Italian PM’s Populist Cred Wanes as Biden Praises Cooperation on Globalist Initiatives

(Headline USA) President Joe Biden was set for talks with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Thursday, welcoming the leader who has won praise from the U.S. administration for her strong backing of the U.S.-led effort to assist Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia’s invasion.

That was unlikely to do her any favors, however, with her voting base, who elected Meloni as a repudiation of the corrupt globalism and wokeness that has swept both western Europe and the United States, with the Biden administration being its main ringleader.

Meloni rose to power last year as the head of Italy’s first conservative government since the end of World War II.

Her stirring public addresses—condeming the anti-family culture of Italy’s prior government and those like it throughout Europe—offered a small glimmer of hope for common-sense conservatives while triggering leftists who responded with unhinged profanities.

But their concerns about her ideology have been eased by her support for Ukraine.

Meloni’s plans to pull back from Italy’s participation in China’s infrastructure-building Belt and Road Initiative also fall in line with U.S. priorities, despite the Biden family’s close personal business ties to the CCP.

Meloni’s visit comes as Italy prepares to take up the presidency next year of the Group of Seven industrialized nations.

White House officials said that in addition to discussing Ukraine and China, the two leaders were expected to discuss migration from North Africa to Europe’s southern shores. More than 1,900 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean so far this year, bringing the total of dead and missing since 2014 to 27,675, according to the International Organization for Migration.

“On issues of foreign policy, there’s been a lot of overlapping and mutually reinforcing approaches that we’re taking on with Italy,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. “Italy is a NATO ally and they are a very competent NATO ally and they’ve been a tremendous supporter of Ukraine.”

The Biden administration viewed Meloni’s predecessor, economist and former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, as an intellectual force and one of its strongest allies in Europe. Soon after Meloni’s victory last September, Biden warned about the rise of hard-right populism in Europe and in the United States.

“You just saw what’s happened in Italy in that election,” Biden said in an address to the Democratic Governors Association after Meloni’s victory last September. “You’re seeing what’s happening around the world. And the reason I bother to say that is we can’t be sanguine about what’s happening here either.”

The Brothers of Italy party, which she co-founded more than a decade ago and named after the first words of Italy’s national anthem, emerged as the largest vote-getter in the September 2022 elections.

Domestically, Meloni has made some progress in advancing her pro-family agenda. She directed city halls stop automatically registering both parents in same-sex couples but instead limit recognition of parental rights only to the biological parent of the child.

However, she has proven to be a disappointment by failing to live up to her promise in other areas, such as immigration.

When Meloni ran for premier, she called for a naval blockade of northern Africa to thwart smugglers’ boats overcrowded with migrants determined to reach Europe’s southern shores. But once in office, she quickly dropped talk of any blockade.

On the eve of Meloni’s visit, the White House sought to stress the U.S. and Italy’s close cooperation on Ukraine.

Kirby noted that Meloni has been one of the European Union’s most vocal supporters of Ukraine’s sovereignty, and Italy has hosted some 170,000 Ukrainians who have fled the war. Meloni has also been a champion of a stronger NATO and views the trans-Atlantic alliance as the linchpin of traditionally strong U.S.–Italian relations.

“From a foreign policy lens, the Biden administration sees this is better than what they could have possibly expected or hoped for,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Meloni has also expressed skepticism about Italy’s ties with China through the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2019, Italy became the first and only G7 nation to join China’s ambitious infrastructure building effort, despite objections from the United States.

The project was launched by Beijing in 2013 by President Xi Jinping to link East Asia and Europe through physical infrastructure. The ambition for the project has expanded to Africa, Oceania and Latin America, significantly broadening China’s economic and political influence. Italy must either renew or abandon the accord by early next year.

Kirby called Italy’s decision on whether to stay in Belt and Road a “sovereign decision” but added that “it’s becoming increasingly obvious that more and more countries around the world are seeing the risks, and quite frankly lack of reward for economic partnerships with China.”

Before her White House meeting, Meloni headed to the U.S. Capitol to meet with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other lawmakers. She also is scheduled to meet with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Joe Rogan Predicts Newsom Not in Line after Dems Bench ‘Mentally Compromised’ Biden

(Headline USA) Joe Rogan predicted this week that Democrats will bench “mentally compromised” Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 election, but shot down the idea that California Gov. Gavin Newsom would be a viable replacement.

Rogan pointed out the allegations of influence peddling and corruption against the Biden family, and said he believes there’s a specific reason all of this is coming out before the election.

