Nobody on the world stage respects this wannbe dictator surrounded by National Guardsmen and barbwire in our nation's capitol.





Russia was quick to threaten that swift retaliation is coming, with the tit-for-tat ramping up once again as tensions over Ukraine are on a knife's edge. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova countered that "such aggressive behavior will undoubtedly trigger a resolute retaliation."

She announced that the ministry has now summoned the US ambassador to Moscow for a "hard conversation" but didn't reveal details of what form the retaliation will take.


"Washington should realize that it will have to pay a price for the degradation of the bilateral ties,” Zakharova said, asserting that "the responsibility for that will fully lie with the United States."

Meanwhile that hoped-for face-to-face summit Biden proposed for he and "killer" Putin this week to be held "in a third country in the coming months" is definitely off...

As expected the White House and Treasury's actions against Russia today are sweeping and have some serious teeth, with the US expelling ten of its diplomatic personnel from the Russian Embassy in Washington, which is said to include intelligence officials.

Further, the US will ban American banks from buying new Russian sovereign debt starting June 14. The White House fact sheet detailing the Biden executive order's multi-layered action details:

Treasury issued a directive that prohibits U.S. financial institutions from participation in the primary market for ruble or non-ruble denominated bonds issued after June 14, 2021 by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation; and lending ruble or non-ruble denominated funds to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, or the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.

The directive further notes the "authority for the U.S. government to expand sovereign debt sanctions on Russia as appropriate." The measures sparked a sell-off in Russian assets, with the rouble immediately dropping as much as 2.2% in early trading, coming to settle at 1.5% down to trade at 76.89 hours later.

As we previewed earlier, Treasury further designated six Russian technology companies related to the SolarWinds hack, and sanctioned 32 entities and individuals for 'interference' efforts in the 2020 presidential election.

And then there's the infamous "Afghan bounties" allegations...

The Administration is responding to the reports that Russia encouraged Taliban attacks against U.S. and coalition personnel in Afghanistan based on the best assessments from the Intelligence Community (IC). Given the sensitivity of this matter, which involves the safety and well-being of our forces, it is being handled through diplomatic, military and intelligence channels. The safety and well-being of U.S. military personnel, and that of our allies and partners, is an absolute priority of the United States.

And what's more, the US is now laying definitive blame on Russian intelligence for the SolarWinds hack - yet still no reference to particular 'smoking gun' evidence...

Today the United States is formally naming the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), also known as APT 29, Cozy Bear, and The Dukes, as the perpetrator of the broad-scope cyber espionage campaign that exploited the SolarWinds Orion platform and other information technology infrastructures. The U.S. Intelligence Community has high confidence in its assessment of attribution to the SVR.

The SVR’s compromise of the SolarWinds software supply chain gave it the ability to spy on or potentially disrupt more than 16,000 computer systems worldwide. The scope of this compromise is a national security and public safety concern. Moreover, it places an undue burden on the mostly private sector victims who must bear the unusually high cost of mitigating this incident.

Sources tell Reuters the Biden administration is preparing to announce a series of sanctions against Russia as soon as Thursday for election interference and the alleged SolarWinds hack. This is also happening as Russia amasses tens of thousands of troops near the Ukrainian border and convoys of tanks as a flare-up in tensions in eastern Ukraine could be imminent.

Several Russian officials are expected to face expulsion from the US in a new round of sanctions. There are about 30 entities also expected to face sanctions for election interference and the alleged SolarWinds hack. As many as ten Russian could be expelled, the sources continued.

http://www.cigarbid.com/Forum/c/posts/663795/Russian-HACKERS-get-into-U-S-ENERGY-DEPT-and-N-N-S-A- [/color]

This is all happening as storm clouds gather over Europe's eastern flank.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Russia faces "consequences" if at any point it acts "aggressively" towards Ukraine:

"I have to tell you I have real concerns about Russia's actions on the borders of Ukraine," Blinken warned. "That's why we're in very close contact, in close coordination, with our allies and partners in Europe. All of us share that concern."

