By Andrew P. Napolitano

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration has undertaken a vast scheme against Russian economic actors, which it characterizes as “sanctions.” The scheme consists in seizing assets, freezing assets, and prohibiting lawful and constitutionally protected commercial transactions.

All of this is aimed at dissuading Russian President Vladimir Putin from his determination to use extreme state violence to neutralize the government of Ukraine and install a government more favorable to the Kremlin. Yet, the targets of these sanctions are neither Putin nor the Russian state. Rather, his friends and political supporters, as well as Russian banks and commercial entities, and even American banks and commercial entities, have been targeted – and hundreds of millions of consumers and investors have been harmed.

By prohibiting the use of assets and international money transfers, the sanctions have severely harmed folks in Russia who have nothing to do with Putin’s war by radically reducing their purchasing power and eliminating many everyday choices from their spending options. All of this was done by presidential edict.

Can the president constitutionally prevent Americans and foreign persons from the lawful use of their own assets and from engaging freely in lawful commercial transactions? In a word: No.

Here is the backstory.

The Constitution was written to establish the federal government and to limit it. The same document that delegates to Congress the power to keep interstate and foreign commerce regular also prohibits the states in the Contracts Clause from interfering in private contracts. But there was originally no comparable prohibition restraining the federal government.

In 1791, James Madison, the author of the Constitution, argued as a member of the House of Representatives against legislation establishing the First National Bank of the United States because he feared federal control of commerce. Of course, it became law, caused recessions and was sunset 20 years later.

Yet in 1816, shortly before the end of his second term in the White House, Madison caved to corporatism and signed into law the Second National Bank of the United States. After its constitutionality was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1824, the feds insinuated themselves into all sorts of economic activity, none of it enhancing personal liberty, all of it favoring their patrons.

While still a congressman, and fearing federal insinuation into commerce, Madison authored the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. He crafted the Fifth Amendment to protect life, liberty and property from the government.

By requiring due process – a trial at which the federal government must prove fault – prior to interfering with any person’s life, liberty or property, Madison arguably crafted more restraints on the feds than the original Constitution imposed upon the states.

Similarly, by requiring a search warrant issued by a neutral judge based on sworn testimony of probable cause of crime before the feds could seize any person or tangible thing, Madison again added strength and vitality to his understanding of the Constitution’s protections of the primacy of the individual with respect to property and privacy.

Both the Fourth and the Fifth Amendments protect all “people” and every “person,” not just Americans. This is critical to an understanding of why the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration – upon those as to whom there has been no due process or against whom there have been no search warrants issued – are profoundly unconstitutional.

For generations, the government argued that the rights to privacy and due process protected Americans only. In the post-World War II era, the feds have lost those arguments.

Thus, when the feds seize a yacht from a person whom they believe may have financed Putin’s political rise to power, or even his personal lifestyle, they are doing so in direct violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Similarly, when they freeze foreign assets in American banks, they engage in a seizure, and seizures can only constitutionally be done with a search warrant.

As well, when the feds interfere – whether by presidential edict or congressional legislation – with contract rights by prohibiting compliance with lawful contracts, that, too, implicates due process and can only be done constitutionally after a jury verdict in the government’s favor from a trial at which the feds have proven fault.

[…]

Via https://truth11.com/2022/03/18/sanctions-on-russia-violate-the-constitution/

Aletho News

By Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge | March 18, 2022

The past few weeks have been tough for Hunter Biden and, by extension, the rest of the Biden family. On March 1, news broke that Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner and friend Devon Archer was sentenced to a year in federal prison for defrauding a Native American tribe. Then just yesterday, the New York Times published an investigation revealing that although the younger Biden had paid his outstanding tax liability – which was reportedly greater than $1 million, and which required him to take out a loan to pay it off – a federal investigation into his failure to pay taxes on his earnings from overseas has continued.

