"Antony Blinken, longtime foreign policy aide to Biden, confirmed as secretary of state" by Karen DeYoung Washington Post, January 26, 2021
WASHINGTON — Antony Blinken, a longtime foreign policy aide to President Biden who has pledged to rebuild American alliances and reinvigorate a State Department beset by low morale, was confirmed by the Senate as secretary of state on Tuesday.
The final vote of 78-22, while an overwhelming win, included nearly half of Senate Republicans voting against Blinken, the most of any of Biden’s four confirmed Cabinet picks so far.
The slim majority of GOP lawmakers supporting him included outgoing Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch, Republican of Idaho, who praised Blinken’s qualifications and called him “the person for the job.”
In his confirmation hearing before the committee, Blinken said he was committed to “building a diplomatic corps that fully represents America in all its talent and diversity.”
As has Biden, Blinken has said that his other primary goals will be restoring American global leadership and joining with allies on challenges from China to COVID-19.
“Not a single one of the really big problems that we face, whether it is climate change, whether it is the spread of dangerous weapons, whether it’s the pandemic disease that we’re living through now, not a single one can be met fully by any one country acting alone,” Blinken said in a video posted on Twitter after Biden named his as his pick for secretary of state.
Blinken, 58, is one of the few in history to rise to the job of top diplomat from a beginning in the ranks of the State Department itself. He began there in 1993 as a European specialist before moving to Bill Clinton’s National Security Council, where he eventually became senior director for European affairs.
In 2001, with the election of George W. Bush’s Republican administration, he moved to the Senate, where he became staff director for the Foreign Relations Committee, on which then senator Biden served as chairman. Under president Barack Obama, he was Biden’s chief foreign policy adviser, then deputy national security adviser to the president. From 2015 to 2017, he was deputy secretary of state under John F. Kerry.
In his various incarnations over decades in senior foreign policy positions, Blinken helped formulate Biden’s support for the war in Iraq, and Biden’s rejected proposal in the Senate to divide Iraq into three autonomous regions.
Pictured in the famous photograph of Obama and his senior national security team advisers listening in real time to the US military raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Blinken was quoted as saying he had “never seen a more courageous decision made by a leader.”
There is -- or was -- an infamous shot of them all looking at a blank computer screen as the alleged event was streamed live and before they dumped the body into the sea.
It's all fakery, folks, just like the case for invasion. In the bin Laden case, Obummer needed a boost in the polls.
Foreign policy has been something of a family business for Blinken, whose father and uncle were US ambassadors, to Hungary and Belgium respectively. His wife, Evan Ryan, was an assistant secretary of state under Obama.
"I had grandparents, parents, who in one way or another were relatively recent immigrants, or refugees or, in the case of my late stepfather, a survivor of the Holocaust," he said in the Twitter video, "and for them, America literally represented the last best hope on Earth."
Their stories of fleeing oppression and violence, to arrive in the United States, he said, "instilled in me a profound passion for what America means to the world, when we’re acting at our best. America at its best is why I’m here, why my family was able to come here, and it’s something I hope to help restore for future generations."
Much of Blinken’s youth was spent in France, where his stepfather, a Polish-born attorney who escaped from a Nazi death march after four years in a concentration camp, was an attorney. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School. In addition to dabbling in journalism at various times, Blinken was part of a number of youthful rock bands. If confirmed, he said in the Twitter video, he believed he would be the “only secretary of state with a Spotify play list with some of my own work on it.”
Asked at his confirmation hearing earlier this month whether he backed president Donald Trump’s decision to kill Iranian general Qasem Soleimani with a drone strike in January 2020, however, Blinken said the administration failed to consider the consequences, including subsequent attacks on US forces by Iranian-allied militia forces in Iraq. “No one is shedding a tear for the demise of Qasem Soleimani,” Blinken said, but “I think on balance that action actually left us less safe rather than more safe.”
False flag in the works?
Phone is ringing:
"First Biden-Putin call shows both cautious on big concerns; The two presidents agreed to have their teams work urgently to complete a five-year extension of the New START nuclear weapons treaty that expires next month" by Matthew Lee and Jonathan Lemire Associated Press, January 26, 2021
WASHINGTON — President Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held their first phone conversation as counterparts Tuesday in a phone call that underscored troubled relations and the delicate balance between the former Cold War foes.