“It also seems like if this is all coming out, what a good way to remove a president that is mentally compromised,” he said during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “It seems like if you were in the Democratic Party and you thought like ‘Listen, there’s a certain amount of people that are going to vote blue no matter who, we just need a better representation.’”

Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t electable either, Rogan argued, especially after her lengthy record of embarrassing “word salads.”

“You could not have Kamala Harris,” he said. “She would not win, people would be very, very reluctant to vote for her for president I think after just listening to her talk for the last 3 years, like ‘What?’”

When Rogan’s guest, Canadian professor Gad Saad, suggested Democrats’ alternative might be Newsom, who he dubbed “Californian Justin Trudeau,” Rogan similarly shot that down.

“The problem is he did such a bad job with California, they’re so vulnerable,” Rogan explained.

Newsom might be able to “spit out some good propaganda” about the state, said Rogan, but “if you ask people on the street in California, I think the number was 4-out-of-10 people they surveyed are thinking about moving out of California.”

 “It’s f***ing madness. There’s so many businesses that are closing down, they don’t want to be a part of it anymore,” Rogan added, citing the state’s rising crime and homeless rates.

Jill Biden’s Ex-Husband Says ‘Biden Crime Family’ Has Targeted Him For Years

(Headline USA) Jill Biden’s ex-husband alleged this week that the “Biden crime family” has targeted him for years in the same way that they’re now targeting former President Donald Trump.

Bill Stevenson, who was married to Jill Biden before they divorced in the mid-1970s, told Newsmax that President Joe Biden’s brother Frank allegedly threatened him during the divorce process.

“Frankie Biden of the Biden crime family comes up to me and he goes, ‘Give her the house or you’re going to have serious problems,’” Stevenson recalled. “I looked at Frankie and I said, ‘Are you threatening me?’ and needless to say, about two months later, my brother and I were indicted for that tax charge for $8,200.”

Stevenson argued it was Joe Biden, then a young senator in Delaware, who was behind the charges.

“[I] could not believe the power of Joe Biden and the Department of Justice. I couldn’t believe it,” he told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly.

Ultimately, Stevenson and his brother were charged with two felonies for less than $10,000 in unpaid taxes. He pointed out how drastic his prosecution was compared to the prosecution of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who owes nearly $2.2 million in unpaid taxes.

 “I was on the wrong side of them and they have literally come after me for 35 years in a row. One little thing after another,” he said.

Now, Stevenson said, the Biden family is using the same attack plan against Trump.

“I can’t let them do this to a president that I love and respect. I can’t let them do this to our country,” he said of Trump. “This is why I’ve come forward. This is the only reason I’ve come forward. It’s like I said, nothing about the divorce, no bitterness, but Jimmy, Frankie and President Biden are very dangerous, and it’s tragic. I can’t let them do what they did to me to President Trump. I can’t do it.”

British Bank Execs Face Fallout, Resignations for Canceling Brexit Leader’s Account

(Headline USA) The chief executive of Coutts Bank, long known as the bankers for Britain’s royal family and nobility, has stepped down amid the furor surrounding populist politician Nigel Farage’s complaints that his account was closed because of his political views.

It follows an alarming trend among in which many far-left globalist governments have sought to use once-private finances as leverage in what some are comparing to communist China’s social-credit system.

In Canada, for instance, authoritarian leader Justin Trudeau targeted protesting truckers participating in the Freedom Convoy by going after their bank accounts.

Some likewise feer that the Biden administration may be doing the same, notably following in the footsteps of the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point, in which Eric Holder’s Justice Department pressured financial institutions to cancel the accounts of organizations that opposed the leftist agenda.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, a prominent vaccine skeptic and critic of the government’s COVID-19 response, recently accused JP Morgan Chase of canceling his account over his political views, although the bank denied it.

As for Farage’s case, the efforts by bank officials in the United Kingdom to deny their political motives seem only to have compounded the backlash.

CEO Peter Flavel’s resignation came just a day after Coutts owner NatWest Group parted ways with its CEO, Alison Rose, the first woman to head one of Britain’s four big banks. Rose left after acknowledging that she had discussed Farage’s personal details with a journalist.

“In the handling of Mr. Farage’s case we have fallen below the bank’s high standards of personal service,” Flavel said in a statement. “As CEO of Coutts it is right that I bear ultimate responsibility for this, which is why I am stepping down.”

The controversy began two weeks ago when Farage, a conservative talk show presenter and former leader of the pro-Brexit U.K. Independence Party, said Coutts had improperly closed his account because it disagreed with his political views.

