funny how things pan out in my world!

Mario Draghi Officially Becomes Premier Of Italy, Names His Top Ministers

Update (3:00pm ET): As expected (see below), Mario Draghi has agreed to take over as Italy’s next prime minister, naming his ministers as he prepares to head a new government that will prioritize the pandemic, a struggling economy and moving ahead with European integration.

The 73-year-old former ECB head will lead a new national unity government to replace Giuseppe Conte's centre-left coalition that collapsed one month ago, leaving the country rudderless in an unprecedented crisis. Draghi will return to the presidential palace at midday on Saturday to be formally sworn in.

After securing broad support from all the country’s main parties except for the far-right Brothers of Italy, Draghi met with President Sergio Mattarella late on Friday to formally accept the appointment and told the head of state he was ready to form an administration.

Draghi then spoke only to list the names of his ministers, a mix of politicians and technocrats.

The senior deputy governor of Bank of Italy, Daniele Franco, was named as the new economy minister, while Roberto Speranza would stay on as health minister. According to Bloomberg, "Franco, director-general at the central bank, will play a key role in administering Italy’s 209 billion-euro share ($253 billion) of the EU’s recovery package, and in introducing measures to help families and businesses cope with the recession prompted by the pandemic and lockdowns."

Luigi Di Maio would be kept as foreign minister, with the new administration set on carving out a bigger role for Italy. Bloomberg adds that Roberto Cingolani, an executive at Leonardo SpA, would head a new ministry for ecological transition. He will be responsible for managing spending on green projects under the European Union’s recovery package.

Other ministers include Giancarlo Giorgetti, minister for economic development, who - as veteran senior lawmaker with the League of Matteo Salvini - has been pushing for the party to adopt a more pro-European stance. Draghi has already told lawmakers he will push for a common euro-area budget, and Italy has taken up the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 nations.

Draghi will be tasked with restoring the economy in a country where more than 93,000 people with coronavirus have died since it became the first European country to face the full force of the pandemic one year ago, and the toll is still rising by the hundreds each day.

Last year's shutdown and waves of subsequent restrictions plunged the eurozone's third-largest economy into its worst recession since World War II, and more than 420,000 people have lost their jobs.`

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/italian-bond-yields-hit-record-low-draghi-set-become-new-pm-soon-today

Italy becomes a dictatorship no elections needed

Joe Biden Meets with Andrew Cuomo, Ignores Comments on Nursing Home Deaths Scandal

President Joe Biden met with mayors and governors Friday, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who is weathering a national scandal surrounding nursing home deaths from coronavirus in his state.

Cuomo sat on one of the Oval Office couches during the meeting, wearing a mask. Govs. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), and Larry Hogan (R-MD) also attended the meeting.

Biden spoke only about his coronavirus rescue package, continuing to argue the United States must spend $1.9 trillion to help Americans suffering from the pandemic.

He did not take questions from the reporters in the room.

When reporters asked about Cuomo’s scandal, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president met with Cuomo and other governors “not to give anyone a stamp of approval,” but to discuss the coronavirus rescue package.

News broke Thursday that Cuomo ordered more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients into nursing homes and tried to cover up the extent of the death toll.

Cuomo’s top aide Melissa DeRosa admitted Wednesday that the governor’s office covered up the extent of the death toll in nursing homes because they were worried federal prosecutors would use the numbers against them.

DeRosa blamed Trump for their decision, accusing the former president of turning the number of nursing home deaths into a “giant political football.”

In August, the Justice Department announced an investigation of nursing home deaths in states where governors issued orders requiring nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients.

The New York Times reports that about 15,000 confirmed and presumed deaths were connected to nursing home and long-term care facilities.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/12/joe-biden-meets-andrew-cuomo-ignores-comments-nursing-home-deaths-scandal/

Scott Morrison’s fall girl and Senator for Sports Rorts Bridget McKenzie uses defamation threat to try and cover-up their corruption

Federal Senator Bridget McKenzie, who ran the $100 million Sports Rorts scandal on the instructions of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, has threatened defamation proceedings in an attempt to bully and intimidate another Senator from telling the truth about the Sports Rorts scandal as the below video shows. The theft of taxpayers’ money to buy votes for the Liberals and Nationals has also reached new heights with federal MP Peter Dutton also exposed for rorting $millions of taxpayers’ money adding to the total of $billions of pork-barrelling already exposed in the last couple of years.

