Puppet Masters

Ridiculous political theater: Self-declared Venezuelan 'interim president's' wife meets Miami leaders, receives key to county

NBC
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 20:49 UTC

Fabiana Rosales meets with Melania Trump

The wife of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido met Miami city leaders on Friday part of a multi-city tour to drum up support for her husband and opposition government aiming to oust dictator Nicolas Maduro.

"I have always asked God to protect the people of Venezuela, to give us the strength to go on," Fabiana Rosales said in Spanish. "Today, Venezuela can be a great example for the world, and I know that the results of Venezuela, which we will see very soon, will be an example for the nations of the world never go through what Venezuela is going through today."

Rosales received the key to Miami-Dade county presented by Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

"Let me say as mayor of Miami-Dade County, I'm very familiar with the plight of the Venezuelan people," said Gimenez, explaining how his Cuban roots exposed him to the more negative aspects of socialism, "We stand by the people of Venezuela."

Comment: Then why support a woman whose husband doesn't seem to have the support of said people? This is a pretty pathetic display of political grandstanding. And it will only rally the Venezuelan people behind Maduro.

Rosales recently visited Melania Trump and spoke of her meeting with the United States' first lady, "I am sure that the First Lady admires the Venezuelan women for their bravery."

Comment: See also:

Venezuela and the half-truths of Noam Chomsky

Clifton Ross
Quillette
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 20:16 UTC

As a young socialist, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism by Noam Chomsky and his late collaborator Edward S. Herman helped to convert me to the worldview of the anti-Imperialist Left. I remained a member of this political tendency, for whom Chomsky has become an unrivaled intellectual hero, for most of my adult life. That is, until I was confronted by the gap between its doctrines and an unfolding reality I really knew something about.

I continue to respect some of Chomsky's writing on topics such as the devastation of East Timor by Indonesia. But the more one knows about a subject, the more apparent the selectivity of Chomsky's analysis becomes. When Chomsky argued that the 9/11 atrocities were morally equivalent to President Clinton's rocket strike on the Al Shifa medicine factory in Sudan (and that "we" should therefore hesitate before judging "them"), his erstwhile admirer Christopher Hitchens observed that, "Noam Chomsky does not rise much above the level of half-truth." This, Hitchens went on to complain, had "lately become his hallmarks."

In retrospect, a writer as intelligent as Hitchens might have noticed this habit earlier. In Chomsky's writing on Cambodia (which Hitchens defended), the Balkans, and various other conflicts, complexity was reliably collapsed into a simplistic indictment of the West in general, and America in particular (irrespective of the sitting president's political affiliation). Simplicity can be seductive, especially when it encourages moral outrage, and it wasn't until I saw Chomsky's half-truths deployed in defense of the Bolivarian regime that I began to question Chomsky's honesty and interest in objectivity.

Comment: Black-and-white thinking is a big trap for anti-Imperialist thinkers. Just because you oppose American intervention, that does not mean one should necessarily support those on the receiving end. It's entirely possible to reject Chavez's and Maduro's policies as perhaps well-intentioned but incompetent, and to reject the heavy-handed arrogance of American intervention. The anti-imperialists at least get the latter correct, and you have to look no further than Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine to get an idea of just how destructive and incompetent the U.S. and their allies are when it comes to "democracy promotion". Venezuela needs a change, but it doesn't need the U.S. making things worse either.

Facebook Teams up With Mainstream Media to Directly Censor News Websites

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Sun, 31 Mar 2019 23:50 UTC

Several days ago I received a Facebook notification that content shared on the French Sott.net website Facebook page (Les Signes des Temps) had been "rated false by an independent fact-checker."

Clicking on the notification produced this pop-up window...

...where I was informed that fr.sott.net shared content that had been reviewed by someone called 'Les Décodeurs du Monde' and that they found it to be "false". Included was a link to the offending article on the fr.sott.net FB page, a link to and "additional reporting" page at 'Les Décodeurs du Monde', and text telling me that:

"To fight false news, Facebook reduces the distribution of misleading content while also showing additional reporting on the same topic.

Pages and websites that repeatedly publish or share misleading content will see their overall distribution reduced, their ability to monetize and advertise removed and their ability to register as a news page removed.

Deleting the misleading content won't affect these outcomes."

Mueller inquiry offers three lessons for the Left

Jonathan Cook
CounterPunch
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC

Here are three important lessons for the progressive left to consider now that it is clear the inquiry by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russiagate is never going to uncover collusion between Donald Trump's camp and the Kremlin in the 2016 presidential election.