According to the White House, Biden raised concerns about the arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, Russia’s alleged involvement in a massive cyber espionage campaign, and reports of Russian bounties on American troops in Afghanistan. The Kremlin, meanwhile, focused on Putin’s response to Biden’s proposal to extend the last remaining US-Russia arms control treaty.
While the readouts from the two capitals emphasized different elements, they both suggested that US-Russia relations will be guided, at least at the beginning of the Biden administration, by a desire to do no harm but also no urgency to repair existing damage.
No fresh start then, and that will make a retired U.S. bishop who was cleared of multiple allegations he sexually abused minors and teenagers after the Vatican rejected lay experts’ determination that a half-dozen claims were credible and instead slapping him on the wrist.
The Biden regime is going to be a bonanza for the pettofiles.
Unlike his immediate predecessors, including Trump who was enamored of Putin and frequently undercut his own administration's tough stance on Russia, Biden has not held out hope for a “reset” in relations. Instead he he's indicated he wants to manage differences without necessarily resolving them or improving ties, and, with a heavy domestic agenda and looming decisions needed on Iran and China, a direct confrontation with Russia is not likely something he seeks.
Perpetual enemies as he treads water?
WTF?
Biden also raised the SolarWinds cyberhack, which has been attributed to Russia. reports of Russian bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan, interference in the 2020 US election, the poisoning of Navalny, and the weekend crackdown on Navalny’s supporters.
That now looks like an Israeli penetration, which is why it faded from the coverage.
We are totally fucked.
Not only have the bloodthirsty Bolsheviks Biden hacked into the grid (with a cold snap on the way), but China is being set up as the fall guy.
“President Biden made clear that the United States will act firmly in defense of its national interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies,” the White House said. Biden told Putin in the phone call that the United States would defend itself and take action, which could include further sanctions, to ensure that Moscow does not act with impunity, officials said.
Moscow had reached out last week to request the call, according to US officials familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly. Biden agreed, but he wanted first to prepare with his staff and speak with European allies, including the leaders of Britain, France, and Germany, which he did.
Before he spoke to Putin, Biden also called NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to pledge US commitment to the decades-old alliance founded as a bulwark against Russian aggression.
The Kremlin's readout of the call did not address the most contentious issues between the countries, though it said the leaders also discussed other “acute issues on the bilateral and international agenda.”
It described the talk as “frank and businesslike” — often a diplomatic way of referring to tense discussions. It also said Putin congratulated Biden on becoming president and “noted that normalization of ties between Russia and the United States would serve the interests of both countries."
Among the issues the Kremlin said were discussed were the coronavirus pandemic, the Iran nuclear agreement, Ukraine, and issues related to trade and the economy.
The call came as Putin considers the aftermath of pro-Navalny protests that took place in more than 100 Russian cities over the weekend. Biden’s team has already reacted strongly to the crackdown on the protests, in which more than 3,700 people were arrested across Russia, including more than 1,400 in Moscow. More protests are planned for the coming weekend.
Navalny, an anticorruption campaigner and Putin’s best-known critic, was arrested Jan. 17 as he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had spent nearly five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Biden has previously condemned the use of chemical weapons. Russian authorities deny the accusations.
Just from the public accounts, Biden's discussion with Putin appeared diametrically opposed to Trump's.
Trump had seemed to seek Putin's approval, frequently casting doubt on Russian interference in the 2016 elections, including when he stood next to Putin at their 2018 summit in Helsinki. He also downplayed Russia’s involvement in the hack of federal government agencies last year and the allegations that Russia offered the Taliban bounties.
Still, despite that conciliatory approach, Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on the country, Russian companies, and business leaders for issues ranging from Ukraine to energy supplies and attacks on dissidents.
Biden, in his call with Putin, broke sharply with Trump by declaring that he knew that Russia attempted to interfere with both the 2016 and 2020 US elections.
Then how did you end up winning, Joe?
Oh, right, cleanest election in history (meaning it was the most over the top, brazen steal you ever seen -- or not since most, even I was asleep between 3:30 and 6 a.m.).
Related:
"Orders placed with US factories for business equipment rose in December for an eighth straight month, underscoring steady improvement in capital investment. Core capital goods orders rose 0.6 percent after an upwardly revised 1 percent advance in November, Commerce Department data showed Wednesday. The capital goods figures corroborate other recent data that show manufacturing is exceeding expectations and investment in equipment remains strong, driven by ultra-low borrowing costs. While supply-chain constraints and workforce issues, such as workers calling in sick, have been restraints on production, still-lean inventories should continue to drive output in the coming months....."