Much lower in the NYT story, America’s “paper of record” mentioned the laptop belonging to Hunter Biden that was reportedly abandoned at a computer repair shop, and subsequently became the heart of a NY Post story published shortly before the 2020 election (which was subsequently ignored by the MSM because of unfounded rumors that the materials had been stolen by Russian hackers, or that the laptop itself was some kind of plant). It didn’t only mention the laptop, but also confirmed that it was authentic. We previously reported on how the NYT sued to obtain copies of emails mentioning Biden and his exploits allegedly gleaned from Romanian embassy officials.

And in the latest blow to the reputation of the president’s perennially troubled son, a lawyer for the mother of Hunter Biden’s 3-year-old daughter (who was born out of wedlock to a woman who allegedly slept with the younger Biden while working as an exotic dancer) said during an interview with CNBC that he expects the younger Biden “to be indicted” for tax fraud.

Attorney Clint Lancaster told CNBC that his client, Lunden Roberts, had recently testified in Delaware before a federal grand jury in the criminal investigation into the 52-year-old presidential scion. The lawyer based his commentary on “what I saw” in Biden’s financial records.

Lancaster said he and Roberts were interviewed by an assistant U.S. attorney, an FBI agent and an IRS agent — “one that carries a badge and gun” — more than a year ago about Biden in Little Rock, Ark., where Lancaster practices law.

“I expect him to be indicted,” the lawyer said about Biden. “Just based on what I saw in his financial records, I would be surprised if he’s not indicted.”

Lancaster later added that neither he nor his client want Hunter Biden to go to jail.

“It’s not my goal, much to the unhappiness of many people in the Republican Party,” said Lancaster, a supporter of former President Donald Trump who in late 2020 worked on a legal challenge to results that showed Biden had won the state of Wisconsin that year.

He also confirmed that the younger Biden hadn’t visited his 3-year-old daughter with Roberts, “which is sad because the baby looks like him, with blonde hair.” He also explained that he had come into possession of a vast trove of the younger Biden’s financial records as part of his work on Roberts’ child-support suit. When asked about the number of records, Lancaster said it was around “10 gigs of data”.

“Oh, hell, it was a bunch,” said Lancaster when asked how many records there were related to Hunter Biden’s finances. The documents were part of the case file for an Arkansas court child-support lawsuit that Roberts filed against Biden in 2019 in connection with their daughter.

“They’re all in electronic form,” Lancaster said. “I would estimate it was anywhere from 10 gigs of data.”

“I saw a lot of information” that is “problematic” for Biden, he said.

Finally, Lancaster told CNBC that his client hadn’t received immunity before testifying because she hadn’t committed any crimes. The NYT on Thursday reported that Roberts had been questioned about the provenance of the child support payments she had received from Biden. Prosecutors were apparently investigating whether the same corporate entity from which she received the payments was also used by Biden to receive payments from Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company from which he received a salary of $50K per month just for sitting on its board.

Given all the information on the investigation that’s just come to light, we wouldn’t be surprised if the grand jury hearing the evidence is soon asked to vote on whether federal charges should be brought against the younger Biden. His father, the president, has already recused himself from the case as his DoJ has continued with the investigation. If charges are brought and Hunter Biden is convicted (or pleads guilty), his father would then have the option of pardoning him. From this vantage point, it’s not too difficult to imagine a scenario where Biden pardons his son after deciding not to seek another term in office.

[…]

Via https://alethonews.com/2022/03/18/lawyer-for-mother-of-hunter-bidens-daughter-says-he-expects-presidents-son-to-be-indicted/

Foreign fighters now on the  battlefield in Ukraine – Military Times

Paul Antonopoulos

Internationalist 360°

On February 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a plea for foreigners to fight against the Russian military. In a statement, Zelensky said, among other things, that “This is not just Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is the beginning of a war against Europe, against European structures, against democracy, against basic human rights, against a global order of law, rules and peaceful coexistence.” He added: “Anyone who wants to join the defense of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals.”