Then can be no doubt that Scott Morrison directed the Sports Rorts scandal as I wrote in January last year in an article titled “Circumstantial evidence that Scott Morrison directed the $100 million Sports Rorts fraud is being ignored by the media” which started off:

Scott Morrison was sacked as CEO of Tourism Australia by the John Howard Liberal Party Government in 2006 for major financial fraud valued at $184 million which was almost identical to the current $100 million Sport Rorts fraud scandal. Both matters centre around abusing government processes and procedures to get money from the government. At Tourism Australia the tender process was abused and with Sports Rorts the process of allocating government grants was abused. (Click here to read more)

And in May 2020 more emails came to light which showed Scott Morrison had lied to parliament about the Sports Rorts scandal “The prime minister’s office asked Bridget McKenzie to seek Scott Morrison’s “authority” for intended recipients of $100m of sports grants and coordinate the announcement with Coalition campaign headquarters, according to new evidence to the sports rorts inquiry.” (Click here to read more)

But Senator McKenzie is holding firm and is continuing to lie about Sports Rorts trying to protect Scott Morrison.

The whole country knows what a fraudster and thief Senator Bridget McKenzie is and on Friday (12/2/21) at the senate inquiry into the Sports Rorts scandal, she tried the defamation threat routine in parliament demanding Senator Janet Rice accuse her of rorting outside the protection of parliament which is in effect a threat to sue for defamation is she says it outside parliament. Senator Janet Rice stood her ground which was good to see as per the below video.

https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2021/02/12/scott-morrisons-fall-girl-and-senator-for-sports-rorts-bridget-mckenzie-uses-defamation-threat-to-try-and-cover-up-their-corruption/

Looks like another tranny

DeSantis Slams Biden For ‘Farce’ Of Halting Domestic Travel While Allowing Illegals To ‘Pour Across The Southern Border’

"We would oppose that one hundred percent, it would not be based in science, it would purely be a political attack against the people of Florida"

Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, had some harsh words for the Biden administration this week, slamming the federal government’s attempts to implement nationwide domestic travel restrictions against American citizens while encouraging mass migration and allowing illegal aliens to “pour across the the southern border.”

DeSantis posted an excerpt from a news conference in Port Charlotte to Twitter on Thursday with the caption, “The recent report that the Biden administration is considering restricting the travel of Floridians is completely absurd, especially when Biden allows illegal aliens to pour across our southern border. We won’t allow Floridians to be unfairly targeted for political purposes.”

“I think it’s an absurd report that they would be doing that. I think it would be unconstitutional, it would be unwise and it would be unjust,” DeSantis stated during the press conference, adding, “And if you think about it, restricting the right of Americans to travel freely throughout our country while allowing illegal aliens to pour across the southern border unmolested would be a ridiculous, but very damaging farce.”

“So we would oppose that one hundred percent, it would not be based in science, it would purely be a political attack against the people of Florida,” the governor said.

In February, DeSantis announced a statewide crackdown on Big Tech censorship, as reported by National File:

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, DeSantis announced a number of actions that would be taken against Big Tech by his administration, with the focus seemingly more on how Big Tech censorship and interference would effect elections within the state – more general measures were also included however.

Some of the new regulations include a mandatory opt-out from content filters created by Big Tech companies, which can leave users “shadowbanned” without the need for full platform removal, a right of action for all Floridians against Big Tech companies who violated this, and a number of daily fines related to interference in elections, including a $100,000 daily fine levied for any company that suspends political candidates.

