Mario Draghi Named Italy’s Prime Minister Amid Crises

Former ECB chief unites Italy’s fragmented political landscape

Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, has been named Italian prime minister after persuading nearly all of the country’s squabbling parties to support his government, raising hopes that he can succeed where many others have failed: in leading Italy out of its deep economic malaise.

Italy’s head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, appointed Mr. Draghi and his proposed ministers late Friday, ahead of a formal swearing-in to be held the following day and a parliamentary vote of confidence early next week.

Mr. Draghi is set to take over the European Union’s third-biggest economy after Germany’s and France’s as Italy fights with persistently high Covid-19 contagion, an agonizingly slow vaccine rollout and restrictions on daily life that are holding the economy in recession.

Reviving economic growth in Italy is vital for the EU and its common currency, the euro, since Italy’s deep debts and chronically low growth are the biggest sources of doubt about the euro’s long-term stability. How to reanimate Italy’s economy, which has stagnated since the 1990s, has bedeviled a series of would-be reforming leaders who briefly carried the country’s hopes but ended as disappointments.

Mr. Draghi, a 73-year-old, U.S.-trained economist who has worked at the World Bank, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Italy’s Treasury and central bank, will have at most two years to make a difference. Italian parties will return to competing for power in parliamentary elections by 2023 at the latest.

He brings two main assets to the task: his reputation in Italy and the EU for both economic expertise and diplomatic deftness, based on his successful handling of the eurozone debt crisis when he was ECB chief; and the pot of money that the EU has promised Italy to support its economic recovery.

As ECB chief in 2012, Mr. Draghi defused a sovereign-debt crisis that threatened to destroy the euro by pledging to do “whatever it takes” to stabilize panicking bond markets, after quietly negotiating political support from key EU leaders and sidelining opponents.

“I graded his performance as straight A,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who as Federal Reserve chairwoman dealt often with Mr. Draghi, told The Wall Street Journal in a 2019 interview.

“‘Whatever it takes’ will go down in the annals of central banking history as one of the most important interventions ever. It’s hard to imagine where we would be without it.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mario-draghi-to-take-over-as-italys-prime-minister-amid-economic-covid-19-crises-11613132691

>>12921284

My POTUS is Donald J Trump, not some scab that stole the election to gain power and roll over to the commies.

Grow some.

THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK swayed by virus, nukes and Biden

This year, the clock was set to 100 seconds to midnight – the closest it’s ever been to the hopeless 12 a.m. and the same position it was in last year.

BIDEN PUSHES IT COUNTERCLOCKWISE

Other factors pushed counterclockwise.

The election of a “president who acknowledges climate change as a profound threat and supports international cooperation and science-based policy puts the world on a better footing to address global problems,” the bulletin argued in its lengthy explanation, which this year mentions the Paris Agreement and the New START arms-control pact with Russia. The latter was recently extended – an example, Munns suggested, of critical collaboration.

https://www.postandcourier.com/doomsday-clock-swayed-by-virus-nukes-and-biden/article_9db5454a-2b3a-5765-975f-c36d3ff61def.html

A raging pandemic. Infernos in the U.S. and Australia. A deadly insurrection as Congress worked to certify the results of a democratic election. Burgeoning weapons programs and billions upon billions spent on the modernization of nuclear arsenals, each capable of achieving unprecedented obliteration. A dizzying hack of government and business networks, and a rip current of mis-and disinformation.

Recent months have brought an inescapable avalanche of news, a buffet of bleak chyrons and attentionsucking phone pings and buzzes. News travels fast, and bad news more so. Is the world doomed, as people joked in 2020?

Not yet, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

In January, the bulletin – founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists involved with the Manhattan Project – unveiled the 2021 Doomsday Clock.

The ceremony conveys threats to humanity by illustrating just how close things are to a metaphorical midnight, the apocalypse hour. While the result is more gut check than hardcore statistical analysis or forecast, the timepiece has, since its 1947 debut, offered a foreboding perspective on world affairs.

This year, the clock was set to 100 seconds to midnight – still the closest it’s ever been to the hopeless 12 a.m. and the same position it was in last year.

A hazardous brew of nuclear weapons and climate change (existential threats, the bulletin says), the mainstreaming of conspiratorial drivel, a disregard for science and expertise, and a lackluster response to the coronavirus catastrophe, among other things, applied clockwise pressure to the clock’s hands.

“Civil order is a big part of our democracy,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Charles Munns, an Aikenite, “and in addition to external threats, there’re also these internal threats.”

Other factors pushed counterclockwise.

The election of a “president who acknowledges climate change as a profound threat and supports international cooperation and science-based policy puts the world on a better footing to address global problems,” the bulletin argued in its lengthy explanation, which this year mentions the Paris Agreement and the New START arms-control pact with Russia. The latter was recently extended – an example, Munns suggested, of critical collaboration.

“I believe our security benefits from our participation in the world organizations and orders, and that clearly includes treaties,” Munns said. “Now, every treaty can be improved, and we should always work on improving them. But to not have them? That allows other countries to do things they otherwise wouldn’t.”

In 1947, the Doomsday Clock, now an iconic blackand-white quadrant with four dots, was set to seven minutes to midnight. The hands have moved more than 20 times over the decades. They were farthest from annihilation – 17 minutes from midnight – in 1991; the Cold War had ended.

Over time, though, the hands have crept everccloser.

“While the U.S. remains in a good position with respect to our national security, the world has fundamentally changed over the last two decades,” Munns said. “And so the situation is much different than what we’re accustomed to.”

Savannah River Site Watch Director Tom Clements advised that the Doomsday Clock – an annual warning shot – should be heeded.