In this way, Zelensky portrayed the conflict as one between a Ukraine that defends Western values, human rights and its political system against “Russian war criminals.” This narrative was disseminated to great lengths by Western media, who at the same time scoffed at the idea of a “de-Nazification” of Ukraine.

Omitted from Western media is the fact that openly neo-Nazi groups like the Mariupol-based Azov Battalion are official units of the Republican Guard, which is under the direct command of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. It also omits that Stepan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator in World War II who encouraged Ukrainians to “destroy” Jews and Poles, leading to tens of thousands of deaths, is being rehabilitated in Ukraine and even had a major avenue in Kiev renamed after him. This is just two examples of the “Nazification” of Ukraine that is being purposefully ignored by the West.

None-the-less, by portraying the war in Ukraine as a struggle of liberalism against authoritarianism, Western liberals are whitewashing the Far Right and other foreign fighters from a myriad of illiberal ideologies as they descend on Ukraine to fight the Russians. According to Kiev, by March 6 at least 20,000 foreign fighters from 55 countries had entered Ukraine to fight against Russians.

The volunteers are a mix of neo-Nazis, radical Islamists, naïve liberals, pan-Turkists and a variety of Russophobes. Although Western media are lionising the foreign fighters, the accounts they give of their time in Ukraine are truly horrifying – from being tortured by Ukrainian soldiers, to being used as cannon fodder, and facing devastating missile strikes from Russian forces.

One American volunteer, who said he was with the Georgian National Legion of the 122nd Territorial Defense Brigade (Odessa), said on social media that “our base got f***ed up. The base right next to us got f***ed up.” He also said that Americans and “tons of British” were dead.

He explained that foreign volunteers are being sent to the front lines without sufficient weapons or armor. He continues to explain that when they refused to go and fight near Kiev under such conditions, Ukrainian soldiers threatened to shoot them, forcing the American volunteer and others to escape the country. However, he also explained that Ukrainian soldiers were cutting up the passports of foreign fighters and forcing them to the front. He chillingly warned: “People need to stop coming here, it’s a trap, and they’re not letting you f***ing leave.”

One British fighter, an ex-Army medic named Jason Haigh, told The Sun newspaper on March 9 that he was detained by Ukrainian authorities that were carrying cable ties. He said that Ukrainian authorities slammed his head and hit him several times, resulting in a bad concussion and heavy bleeding. Eventually, he and his group were released and joined hundreds of thousands on trains to Lviv, before fleeing to the Polish border and getting a train to Warsaw.

It is also recalled that a Brazilian foreign fighter uploaded to his social media a harrowing account of the Russian strike against the International Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC) near Lviv and the Polish border on March 13, saying: “I don’t even know what to say… there were special forces soldiers from all over the world [US, France, South Korea, Chile]. The information we have is that everyone died, they [Russians] managed to destroy everything… you guys don’t understand what it means when a jet drops a missile on you. Thank God I got out earlier.”

In this way, despite the lionising of foreign fighters in Ukraine by the Western media, it certainly appears that their experience has been nothing short of terrifying. It also appears that many of the foreign fighters are naïve to the fact that there are clear links between the Foreign Legion and Ukraine’s neo-Nazis.

In addition, the Australian government warned on March 15 that volunteers could end up being “cannon fodder” for Ukraine. This matches up with Matthew Robinson, a British volunteer who stressed that foreigners “can be railroaded into a legion and sent to the front line very quickly. Even though you’ve got the best of intentions to help people, you could basically be cannon fodder.”

It can be suggested that Ukraine is intentionally trying to drive up the body count of foreigners fighting against Russia to create international outrage in the hope of forcing a foreign intervention. However, due to volunteers fighting on an unofficial capacity, there is no correlation between the death of foreigners and activating NATO’s mutual defense policy.

[…]

Via https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/03/17/foreign-fighters-flee-from-ukraine-after-being-tortured-and-used-as-cannon-fodder/

Dr Eddy Betterman

Early on in the plandemic, we reported that unusual HIV insertions had been identified in the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19). This strongly suggested at the time that the virus was a bioweapon constructed in a laboratory.

