Below is my column in the New York Post on the move of the Biden White House to shift work of the “Climate Czar” from the State Department to the White House. John Podesta will now reportedly wield the power without the title and, most importantly, without a confirmation hearing.
Here is the column:
With the departure of John Kerry as “climate czar,” President Biden has announced that he will be replaced by John Podesta, a Democratic powerbroker and Washington insider.
Podesta, however, will take the power and not the title. He will be appointed as “coordinator,” thus sidestepping confirmation by the Senate, which could have been brutal.
Such action will shield Podesta from questions about Kerry’s work and expenses as climate czar. Before leaving office, Kerry refused to turn over information on his staff to Congress and the public. The Biden Administration is now being sued over the secrecy.
It would also spare Podesta from answering questions over his own past work as well as his brother’s ties to Chinese companies. Likewise, senators, including Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, have criticized Podesta for comments favoring payments to Chinese companies in the energy sector.
Sen. Josh Hawley objected that “John Podesta runs a think-tank funded by big tech, he’s spent years working for dark-money climate activists, and has said he has the ‘highest regard’ for CCP officials.”
Biden is not the first president to avoid confirmation fights. Former president Donald Trump often kept officials in “acting” capacities both to avoid confirmation as well as to make the termination of such officials easier.
It is not a good practice given the constitutional role that the Senate is supposed to play in the approval of high-ranking executive branch officials.
Worse yet, Congress expressly sought to guarantee that this position would remain subject to the confirmation process. In the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress mandated (and Biden agreed to) a prohibition from appointing any State Department special envoy “without the advice and consent of the Senate.”
That was important given the controversies over Kerry pledging sweeping changes to U.S. policy, including his assurance to world leaders that the Biden Administration was “phasing out” fossil fuels — a move that some view as ruinous economically.
Podesta also has other unfinished business with Congress.
A confirmation hearing might have allowed Senators to get public answers on one of the least discussed aspects of the debunked Steele dossier that factored greatly in the Russian investigation during the Trump Administration.
Podesta was the chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, which secretly funded the dossier while denying that fact to the public and the media.
The Clinton campaign was eventually fined for the deceptive practice.
The Federal Election Commission found that Clinton campaign and DNC payments to Fusion GPS were funneled through Perkins Coie and its general counsel, Marc Elias. As the campaign denied funding the dossier, Elias paid out $1,024,407 for the dossier in 2016 as “legal advice and services.”
Elias has featured prominently in the filings of Special Counsel John Durham and was called before the grand jury.
It was only after the election that journalists discovered that the Clinton campaign was lying and hid payments for the Steele dossier as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie.
New York Times reporter Ken Vogel objected that Elias had denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”
That bring us back to John Podesta.
Podesta was called to Congress to answer questions and he categorically denied any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS.
Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing.
It is clear that the denial of campaign funding was false and critics have charged that Elias knew it at the time. The question is whether Podesta knew it. He might not have.
Podesta is the ultimate D.C. power broker. He is smart and respected. He knows the value of asking the right questions and when not to ask questions. He may have been in the dark about Elias’ work, even if it was a case of willful blindness.
None of these issues will now be subject to the scrutiny of a confirmation investigation and hearing. The move will also shift much of the authority into the White House and shield Podesta from the added scrutiny. It is the perfect move for a Washington insider. Podesta knows that government is about the power, not the title.
It is the Rasputin effect. Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic who held huge influence over the Russian Czar and Czarina without holding office. In other words, you do not need to be czar to act as a czar.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
With a sharp knife cut deeply into the middle finger of your left hand eat the pain.
Podesta brothers.
John Podesta: My Mommy adopted 25 other small children.
Mommy fed the pedophilia.
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy_commons/comments/q5btul/madeleine_mccann_abductors_sketch_look_exactly/
Some relative of Freud had a villa nearby and invited the McCann parents over to console them, the Podesta brothers were in town during the abduction and staying at the villa. The relative of Freud was convicted of pedophilia. Call me a liar ?
Sir Clement Freud: Madeleine McCann disappearance police to look into link to paedophile MP
As Freud is accused of abusing girls as young as 10 over a number of decades
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/sir-clement-freud-madeleine-mccann-police-investigate-paedophile-mp-link-a7082806.html
J T is critical of Podesta, but not nearly enough. He is seriously unhinged and unscrupulous. A week or so ago, Matt Taibi was discussing a group of Demo insiders who discussed what could be done if Trump was re-elected in 2020 or if he lost and claimed that he won. They role-played several scenarios. Podesta played a scenario where Trump did clearly win, but Dems would not accept that victory. Podesta suggested that several states would select alternative electors to contest the Trump electors chosen by voters!!! Furthermore, California, Oregon and Washington could threaten to secede from the union unless certain demands, such as elimination of the electoral college was agreed upon. These are the very people charging Trump with insurrection.