DeSantis’ approval ratings continue to soar as he pushes back against the widely unpopular new policies of the Biden regime.

https://nationalfile.com/video-desantis-slams-biden-for-farce-of-halting-domestic-travel-while-allowing-illegals-to-pour-across-the-southern-border/

Report: FBI Investigating Lincoln Project Cofounder’s Behavior with Underage Boys

The “FBI is investigating allegations against Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver” and if he “ever behaved inappropriately” with “underage boys,” reports Yashar Ali.

The FBI is investigating allegations against longtime GOP political consultant and Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver, according to two sources who said they were contacted by FBI agents. Those sources told me the agents inquired whether Weaver ever touched them inappropriately or sent or requested sexually explicit material when they were underage.

The FBI asking potential witnesses about allegations of illegal conduct does not necessarily mean that someone is the subject or a target of a federal investigation. It’s also unclear what the scope of the FBI’s inquiry is; the sources who spoke to me said the questions they were asked were narrow in scope.

There have already been credible reports of Weaver allegedly abusing his position at the disgraced Lincoln Project to groom a boy as young as 14, so this report comes as no surprise, and it is just one more nail in the coffin of this grifter operation.

Honestly, the only surprise here is all the surprise people are expressing… Which basically comes down to, Oh, my gawd, I can’t believe the worst people in the world are behaving like the worst people in the world!

Let me just tell you this…

Anyone in the establishment media or the political establishment that feigns surprise over 1) the Lincoln Project funneling millions to themselves or 2) that John Weaver allegedly abused his authority to harass and groom young men and at least one boy, is lying to you.

Everyone knew who and what these grifters were and are all about. Normally I would take great joy in these monsters suckering $90 million out of gullible leftists, but during a pandemic and economic recession, even I’m not that heartless.

As far as Weaver’s alleged predations, according to Karl Rove, this has been an open secret in D.C. for decades.

If Rove knew, how is it that Rove’s protégé and Lincoln Project cofounder Steve Schmidt didn’t?

What’s more, according to the Associated Press, the Lincoln Project had, in their hands, all the way back in June, a whole list of sexual misconduct complaints against Weaver. They did nothing other than to shield him. He wasn’t even put on leave until August.

The Lincoln Project is a cabal of evil, greedy grifters willing to look the other way in order to line their pockets… Hey what’s a 14-year-old boy compared to a new house and speedboat!

Everyone in D.C. and the media knew all about all of this and allowed it to happen because preying on kids is okay with the media and D.C. establishment. The entire establishment will band to together for decades to shield a Jeffrey Epstein for however long he remains useful to the establishment cause.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/12/nolte-report-fbi-investigating-lincoln-project-cofounders-behavior-with-underage-boys/

We know what that means!!!!!!!!

In Major U-Turn, WHO Says Wuhan Lab-Leak Hypothesis Still A Possibility

Two days after the WHO team of investigators was marched through the Wuhan Institute of Virology, its members declared that any 'conspiracies' about the origins of COVID-19 were simply untrue - confidently exclaiming that it was "extremely unlikely" the pandemic came from a lab leak.

Once the team returned to Geneva, however, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus did a "screeching U-turn to the lab leak theory" - admitting on Thursday that all theories behind the origin of COVID-19 warranted further investigation.

"Some questions have been raised as to whether some hypotheses have been discarded. I want to clarify that all hypotheses remain open and require further study," Dr. Tedros said Thursday, in a moment of self-awareness over the optics of their 'open-and-shut' investigation.

One of the scientists on the trip was Peter Daszak - whose giant conflict of interest wasn't a problem for the WHO. Daszak worked directly with WIV researcher Shi Zhengli ('Batwoman'), who created chimeric coronaviruses via 'gain-of-function' research to make them more transmissible to humans.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/major-u-turn-who-says-wuhan-lab-leak-hypothesis-still-possibility

Pakistan Hosts 45 Navies for Joint Drills, Including Russia, China, NATO Members

The last time Russian naval forces drilled with their counterparts in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was 10 years ago off the coast of Spain, during the “Bold Monarch” exercises.