Since that time, it has been further revealed that Tony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) owns a patent on at least one such HIV insertion, known as gp120.

HIV’s gp120 protein, reports Igor Chudov on his Substack, is the one that activates LFA-1 on CD4 T-Lymphocytes and increases cell susceptibility to LFA-1-targeting leukotoxin, according to a 2011 study.

Interestingly, gp120 just so happens to also be located in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, as well as in the spike protein of all covid “vaccines.”

In a nutshell, gp120, as applied to the spike proteins in both covid and covid injections, effectively destroys the body’s immune T cells in the same way as HIV. And gp120 specifically is used to deliver HIV into the lymphocytes via the LFA-1 receptor.

“T lymphocytes are cells that are responsible for killing infected or cancerous cells,” Chudov explains, citing the science behind T cells and what they do:

“T cells are a type of white blood cell known as a lymphocyte. Lymphocytes protect the body against cancerous cells and cells that have become infected by pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses.”

“T cell lymphocytes are necessary for cell mediated immunity, which is an immune response that involves the activation of immune cells to fight infection. T cells function to actively destroy infected cells, as well as to signal other immune cells to participate in the immune response.”

Covid was clearly developed in a lab using Fauci’s patented HIV insert to destroy human immunity

As you can see, T cells are a critical component of healthy immunity. Without them, the body basically has AIDS, which is why a growing body of evidence points to the “fully vaccinated” now having vaccine-induced AIDS, also known as VAIDS.

“The primary mechanism of AIDS is depletion of CD4 cells,” Chudov further explains. “For Sars-CoV-2, we see depletion of CD4 and CD8 cells as well.”

Not only does the Fauci Flu infect T cells, but it also contains the gp120 HIV insert. This is not natural, as there are no known coronaviruses in nature that possess these uniquely harmful traits.

“Amazingly enough, if you still believe in coincidences, HIV also uses the same LFA-1 receptor (as covid) to enter lymphocytes, and uses the same gp120 protein to facilitate the entry,” Chudov writes.

Based on the available research, it is now apparent that Fauci et al. manipulated SARS-CoV-2 to make it target the immune system and deplete it of lymphocytes, just like HIV.

So-called “mild” covid may not leave the immune system decimated of lymphocytes forever, according to Chudov. Those who take the “vaccines,” on the other hand, could face a much worse outcome.

“Fauci is Dr. Mengele … and he should be punished the same way,” someone wrote in response to these revelations.

“Fauci was involved in the HIV ‘pandemic’ of the ’80s,” pointed out another.

“He butted heads with President Reagan over the cause and cure. Fauci suppressed generic drugs and pushed the expensive experimental ‘vaccines.’ He said HIV was airborne and would have killed many millions. He said every age group would be affected. Sound familiar?”

“He was wrong about HIV like he was about Covid. Sars-Covid-2, unlike Sars-Covid-1, has HIV inserted into it. Meaning, it was man-made. Fauci owns the patents and stock in Big Pharma. Coincidence? No. Collusion.”

[…]

Via https://dreddymd.com/2022/03/18/fauci-owns-patent-gp120-hiv-insertion-destroys-cancer-killing-t-cells/

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia participates in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey. (@plasenciafelixr / Twitter)

By José Luis Granados Ceja – Venezuelanalysis – March 14, 2022

Aletho News

The Biden administration faced strong bipartisan criticism over recent direct talks with the Venezuelan government.

News outlets reported that in light of criticism from hardline sympathizers of the Venezuelan opposition, the Biden administration had suspended its direct talks with the Venezuelan government but that a deal to lift some US sanctions in exchange for restarting oil sales to the US was still on the table.

Washington recently ordered the suspension of Russian oil imports, leaving the US desperate to find other sources of crude as rising energy prices threaten to create a domestic crisis for the Democrats ahead of midterm elections in November.