Taibvi’s discussion goes beyond Podesta’s role. He discusses the other “norm-breaking” actions Democrats were willing to consider.
Taibi’s discussion is quoted below:
“We don’t have to imagine. Three and a half years ago, in June and July of 2020, an almost exactly similar series of features to the recent NBC story began appearing in media, describing another “loose network” of “bipartisan officials,” also meeting “quietly” to war-game scenarios in case “Trump loses and insists he won,” as the Washington Post put it.
That group, which called itself the Transition Integrity Project (TIP), involved roughly 100 former officials, think-tankers, and journalists who gathered to “wargame” contested election scenarios. The “loose” network included big names like former Michigan governor and current Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and former Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, who in his current role as special advisor to President Joe Biden overseeing the handout of roughly $370 billion in “clean energy” investments is one of the most powerful people in Washington.
The TIP was hyped like the rollout of a blockbuster horror flick: In a second Trump Term, No One Will Hear You Scream… Stories in NPR, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post and over a dozen other major outlets outlined apocalyptic predictions about Trump’s unwillingness to leave office, and how this would likely result in mass unrest, even bloodshed. A typical quote was from TIP co-founder, Georgetown law professor, and former Pentagon official Rosa Brooks, who told the Boston Globe that every one of the group’s simulations ended in chaos and violence, because “the law is… almost helpless against a president who’s willing to ignore it.”
Podesta played Joe Biden in one TIP simulation, and in one round refused to accede to a “clear Trump win,” threatening instead to seize a bloc of West Coast states including California (absurdly dubbed “Cascadia”) and secede. Podesta’s “frankly ridiculous move,” as one TIP participant described it, was so over the top that a player leaked it to media writer Ben Smith of the New York Times.
The latter in Timesian fashion stuck the seeming front-page tale near the bottom of an otherwise breezy August 2nd story titled, called “How The Media Could Get the Election Story Wrong”:
A group of former top government officials called the Transition Integrity Project actually gamed four possible scenarios, including one that doesn’t look that different from 2016: a big popular win for Mr. Biden, and a narrow electoral defeat… They cast John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, in the role of Mr. Biden. They expected him, when the votes came in, to concede…
But Mr. Podesta… shocked the organizers… he persuaded the governors of Wisconsin and Michigan to send pro-Biden electors to the Electoral College. In that scenario, California, Oregon, and Washington then threatened to secede from the United States if Mr. Trump took office…
News that Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chief rejected a legal election result, even in a hypothetical simulation, was obvious catnip to conservative media, which took about ten minutes to repackage Smith’s story using the same alarmist headline format marking earlier TIP write-ups. Breitbart published “Democrats’ ‘War Game’ for Election Includes West Coast Secession, Possible Civil War,” and a cascade of further red-state freakouts seemed inevitable.
. . .
The Podesta episode was worse than reported, with the secession proposal coming on “advice from President Obama,” used as leverage to a) secure statehood for Washington, DC and Puerto Rico b) divide California into five states to increase its Senate representation, and c) “eliminate the Electoral College,” among other things. TIP authors also warned Trump’s behavior could “push other actors, including, potentially, some in the Democratic Party, to similarly engage in practices that depart from traditional rule of law norms, out of perceived self-defense.”
More tellingly, there were multiple passages on the subject of abiding by and/or trusting in the law, and how this can be a weakness. TIP authors concluded that “as an incumbent unbounded by norms, President Trump has a huge advantage” in the upcoming election, and chided participants that “planners need to take seriously the notion that this may well be a street fight, not a legal battle.” They added the key observation that “a reliance on elites observing norms are [sic] not the answer here.”
. . . .
The TIP report provided an answer. It contained long lists of theoretical Trump abuses that sounded suspiciously more like the extralegal maneuvers already deployed against Trump dating back to mid-2016, particularly during the failed effort to prosecute him for collusion with Russia. Interpreted by some as a literal plan to overturn a legal Trump victory, its greater significance was as a historical document, since it read like a year-by-year synopsis of all the home team rule-breaking. In other words, the TIP read like a Team Clinton playbook, only with hero and villain reversed.