“Given that new nuclear weapons are being developed by the U.S. and Russia and that national policies are based on preparing for full-scale nuclear war and not simply on deterrence, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is right to raise the alarm about the ever-present risks we face from nuclear weapons,” said Clements, whose organization monitors energy-and defense-related matters.

The “global threat,” he continued, “is embodied right here at home in the proposed plutonium pit plant at the Savannah River Site, which would initially support pits for a new ground-launched nuclear missile and a submarine-launched warhead, provocative weapons that, if developed, could move the clock closer to midnight.”

>>12921744

obvi if they're giving BeXIng Joe a thumbs up

>>12921744

a f*in joke

Try not to laugh they are dead serious.

Put out by the German Marshall Fund of the US, which incidentally was involved with the Color Revolution in Belarus.

Safeguarding Digital Democracy

Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative Roadmap

Even before a global pandemic hit, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that the Doomsday Clock had

advanced for the first time ever to 100 seconds before midnight. The Bulletin cited “information warfare” as

a “threat multiplier” that is reducing trust and corrupting the information ecosystem needed for democratic

debate.

Now the World Health Organization is warning of an “infodemic” of widespread conspiracy theories

about the coronavirus, and disinformation has already been evident in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential

election. Despite a clear and present danger, it is evident that our institutions are not nearly ready—neither for

foreign nor domestic disinformation campaigns.

While U.S. intelligence officials have repeatedly warned lawmakers that foreign interference in U.S. elections will continue, the giant platforms that have become the new media gatekeepers—Facebook/Instagram,

Twitter, and Google/YouTube—have largely been left to choose their own paths.

https://www.gmfus.org/sites/default/files/Safeguarding%20Democracy%20against%20Disinformation_v7.pdf

>>12921869

Here's their attempt to garner some suppor for their cause, w/George Kent the anti-Trump impeachment faggot who was behind the [failed] coup

https://www.gmfus.org/events/us-engagement-belarus-conversation-george-kent

>>12921568

Lost in Space as usual

Fake National Populist Marco Rubio Promotes Gun Grab

Marco Rubio continues as a a sell-out.

On February 2, 2021, Marco Rubio introduced a bill that would strip any individual of their Second Amendment rights simply for being “investigated” for acts of domestic terrorism.

Unz Review reported the following:

The Senate bill, named the Terror Intelligence Improvement Act, was reentered last week in hopes of exploiting the hysteria surrounding the January 6th Capitol protests. The law intends to violate the civil liberties of American citizens who are not charged or convicted of a crime if somebody is deemed politically dangerous.

David Codrea of AmmoLand observed that “Rubio tried this before in 2016 as a “‘kinder, gentler’ alternative to a bill being pushed by then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.” Rubio’s move is in line with the Republican belief that by offering compromise or constructive Republican alternative proposals (C.R.A.P), they will satisfy the Left.

Despite all the talk about safeguards in Rubio’s bill, there will effectively be no protections for “due process” since Rubio’s bill would still take away guns from citizens who haven’t been convicted of a crime. Even worse, Codrea said guns would also be taken away from individuals not charged with any crime.

Rubio is one of the main posterboys in favor of red flag gun confiscation orders. He believes that “A red flag law will reduce bloodshed and respect the rights of gun owners.”

The Florida Senator exemplifies the flaccid nature of contemporary GOP politics, which concerns itself more with emulating the Left, albeit with a watered-down twist.

If we want to preserve our freedoms, Rubio’s behavior cannot be tolerated. All told, Rubio has no place in serious national populist movement.

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/fake-national-populist-marco-rubio-promotes-gun-grab/

>>12921987

Proposes bill to strip 2nd Amendment rights from suspected “domestic terrorists”

Rubio Reintroduces Legislation to Prevent Suspected Terrorists From Purchasing Firearms

FEB 02 2021

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced the Terror Intelligence Improvement Act to make it harder for suspected terrorists to purchase firearms. The bill would also provide more authority for law enforcement agencies to go after suspected terrorists, while safeguarding law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment and due process rights.

“After the terrorist attack at Pulse nightclub, I made a promise to improve our laws to make it more difficult for evil people to get ahold of guns,” Rubio said. “This bill is a common-sense measure that would help ensure criminals, terrorists, and others seeking to take innocent lives are not able to acquire firearms, while also protecting the due process and Second Amendment rights of innocent, law-abiding Americans.”

The Terror Intelligence Improvement Act would:

Consolidate all federal terrorism investigation intelligence under the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), strengthening the FBI’s capabilities and making sure dangerous individuals do not fall through the cracks.

Require the FBI Director and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) be immediately notified of any request to transfer a firearm to an individual who was the subject of a federal terrorism investigation within the last 10 years.

When an individual who was the subject of a federal terrorism investigation within the last 10 years tries to obtain a firearm, allow the U.S. Attorney General to delay the purchase or transfer for up to ten business days and file an emergency petition in court to prevent the transfer. If the court finds probable cause that the individual is or has been engaged in terrorism, the Attorney General may arrest the individual.

Protect the due process rights of law-abiding Americans by ensuring emergency petitions filed by the Attorney General are only granted if the transferee receives notice of the hearing and has the opportunity to participate with legal counsel. If the court denies the Attorney General’s petition, the federal government is responsible for all reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees.

Require the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IC IG) to conduct an audit of the federal government’s terrorism screening and watch list procedures, and identify any problems in the processes of adding or removing individuals from the system. Based on the audit, the IC IG must then submit a report to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees with recommendations for improving the system.

https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2021/2/rubio-reintroduces-legislation-to-prevent-suspected-terrorists-from-purchasing-firearms