The BBC then published a story, based on an anonymous source, saying that the account was closed because Farage did not meet Coutts’ 1 million pound ($1.3 million) borrowing requirement.

But Farage obtained documents from the bank showing that while officials had discussed his financial affairs, they also examined the “reputational damage” associated with keeping him as a customer.

Rose later acknowledged that she was the source of the BBC story.

Conservative politicians and pundits have backed Farage, criticizing banks more broadly for using anti-money laundering laws to punish people with unpopular views. They have demanded that banking regulations be changed to ensure that everyone has the right to a bank account.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

DOJ Drops Campaign-Finance Charge against Dem. Mega-Donor Sam Bankman–Fried

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Federal prosecutors in the Sam Bankman–Fried case said Wednesday that they were dropping the campaign-finance charge against “SBF”—sparking uproar among critics who said the move was designed to suppress information about the crypto-fraudster’s political donations, which were mostly made to Democrats.

The development in the Southern District of New York came unexpectedly, as the presiding judge had already rejected Bankman–Fried’s motion to dismiss the campaign-finance charge. It also came the same day as prosecutors argued that SBF should be jailed for bail violations.

In explaining their reason for dropping the campaign-finance charge, prosecutors claimed that they were notified that government officials in the Bahamas—where Bankman–Fried operated his now-defunct crypto firm, FTX—didn’t intend for him to be extradited to face that count.

“Accordingly, in keeping with its treaty obligations to The Bahamas, the Government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count,” said. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

The flimsy pretense is unlikely to assuage opponents of the Biden administration’s rampant corruption, who have frequently slammed the two-tiered justice system under Attorney General Merrick Garland that protects law-breaking Democrats and targets law-abiding conservatives.

Some have pointed out the fact that federal regulators may have turned a blind eye to the many red flags at Bankman–Fried’s glorified Ponzi scheme because of his political patronage and connections.

Williams and his fellow prosecutors had charged Bankman–Fried for his allegedly illegal political donations in Feburary, after he was already arrested and extradited.

According to the DOJ, Bankman–Fried used “straw donors” to mask his political contributions to Democrats and Republicans alike.

FTX’s political contributions have been a subject of controversy since it collapsed last year. During the 2022 midterm election cycle, SBF contributed at least $40 million—making him the second-largest Democrat donor behind George Soros—while fellow former FTX executive Ryan Salame was the 10th largest GOP donor with at least $19 million in contributions.

Bankman–Fried has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors and looted FTX customer deposits.

The 31-year-old, who was seen as a crypto whiz before the exchange collapsed last year, has been free on $250 million bond since his December extradition from the Bahamas.

He is required to remain at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, and his electronic communications have been severely limited.

He is scheduled for trial on Oct. 2 in Manhattan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Bud Light Wrecker Dylan Mulvaney Charging $40K in Speaking Fees

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) The destroyer of Bud Light and transgender icon Dylan Mulvaney is now charging $40,000 in speaking fees in the wake of the marketing fiasco, Breitbart reported.

Specifically, Mulvaney will be embarking on a college speaking tour, and will offer expert opinions on subjects such as “women’s empowerment.”

“University and College friends! I am booking speaking opportunities for the upcoming 23/24 school year and would love to come visit,” Mulvaney recently announced.

According to Mulvaney’s CAA Speakers marketing profile, the transgender is an LGBTQ+ social media “trailblazer.”

Crista Spadafore, Mulvaney’s agent, confirmed that Mulvaney will be charging $40,000 in speaking fees–a substantial increase from a mere five months ago.

Before the Bud Light crisis, the influencer had commanded approximately $26,000 in speaking fees.

But after causing Bud Light to melt down with the aid of marketing guru Alissa Heinerscheid, Mulvaney used the opportunity to demonstrate the alleged transphobia that grips most normal Americans.

The influencer complained that transphobia spiked dramatically, leading to “bullying and more transphobia” than possible before, and claimed that Bud Light officials never reached out during or after the fiasco.

“I felt personally guilty for what transpired, so I patiently waited for things to get better. But surprise, they didn’t. And I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did.”

The spike in transphobia was allegedly so terrifying that the social media star who is now commanding $40,000 a pop for speaking engagements was too afraid to leave home.

“And for months now, I’ve been scared to leave my house, I have been ridiculed in public, I’ve been followed, and I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Mulvaney continued, using the opportunity to prove just how unjust America is, being “much worse for other trans people.”