Yet $omehow, Trump lost.
"Biden pauses Trump policies as Blinken takes diplomatic helm" by Matthew Lee Associated Press, January 27, 2021
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday paused or put under review a wide swath of Trump-era foreign policies as America’s new top diplomat took the helm of the State Department.
The administration placed at least temporarily holds on several big-ticket arms sales to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, while newly installed Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is looking urgently at a terrorism designation against Yemen’s Houthi rebels that his predecessor enacted shortly before leaving office.
On his first full day on the job, Blinken said the administration has initiated a comprehensive review of the US relationship with Russia and is examining details of a US-Taliban peace deal signed nearly a year ago. He said the administration had, however, asked Trump’s special envoy for Afghanistan, former ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad, to remain on the job for continuity’s sake.
Speaking to reporters just hours after his ceremonial but coronavirus-limited entrance into the State Department’s main lobby, Blinken also said the administration is willing to return to commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which former president Donald Trump withdrew from, but only if Iran returns to full compliance with the accord.
In his remarks to a demoralized diplomatic corps that was often denigrated or ignored over the past four years, Blinken vowed to rebuild the ranks of the foreign service and rely on its expertise as the Biden administration tries to restore US global standing. He said the world is watching how America pursues foreign policy after Trump’s “America First” doctrine alienated many US allies.
Blinken spoke on Wednesday to the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, and Israel, following calls late Tuesday to his counterparts in Canada, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea.
Appearing in the press briefing room, which had been rarely used during the Trump administration, Blinken pledged to respect and be accessible to journalists and to restore the State Department’s daily press briefings beginning next week.....
Also see:
"Israel’s West Bank settler population has grown at a far higher rate than the country as a whole over the last four years, a pro-settler group said Wednesday, a period that coincides with the Trump administration’s unprecedented acceptance of settlement activity. Baruch Gordon, the director of West Bank Jewish Population Stats, downplayed the influence of U.S. policy, saying the annual growth rate actually declined in recent years even before the coronavirus pandemic....."
It's declining even as it's growing, that's a good one.
Related:
"Hundreds of survivors of the Holocaust are set to be vaccinated this week in Austria and Slovakia as part of vaccine drives organized in observance of the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, a day known as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. More than seven decades after one of the darkest periods in human history, the generation that endured the Nazi death camps is aging and especially vulnerable to the coronavirus. Jewish leaders have long pushed to prioritize their inoculations. Some 400 people aged 85 and older, many of them Holocaust survivors, were being vaccinated in Vienna on Wednesday, according to the Jewish Community of Vienna, which helped organize the program in cooperation with the Austrian Ministry of Health. About 12 doctors were administering vaccinations, according to Erika Jakubovits, executive director of the Jewish Community of Vienna, who helped organize the event. “I think we owe it to our parents and grandparents to take care of these Holocaust survivors,” Jakubovits said on Wednesday, speaking by phone from a vaccine center. A similar program was underway in Bratislava, Slovakia, according to The Associated Press. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, this week called on European leaders to ensure that Holocaust survivors, who like other people of advanced age are extremely vulnerable to the virus, were given access to the vaccine......"
Given all the adverse reactions and deaths across the planet, something my Pharma-controlled pre$$ mostly ignores and distorts, it's reprehensible that Jews would want to sacrifice survivors to the murderous vaccines -- especially after Mengele, right?
Of course, it wouldn't be the first time Zioni$ts have cut deals at the expense of certain sects, would it?
As for cutting in line.....
"Public condemnation grew Wednesday over a wealthy Vancouver couple who allegedly flew to a remote Indigenous community in Yukon Territory to get vaccinated for the coronavirus. Marc Miller, Canada's federal Indigenous services minister, said he was “disgusted” by the purported actions of Rodney Baker and his wife, Ekaterina, who have been issued tickets under Yukon's Emergency Measures Act and face fines of up to $1,000 Canadian (US$783) plus fees. Baker resigned on Sunday as Great Canadian Gaming Corp.'s president and chief executive after a media report of his actions. “That is maybe the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a long while," Miller said. "I don’t know what went through those people’s minds. There is extreme scarcity of the doses and for some reason people tried to game the system. It’s unfair. It’s wrong. They need personal reflection.”