Bearing in mind that many of the people involved were also Russiagate actors, here’s a abbreviated list of abuses the TIP authors supposedly feared Trump would commit:
“The President’s ability… to launch investigations into opponents; and his ability to use Department of Justice and/or the intelligence agencies to cast doubt on election results or discredit his opponents.”
It’s true a president so inclined can do these things, and possible a re-elected Trump might, but they were clearly done first to Trump in this case. The FBI’s road-to-nowhere Crossfire Hurricane probe of Russian collusion, which made use of illegally obtained FISA surveillance authority, began on July 31, 2016. Trump opponents have been “launching investigations” really without interruption ever since, with many (including especially the recent Frankensteinian hush-money prosecution) obviously politicized.
Likewise, the office of the Director of National Intelligence published an Intelligence Community Assessment in early January 2017, again before Trump’s inauguration, that used information from the bogus Steele dossier to conclude that “Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances.” If that isn’t using intelligence agencies to “cast doubt on election results,” what is? Worse, the trick would be repeated, over and over:
“The President and key members of his administration can also reference classified documents without releasing them, manipulate classified information, or selectively release classified documents for political purposes, fueling manufactured rumors.”
https://www.racket.news/p/is-the-electoral-fix-already-in
I learned about Climate Issues during my time in college in California in the mid 70s. I was taught how the temp readings had changed through centuries and were cyclic. The temp readings in the past 100+ years were placed in urban and airport areas that have become larger and more concrete and in airports subject to jet wash causing temp readings more skewed.
The push was first for Climate Cooling, then Climate Warming, and when those dates fell through it became Climate Change. The reality is the push is really for power, control, and added taxes or money. Having power from Wind Generators and Solar Power does not replace Nuclear Power, Natural Gas, Oil, and Dams. In the USA we need major upgrades in our power grid as it is old and need to be fixed. A Climate Czar is useless for the USA has a Secretary of Energy.
From February 1:
Trump Loses Second Lawsuit Over Dossier
A judge in London on Thursday threw out a lawsuit by former U.S. President Donald Trump that accused a former British spy of making “shocking and scandalous claims” that were false and harmed his reputation.
Judge Karen Steyn said the case Trump filed against Orbis Business Intelligence should be dismissed. “There are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed to trial,” she said.
A U.S. federal judge in Florida in 2022 dismissed a Trump lawsuit against Steele, 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former top FBI officials, rejecting his claims that they helped concoct the Russia investigation that overshadowed much of his administration.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-steele-dossier-uk-lawsuit-535099946dc49c15640dfb8838fe2749
………………………………..
Professor Turley presumes that we, as readers, ‘know’ the Steele dossier has been ‘discredited’. It hasn’t! Trump still talks as though he admires Putin. In fact, when Pitin first invaded Ukraine, Trump praised the move as ‘genius’.
And the grift goes on…….
So Trump is guilty and subject to almost $100M in defamation for saying I am not guilty regarding an almost 30 year old claim without evidence.
Yet in the UK with the harshest defamation laws in the english world blatant defamation can not get into court, and in FL with a clinton Judge a slam dunk defamation case agains Steele and Clinton can not get into court.
And you ask people to beleive we do not have a two tier justice system ?
If you want people to buy huge awards for very poor defamation claims against Trump, you must allow orders of magnitude better defamations claims of defaming Trump into court.
And YES ATS the Steele docssier has been not only THOROUGHLY discredit, but it was never beleived by DOJ/FBI even though they used it as a basis to conduct a fishing expedition.
Mueller struggled valiantly to find even the tineist bit of the Steeele Dossier that could be verfied and found nothing.
The defense of Danchenko and Sussman was I am not guilty of lying to the FBI – because they KNEW I was lying.
If you beleive the Steele dossier is not a hoax – after its authors admitted it was a hoax under oath,
then you have lost the right to criticise what others beleive.
Anon. – which allegations in the Steele dossier do you regard as true?
Anonymous @ 4:37 are you afraid to be more honest? The dossier lawsuit was dismissed against Orbis because of a time lapse/statute of limitations issue, not on the merits.
82 ABN,1968,THINKS
PODESTA , NOT ACCERPTABLE, UNDERSLEEZY MOVE.
AS USUAL.
HOW MANY ENEMIES , FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC, ARE WE FEEDING?
Interesting:
In addition to evading scrutiny by the chamber, to testify as a witness for the impeachment trial, due to his connection with China
We also have a proven scoundrel as a campaign advisor paid by taxpayers!