Despite the lack of diplomatic relations stemming from the US’ refusal to recognize the results of the 2018 presidential election, Caracas and Washington have maintained back-channel communications. These talks led to the first direct exchange between the US and Venezuelan governments in years, which came at Washington’s request.

News of the encounter was met with a vehement condemnation from both Republican politicians such as Senator Marco Rubio and fellow Democrats such as Florida’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a longtime supporter of the Venezuelan opposition.

Rubio, one the most vocal champions of Venezuela’s self-declared “interim president’ Juan Guaidó, has gone on the offensive to try to preemptively stop any deal and introduced legislation to ban the import of oil from Venezuela and Iran.

Various politicians from Florida sent a letter to Biden criticizing the administration’s decision to hold direct talks with Maduro. Florida’s large Cuban and Venezuelan population and status as a “swing state” in US elections has led politicians to cater their foreign policy toward Latin America in the interest of pleasing this comparatively small constituency.

However, skyrocketing energy costs inside the US as a result of global geopolitical situation in light of the Russian military operation in Ukraine and the subsequent ban of Russian oil imports have put the Maduro government in Venezuela, which counts on the world’s largest oil reserves, in a more favorable bargaining position.

Until recent developments, the Biden White House had largely maintained its predecessor’s “maximum pressure” policy aimed at ousting Maduro, though the Financial Times reported that the administration had already been considering a change in strategy.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki tried to downplay the March 5 meeting that counted on the presence of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as well as Biden Latin America adviser Juan González.

The direct talks led to the release of US citizens Gustavo Cardenas and Jorge Fernández on Tuesday, however US State Department spokesman Ned Price denied their release was tied to a deal regarding Venezuelan oil.

For his part, Maduro called the engagement “respectful, cordial and very diplomatic” and said that the US had committed to a follow-up meeting.

The direct talks with the Venezuelan leader have undermined the US’ strategy in Venezuela and its support for Juan Guaidó, who the Biden administration insists they still recognize as “interim president.”

With Guaidó’s position under increased scrutiny, the opposition has come to rely on the US almost exclusively for its legitimacy. Senator Rubio recently admitted that a deal would mean the opposition would be “finished”.

Guaidó was not part of the talks and reportedly only learned of the high-level meeting between the US and Venezuelan governments the day of the meeting.

Sources in Venezuela’s opposition told the Miami Herald that the potential deal would involve granting a special license to Chevron to ramp up activities in Venezuela. Chevron has previously lobbied the US State Department for a rollback of sanctions against Venezuela.

Caracas demands recognition, sanctions relief

Venezuelan officials have likewise commented on the possibility of restarting the oil trade with the US, with Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia stating that any deal to supply oil would be contingent on Washington and Brussels recognizing Nicolás Maduro as president.

“We have a 100-year oil business relationship with the United States. We have not taken them out of the business, they left in order to impose coercive measures. Now they want to return. Fine, if they accept that the only and legitimate government of Venezuela is the one led by President Nicolás Maduro, then US and European oil companies would be welcome,” said Plasencia at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum held this past weekend in Turkey.

Plasencia added that a “respectful relationship” would also require the lifting of coercive measures that deepened the country’s economic crisis.

EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell held a bilateral meeting with Plasencia on the margins of the forum that both described as “good,” with Borrell’s team indicating a willingness on the part of the European bloc to normalize relations and lift sanctions.

Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, had a steady crude production of around 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) and exported approximately 500,000 bpd to US markets until sanctions targeted the sector and crippled production.

The Venezuelan oil industry has lately shown signs of improvement with Plasencia stating that the country could produce up to 2 million barrels per day by the end of the year thanks to the assistance of “reliable partners, such as Russia, China and Iran.”

