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Trump continues to prepare the battlefield

Brian Cates
The Epoch Times
Fri, 18 Jan 2019 15:04 UTC
Donald Trump
© Carlos Barria-Pool/Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks to the nation in his first-prime address from the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 8, 2019.
Updated: January 28

Commentary

A lot has happened since my last column. Transcripts from the congressional testimonies of three key Spygate participants-Bruce Ohr, Lisa Page, and James Baker-have been made public: two of which were revealed right here on the pages of The Epoch Times. In addition, there's been several other fascinating developments.

Let's briefly survey the current state of affairs.

Mueller Coming Up Empty

Special counsel Robert Mueller will be wrapping up his investigation into the 2016 election in the next couple of months, having found no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. And with Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz staring over his shoulder with Page's and Peter Strzok's heads hypothetically mounted on the wall behind him, Mueller knows he's in no position to try to fake anything.

It's suddenly being reported at places such as ABC News that the usual anonymous sources who've spent almost two years furiously leaking about how Mueller has President Donald Trump and his Russian spies exactly where he wants them are suddenly changing their tune and telling their media contacts that perhaps it would be best to begin managing expectations and preparing their audience for something "anti-climactic."
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Blue Planet

If the world understood sovereignty, it could end all our problems

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:01 UTC
bloomberg tweet
My own Australia has of course joined the chorus of US lackeys who are refusing to recognize Venezuela's only legitimate and elected government, recognizing instead the presidency of some guy named Juan who decided to name himself Venezuela's president with the blessing of the United States government. A statement from our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, reads as follows:
Australia recognises and supports the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, in assuming the position of interim president, in accordance with the Venezuelan constitution and until elections are held. Australia calls for a transition to democracy in Venezuela as soon as possible.

Australia supported the Lima Group's early call for Nicolas Maduro to refrain from assuming the presidency on 10 January, relayed through our non-resident Ambassador to Venezuela.

We now urge all parties to work constructively towards a peaceful resolution of the situation, including a return to democracy, respect for the rule of law and upholding of human rights of the Venezuelan people.

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

Venezuela crisis: New Zealand refuses to back Guaidó as interim president

Eleanor Ainge Roy
The Guardian
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 04:58 UTC
New Zealand Venezuela
© Miguel Gutierez/EPA
New Zealand says its concerns about the 2018 Venezuelan elections remains, but it has not taken sides in the current political crisis.
In a stark departure from its allies, the New Zealand government is refusing to take sides in the escalating Venezuelan leadership crisis, declining to give official recognition to either leader.

Last week opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself Venezuela's interim president, and quickly won the support of the US, the UK, Canada and some Latin American countries, who issued strong public statements recognising his authority. On Monday New Zealand's closest neighbour, Australia, recognised Guaidó as Venezuela's president. The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has also urged countries to "pick a side" in the crisis.

Oil-rich Venezuela is wracked with hyperinflation, rendering the bolivar currency practically worthless. Shortages in food staples and basic medicines are rampant and crime is widespread. More than 3 million Venezuelans have fled, causing consternation across the continent.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Syrian Kurds tell Washington they may join forces with Assad if US pulls out of Syria

Jack Detsch
Al-Monitor
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 12:00 UTC
kurd army syria
A top Syrian Kurdish official said today that US-backed fighters will consider integrating with the Syrian army, a potential frustration to US policy in the country after troops withdraw.

A top Syrian Kurdish official visiting Washington today said US-backed fighters would consider integrating with Bashar al-Assad's forces after the United States completes its pullout from the war-torn country.

"The Syrian Democratic Forces can be part of the new Syrian army," Ilham Ahmed, a leader in the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), said through an interpreter at the Middle East Institute today. "This is an alternative path for us."

Ahmed, who leads the executive council of the SDC, the political wing of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, said the Donald Trump administration had not objected to Syrian Kurds opening up negotiations with Damascus.