Could he not later be sued for lying about the end of his position and tax evasion (for a consulting fee) and premeditated intention to defraud the public treasury?
I failed to add that the macabre plan of the campaign advisor, joins us with another macabre collaborator to apply the “healthy” communication strategy at the national level, Bill Gate himself.
– This announcement from Microsoft is not just about the news business in general. It is also about “democratic elections worldwide.” The Microsoft February 5 announcement makes this explicitly clear:
–Today, Microsoft is launching several collaborations with news organizations to adopt generative AI. In a year where billions of people will vote in
democratic elections worldwide, journalism is critical to creating healthy information ecosystems, and it is our mission, working with the industry, to
ensure that newsrooms can innovate to serve this year and in the future. [emphasis added]
Podeseta may be one of the worst humans on the planet. He and john bolton should have been in the convertible musk put into orbit.
Yep. Heaven help anyone actually do anything but install another member of the regime. The dem party is no longer a party and I am done with them. We can’t get them out of power soon enough.
It strikes me as odd that with all the screaming about Russia our political class still insists using the “Czar” word to describe people and positions with immense non elected authority in our governmental constructs!
Good comparison Mr. Turley! I don’t know that Podesta is as tough as Rasputin, chemically speaking. But he is just as much of a snake. He and Mr. Elias are, in my opinion, the architects of the last 7 years of anti-Trump, anti-american activities going on in this country. They may have billionaires funding them, but they are the designers. We know they were the prime players in the war-gaming the Dems did before the 2020 election, that low and behold came to pass just as they planned it!
You thought Kerry is a low life scum communist.
Podesta makes him look like Thomas Jefferson.
I meant to say in my earlier comment: type “podesta art” in any search engine and click “images”. Try it in different search engines.
Type “podesta art” in any search engine.
I don’t suppose anyone has noticed.
This is how oblivious, rabidly tyrannical, and dictatorial the communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) are.
They imagine and conjure galactic, universal powers, as if their indoctrination mill, Hollywood, is not the dream factory but the veritable cosmic origin of all knowledge and power.
Communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) are malevolent, inimical, antithetical, and unconstitutional; they are direct and mortal enemies of the American thesis, freedom and self-reliance, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, actual Americans, and America.
In fact, God, or nature, is the climate czar!
And the likes of FOE are the irrational, nay, psychotic enemies of free men.
Assume AINOs that I haven’t seen before stands for Americans in Name Only? This should come into wider use as generations of own country haters are churned out by an academia controlled by the Left.
“Thank you for the acknowledgement, Einstein,” he said affectionately.
Friends
Of
Earth
“As the campaign denied funding the dossier, Elias paid out $1,024,407 for the dossier in 2016 as ‘legal advice and services.'”
You’d think this was a felony for falsifying business records. Snicker.
Excellent.
Watching this gang of government parasites twist and maneuver to maintain power is equal to any of the machinations of any bloated bureaucracy from past failed empires such as the Ottomans, the Chinese Empire, the Roman Empire etc, etc. Whenever you end up with an entrenched and ideologically driven government machine that works to maintain its own power structure at the expense of the nation itself, you end up in this situation; and believe me, we are at this turning point in our nation’s life.
It’s a hydra.
I am thinking more of cthulhu
Here’s how The Grift works. The Green Boss has control over billions of dollars, and discretion to use it as he sees fit, mostly. So, Lakeesha Jones in Baltimore, is a Democrat operative, and she has a daughter Treemeeka, who is semi-educated, at maybe an 8th grade level. In the private sphere, Treemeeka would be frying chicken at Popeyes, 30 hours per week, and no benefits. But, Treemeeka gets hired as an office worker for the Green Boss, and an $80,000 year job. She gets a generous health plan, pension benefits, and an easy, cushy job. No direct tie in between her and the Democrats, but the money has been used for political purposes. Lakeesha does not have to supplement here income now. Multiply that sordid scenario by a million, and that is how The Grift works.
Apparently blacks who make up 13% of the population and as a group are the bottom of the barrel academically are given 25% of government jobs by affirmative action. Government bureaucratic jobs are largely sinecures – overpaid with overgenerous benefits, under-worked and iron job security no matter how incompetent. Government hiring appears to be yet another branch of social welfare as is the entire immigration program now. The shrinking pool of private sector taxpayers is burdened with more and more free or subsidized riders. This is unsustainable.
Podesta knows who assassinated Seth Rich.