Puppet Masters

Mystery trader barters Maduro's oil, avoids US sanctions

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 09:55 UTC

A new report from Bloomberg exposes how international traders can skirt around US sanctions to buy and sell Venezuelan oil, which allows the Maduro regime to remain in power.

Dragoslav Ilic, a Serb with a Panamanian trading company, trades Venezuelan oil and avoids US sanctions in global markets by bartering oil and reselling to third parties. MS Internacional Corporation exchanges crude for gasoline and gasoline components, allowing the Maduro regime to supply heavily subsidized fuel to his faithful supporters.

Bloomberg notes, until the last several months, no one in the business has ever heard of Ilic or his company.

Francisco Monaldi, a professor at Rice University's Baker Institute, said the emergence of new traders reminds him of those who helped the Venezuelan government survive the strike of 2002-2003. "These tiny trading houses are doing the same, helping out the regime to either get cash or gasoline or dilutents to produce crude oil," Monaldi said.

Along with new trading houses, Russia's state-controlled oil company Rosneft, Indian refiners and China are supporting Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA) with billions of dollars in loans for the chance to purchase oil.

Comment: See also:

Putin to Guaido: Time to get back to reality

Sputnik
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 22:03 UTC

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday urged the leader of Venezuelan opposition Juan Guaido to "return back to reality and follow democratic procedures", stressing that Guaido's appeal to God remained unanswered.

"The leader of the [Venezuelan] opposition, Mr. Guaido, appeared before the public, looked up to the sky and, addressing the Lord, declared himself president. Ok. But the Lord did not tell us how He reacted to this appeal, He did not give us any signal", Putin said at a press conference following talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Rome. "Therefore, I think that he should return to our sinful and mortal Earth and follow the democratic procedures and rules that boil down to one thing: dialogue and appeal to the people, to voters - you need to go to the elections and solve future development issues through the elections."

The Russian president also said that he and the Italian leadership share concern about the situation in Venezuela, and the external pressure only aggravates the internal crisis, forcing the citizens to flee the country.

Wikipedia co-founder offers a 'declaration of digital independence' to stop abuse by Big Tech - will it work?

RT
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 19:52 UTC

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger is calling for a decentralized internet and a boycott of social media while his own brain child is accused of corporate-like intrusion into the community's self-governing domain.

Every person using the internet has "unalienable digital rights," a lengthy document, conspicuously resembling the US Declaration of Independence and published on the Sanger's website says, defining these freedoms as "free speech, privacy and security."

The appeal published in late June - just days before Independence Day in the US - states that these rights were unceremoniously violated by the "vast digital empires," which have been mercilessly exploiting humanity for their own profit. It then goes on to list the "long train of abuses" that ordinary internet users have suffered at the hands of greedy corporations, which includes a wide range of misdeeds - from extracting private data without the explicit consent of the owners, and marketing them to advertisers, to allowing corporate and government surveillance over social media users, and the arbitrary banning of undesired opinions due to political and ideological reasons.

Comment: See also:

Putin regarding sanctions: No 'insurmountable' rift between Russia and Europe

RT
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 23:02 UTC

The anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the EU go both ways and hurt not only Moscow, but the bloc itself, Russian president has said, adding that he sees no "insurmountable obstacles" to fix the bilateral relations.

The restrictions, imposed on Moscow by the EU over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, have been quite damaging to trade - turnover dropped from $450 billion in 2013 to some $279 billion now, Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Where did those billions go? I'll tell you - it's profits not received by us, as well as by European countries, including Italy.

Russia is ready to "do its part" in fixing the relations with the EU, but it's up to the bloc's new leadership to show it wants it as well, Putin said, when asked for his opinion on the new head of the European Commission German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyden.

Why hasn't the 'NY Times' done a profile of Israel's most notorious general, Ofer Winter?

James North
Mondoweiss
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 17:17 UTC

Reporters at the New York Times love to have their stories featured on the front page. In fact, among themselves they dismiss articles that run inside as merely "vitamin page" reports — because the Times labels the pages in its print edition as A6, B3, and so on.

The paper's Jerusalem bureau has missed another sure-fire chance to get on page A1. Brigadier General Ofer Winter, the Israeli army's most controversial officer, just got promoted again — but the Times continues to ignore him. Winter's notoriety is summarized in Haaretz's characterization: "a Pattonesque holy warrior on the battlefield." Winter has been well-known since the early 2000s, but one Times reporter after another has somehow failed to write a profile.

Here's why: one of the ways the Times rigs its coverage of Israel/Palestine is by covering up Israeli extremists, to make Israel seem a much more moderate place than it really is. You will rarely if ever read about the far-right leaders of the West Bank settler/colonists, for example, nor will you learn about the vicious anti-Palestinian racism that is becoming steadily more normalized in Israeli life.

Comment: You get the leaders you deserve. Israel has made its choice clear. Tikun Olam's Richard Silverstein wrote in 2014:

After Operation Cast Lead, peace activists prepared a list of 200 IDF officers who played major roles in the sowing the killing fields of Gaza with blood. I'm hoping someone is right now preparing a similar list for Operation Protective Edge. The level of mass mayhem in it far exceeds that of the prior campaign. More dead, more injured, more orphans, more devastation.

Remember this name in particular: Ofer Winter. He's the poster boy of IDF war criminals. He was also high on the list of those accused of similar acts during Cast Lead. It was he who wrote the genocidal battle plan announced to his troops in the accompanying image:

History has chosen for us to be the bayonet point of battle against the Gazan terrorist enemy which curses, defames and abuses the God of Israel's military campaigns...