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Brain

US 'predicts' Russian progress in military tech while decreasing defense spending


RT
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 11:42 UTC
submarine russia
© Reuters / Sergey Mamontov
The launching ceremony for the nuclear submarine cruiser K-561 Kazan in Russia's Severodvinsk.
US intelligence chief Daniel Coats was not mistaken to say that Russia will keep modernizing its military this year, an expert told RT, expanding on the country's newest developments in air defense, submarines and electronics.

The US Director of National Intelligence shared his assessments of Russia's military capabilities with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. Despite its defense budget decreasing to 3.8 percent of GDP in 2019, Russia will "continue to modernize the entire military but particularly will make progress in its air defense, submarine, and electronic warfare capabilities," Coats said.

"There's no doubt that Russia occupies the leading position in the world when it comes to anti-aircraft missile defense systems," Mikhail Khodarenok, military expert and retired colonel who served in Russian missile defense forces, told RT.

Comment: That Russia and China combined spend a fraction of what the US does on their military and can still outdo them in both ingenuity and strategy, and all the while Russia is able to decrease spending, says a lot about the state of the ailing US as hegemon: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Putin The World To Rights: Russia's New Nuclear Weapons And The End of 'Unipolarity'

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Megaphone

Salvini's border control and migrant policy reduces arrivals to Italy by 95%


Breitbart
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 02:09 UTC
salvini
© GIAN MATTIA D'ALBERTO/AFP/Getty Images
Italy has seen a radical drop in migrant arrivals in January under the migration policy of populist interior minister Matteo Salvini, down around 95 percent compared to January 2018.

The interior minister compared the approach of the previous government under the left-wing Democratic Party of January 2018 with the populist coalition of the Five Star Movement and the League with Salvini saying, "the data shows that the Democratic Party had not blocked arrivals," Il Giornale reports.

The official data showed that 3,176 illegal immigrants arrived in Italy in January 2018 under the leadership of the Democratic Party which had told Italians they were actively working to reduce the number of landings and had reduced the number somewhat compared to 2017.

Comment: The EU would be radically different if politicians were to keep to their word and work for the people like Italy's Salvini: Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Weapons of Mass Migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe's Migrant Crisis

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War Whore

Could Bolton's mysterious '5,000 troops to Colombia' signal preparations for US invasion in Venezuela? - UPDATE


South Front
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 10:57 UTC
John Bolton
On January 29th, US President Donald Trump's public events schedule is completely vacant. More than likely, the POTUS will spend the day if not more discussing the regime change policy and efforts aimed at Venezuela.

On the previous day, Trump signed an executive order aimed at "Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Venezuela."
"The Executive Order I have issued accounts for the swearing in of a legitimate Interim President of Venezuela, and addresses actions by persons affiliated with the illegitimate Maduro regime, including human rights violations and abuses in response to anti-Maduro protests, arbitrary arrest and detention of anti‑Maduro protestors, curtailment of press freedom, harassment of political opponents, and continued attempts to undermine the Interim President of Venezuela and undermine the Venezuelan National Assembly," the Presidential Message accompanying the order stated.
Shortly thereafter, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), pursuing the abovementioned executive order.


Comment: Military intervention was never 'off the table' to begin with. Back in June 2018:
The US president also continued to push this idea on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2017. According to AP, he discussed the issue during a private dinner with the leaders of four Latin American countries, including Colombia. Trump allegedly went as far as to ask each of the leaders personally if they are "sure" they did not want a "military solution" to the Venezuelan political crisis that the Latin American country was facing through 2017.

However, the US president eventually failed to garner support for his plans both from the regional leaders and his own administration officials. The Latin American Mercosur trade bloc, which includes Brazil and Argentina among others, particularly issued a statement, which said that "the only acceptable means of promoting democracy are dialogue and diplomacy." The Ecuadorian President also ruled out any intervention by saying that Venezuela is free to pursue its own path while the former Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff warned that Trump's actions might lead to a full-scale war in Latin America.
Though it was not widely supported, now that many Latin American countries (including Brazil and Argentina) are siding with the US in supporting Guiado's illegitimate claim, perhaps they will garner the support they need to make such a move, however ill-advised that may be.