"President Biden's been very clear about this. If Russia acts recklessly, or aggressively, there will be costs, there will be consequences," the secretary of state said further.

But when pressed on potential military options on the table, he responded, "I'm not going to get into hypotheticals."

The Biden administration appears to be plotting their revenge against Moscow for the alleged SolarWinds hack and election interference.

We would suspect if the US officially announces the sanctions tomorrow - a tit-for-tat sanction war would ensue, further straining relations between Washington and Moscow while the threat of war on the eastern Ukraine border rises.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-slap-russia-new-sanctions-thursday-report 



Biden can't even speak in complete sentences much less understand reckless or aggressive "consequences"...said the guy that can't even stop his dogs from crapping on the carpet or biting Secret Service agents!!!!

This administration is a complete $hitshow!

Sky News host Chris Kenny says "welcome to the loopy-left era of Joe Biden, where climate policy is about existential alarmism" after the US had a Mexican-American teenager address world leaders during an online climate summit.

"Last night we saw yet another climate summit. Another global gathering of world leaders parading their virtue, making grand promises, playing to the green left media zeitgeist, and never being accountable for any of their promises or actions," he said.

"And yet while the weather bureau can't forecast 24 hours ahead, and bureaucrats can't run a Zoom chat, these world leaders and the climate activists they pander to, tell us they do know what will happen to the climate decades from now, and even better, they know how to control it.

Even while they agree that the country that has by far the largest carbon footprint, China, can be allowed to continue to dramatically increase its emissions.

Mr Kenny applauded Prime Minister Scott Morrison for being "a tower of strength and common sense in this forum", who pushed back against grandstanding, "pointing out our good record - we've cut emissions by 19 per cent" - and refusing to make ever grander promises "just to keep the green left and teenage activists happy".

"You won't make progress on any of that listening to emotional, anti-capitalist, anti-west rants from teenagers. That's just a pathetic attempt to appeal to hysterical media and frightened voters," he said.

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6249975287001 

You'll never guess which world leader was the only one wearing his mask on this Zoom chat. The same guy that's inoculated and sitting in his office by himself! He didn't even bother to have an American flag in the background either. At least Putin had a flag and you could see his face!

Let's impeach his @ss.

Good God that is pathetic!!!

I would agree with rfenst,
but that's not really a solution, is it???

When something happens to Biden you get Kamala Harris. I hope Doctor Jill keeps him very healthy.

I hear Dr. Jill has a huge life insurance policy on old Joe.:-k

Well, she is smart.

Must be a real old policy.

[frypan] [frypan] [frypan] [whip]

"“China welcomes the US return to the Paris agreement, and expects the US side to uphold the agreement, shoulder its due responsibilities and make due contributions.”

And from China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying:

“[The U.S.] return [to the Paris Agreement] is by no means a glorious comeback but rather a truant getting back to class,” Hua said of the United States. She pressed the United States to “offer how it will make up for the lost four years”, including payments to the UN-backed Green Climate Fund, which provides support to developing countries worst hit by climate change.

Which brings us to President Biden’s Climate Summit today. You may know that the previous “commitment” made by President Obama under the Paris Climate Agreement was that the U.S. would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28% from the level of 2005, and do so by 2025. (I put the word “commitment” in quotes because the Paris Agreement was never submitted to the Senate for ratification as a Treaty, and therefore was never binding on the United States.). Anyway, Biden today, with absolutely nothing in hand from China after Kerry’s failed mission last week, nevertheless proceeded essentially to double the U.S. promise to cut emissions. From the New York Times today:

In a show of renewed resolve after four years of the Trump administration’s unvarnished climate denial, Mr. Biden formally pledged that the United States would cut its emissions at least in half from 2005 levels by 2030.

And how about handing out some tens or hundreds of billions of the infinite free U.S. taxpayer cash to every third world kleptocrat?

[The Biden] administration also announced it intends to double by 2024 the amount of money it offers to help developing countries, compared with what the United States spent annually in the second half of the Obama administration.