Painting the pig's face

1. The left never had a dog in this race. This was always an in-house squabble between different wings of the establishment. Late-stage capitalism is in terminal crisis, and the biggest problem facing our corporate elites is how to emerge from this crisis with their power intact. One wing wants to make sure the pig's face remains painted, the other is happy simply getting its snout deeper into the trough while the food lasts.

Russiagate was never about substance, it was about who gets to image-manage the decline of a turbo-charged, self-harming neoliberal capitalism.

The leaders of the Democratic party are less terrified of Trump and what he represents than they are of us and what we might do if we understood how they have rigged the political and economic system to their permanent advantage.

It may look like Russiagate was a failure, but it was actually a success. It deflected the left's attention from endemic corruption within the leadership of the Democratic party, which supposedly represents the left. It rechannelled the left's political energies instead towards the convenient bogeymen targets of Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Comment: Mueller's charge was to investigate alleged Russian government interference in the 2016 election and any potential Trump campaign 'collusion' with said interference and prosecute any federal crimes. Was the outcome a success or a failure? For the president, the investigation succeeded in vindicating him against the accusations and innuendo that crippled his administration and tarnished its effectiveness. For the Left, it failed to justify partisan attempts to delegitimize the election and unseat a duly elected president. Unless you were hoping for collusion, that sounds like a success.

Reasons to believe Vasily Prozorov's testimony about Ukraine's role in the downing of MH-17

Whitney Webb
MintPress News
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC

© Dmitry Lovetsky/AP
People inspect the crash site of passenger plane Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine.

A former top official in Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), who recently fled the country, has given explosive testimony regarding the involvement of the Ukrainian government in the 2014 downing of the MH-17 passenger plane. The incident, which killed all 283 passengers and 15 flight crew members on board, had been blamed on Russia by Ukraine's government, the United States and much of Western media.

In addition, the former official, Vasily Prozorov, told a group of international reporters that Ukraine's controversial Azov Battalion, known for its Neo-Nazi ideology and symbolism, ran and maintained secret prisons in contested areas of Eastern Ukraine where there is fighting between pro-government forces and pro-Russian separatists. Prozorov, who has sought asylum in Russia, also accused the United States and the United Kingdom of training an SBU division that returned to Ukraine to conduct terrorist attacks in the Donbass region, which has been the site of a civil war since the overthrow of Ukraine's government in 2014 in a U.S.-backed coup.

Prozorov's identity was kept secret until the press conference began, in breaking with standard protocol. Prozorov then introduced himself, stating that he had been employed by the SBU from 1999 to 2018, but - after the U.S.-backed coup in 2014 - had contacted Russian intelligence and began working undercover in the central office of the SBU. He does not describe himself as a defector, as he stated that his allegiance remains with the Ukrainian people while the allegiance of those who came to power with U.S. assistance in 2014 has long been suspect.

Comment: Prozorov's full conference can be watched here (in Russian). A summary with English subtitles can be watched here.

See also:

As US influence ebbs in Iraq, Iran's flows

Ulson Gunnar
New Eastern Outlook
Sun, 31 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC

In the dead of Christmas night last year, to evade possibly being shot down, US President Donald Trump made a surprise, whirlwind visit to US troops in Iraq.

He visited Al Asad Air Base about 100 miles west of Baghdad in Al Anbar province, or about halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border where US forces are also operating. Between Al Asad and Baghdad are the notorious cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, hotbeds of resistance after the 2003 US invasion, and since then, hotbeds of extremism fueling the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

The base is home to about 5,000 US service members.

As in Syria, America's presence in Iraq seems to be clinging to areas where extremism and separatism are greatest. In many instances, it is the US openly and deliberately encouraging both, especially in Kurdish territory stretching over both nations, but also in areas dominated by Sunni Muslims where extremist fronts like Al Qaeda and IS believe they can find support.

Comment: See also:

Trump cuts all aid programs to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador

RT
Sat, 30 Mar 2019 22:07 UTC

US President Donald Trump has ordered to cut all aid programs for the so-called Northern Triangle nations over the migrant inflow into the US. Washington is often criticized for worsening the conditions that force people to flee.

"We are carrying out the President's direction and ending FY [fiscal year] 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle," a State Department spokesperson told the media. "We will be engaging Congress as part of this process," she added.

Earlier, Trump himself told journalists that he "ended payments to Guatemala, to Honduras, and to El Salvador. No money goes there anymore." He also accused the Central American countries of not doing "a thing for us." The president also turned to Twitter to lambaste the three nations, along with Mexico, over their failure to stop illegal immigration into the US.

Comment: See also:

Right time, right place? Ukraine's election watch with its far-right monitors

RFE/RL
Sun, 31 Mar 2019 14:31 UTC

© Christopher Miller/RFE/RL
Yuriy Petrenko, a member of the National Militia, monitors voting at School No.14 in Podil, in Kyiv, on March 31.