(Blog editor is speechless)
"Lebanese security forces opened fire in violent clashes Wednesday with dozens of protesters who took to the street in the country’s north for a third consecutive day to denounce deteriorating living conditions amid a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. At least one protester was hit by live ammunition and fell to the ground, blood pouring from his thigh. Police said they were responding to hand grenades thrown by the protesters that injured nine policemen, including three officers. The violence marked a sharp escalation in confrontations in the northern city of Tripoli that began on Monday and continued for three straight days into Wednesday night. The city is the second largest in Lebanon, and the most impoverished. Earlier, police fired tear gas and water cannons at dozens of young men who tried to storm a government building in the city....."
Wasn't Lebanon once a French colony?
"Three leading rights organizations joined with grass-roots groups Wednesday to launch France’s first class action lawsuit targeting the country’s massive police machine, contending that it lawfully propagates a culture leading to systemic discrimination in identity checks. The groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Open Society Justice Initiative, allege that police target Black people and people of Arab descent in choosing who to stop and check and say the practice is alienating those populations and a danger to society. The issue of racial profiling has festered for years. Now, the organizations want deep law enforcement reforms....."
Looks like Blinken has a lot on his plate so we better keep an eye open, 'eh?
Btw, Bo$ton could soon have an Arab mayor, as Boston City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George, a former public school teacher identifies as Arab-American, confirmed Wednesday she is entering the Boston mayoral race, becoming the third candidate — and third female city councilor of color — to declare (her Polish mother worked as a telephone operator at the Boston Globe for more than 25 years before she was laid off, and her late father worked as a security guard at BU; however, she may not be the “compassionate and compelling leader who is ready to lead the city of Boston at this critical moment for our Commonwealth and our country.”
Whoever wins, housing will be the biggest challenge facing them, what with Mayor Marty Walsh bound for Washington, but at least Boston is moving into a Phase 3 reopening as the new leadership is moving out the old guard.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
The Game is almost over (it has no basis in reality):
"Warren, Galvin voice concerns over GameStop trading" by Anissa Gardizy Globe Correspondent, January 27, 2021
Massachusetts officials are raising concerns about recent trading in GameStop stock, suggesting that financial regulators should step in.
The issue: Video game retailer GameStop’s stock is soaring because a group of investors — inspired by a Reddit forum called WallStreetBets — are trying to squeeze the hedge funds and other professional investment firms that have large short positions in the stock; that is, betting on the company’s downfall. The attack has worked, so far: from less than $10 earlier this year, GameStop’s stock has gone ballistic, increasing 135 percent on Wednesday alone, to close at around $347 a share. At least one hedge fund has closed out its short position to minimize further losses.
You $ee?
Officials DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU!
They are TOOLS of BANK$TERS and MURDEROUS PHARMA¢EUTI¢ALS!
The Reddit investors are also buying options to purchase GameStop’s shares, a more exotic and complicated investment that is further adding to the volatility in the shares.
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin, the state’s top securities regulator, said in a statement to the business publication Barron’s that trading in GameStop is “certainly on my radar.”
“I’m concerned, because it suggests that there is something systemically wrong with the options trading on this stock,” he said.
He is just figuring that out?
Galvin told CNBC that the surge puts the entire stock market at risk, suggesting the New York Stock Exchange should put a 30-day trading hold on GameStop shares. The trading spree, he said, has “no basis in reality,” and added that it is “not what you want in a capital market.”
So that private equity and hedge funds get bailed out and the market stays artificially propped up, for it would look bad for Biden if it took a massive dump now.
You know who they will blame, right?
Senator Elizabeth Warren chimed in, too, calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission and other financial regulators to “wake up and do their jobs. With stocks soaring while millions are out of work and struggling to pay bills, it’s not news that the stock market doesn’t reflect our actual economy. For years, the same hedge funds, private equity firms, and wealthy investors dismayed by the GameStop trades have treated the stock market like their own personal casino while everyone else pays the price,” she said in a statement.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Biden administration’s economic team are keeping an eye on GameStop and other volatile stocks. In his remarks at a policy meeting Wednesday, Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, was asked about the trading in GameStop but did not directly answer.
Yellen was confirmed as the first female treasury secretary, and it was her policies as chair of the Federal Reserve under Obummer that put us in this fix.
Also see:
They were literally boosted into the clouds.
For the record, this blogging experience this morning has been beset by sluggishness and other problems that have caused me frustration.