Estimates are that U.S. annual greenhouse gas emissions are currently running about 15% below the 2005 level, with the reduction almost entire due to the fracking revolution — and having next-to-nothing to do with increasing amounts of wind and solar energy, which are insignificant. But that leaves about 35% to go from the 2005 level to get to Biden’s newly-announced goal. You can be sure that Biden himself has absolutely no idea how this might be accomplished. And indeed it will not be accomplished. However, Biden promises to do enormous damage to the U.S. economy in the futile effort.

Xi, meanwhile, is rubbing his hands with glee at the stupidity of the U.S. leaders. He pockets each successive U.S. promise to destroy its own economy, and then responds with empty words and no specific commitments at all from his own side. Xi actually showed up at Biden’s summit today. Here is what he had to say, as quoted in the New York Times:

President Xi Jinping of China said his country would “strictly limit increasing coal consumption” in the next five years and phase it down in the following five years. . . . Mr. Xi repeated his pledge from last year to draw down carbon emissions to net zero by 2060. And, in a pointed reminder to his host, President Biden, he said that the industrialized countries of the West had a historic responsibility to act faster to reduce emissions.

I love that part about “strictly limit[ing]” coal consumption. With 250 GW of new coal power plants in development, what does that even mean? I guess that building more new coal plants than the U.S. even has is now a “strict limit.” China’s emissions, already far the largest in the world, will continue to increase rapidly, without any sort of quantitative promise to do otherwise. Oh, there is that mention of “net zero” emissions by 2060. Xi must have some sort of scam of purchased credits in mind. But don’t worry, he is already almost 68 and knows that he will be dead long before 2060. So will most everyone else who attended this summit. Nobody will be around to remember this meaningless statement.

You can be sure that as soon as the Zoom cameras are turned off the Chinese representatives burst out in laughter among themselves at how they have humiliated the foolish U.S. leaders.


https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-4-22-biden-and-kerry-get-humiliated-on-earth-day-but-are-too-dumb-to-realize-it "

Love it. Love the blog name.

con·trar·i·an - /kənˈtre(ə)rēən/

noun: contrarian; plural noun: contrarians

a person who opposes or rejects popular opinion, especially in stock exchange dealing.
"it has become fashionable to be a stock-market contrarian"

adjective
adjective: contrarian

opposing or rejecting popular opinion; going against current practice.
"the comment came more from a contrarian disposition than moral conviction"

Just do the opposite of whatever Plugs does and you come out a winner. Prop him up higher and he looks dumber. Watch the media gather to provide cover. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

As a contrarian myself, as all of the libertarian bent are, Francis Menton and his Manhattan Contrarian blog is well worth reading.

He eviscerates Progressivism which some people here would say makes him a bad, mean and hateful person.😂

I just consider the source and learn from that.[whip]

Every point of view is worth reading. I may learn something. Those that are only op eds or only hack jobs without sources to back them up I skip once I realize what they are. I like information, not conservative or liberal op eds or hack jobs.

If they back a viewpoint up with facts, I can appreciate a site/blog/article for what they delivered. I really stopped taking the New York Times as a beacon of reporting decades ago. They're really a nefarious platform up for the highest bidder. Want to hide a mass genocide or war crime...hit them up. Want to bury a story...hit them up. Want to curry favor with a political party, an entertainment industry or sports circles...they're your boy. Their retractions are the best Page 14-15 blurbs you'd ever want to read if you can find the 2 or 3 lines devoted to them. Now, add CNN, MSNBC, and Headline News to the fray and it's just comical the hand-wringing they can ratchet up on almost every topic. They practically invent stories so they can report on it for 72 hours. Used to be we had ABC, CBS and NBC to count on for delivering the news. Now, they too just make up or lie by omission to get viewership. A case could be made for FoxNews as well but most here don't even know an actual news program from an Op Ed show. At least on their channel you'll get some reporting on their Op Ed shows. I watch and read a lot to form my opinions. People come over to my house and see what I've got on and they go , "I don't watch that Al-Jazera propaganda"...I just smile inside. Next hour I'll be watching BBC, RT, Spike...never know. Iron sharpens iron and the days of taking Walter Cronkite at his word are over. One thing for certain is that there are other sources that devote more time to a topic than American crap. They love their little snippet factoids like chicken McNuggets. Manufactured for the masses.