Gruesome Display of Cartel Human Trafficking Bewilders Biden HHS Chief

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) Yet another Biden administration official has been revealed to be indifferent to or ignorant about the extent of the disaster occurring at the wide-open, cartel-controlled U.S.-Mexican border.

Usually it’s Alejandro Mayorkas, the robotic Homeland Security secretary, who insists that that the border region is secure despite mass illegal immigration that has created a national security and human rights crisis.

In this instance, however, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was testifying.

In a devastating form of show-and-tell, U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, R – Fla., held up a large jar of wristbands that might be used at a concert or convention and asked the secretary if he knew what they were.

“It looks like candies or snacks,” Becerra replied during the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, the reality is much-more grim. These are wristbands that the cartels force people to wear when they cross the border. And if you’re not wearing one, and you cross the border, the cartels will take a limb or an appendage,” the well-informed Cammack asserted.

Rep. Cammack went on to explain that “this what these people are forced to wear, and it dictates what cartel they ‘belong to,’ how much they have paid, and they are absolutely a part of the horrors of trafficking and smuggling that occurs at our southwest border.”

Cammack, a first-term lawmaker from the Gainesville area, then talked about visit she made to the border in which she encountered a terrified little girl being carried by a male.

After agents threatened the man with a DNA test, “he confessed that he actually was not her father — that he had ‘rented’ her. This is a process called recycling.”

Making matters worse, the adult in question was allegedly a convicted sex offender, the congresswoman revealed, in the context of one example of rampant and dangerous fraud that the Biden administration has allowed in pursuing an ideological open-borders agenda.

Becerra’s agency is in charge of a “thorough” vetting process for so-called sponsors when unaccompanied minors show up at the border.

“The sponsors, that you claim to thoroughly vet, which I would love to get your definition of thorough, because you haven’t been able to articulate that today, it also would include the fact that these kids show up with numbers pinned to their clothes or Sharpied on their bodies, to call.”

The same phone number appears “time and time again,” which she implied is an indicator of large-scale trafficking.

“I should point out for the record the fact that you release these folks, these kids, to sponsors that are in the country illegality. By definition, they have already broken the law,” she added.

According to Cammack, HHS case managers have little or no training in how to discern whether an adult is actually a relative of a child.

“Only 9% of [unaccompanied alien children] are subjected to a DNA test with their sponsor,” Cammack noted, “less than 23% to a background check.”

Becerra accused Rep. Cammack of spreading misinformation and insisted that DNA testing is one of the tools implemented “on occasion.”

Cammack then displayed a purported document suggesting that the Biden administration has suspended the DNA testing requirement.

“I know you won’t answer the question anyway, and deviate from your carefully crafted talking points, but I think this is disgusting that 85,000 children are missing, and it’s on your watch,” Rep. Cammack concluded.

On the same day, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, DHS chief Mayorkas typically stonewalled questions about how many illegal aliens are actually deported.

Cammack’s Florida colleague Matt Gaetz told Mayorkas that “the Mexican government is captive to the cartels. They’re doing the bidding of the cartels, and based on your response today, so are you.”

U.Va. Floats Plan to Track Professors’ Political Donations

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Leaders at the University of Virginia have floated the idea of tracking the political donations of the university’s professors, the Daily Progress reported.

The Board of Visitors, wherein the idea was initially proposed, did not say to what end they would track the donations of the various employees, though one member of the board, Douglas Wetmore, noted that it could influence future hiring decisions.

“We should look and see does this looks diverse to us,” said Wetmore, a right-leaning board member at the board’s June 2 meeting.

“Maybe we got good diversity, and we just don’t realize it. Maybe we don’t and maybe it is uneven, and we need to make some adjustments.”

Other conservatives on the board, some of whom were, like Wetmore, appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, suggested that they could use such data to ensure that the university is not functioning as a leftist indoctrination camp.

According to Wetmore’s fellow conservative on the board, Bert Ellis, the professorship does not at all reflect the political views of normal Americans.

“It’s a small nucleus of conservative professors here at the university,” Ellis said during the board’s June meeting.

“If someone wanted to take the time they could research [political donations] by ZIP code, occupation and precinct, they could.”

Jim Bacon, the executive director of the influential conservative UVa alumni group the Jefferson Council, backed the two board members, noting that they are fighting against the very real threat that is the leftist takeover of America’s universities.

“We feel like indoctrination is getting worse because the older generation of baby boomer faculty, who were tolerant people and weren’t out to force students to think one way, are retiring and being replaced,” Bacon noted.

“The new generation is far more to the left politically, and you have departments that are already leaning left try to hire more people that think like them, rather than creating diversity.”

