Associate Medical Director of Baltimore County, Maryland Pain Management Practice Sentenced to Federal Prison for Accepting Kick-Backs

https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/associate-medical-director-baltimore-county-maryland-pain-management-practice-sentenced

Former MTA Special Inspector Sentenced for COVID-19 Relief Fraud

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/former-mta-special-inspector-sentenced-covid-19-relief-fraud

Australian shares lose $73b in value as Russia invades Ukraine

Sky News host Jenna Clarke says it’s going to be a “messy couple of days” if not a “messy couple of months”.

The Australian has reported the nation’s shares lost $73 billion dollars in value on Thursday as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a sell-off on world stock markets.

https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/australian-shares-lose-73b-in-value-as-russia-invades-ukraine/video/28bec2430fe43dfb4f729bab3c5aeab3

Speaker Vos Pulls SB 214 from Rep. Brandtjen’s Election Committee and Adds it to SB 937 for Floor Debate Today — Will Give Head Start to Election Cheating

Speaker Robin Vos continues to play dirty tricks in Wisconsin.

The Gateway Pundit was tipped off on Wednesday that Vos and Bernier are pushing legislation that gives a head start to the election cheating.

The bill, Senate Bill 214 allows ballot envelopes to be opened on Monday before the election and tabulation of the ballots on Tuesday giving a head start for cheating!

Here is the language from Senate Bill 214.

This bill authorizes the municipal board of absentee ballot canvassers in such a municipality to begin canvassing absentee ballots on the day before an election, subject to the following requirements:

1. The board must convene its meeting no earlier than 7 a.m. on the day before the election nor later than 10 p.m. on election day. The meeting must continue until all absentee ballots have been counted, except that, if the meeting convenes on the day before the election, the meeting must adjourn no later than 10 p.m. that day and must reconvene no earlier than 7 a.m. on election day.

2. At least daily while ballots are being canvassed, the municipal clerk or his or her designee must post, at his or her office and on the Internet at a site announced by the clerk before canvassing begins, and must make available to any person upon request, a statement that shows the number of absentee ballots that the board has canvassed and the number of absentee ballots remaining to be canvassed.

Vos just pulled SB 214 from Rep. Janel Brandtjen’s committee and added it to SB 937 for floor debate today!

Vos will bypass the Republican-led Elections Committee in order to pass this bill on Monday. Democrat Governor Evers has already signaled he will sign the bill.

The provisions in the Monday count bill required a hearing in the assembly. Attaching the language to a bill that’s already had a hearing is just a way for Speaker Vos to circumvent the legislative process, and keep it from Rep. Brandtjen’s election committee.

Because SB937 has already had a hearing, what this does is circumvent the legislative process.

This bill cannot be passed by the Wisconsin legislature!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/update-speaker-vos-pulls-sb-214-rep-brandtjens-election-committee-adds-sb-937-floor-debate-today-will-give-head-start-election-cheating/

Pauline Hanson's Please Explain, Episode 16 "Please Explain The Progressive Dream"

Funny af

Report: Jen Psaki could become the 'next Rachel Maddow' as top executives at MSNBC, CNN pursue her

White House press secretary Jen Psaki could be headed from the White House to primetime television.

Psaki, known for her frequent clashes with reporters in the White House briefing room, is reportedly being courted by top executives at MSNBC and CNN — and she could become "the next Rachel Maddow."

What are the details?

Just months after President Joe Biden's inauguration, Psaki placed an expiration date on her job in the White House, telling David Axelrod that she intended to leave the Biden administration in 2022.

"I think it’s going to be time for somebody else to have this job in a year from now or about a year from now," she said on Axelrod's podcast last May.

Now, nearly one year after those remarks, top cable news executives are courting Psaki for whenever she leaves the White House. According to media reporter Dylan Byers, Psaki met with executives from MSNBC and CNN this month, presumably to discuss joining their networks.

Byers reported that CNN interim co-president Amy Entelis and CNN+ programming lead Rebecca Kutler traveled to Washington, D.C., this month for a "top-secret and mission-critical recruitment assignment" with Psaki. Then, less than one week later, NBC News Chairman Cesar Conde and MSNBC President Rashida Jones traveled to the nation's capital with the same mission.