But I pointed you to information with sources before and you told me it was op-eds.😕
I guess you just didn't like the facts.😞

Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress are demanding a formal investigation into John Kerry following revelations he informed Iranian leaders about covert Israeli military operations.

A leaked audio recording of Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, who worked closely with Kerry when the 2015 nuclear accord was negotiated, catches the Iranian official claiming the former Obama administration secretary of state informed him about at least 200 Israeli strikes on Iranian military positions in Syria. That Kerry shared these intimate details "to his astonishment," according to the New York Times, suggests Kerry may have been disclosing classified information. It would also represent a stunning betrayal of America’s closest Middle East ally. Israel relies on the United States to protect shared intelligence from its top regional enemy.

The revelation is already generating calls for Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, to resign from the Biden administration and face a congressional investigation for possibly spilling highly classified secrets to one of America’s leading enemies.

Former Trump administration secretary of state Mike Pompeo said the audio tape proves "what I’ve said for years: That [Zarif] continued to engage with former secretary of state Kerry on policy matters after Kerry’s public service and, according to Zarif, Kerry informed the Iranians of Israeli operations."

"Before we cut a deal with Iran that reduces Americans’ security," Pompeo said, "it would be good to know what the arrangement, if any, may have been between these two leaders."

"John Kerry must resign immediately," Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon. "The investigation should be retrospective."

"These reports are concerning—I’d like the opportunity to ask Secretary Kerry about this in a closed hearing," Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), a member of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence and its Armed Services Committee, told the Free Beacon.

Rep. Darrel Issa (R., Calif.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, echoed calls for an investigation and promised to hold Kerry accountable for the disclosure of sensitive military information.

"While we can’t simply accept as fact what we hear from Iran’s foreign minister (or read in the New York Times), these reports warrant full and immediate investigation," Issa said. "If John Kerry shared our nation’s intelligence with Iran and endangered Israel in any way, I promise he will be held to account."

Banks, who has been leading Republican efforts to prevent the Biden administration from unwinding tough sanctions on Iran as it negotiates a new nuclear deal, further said that any investigation into Kerry’s conversations with Iran should seek to find out if other officials from the Obama and Biden administrations revealed similar information to Tehran.

"We need to know the extent of John Kerry’s duplicity, and we need to find out if other members of the Biden-Obama administration secretly shared confidential information with Iran," Banks said. "These are urgent national security questions. If John Kerry doesn’t resign and isn’t fired, Joe Biden will have sent a clear message to Israel and all our allies: My administration is more loyal to the Democrat Party than to you."

Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, demanded the State Department "quickly clarify exactly what happened here."

In a statement, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said Kerry "was caught repeatedly meeting with [Zarif] during the Trump administration (notwithstanding the Logan Act)—and has never publicly accounted for what they discussed."

State Department spokesman Ned Price downplayed the issue when pressed by reporters on Monday afternoon, saying he would not speak to leaked audio. The State Department declined to comment further when contacted later in the afternoon by the Free Beacon.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/pompeo-pushes-investigation-into-kerry-for-leaking-secrets-to-iran/ 


Remember folks JOhnKErry was meeting with foreign policy shapers all during the Trump Presidency. It's called a crime. It's not right and you should be a bit angry and upset that the current administration would place a guy like him in a position like that. We already know the DNC despises Israel. The list of their actions is long. This is yet another thumb in their eye sockets. Biden wants to continue the failed notion that America should back Iran as the de-facto Middle East leader. Iran's track record speaks for itself.

More....

https://freebeacon.com/politics/john-kerry-israel-snitch/ 

There really is a thing called Stockholm Syndrome.

