emissions from flights they took. The list goes on, like a parody of Democratic governance.

Comment:

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Light Saber

Alex Salmond: The #MeToo witch-hunt ends in verdict of innocence

Steve Brown
The Duran
Tue, 24 Mar 2020 19:06 UTC
Alex Salmond
© RT
Alex Salmond, former First Minister of Scotland
Yet another "powerful man" has been tried for sexual offences against multiple women, but this time the accused has been totally vindicated. Alex Salmond was First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. This month he stood trial at Scotland's highest court, a trial that ended Monday. Scotland's unique legal system has 15 jurors and 3 verdicts with no hung juries. Also, corroboration is required for conviction, traditionally two pieces of evidence. It used to be said that Scottish police officers would walk around in pairs so one could corroborate the other's perjury.

Salmond was facing no fewer than 14 charges from 9 accusers: one charge was withdrawn by the Crown, he was found not proven on one, and not guilty on all the rest, which constitutes total vindication. He is arguably the least likely of public figures to have been tried for multiple sex offences in recent years, and the outcome of the trial raises questions about the motives of at least some of his accusers.

Comment: SNP party in-fighting has apparently sunk to a new low. Shame on those who participated in it.

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Attention

Another MH17 trial bombshell - Dutch prosecutors concealed court order to produce US satellite info that alleges BUK missile firing

John Helmer
Dances With Bears
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 16:59 UTC
MH17 trial court orders
© Dances with Bears
The presiding judge in the trial of murder in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, dropped a bombshell at the end of his 45-minute ruling presented in court in The Netherlands yesterday.

The Dutch prosecutors are now attempting to cover it up. A press spokesman, Monique Buunk, was asked for a copy of the judge's ruling. She declined and refused to explain. A summary of the ruling issued by the prosecution press office on Monday afternoon said only: "the court also put a number of questions to the prosecution and counsel for the relatives." The court has now adjourned until June 8.

Reading from a prepared paper, Judge Hendrik Steenhuis (lead image) ordered the Dutch prosecutors and the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team, which has provided the evidence for the murder charges, to report to the court whether US satellite data, allegedly showing the firing of a BUK missile to bring down the aircraft, have been provided to the investigation. The judge's order also requires the prosecutors to explain whether the American satellite evidence can now be released to the court and to the lawyers representing Oleg Pulatov, one of the four men accused in the firing of the missile.

Comment:

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Bizarro Earth

Medical martial law, cashless society, and UBI: Welcome to the Covid World Order

Andrew Korybko
One World
Tue, 24 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
coronavirus world
© Quora/KJN
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed life as we know it, and it's more than likely that our future will be a dystopian one given how various governments have already responded to this viral outbreak. The skeptics among us are fearful that this whole pandemic is overblown and being exploited as a smokescreen for stealing our freedoms, and while their attitude towards this disease is questionable (and quite possibly dangerous), their suspicion about a government takeover of society is warranted. Never before have governments had so much power over the people, though in these emergency conditions, that might not be an entirely bad thing for the time being seeing as how it could very well be necessary for our survival. The problem, however, is that these newly assumed powers probably won't be voluntarily surrendered after this epidemic ends, which is why many people are so concerned. They're convinced that we've suddenly entered a period of global dictatorship, and it's difficult to argue with them. So much else is also changing as well, and it's hard to keep up with the "COVID World Order" that's been thrust upon us, but what follows is an attempt to briefly describe everything that's already taken place and predict what will probably follow:

Comment: Many signs and indications support Korybko's disturbing analysis and predictions. Will societies rise to the challenge to keep what is left of their 'unalienable rights' or passively join other cattle in the pen awaiting mental, emotional, financial and religious neutering?

We 'victims' outnumber the oppressors, but it mainly comes down to what you 'see' and what you 'are prepared' to do.

