BIDEN WATCH: 4.22.23 - Biden Has Abandoned the Middle East to China and Russia

 Biden Has Abandoned the Middle East to China and Russia - by ConCoughlin - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19578/biden-middle-east-china The Biden administration may have lost interest in the Middle East, but it is not a sentiment that is shared by rival powers such as China and Russia. While U.S. President Joe Biden has shown nothing but contempt for long-standing allies in the region, both China and Moscow have been quick to exploit Washington's wilfulneglect to their own advantage. By far the most startling change to the political landscape of the Middle East has been Beijing's role in negotiating the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabiaand Iran, two countries that, until recently, were sworn enemies. Relations have been strained between Tehran and Riyadh since the 1979 Islamic Revolution established the ayatollahs' deeply repressive regime, with Iran's clerical dictatorshipregularly claiming that the Saudi royal family were unfit custodians of the two holy sites at Mecca and Medina. One of the more outrageous Iranian attacks was a failed attempt to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubair, in a bomb attack on an upmarket restaurant inWashington DC in 2011, which was later found to have been organised by Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force. Tensions between the two countries have escalated dramatically in recent years after an Iranian mob stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in 2016 and set it ablaze, promptingthe Saudis to cut diplomatic ties. Since then the two countries have been involved in a bitter proxy war in Yemen, with the Iranians providing funds and weaponry to the Houthi rebels and the Saudi-led coalition supporting the country's democratically-electedgovernment. Despite the intense hostility that exists between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which is exacerbated by their respective devotion to the competing traditions of Shia and Sunni Islam,Tehran and Riyadh have made the surprise move of restoring diplomatic relations in an initiative orchestrated by Beijing. In the absence of any desire on the part of the Biden administration to support the Saudis -- for decades one of Washington's most important allies in the region -- Chinahas moved quickly to fill the diplomatic vacuum to launch its own initiative to restore ties with Iran. Following intense discussions between the two sides in Beijing last month involving senior security officials, the two sides agreed to a China-brokered agreement to restorediplomatic relations, whereby they undertake to reopen their respective embassies within two months and refrain from interfering in each other's domestic affairs. Given the long-standing enmity that exists between the two countries, it is hard to envisage relations between Riyadh and Tehran moving beyond observing the basic diplomaticprotocols so long as Iran's ayatollahs remain in power. The only tangible gain that is likely to emerge from the deal is a lasting ceasefire in the Yemeni conflict, a move that has previously been thwarted by Iran using its influenceover the Houthi rebels to scupper a deal. Even so, the fact that the Chinese can pull off a diplomatic coup involving a country that was formerly a key ally of the US serves as a devastating indictment of the Bidenadministration's incompetence. From Saudi Arabia's perspective, it is hardly surprising that the kingdom should seek new alliances after the high-handed treatment it has received since Biden took office,which was very much in evidence when the American leader visited Riyadh last July. Having previously castigated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's de facto leader, over his alleged involvement in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi,as well as the Saudis' involvement in Yemen's disastrous civil war, Biden demanded that the Saudis increase oil production to ease the global shortage caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time Biden made it clear that his main policy goal in the region was to resurrect the flawed nuclear deal with Iran, a move the Saudis responded to with utterdismay. Unsurprisingly, Biden left Riyadh empty-handed, prompting the Saudis finally to cut their losses with the White House, and look for alliances elsewhere. This has resultedin the Saudis forging ever-closer ties with China, a country that is regarded as posing a major threat to the long-term security of the United States. Nor is Saudi Arabia the only former American ally in the Middle East to review its diplomatic options as a result of the Biden administration's indifference towards the region. According to details contained in documents allegedly stolen from the Pentagon that have subsequently been shared on social media, both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates(UAE), countries that previously enjoyed strong ties with Washington, have provided support to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is said to have instructed his arms industry to make missiles to sell to Russia for use in the Ukraine conflict, while Russian officialswere recorded boasting that the UAE had agreed to cooperate with them "against US and UK intelligence." This is indeed a sorry state of affairs for two countries that once prided themselves on their close ties with Washington but, thanks to the Biden's administration's ineptitude,now find themselves seeking alliances with America's enemies. -------------------------- Democracy Hypocrisy - Bill Wilson � www.dailyjot.com The simple definition of democracy is majority rule. Nowadays it appears those most ardently demanding democracy are cross-ways of the majority and on the slippery slope oftyranny. A most recent example is the trans craze. One would think that everybody is rushing out to get their children�s sex changed. There are biologically born men competing against women, and quite frankly, beating them like a dusty rug. There are politicians,like Joe Biden, claiming that every child should have the opportunity to change their gender and that no one should stand in their way. There are school boards ignoring parents and, pursuing agenda of sexual predation promoted by the LGBTQ+ crowd. Then camethe beer fiasco. The venerable Budweiser beer brand, long known for its all-American image of Clydesdale horses at Christmas and blue-collar work ethic, went all out trans-woke. Anheuser-Busch,the parent company of Bud Light, hired transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney as brand ambassador. Mulvaney is a biological male, claiming to be a woman. Mulvaney announced: �This month I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood and Bud Light sent mepossibly the best gift ever�a can with my face on it�Check out my Instagram story to see how you can enjoy March Madness with Bud Light and maybe win some money too. Love ya. Cheers! Go Team! Whatever team you love, I love too!� The announcement came on AprilFool�s Day, but Anheuser-Bush soon found out it was no joke and the company was the fool. In fact, within two weeks Anheuser-Bush lost some $6.5 BILLION in market cap as Bud Light drinkers across America refused to drink the trans-Kool Aide. From blue collar workersto bar owners to beer distributors, the masses woke up, got up, and ordered a different brand. The reaction was so swift and decisive, Anheuser-Bush CEO Brendan Whitworth woke up to such swift and decisive public backlash, he had little alternative but toissue a fall-on-his-sword statement two weeks later on April 14. He said, in part, �We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.� The hypocrisy in all this is that if JoeBiden and his ilk were so concerned about democracy, they would see that the vast majority of Americans don�t want the LGBTQ+ agenda jammed down their throats. Yes, protect their rights under the law, but don�t let them groom and prey on our kids, or let men compete as women against women in sports, and don�t force this perversionon Americans. How many times to parents have to protest schools for allowing this sexual predation? How many suicides among confused teens need to take place? How many victims of sexual perversion need be made before it is recognized by the democracy hypocritesthat the majority doesn�t want any part of the agenda? As in Jude 1:7, �as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example,suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.� Democracy is speaking. Anheuser-Bush has seen it first-hand. Too bad the democracy hypocrites don�t get it. --------------------- Senators introduce bill to create digital identity for all Americans � Leo Hohmann - https://leohohmann.com/2023/04/20/senators-introduce-bill-to-create-digital-identity-for-all-americans/ U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema, an independent of Arizona, and Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, have introduced Senate Bill 884, also known as �the Improving Digital IdentityAct of 2023.� The bill was introduced March 21 and ordered to proceed out of committee on March 29 without amendments and with a favorable recommendation. The bill�s text states: �The lack of an easy, affordable, reliable, and secure way for organizations, businesses, and government agencies to identify whether an individual is who they claim to beonline creates an attack vector that is widely exploited by adversaries in cyberspace and precludes many high-value transactions from being available online. Incidents of identity theft and identity fraud continue to rise in the United States, where more than293,000,000 people were impacted by data breaches in 2021.� The bill calls for the formation of a public-private partnership to bring this digital ID system into being. �The public and private sectors should collaborate to deliver solutions that promote confidence, privacy, choice, equity, accessibility, and innovation. The private sectordrives much of the innovation around digital identity in the United States and has an important role to play in delivering digital identity solutions.� The bill references the bipartisan Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, which has called for the federal government to �create an interagency task force directedto find secure, user-friendly, privacy-centric ways in which agencies can serve as 1 authoritative source to validate identity attributes in the broader identity market. This action would enable Government agencies and the private sector to drive significantrisk out of new account openings and other high-risk, high-value online services, and it would help all citizens more easily and securely engage in transactions online.