There are four key components that characterize Stockholm syndrome:

A hostage's development of positive feelings towards the captor
No previous relationship between hostage and captor
A refusal by hostages to cooperate with police forces and other government authorities (unless the captors themselves happen to be members of police forces or government authorities).
A hostage's belief in the humanity of the captor because they cease to perceive the captor as a threat when the victim holds the same values as the aggressor[7]

Stockholm syndrome is a "contested illness" due to doubt about the legitimacy of the condition.[2] It has also come to describe the reactions of some abuse victims beyond the context of kidnappings or hostage-taking. Actions and attitudes similar to those suffering from Stockholm syndrome have also been found in victims of sexual abuse, human trafficking, terror, and political and religious oppression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome 

This article from The Tablet is telling. Why stick up or let China get away with it's behavior? Dredge fishing all over the world. Setting up dirt island reefs as part of their "Nation", slave labor camps, er reeducation prison camps. Ugly and predatory debt lending to nations that cannot ever pay back the money or goods given and a missed payment constitutes an immediate 99 year sovereign lease. Yet, here's Joe.



"It’s too late to do anything about China. The contest for global supremacy is over. Beijing now sets the pace—economically, politically, even militarily—and there’s nothing for America to do but accept China’s inevitable victory.

Whether that’s true or not, it’s the message coming out of President Joe Biden’s Washington. A raft of appointees with alarming ties to Chinese state institutions, including China’s spy services, suggests that much of the U.S. ruling establishment just wants to get paid.

Since Barack Obama’s first term, the Democratic Party has served as the vehicle for a U.S.-based oligarchy comprising big tech, finance, manufacturing, and the media and entertainment industries, which sees Chinese labor and markets as the core of their businesses and is therefore dependent on the good graces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Donald Trump promised to decouple U.S. national interests from those of China, but now that he’s gone from the White House, America’s China Class rules Washington, D.C., uncontested.

On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate to advance Biden’s nominee Colin Kahl for undersecretary of defense for policy, the No. 3 job at the Pentagon. What most concerned Republican senators during Kahl’s confirmation hearing was his paranoia-laden social media presence, in which he pushed the Russiagate conspiracy theory and claimed that Israel was trying to sucker the United States into war with Iran.

What is more disturbing, though, is the last job Kahl held in the private sector. Starting in 2018, Kahl co-directed the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute, which also runs the Stanford Center at Peking University. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Peking University “is designated high risk for its involvement in defense research and links to China’s nuclear weapons program.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that Peking University has been a recruiting ground for Chinese intelligence officers targeting American students, while its professors and students have penetrated U.S. institutions and industries.

In fact, Peking University’s role in subverting the United States through academic exchanges with universities like Stanford is so vital that its head is the former chief of Beijing’s State Security Bureau, responsible for espionage and counterespionage. It’s not clear why the Biden team wants its head of defense policy to be a man who drew his salary from an outfit with links to a Chinese espionage operation, unless the administration’s chief national security interest is to grease the rails for China’s rise.

Biden’s CIA director also has China issues. While former senior State Department official William Burns was head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a prominent D.C. think tank, the organization took between $500,000 and $999,000 in 2017-18, and between $250,000 and $549,000 in 2020, from a Chinese businessman who belongs to a leading CCP advisory organization, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Unlike Kahl, Burns, a career diplomat, cruised through the confirmation process. In a prepared statement for his February hearing, Burns employed boilerplate drawn from a special Beltway lexicon to demonstrate tough talk on China: “Out-competing China,” wrote Burns, “will be key to our national security in the decades ahead.” Compare this to Kahl’s similarly vapid Senate testimony from March: “Successfully competing with China will require us to lean into our inherent strengths. That means building back better at home, spurring technological innovation, leading with our values, and reinvigorating our unrivaled network of alliances and partners.” Buzzwords like “challenge” and “compete” and concepts like “innovation,” “alliances,” and “partners” are meant to demonstrate pro forma seriousness about what Kahl called China’s “pacing threat,” when there is no real plan to do anything about it.