At School No. 14 in the Podil district of Ukraine's capital, Yuriy Petrenko cranes his neck to peer over the shoulder of polling station chief Iryna Podlesna as she unlocks a safe, pulls out a stack of the 83-centimeter-long ballots, and hands it to a colleague.

Petrenko looks like any other monitor who's here to observe today's presidential voting. A first-time observer, he has a pen and a pad of paper to note any suspicious activities. He has access to the list of the 2,252 voters registered to vote here. And he has an identification badge stamped by the Central Election Commission that officially grants him the right to watch over four ballot boxes and the vote tally once polls close at 8 p.m. local time.

But take a closer look at the lanyard around his neck that holds that badge and it becomes clear he is no run-of-the-mill election monitor.

Comment: See also:

N. Korea demands probe into 'grave terrorist attack' on its Madrid mission

RT
Sun, 31 Mar 2019 08:50 UTC

North Korea called on Spain to conduct a thorough investigation into a raid on its mission in Madrid, which was said to be done by FBI-linked dissidents, now hiding in the US.

Pyongyang asked Spain to investigate the "grave terrorist attack" and "flagrant violation of international law," state-run KCNA news agency reported. "This kind of act should never be tolerated," the statement read.

It was the first time North Korean officials have commented on the mysterious break-in at its mission in Madrid on February 22. A group of intruders subdued and tied up the staff before stealing a number of electronic devices and a trove of documents from the building. They also reportedly tried to persuade a North Korean attaché to defect. A video, allegedly filmed during the break-in, shows men taking down portraits of North Korean leaders and smashing them on the ground.

Comment: See also:

With Mueller done, Trump should seize the opportunity to improve relations with Russia

Daniel R. Depetris
The American Conservative
Thu, 28 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is over, and the results could not be more of a relief for President Donald Trump: no collusion with the Russian government and not enough evidence for an obstruction of justice charge. It was unquestionably good news for the president and for Republicans on Capitol Hill who have lashed their own political futures to Trump.

The report is also a plus for the country - not only because Washington won't be consumed with a constitutional crisis anytime soon, but also because it provides the Trump administration with its first opportunity to settle on a Russia policy without the risk of an extreme political backlash.

U.S.-Russia relations were already in the tank before Trump was sworn into office. Russian President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin after a four-year hiatus as prime minister was like a wet blanket over the fire of an otherwise productive detente between the two former Cold War adversaries. Putin took what had been a relatively productive period with the Americans (deals had been struck on a variety of issues, including New START, the use of Russian air routes into Afghanistan, counterterrorism cooperation, ever-stronger U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran) into a deep freeze in less than a year. Russia's annexation of Crimea, military support to separatists in Eastern Ukraine, campaign on behalf of the Assad regime in Syria, and interference in European politics all contributed to the unhealthy discourse. Putin's active measures operation during the 2016 U.S. presidential election reaffirmed what so many officials in Washington already believed: Putin is out to attack American democracy and challenge the U.S. in multiple theaters.

Comment: This only shows how successful the Western propaganda campaign has been on even those Americans who retain a bit of common sense. Yes, all of these actions of Putin have 'contributed' to the bad relations, but only because they were responses to American decisions in the first place: for 'democracy promotion' in Ukraine, leading to an illegal coup; and supporting terrorists in Syria to remove Assad from power and destabilize the region. And there is no evidence of 'active measures' against the 2016 elections. No, Putin isn't out to attack American democracy, though he is more than willing to challenge the U.S. when it engages in imperial escapades the world over.

Comment: Should Trump explore collaboration with Russia? A 'yes' answer would not only vindicate the insanity of the Left, it would likely reenergize the Trump Puppet accusations and continue the political circus. If answered 'no', Trump betrays his original instincts and bows to the neocon/Israeli agenda - to the detriment of the USA and all its global victims.

.. .. Ernesto Guido, you know much that his hidden! [Link]

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Puppet Masters

Ridiculous political theater: Self-declared Venezuelan 'interim president's' wife meets Miami leaders, receives key to county

Venezuela and the half-truths of Noam Chomsky

Facebook Teams up With Mainstream Media to Directly Censor News Websites

Mueller inquiry offers three lessons for the Left

Reasons to believe Vasily Prozorov's testimony about Ukraine's role in the downing of MH-17

As US influence ebbs in Iraq, Iran's flows

Trump cuts all aid programs to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador

Right time, right place? Ukraine's election watch with its far-right monitors

N. Korea demands probe into 'grave terrorist attack' on its Madrid mission

With Mueller done, Trump should seize the opportunity to improve relations with Russia

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