� The above section of the bill is extremely vague and left wide open for bureaucrats and technocrats to require a digital ID to perform any function considered �high-risk,high-value online services,� up to and including logging onto the internet. Globalists with ties to the United Nations and World Economic Forum have for several years advocated a digital ID requirement as a way of removing so-called �disinformation� from the internet. Once everyone has a digital ID, it becomes easy to restrict everyday human movement and activity based on one�s social credit score, like in China, which Klaus Schwab has stated is the model for many other nations. If your score dips belowa certain point, you are now a �high risk� individual, and your digital ID would simply be flagged. The government, working in collusion with Big Tech in their ongoing public-private partnership, simply block you from logging onto the internet. You can nolonger have a bank account, get a driver�s license, receive healthcare, obtain a passport, or any of those other �high risk� privileges. We have already seen how the government worked hand in glove with Big Tech and corporate America to silence dissidents on vaccines, vaccine passports, masking and lockdownsduring the pandemic. In Canada, the government worked with banks to freeze the bank accounts of protesting truckers. The whole Covid experience was a dry run for the coming beast system where you won�t be able to buy or sell without showing proof of submissionto the system. Digital IDs, in tandem with the coming digital money, will be weaponized into a global enforcement system the likes of which the world has never seen. These intrusive, invasive attempts to digitize humanity and reduce us to a QR code always come with the same sweet-sounding selling points. It will make our lives easier,more convenient, more safe and secure. We will even have more �privacy� Senator Sinema assures us! Sinema, it�s important to note, was present at the 2022 Bilderberg meeting and at the 2023 World Economic Forum meeting at Davos. She�s quickly becoming one of the darlingsof the global technocracy movement, said Patrick Wood, editor in chief of Technocracy.news and a resident of Arizona. �She is emerging as one of the most dangerous women in America,� Wood told me. The head of the proposed new task force charged with creating the digital ID, according to Senate Bill 884, would be appointed by the president. The Senate bill states that the task force will �establish and coordinate a government-wide effort to develop secure methods [�] to improve access and enhance security betweenphysical and digital identity credentials, particularly by promoting the development of digital versions of existing physical identity credentials, including driver�s licenses, e-Passports, social security credentials, and birth certificates.� This is right in line with globalist World Economic Forum kingpin Klaus Schwab�s pronouncement in his book, COVID-19: The Great Reset, that the human existence is evolvingto the point where there will be �a fusion of our physical, digital and biological identities.� And our politicians, both liberal and conservative, will be on board with this. It�s the �innovative� thing to do and, after all, they�re just trying to protect us, right? When first introduced in 2022, Senator Sinema said, �We�re supporting innovation and enhancing privacy by improving digital verification to combat identity theft, fraud, andcybercrime.� It sounds so good! Senator Lummis added: �Technology has the potential to dramatically improve the security and privacy of identity credentials, and enable easier access to the financial system. It doesn�t make sensethat Americans have to constantly overshare sensitive identity information with government agencies and businesses, which are honeypots all too often targeted by hackers and identity thieves. I�m proud to work with my friend and colleague Sen. Sinema to introducethe Improving Digital Identity Act of 2022 to work toward digital identity standards that protect our privacy and give Americans more control over their identity.� Other senators have also called for the creation of a national digital ID system. Winepress News reported that Congressman Barry Loudermilk, a conservative Georgia Republican, said in 2021 while pushing for similar legislation: �COVID-19 changed a lot of the way Americans live, work, and provide for our families, and we have become even more reliant on digital commerce platforms. But with more Americansadapting to a �new normal� in the way we go about purchasing life necessities, this also means more Americans� personally identifiable information [PII] is at risk of being stolen.� If this bill passes, you can bet Biden will sign it. Such a bill would require, no matter how gradually, the system�s obedient subjects to show their digital papers in orderto perform ever more functions in society until they end up as digitally marked slaves to their elitist masters. They will have handed over ownership of their very identity to the beast system. Never comply. Never submit. Stay awake. Stay free.