ABC News and CBS News are also reportedly interested in hiring Psaki.

What about Maddow?

The MSNBC star announced a hiatus from the network last month. Maddow had made it clear in the past that she wanted to scale back from the grind of hosting a daily primetime show, especially considering the weight of being MSNBC's most-watched primetime host.

And despite Maddow's hiatus being slated to end in April, an official end-date has not been set, the New York Times reported, and it may extend beyond that time. According to Byers, Psaki could become the next Maddow, by which he means a well-spoken and knowledgable liberal host of a primetime TV show.

Both MSNBC and CNN are in desperate need of new talent. With CNN plagued by scandals and Maddow's future up in the air, Byers explained that "Psaki’s star power has the potential to change the narrative for either network."

Any negotiations are in their early stages, and Psaki is not close to signing a contract, the New York Post reported.

Prior to joining the Biden administration, she worked at CNN and in the Obama administration.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/report-jen-psaki-could-replace-rachel-maddow-at-msnbc-after-leaving-white-house-this-year

Russia: It’s Too Late for Sanctions to Hurt Us

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Russia is not worried about U.S. and European sanctions as punishment for invading Ukraine because Russia long ago gamed out every possible sanctions move and fortified its economy to withstand them.

“The emotional reaction of the markets and in the financial sector was predicted. All necessary measures have been taken to ensure this period is over as quickly as possible,” Peskov said at a press conference.

The Kremlin spokesman scoffed at the notion of Western diplomatic and economic sanctions isolating Russia from the rest of the world in retaliation for invading Ukraine.

“It’s simply impossible to cut off a country like Russia with an iron curtain,” Peskov said, referring to the famed Iron Curtain metaphor for the Cold War.

“Of course, we may have problems with a number of states, but we had problems with these states even before that,” he said.

Peskov repeated leader Vladimir Putin’s weird statement that “demilitarization and de-Nazification” are Russia’s goals, and insisted conquering Ukraine is not an objective – unless the Ukrainians make that necessary by resisting too vigorously.

“Ideally, Ukraine needs to be liberated and cleansed of Nazis,” he said. President Volodymyr Zelensky is the first Jewish leader of Ukraine, a fact never taken into account in Russia’s “Nazi” smears.

“No one is talking about occupation. Such wording is unacceptable. We only pursue the goals set out by the president, the rest is a question of choice by the Ukrainian people,” Peskov said.

The Kremlin mouthpiece insisted a “solid majority” of the Russian public supports Putin’s decision to unilaterally carve two “independent republics” out of Ukrainian soil and then invade Ukraine to “protect” them.

“The situation is very disturbing, it is a very very difficult question, but as the president explained in his address, it is dictated by our national interests, the concern over the future of our country. Only these goals and no others,” he said.

Peskov announced that Putin would meet with Russian business leaders on Thursday – “representatives of the largest enterprises, organizations, and companies, in various sectors of the economy” – to discuss responses to Western sanctions.

Responding to a reporter’s question, Peskov said the Kremlin had a “negative” response to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s suggestion that sanctions could be leveled directly at Putin and other top Russian officials.

The Russian rouble hit a record low on Thursday after the Russian attack began, rebounding somewhat in morning trades after the Russian central bank announced it would support the rouble with foreign currency interventions – a measure last taken to stabilize the Russian economy after it annexed Crimea in 2014.

“War or no war, tensions between the West and Russia are to remain high for longer, putting the rouble under pressure,” Stephanie Kennedy of Economic Research at Julius Baer told Reuters on Thursday morning.

A note from BCS Global Markets to its clients warned “the risk of wider and more serious sanctions looms large,” so “a modicum of panic and a potential compliance-driven sell-off” are “not unlikely.”

Russia’s prized Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany has been put on hold by the German government, and the United States is leveling sanctions against construction companies affiliated with the project, adding further uncertainty to Russian and worldwide energy markets. On Thursday, two lobbying firms representing Nord Stream 2 terminated their contracts.

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2022/02/24/russia-too-late-for-sanctions-hurt/