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X

Deal or no deal: Palestinians refuse to give up their cause

Adnan Abu Amer
The Palestine Information Center
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 10:23 UTC
Pal protest
© Unknown
Palestinians protest US-Israeli deal
Given the Palestinians' rejection of Donald Trump's "deal of the century", there is talk about "buying" their approval with financial inducements and privileges. Political pressure will be exerted until they consent.

The so-called "peace plan" was unveiled piecemeal, first at the Bahrain Conference last June, under the banner of "Peace for Prosperity". Washington had already imposed its policy to strangle the Palestinians so that they would surrender and accept the deal. Not only was US aid to UNRWA cut from $359 million in 2017 to $65 million in 2018, but it was also stopped altogether in 2019.

The economic aspect of the deal is built upon donor countries and investors contributing $50 billion, of which $28 billion is earmarked for the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, with $9 billion going to Egypt, $7.5 billion to Jordan and $6 billion to Lebanon. This is in addition to $15 billion in subsidies, $25 billion in subsidized loans and the balance from private capital.

Furthermore, 179 economic development projects will be funded, 147 of them in the West Bank and Gaza, fifteen in Jordan, twelve in Egypt and five in Lebanon. Their implementation will extend over ten years, creating a million jobs for the Palestinians, doubling their gross domestic product and reducing the poverty rate by 50 per cent.

Comment: It comes down to a deal or no deal, there is no try.

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Attention

Malthusian bankers versus anti-Malthusian nationalists and the race to define the new system

Matthew Ehret
The Canadian Patriot
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Franklin/Hamilton
© Unknown
Two hundred years after Benjamin Franklin and his young protégé Alexander Hamilton established the American System of Political Economy in order to ensure the success of the young Republic, the British Empire was still yearning to tear its existence from the books of history inorder to establish a new world order.
On March 23, Wall Street on Parade reported that the Federal Reserve became a new legislative body with unprecedented powers to decide which companies and banks live or die in the midst of the covid-19 hysteria which is propelling the western nations into the greatest crash in history.

Federal Reserve purchases of toxic securities from the balance sheets of banks has also become limitless as the former cap of $500 billion/year has been nearly reached in only one week of bailouts ($272 billion in treasuries and $63 billion in mortgage-backed securities since March 15).

Meanwhile overnight repo loans have officially hit the staggering height of $1 trillion/night- which is added to the $1 trillion/week fourteen day loans already in place. The overnight repo loans began in September 2019 at $50 billion/night and have risen steadily to $100 billion/night by February and skyrocketing to their current proportions by March 15.

Yet in spite of these trillions of dollars produced from thin air, Wall Street on Parade also reported that the "big 5" too big to fail behemoths have lost a total of 45% of their value in only 5 weeks with Citigroup leading the race to the bottom with a whopping loss of 51.7%. Amongst those big 5, common equity capital (which sustains the $1.2 quadrillion global derivatives time bomb which is ripe to explode) has already lost $154.4 billion (of a total of only $603 billion among the Big 5 alone). Cumulatively, over $9 trillion has already been issued to bail out the failing speculators since September and if this isn't a wake up call to the very real danger of hyperinflation, and broader danger of marital law, then I don't know what is.

Comment: We are either on the 'eve of destruction' or the 'day of grand awakening'. One requires intense planning and power; the other requires awareness, cohesion and action. What will it be?

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Red Flag

Pelosi's stimulus bill: Nationwide 'Ballot harvesting' without 'any limit' - what could go wrong with that?

Joel B. Pollak
Breitbart
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
ballot harvest
© Unknown
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's new stimulus bill would mandate nationwide "ballot harvesting," allowing party operatives to return other people's ballots to polling places without "any limit" on the number of ballots.

"Ballot harvesting" was legalized in California in 2016, and first used in the 2018 midterm elections. It allows anyone to drop off someone else's mail-in ballot at a polling station. There is no process for vetting or verifying those delivering the ballots — no background checks or identification requirements. Democrats dropped hundreds of thousands of ballots off at polling stations in 2018, helping Democrats as they flipped seven Republican seats.