[…]

Via https://alethonews.com/2022/03/14/biden-faces-backlash-for-venezuela-talks-as-caracas-demands-recognition/

Residents stand beside a destroyed armoured vehicle during the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the separatist-controlled town of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on March 15, 2022 [Alexander Ermochenko/ Reuters]

By Faith Barbara Namagembe

HICGI News Agency

Kyiv sees room for compromise as Russian and Ukrainian delegations prepare for a new round of talks on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said peace talks with Russia were beginning to sound “more realistic” but that more time was needed to ensure the outcome of the negotiations were in Kyiv’s interests.

Zelenskyy’s comments early on Wednesday came as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine neared the three-week mark and Russian forces continued their bombardment of Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, and the southern port city of Mariupol.

Negotiators from the two countries have been meeting via video link since Monday, with the Ukrainian delegation pressing for a ceasefire, troop withdrawals and security guarantees.

Russia is yet to capture any of Ukraine’s 10 biggest cities, and officials in Kyiv have raised hopes the war could end sooner than expected, possibly by May. They say Moscow may be coming to terms with its failure to impose a new government by force and is running out of fresh troops.

“The meetings continue, and, I am informed, the positions during the negotiations already sound more realistic,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

“But time is still needed for the decisions to be in the interests of Ukraine.”

The two sides are expected to speak again on Wednesday.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy and member of the Ukrainian delegation, has described the negotiations as “very difficult and viscous”.

In a Twitter post after Tuesday’s talks, Podolyak said there were “fundamental contradictions” between the two sides, but said “there is certainly room for compromise”.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, however, said it was too early to predict progress in the talks.

“The work is difficult, and in the current situation the very fact that (the talks) are continuing is probably positive,” he said.

Russia launched its invasion on February 24, calling it a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

The conflict has killed and wounded thousands of people and sent three million Ukrainians fleeing into neighbouring countries.

Peskov has previously said Moscow – which is concerned over any enlargement of NATO eastwards – is demanding that Ukraine change its constitution to enshrine neutrality, acknowledge the Crimean peninsula – seized in 2014 – as Russian territory and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

In a hint of a possible compromise, Zelenskyy said earlier that Ukraine was prepared to accept security guarantees from the West that stop short of its long-term goal of joining NATO.

“Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We understand that, we are not crazy. For years we have been hearing about the alleged open door, but we have also heard now that we cannot enter,” the Ukrainian president told a meeting of the United Kingdom-led Joint Expeditionary Force on Tuesday.

“And this is true, and it must be acknowledged. I am glad that our people are beginning to understand this and rely on themselves and the partners who are helping us,” he said.

Still, Zelenskyy again renewed an appeal for a no-fly zone over Ukraine and said “new formats of cooperation” were needed.

“If we cannot enter the open door, we must cooperate with communities that will help us and protect us, such as yours. And have reliable guarantees,” he told the European military task force.

NATO does not admit nations with unsettled territorial conflicts and it has previously ruled out imposing a no-fly zone, saying such a move could trigger direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.

But Western countries have beefed up Ukraine’s weapons supplies, and imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, including on President Vladimir Putin, and moved to curb Russian energy imports.

The Western arms deliveries have been vital to enabling Ukrainians to fight the invading Russian forces far more effectively and fiercely than most Western intelligence agencies expected.

A senior United States defence official told reporters late on Tuesday that Russian ground troops have made little to no progress around the country, but that Russians were using long-range fire to hit civilian areas inside Kyiv.

The official said the US has seen indications that Russia believes it may need more troops or supplies than it has on hand in Ukraine, and is considering ways to get more resources into the country.

The official did not elaborate.

The British Ministry of Defence also said on Tuesday that Russia is “increasingly seeking to generate additional troops to bolster and replace its personnel losses in Ukraine”.

It added, “As a result of these losses, it is likely that Russia is struggling to conduct offensive operations in the face of sustained Ukrainian resistance.”

[…]

Via https://hicginewsagency.com/2022/03/16/russia-ukraine-peace-talks-sounding-more-realistic-zelenskyy/