God, the Lord of Israel, make our path successful, as we are about to fight for Your People, Israel, against an enemy who defames your name. In the name of the IDF fighters...make the phrase "For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you." come true, and we shall answer: Amen.

Lest you think I overstated the term "genocidal" above, anyone who knows their Bible will recognize this language. It is the language used to describe those tribes which the Israelites wiped out in their campaign to capture the land of Israel and populate it with their offspring. Tribes like the Amalekites, Moabites, Jebusites and others were all exterminated in battles in which the ancient Jews followed what they perceived as God's will in taking over the land.

Winter's Givati brigade played a key role in the slaughter in Rafah (English edition) in the last week of the war in which 160 Palestinians were killed by vengeful IDF forces seeking vengeance after a Hamas attack that killed an IDF major, sergeant and captured Lt. Hadar Goldin.

Former Rio de Janeiro governor Sergio Cabral admits he paid $2 million bribe to host 2016 Olympics

The New York Post
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 16:54 UTC

The former governor of Rio de Janeiro state said in court testimony on Thursday that he paid $2 million to buy votes to ensure the sprawling Brazilian seaside city would be chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

Sergio Cabral told a judge the money went to Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and was used to buy as many as nine votes. It was not immediately possible to reach Diack or his legal team on Thursday night.

The head of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and the main organizer of the bid, Arthur Nuzman, introduced a representative of Rio 2016 to Diack and asked him to make the payments ahead of the 2009 vote that saw Rio win out over Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo, Cabral told a federal judge.

Has Trump turned an important corner in his term?

Tom Luongo
The Straegic Culture Foundation
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 16:38 UTC

© Vietnam News Agency—Getty Images
A handout photo of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their second summit meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel on February 27, 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Donald Trump's surprise visit to North Korea last week was impressive. It was a bold first step in repairing a foreign policy in tatters after more than a year of assaults by his neoconservative boobsie-twins Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Trump took Kim at his word who said after talks broke down thanks to Bolton and Pompeo in Hanoi that no dialogue would be possible if Bolton was involved.

So, Trump sent Bolton to Mongolia. Then he went to Korea and did the one thing he had to do to begin unraveling the mess he'd gotten himself into.

Houthis fear Saudis can exploit UN-gathered biometrics 'in military fashion' in Yemen

RT
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 16:44 UTC

A UN food agency is suspending work in Yemen after failing to seal a deal on biometrics from locals. The Houthi rebels fear that the data could be used by the Saudi-led coalition for war purposes, a campaigner told RT.

Nearly 10 million people are suffering from "extreme levels of hunger" in war-torn Yemen, according to the UN. But last month, the UN World Food Programme announced that it will suspend its activities in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, which is controlled by Houthi rebels.

The move comes after the agency failed to secure a deal with the Houthis to introduce a biometrics system it said would "prevent diversion" of food from starving people in the devastated country. The Houthis accused the agency of politicizing aid while doing the bidding of the Saudi-led coalition, whose members are among the chief funders of the food program.

The Empire sanctions Cuban oil company in bid to weaken Maduro's hold in Venezuela

Scott Smith
Federal News Network
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 16:21 UTC

The United States hit Cuba's state-run oil shipping firm Cubametales with financial sanctions on Wednesday, saying it's a key player propping up Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro.

"Maduro is clinging to Cuba to stay in power, buying military and intelligence operatives in exchange for oil," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Treasury officials also lifted sanctions on PB Tankers' fleet of ships, praising the Italian firm for halting deliveries of Venezuelan oil to the island nation.

Comment: Cuba is now in a position to find out who its real friends are. Who will be willing to defy the US and continue to work with Cubametales and other Cuban companies?

US gov't asks federal court to throw out Huawei lawsuit

Chuck Mikolajczak
Reuters
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 16:17 UTC

The U.S. government filed a motion on Wednesday asking for the dismissal of a lawsuit by Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd that claimed the United States had acted illegally when it blacklisted Huawei's products.

Huawei sued the U.S. government in early March, in a complaint filed in federal court in Texas, saying that a law limiting its American business was unconstitutional.

The company has been a component of the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China that has hung over financial markets, with President Donald Trump recently agreeing to loosen restrictions on Huawei after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit.

It was probably vaccine hesitancy that killed the mammoths!

sbc

Parts shortages been happening for generations. For example how many spineless and brainless people ya know?

sbc

So shouldnt the Garland order now be rescinded? They just said they were coached into writing the letter in such a way that it was disengenuous...

sbc

There are some interesting 'coincidences' with this murder case in Moab: [Link] Kylen Schulte, the younger lady, worked at the Moonflower cafe...

Jean Michel

Guns dont kill people...Alec Baldwin does...

Bezel Bub

Puppet Masters

Mystery trader barters Maduro's oil, avoids US sanctions

Putin to Guaido: Time to get back to reality

Wikipedia co-founder offers a 'declaration of digital independence' to stop abuse by Big Tech - will it work?

Putin regarding sanctions: No 'insurmountable' rift between Russia and Europe

Why hasn't the 'NY Times' done a profile of Israel's most notorious general, Ofer Winter?

Former Rio de Janeiro governor Sergio Cabral admits he paid $2 million bribe to host 2016 Olympics

Has Trump turned an important corner in his term?

Houthis fear Saudis can exploit UN-gathered biometrics 'in military fashion' in Yemen

The Empire sanctions Cuban oil company in bid to weaken Maduro's hold in Venezuela

US gov't asks federal court to throw out Huawei lawsuit

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