Blunt Summit, The Carlson Conspiracy
Thursday, June 17, 2021
Vol. 10, No. 143
Pure Business: President Biden says he told Vladimir Putin that the US would respond in a tough way if Russian hackers were to attack any of 16 vital infrastructure entities in the US. “I pointed out to him we have significant cyber capability and he knows it,” Biden told reporters after a four-hour meeting with the Russian leader in Geneva. “He doesn’t know exactly what it is, but it’s significant.”
Biden said of his meeting, “We know each other well, we’re not old friends. It’s just pure business.”
The Russian president told reporters in a separate news conference, “We must agree on rules of behavior in all the spheres that we mentioned today: That’s strategic stability, that’s cybersecurity, that’s resolving questions connected to regional conflicts.”
Putin has denied any involvement with or responsibility for ransomware attacks on US industries that have been blamed on Russian hackers. Asked whether he trusts Putin, Biden said, “Look, this is not about trust. This is about self-interest and verification of self-interest. That’s what it’s about.”
Biden said he also talked to Putin about Americans held in Russian prisons and the safety of imprisoned dissident Alexei Navalny. “‘Human rights is going to always be on the table,’ I told him.” Asked about the possibility of Navalny dying in prison, Biden said, “I made it clear to him that I believe the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia.”
Biden said, “I also raised the ability of Radio Free Europe or Radio Liberty to operate and, and the importance of a free press and freedom of speech. I made it clear that we will not tolerate attempts to violate our democratic sovereignty or destabilize our democratic elections and we would respond.”
He said, “I did what I came to do.”
Fear in the Kremlin: ABC News reporter Rachel Scott confronted Putin about his crackdown on political opponents saying, “The list of your political opponents who are dead, imprisoned, or jailed is long.” She asked, “Mr. President, what are you so afraid of?”
Putin responded that the organization founded by the jailed Alexei Navalny, is “extremist” in nature and that it had called for “mass disorder” and breaking laws.
Putin has equated political dissidence in Russia with Black Lives Matter protests and the January 6thCapitol insurrection in the US. “As for who is killing whom and throwing whom in jail, people came to the US Congress with political demands,” Putin said. “They face prison sentences of up to 20, maybe even 25 years.”
Disproportionate Giving: McKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos says she and her new husband just donated $2.7 billion to 286 “underfunded” organizations. The recipients include universities, arts and culture organizations, refugee settlement groups, police reform programs, LGBTQ organizations, and more.
Scott is believed to be worth $59.7 billion. She said, “In this effort, we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others.”
Tuckered Out: Fox News, watched by millions of the Trump devoted is not a news organization, it’s a feed of cable television shows and that’s a big difference.
Fox host Tucker Carlson is fostering the idea that the January 6th Capitol insurrection was in part the work of FBI undercover operatives engineering a “false flag” operation, causing the riot, and blaming it on right wing Trumpies.
Carlson said on his show, “Strangely, some of the key people who participated on Jan. 6 have not been charged. Look at the document. The government calls those people unindicted co-conspirators. What does that mean? Well, it means that in potentially every single case, they were FBI operatives.”
No, it doesn’t mean that at all. Carlson violates the first rule of journalism, providing his own answer to an unanswered question based. What the indictment means is that the government doesn’t know the identity of everyone involved in the Capitol takeover, not that the unidentified are FBI agents.
Carlson cites Revolver News, run by a former Trump administration functionary fired for being associated with white nationalists. Carlson said, “Revolver News reported there are, quote, “upwards of 20 unindicted co-conspirators in the Oath Keeper indictments, all playing various roles in the conspiracy who have not been charged for virtually the exact same activities, and in some cases, much, much more severe activities as those named alongside them in the indictments.”
Carlson goes on, “Huh? So it turns out that this ‘white supremacist’ insurrection was, again by the government’s own admission in these documents, organized at least in part by government agents.”
Nowhere do the indictment and facts lead to that conclusion, but they do at Fox News.
The Spin Rack: The Education Department announced that Title IX anti-discrimination policies also cover trans-gender students, reversing the Trump administration edict to the contrary. — The Victoria’s Secret lingerie company has dumped its models with angel wings and gone with a line of models with less than perfect bodies, tattoos, and even a few extra pounds. Among them is professional soccer player Megan Rapinoe, who’s gay. — Progressive political groups are stepping up calls for Justice Stephen Breyer to “immediately” retire from the Supreme Court to give President Biden a shot at making a court appointment while Democrats have the votes to approve it.
Something to Sweat About: A new report from cyber security company McAfee says hackers can get remote access to a Peloton bike’s camera and microphone and watch you work out. They need to get Netflix.
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