The practice is illegal in most other states, largely because it is susceptible to fraud and intimidation. Republicans were caught flat-footed in 2018; they have experimented with the tactic in recent special elections, only to find the their voters adamantly refuse to give their ballots to strangers. Democrats are more open to the practice — often became the "harvester" also registers the voter, according to Republican National Committeeman Shawn Steel.

California's "ballot harvesting" law has yet to be challenged in court. It is one reason that California remains a one-party state, with little prospect for change in the foreseeable future. Pelosi wants to take that system nationwide.


Comment: Nancy Pelosi proposes 1,400-page Coronavirus bill stuffed with special interest goodies while many Americans are hanging by a thread


Comment: A prime example: According to the Election Integrity Project Los Angeles County had 144% registered voters of the eligible voters in the county.

See also:

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Arrow Up

Trump: Suicides from depression a 'far greater' risk than coronavirus unless America reopens for business soon


RT
Tue, 24 Mar 2020 00:17 UTC
Covid-19 briefing
© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Vice President Mike Pence, US President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr listen to Ambassador Debbie Birx give a Covid-19 response briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, March 23, 2020.
Social distancing rules may be relaxed sometime 'soon' to prevent "tremendous death" from economic and social depression that could end up worse than the coronavirus itself, President Donald Trump said.

"People get tremendous anxiety and depression and you have suicide over things like this, when you have a terrible economy, you have death," Trump said Monday at the White House daily press briefing, adding it would "definitely would be in far greater numbers than we're talking about with regard to the virus."
"The hardship will end, it will end very soon, normal life will return," Trump said, praising the sacrifices made by Americans so far as necessary measures that are saving lives. "Our country was not built to be shut down."
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Health

Covid-19: Shattering the façade of the EU


Strategic Culture Foundation
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Coliseum
© Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images
Coliseum in Rome, Italy
The new coronavirus and its accompanying disease Covid-19 has stopped the globe in its tracks. Governments, markets and news cycles have become dominated by the pandemic. Europe is now the epicenter for the disease, with reportedly more fatal cases of infection than China where the virus first erupted in December.

Several European Union countries have declared themselves states of emergencies, including Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. The 27-member bloc has sealed off external borders. Some states, such as Poland, have begun closing borders with other EU members. Brussels, the administrative center of the EU, is alarmed because the much-vaunted single market and its core principles of free movement of goods and people is at risk of collapsing.

The European entity which proclaims solidarity and supranational status is reverting to a collection of nation states, each desperately fighting for their own survival amid the Covid-19 pandemic. EU leaders have been criticized for showing lack of central leadership and solidarity. When Italy first reported a surge in infections a few weeks ago, the rest of Europe was slow to respond with the necessary prompt assistance. Now Italy is such a grip of the disease - with thousands dead - that in some parts of the country normal funeral services reportedly cannot even cope with the number of deceased.

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Footprints

Syria: Turkey's military to ensure expansion of M4 highway patrols with Russia


Sputnik
Tue, 24 Mar 2020 06:48 UTC
TurkForces convoy
© AP/APTN
Turkish armed forces in Idlib Province
A senior Turkish officer has assured the Russian military that the area of Syria's M4 highway covered by their joint patrol will expand gradually. Turkish Col. Ukay Sagir Oglu told Russian military police officers after the second patrols:
"We will gradually expand the route, like we did it together in the area of Qamishli. We started small and gradually increased the length of the route. The main thing for us is to ensure security, that is why we will continue to cooperate. Our main goal is to bring peace to this land."
On Monday, Russia and Turkey conducted the second joint patrol of highway that connects Aleppo and Latakia. The route was initially shortened for security reasons. The Russian military had previously stated that Turkey pledged to neutralize extremist groups and thereby ensure security of patrols along the entire highway as soon as possible.
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