Take Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for instance. He says that Trump “was right in taking a tougher approach to China,” though he disagrees “very much with the way that he went about it in a number of areas.” What did Biden’s predecessor get wrong? He didn’t play nicely with allies and partners. “The United States won’t force our allies into an us-or-them choice with China,” Blinken said of his boss’s diplomatic style. “We will rely on innovation, not ultimatums.”

That’s just more Beltway rhetoric. By ultimatum, Blinken is likely referring to how the Trump administration compelled the United Kingdom to keep Huawei out of its 5G mobile networks. Even though the Chinese telecoms company is reportedly run by the Chinese military and intelligence services, London was loath to ban its equipment for fear of angering Beijing. “China has been the biggest contributor to global GDP in the last 20 years,” one British official said after Trump strong-armed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “So why would we want to cut ourselves off from that?” Many U.S. allies across the board feel the same way, which is why Washington has no choice but to issue “ultimatums” if it’s serious about “challenging” China.

If the Biden team was serious about innovation, it might have thought better of naming Kahl to a senior post, since it sends the message that in spite of U.S. officials’ tough talk about protecting U.S. academic research from Chinese state theft, no one really cares. In a 2018 report, the FBI warned U.S. universities against the kinds of “joint research opportunities” Kahl was involved with, since they “can enable a foreign adversary to obtain your research.”

Since 2010, according to a 2019 Department of Education report, Kahl’s former employer “has reported over $64 million in unidentified, anonymous Chinese donations.” A letter to Stanford from the U.S. Education Department asked for a list of all visiting or temporary Stanford scholars “from or affiliated with” China-based universities and educational institutions, the Chinese government, and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In February, federal fraud and obstruction charges were brought against a Stanford researcher who destroyed evidence that she was an active PLA officer.

So long as U.S. institutions incentivize theft, China will have the leg up on innovation—the research tab for stolen information is zero. As for development, China’s state-run enterprises produce goods and services at a fraction of what it costs private industry. Moreover, China doesn’t even pay a large part of its labor force, which is held in detention centers where at various points they have been put to work producing goods on behalf of U.S. companies—an excellent illustration of why talk of challenging or competing with China is worse than useless.

Yes, it’s good to sanction the Chinese for running forced labor camps in Xinjiang, but the demand for cheap labor is coming from outside China, too. Among the most significant consumers of cheap and forced Chinese labor are U.S. corporations who use “social justice” in America as a shield and sword for their own appalling business practices.

Among the most significant consumers of forced Chinese labor are U.S. corporations who use ‘social justice’ as a shield and sword for their own appalling business practices.
Copied link

Just look at Nike’s No. 1 pitchman, NBA All-Star LeBron James. By serving as Beijing’s biggest public defender in the world of professional sports, James cashes multi-million-dollar checks on the backs of forced Chinese labor. Smearing American cops who protect teenagers as racists is one way that James the social justice activist whitewashes the sociopathic behavior of the NBA and Nike—and the CCP officials who control their purse strings.

It is a fact of American life today that the Democratic Party, including its corporate sponsors like Apple and it’s bureaucratic assets like the CIA, is structurally pro-China. The party’s major sources of fundraising—like Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and Hollywood—are dependent on either a huge pool of cheap Chinese labor or on an enormous Chinese consumer market; access to both depends on not displeasing Beijing’s vicious authoritarians. In advancing China’s interests, the Democratic Party also advances its own."

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/biden-mcconnell-kahl-burns-china-parties-lee-smith 

PLEASE go to the link. Read the ENTIRE article. I chose not to post the entire thing due to it's length. It really is a worthwhile read.

Some people still think America is not being taken over little by little by the help of domestic crypto-commies.
Of course it's been a work in progress since at least the FDR administration.

But you know that mental illness Stockholm Syndrome..."A hostage's belief in the humanity of the captor because they cease to perceive the captor as a threat when the victim holds the same values as the aggressor" Ya, that explains it all.
Can't happen here, this is America. Right?

Australia is clowning the guy...

Calling it fair and square if you ask me.