‘Facebook Files’ Show Smoking-Gun Evidence of White House Pressuring Company to Censor

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The House Judiciary Committee was set on Thursday to hold Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress for his apparent refusal to provide information about Facebook censorship, but committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, announced that the contempt hearing will be postponed after the social media company provided responsive documents at the last minute.

The documents appear to be damning, showing smoking-gun evidence that the White House pressured the company to censor political content.

Dubbed by Jordan as the “Facebook Files,” the internal records include emails to and from top company officials, including Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and global affairs head Nick Clegg.

In one email, an unnamed Facebook employee told Zuckerberg and Sandberg in April 2021 that “we are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the White House and the press, to remove more COVID-19 vaccine discouraging content.”

In another April 2021 email, Clegg told his team that Andy Slavitt, a senior advisor to President Joe Biden, was “outraged … that we did not remove this post, which was third most highly ranked post in the dataset we sent him.”

According to Jordan, the post Slavitt was furious about was a meme.

Jordan also released internal Facebook discussions about how company officials wanted to return to the good graces of the Biden administration in early 2021. At the time, Biden had accused the company of “killing people” by allowing users to share COVID “misinformation.”

“[Facebook’s] Leadership asked Misinfo Policy . . . to brainstorm some additional policy levers we can pull to be more aggressive against . . . misinformation,” states an internal Facebook record from Aug. 2, 2021.

“This is stemming from the continued criticism of our approach from the [Biden] administration.”

According to Jordan, Facebook had refused to provide the abovementioned records until his committee threatened to hold Zuckerberg in contempt last week.

“These documents, AND OTHERS that were just produced to the Committee, prove that the Biden Admin abused its powers to coerce Facebook into censoring Americans, preventing free and open discourse on issues of critical public importance,” Jordan said on Twitter.

“Only after the Committee announced its intention to hold Mark Zuckerberg in contempt did Facebook produce ANY internal documents to the Committee, including these documents, which PROVE that government pressure was directly responsible for censorship on Facebook,” Jordan added.

The committee chair said that he’s still willing to hold Zuckerberg in contempt if he fails to continue to cooperate with his investigation.

“Based on Facebook’s newfound commitment to fully cooperate with the Committee’s investigation, the Committee has decided to hold contempt in abeyance. For now,” he said.

“To be clear, contempt is still on the table and WILL be used if Facebook fails to cooperate in FULL.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Dissident COVID Doctor De-Banked by Chase

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Noted COVID-19 vaccine critic Dr. Joseph Mercola’s bank accounts have been deactivated by JP Morgan Chase bank in a move that previews what a dystopian central bank digital currency system will look like.

“JP Morgan Chase Bank suddenly informed me they are closing all of my business accounts, both banking and investment accounts, along with the personal accounts of my CEO, my CFO and their respective spouses and children,” Mercola said Wednesday on Substack.

“No reason for the decision was given, other than there was ‘unexpected activity’ on an unspecified account,” he added. “The oldest of these accounts has been active for 18 years.”

Mercola said his health-products business, Mercola Market, was also de-banked, along with the personal accounts of his CEO, my CFO and their respective spouses and children.

Mercola achieved public prominence for his opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine. Most recently, he posited that the Obama-era Ebola crisis was likely the result of a lab leak, much like the COVID pandemic.

Mercola has already received political backlash for his outspoken beliefs, with social media companies deplatforming him. He is a party in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s lawsuit against major media corporations for allegedly colluding to censor accurate information and crush competition.

Mercola said he suspected that his being de-banked was also due to his political beliefs.

“This is what the new social credit system looks like, and what every soul on the planet can expect from the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) that are being rolled out,” he said. “Go against the prevailing narrative of the day, and your financial life will be deleted with the push of a button.”

Mercola also noted the irony that JP Morgan Chase bank did business with millionaire accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein for decades.

The attorney general for the U.S. Virgin Islands said in a court filing this week that the bank had a relationship with Epstein until mere months before his death in 2019.

“So, the grossly tainted proceeds from Epstein’s disgusting ventures were good enough for JP Morgan Chase, but deposits from a business selling natural health products and organic food is at risk for money laundering and is bad for business,” he said. “That’s the moral and ethical ground Chase Bank is standing on.”

Chase has reportedly denied that it closed Mercola’s bank accounts for political reasons.

“For privacy reasons, we can’t discuss customer relationships, but we don’t close accounts because of political affiliations, and we didn’t do so in this case,” the bank told Florida’s Voice on Wednesday.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.