While relations between NATO nations and Russia and China have become increasingly standoffish, sailors from their respective navies have gotten the chance to cooperate in joint exercises hosted by Pakistan this week.

The AMAN-21 [peace-21] exercise, held in Karachi and the Arabian Sea this week, is the first time Russian and NATO warships have drilled together since 2010, and is the first time US and Chinese forces have cooperated since US President Joe Biden took office last month.

Rear Adm. Naveed Ashraf, commander of the Pakistani fleet, said on Monday the drills are “about bridging gaps and making it possible to operate together in pursuance of common objectives.” A major component is also joint anti-piracy patrols, which several nations run the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

Some Chinese ships taking part include a Type 052D guided missile destroyer, the Guiyang, a Type 054A guided missile frigate, the Zaozhuang, and a Type 903A comprehensive supplement ship, the Dongpingh. From Russia, a Project 22160 patrol ship, the Dmitry Rogachev, and a first-in-class frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, took part, as well as a tug.

According to the Global Times, the exercises have two parts: one onshore, consisting of the International Maritime Conference and seminars, visits to ships of other navies and demonstrations in maritime counter-terrorism. The other is at sea, during which the navies put into practice activities they have learned and discussed while ashore.

Some of the other nations present included the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, and unnamed nations from East Africa, according to Dawn. Iran’s general staff sent a delegation as well, according to IRNA.

Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general-turned security analyst, told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency that bringing together nearly four dozen nations, “including rivals, is noteworthy” of Lahore

“The exercise will also serve as a diplomatic push for Islamabad,” he added. “Pakistan has shown that it has expanded its diplomatic clout to the point where it can bring together the countries that otherwise are hostile to each other.”

Pakistan has proven to be a ready customer for many nations, purchasing weapons for its military from Russia, China, the US, and France, among others.

https://sputniknews.com/military/202102121082058141-pakistan-hosts-45-navies-for-joint-drills-including-russia-china-nato-members/

New Zealand Banker Sought by Interpol For Role in Cum-Ex Fraud

On request of German authorities, Interpol on Tuesday added a New Zealand banker to its list of most wanted criminals for his alleged role in a complex tax fraud scheme that deprived European taxpayers of millions of euros.

Robert Mora WarrantRobert Mora, banker wanted for his alleged role in a complex tax fraud scheme. (Photo: Interpol)According to the Frankfurt Prosecutor's Office, Paul Robert Mora reportedly played a major role in the so-called cum-ex tax conspiracy and took part in fraudulent trades worth more than 113 million euros (US$137 million).

"The 53-year-old New Zealand national is suspected of facilitating and then concealing fraudulent transactions for an investor during his time as the head of division at a major bank between 2006 and 2008," Interpol said in a statement.

The cum-ex scheme took 55 billion euros (nearly $63 billion) out of state coffers through tax reimbursements for taxes that had never been paid, an investigation led by German media and published in 2018 revealed.

German authorities seek Mora for engaging in controversial trading strategies while working at Germany’s HypoVereinsbank (HVB). In 2017, prosecutors in Frankfurt indicted him and five other defendants for reportedly engaging in serious tax evasion, according to German newspaper Suddeustche Zeitung.

A Wiesbaden district court indicted Mora nearly six months ago but the process has been postponed several times due to the pandemic, with Mora arguing he’s unable to travel from New Zealand due to a number of chronic diseases he allegedly suffers from.

The banker's lawyers have told Bloomberg in an emailed statement that “he is not a ‘fugitive’ and these public steps are therefore wholly unnecessary.” Mora has repeatedly insisted he did not commit any crimes.

Last year, a court in Bonn convicted two British nationals for tax evasion linked to the cum-ex fraud. Martin Shields and Nicholas Diable, who closely worked with Mora at HVB, managed to avoid jail and received a suspended sentence by agreeing to cooperate with German authorities and pay a 14 million euro fine (about $17 million).

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13857-new-zealand-banker-sought-by-interpol-for-role-in-cum-ex-fraud