UPDATE: 30th January 2018 at 13:00

RT reports that Colombian officials claim they were unaware of Bolton's apparent memo regarding 5,000 US troops and Colombia:
Colombia has dismissed speculation regarding a puzzling memo from John Bolton, which mentioned 5,000 US troops being sent to the Latin American nation, affirming that it will rely on politics and diplomacy in the Venezuela crisis.

Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes said he is unaware of the "importance and reason" behind John Bolton's memo, noting that his country will only act "politically and diplomatically" in dealing with Venezuela.

The South American nation shares a 2,200km land border with Venezuela and has sided with the US in piling pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government. Recently, Bogota backed Juan Guaido, the opposition leader who proclaimed himself to be the interim president of Venezuela.

The tight-lipped remark came in response to news from the White House on Monday, when US National Security Advisor John Bolton was spotted holding up a yellow legal notebook during a press briefing on Venezuela.

The first line written on the pad appeared to say: "Afghanistan - welcome the talks," while the second one read: "5,000 troops to Colombia." The White House was conspicuously reluctant to clarify the meaning of the note, and distributed the same brief comment to multiple news agencies: "As the president has said, all options are on the table."
Fort Russ reports on Venezuela's response to deploy military to their border with Colombia - and this is amidst Venezuela's most important military drills "in our history", according to Maduro:
MAJOR: Venezuela Deploys Military to Columbian Border

Venezuela is strengthening its positions on the border with Colombia. Army artillery units and tanks have been moved to the area to defend the country from any American intervention or similar.

Images were posted by residents of eastern Venezuela on social networks, images that show the movement of armored vehicles from the Venezuelan army to the border with Colombia.

Residents of eastern Venezuela posted videos showing the movement of armored vehicles from the Venezuelan army to the Colombian border.

A video was posted on a political activist's Twitter account showing a military convoy that included Russian recently ordered 2S19 MSTA-S heavy artillery systems on the road to the Colombian border.


Venezuela is strengthening its positions along the border with Colombia after the military threats made by the United States.

Since the failed coup of Juan Guaido, sponsored by the United States and the crisis it provoked in Venezuela, analysts put forward an assumption that the United States was considering withdrawing its military troops from Afghanistan and Syria to deploy them on the border between Colombia and Venezuela.

However, according to the Colombian Ministry of Defense, Colombia would not provide the United States with military bases so that they could launch a possible military invasion of Venezuela.

The US administration threatened the Venezuelan state directly. A warning was issued Sunday, Jan. 27, by Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, suggesting that the United States would provide a "meaningful response" to threats against "the opposition."

"Any violence and intimidation against the American diplomatic staff, the Democratic leader of Venezuela, Juan Guaido or the National Assembly itself, would represent a serious aggression against the rule of law and will result in a significant response," tweeted John Bolton, Donald Trump's National Security Advisor.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is working to end the crisis in the country through preventive measures to block the path of intervention by the United States and their partners.

He enjoys the support of the people, having been elected in the 2018 elections, the army and the Supreme Court.

The Venezuelan Supreme Court immediately denounced the unilateral decision of the opponents while the army announced its support for Maduro: the Venezuelan army will defend the Constitution and the sovereignty of the country and will not recognize the president of the Parliament Juan Guaido in as president of the country, said Wednesday evening, at the very moment of the coup, the Minister of Defense Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

The events that occur in this Latin American country are not the result of chance. Some US administration officials say the wick was lit in December or more precisely when Russia said it wanted to buy a permanent military base in Latin America.

US President Donald Trump and his advisers believe that there is a triangle in Latin America (Brazil's border with Argentina and Paraguay) that the Lebanese Hezbollah would benefit politically. and economically. The White House believes that if Hezbollah moved to the center of this triangle, it could become a "source of danger for the United States."

translated by and for FRN from Reseauinternational
Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: US Regime Change Operation in Venezuela - This Time It's Legit?

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Oil Well

Venezuela Crisis: The US Has Painted Itself Into a Corner


South Front
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 11:27 UTC
Written and produced by SF Team: J.Hawk, Daniel Deiss, Edwin Watson
venezuela oil
Venezuela has the dubious fortune of being located on the continent of South America, which the United States has treated under the so-called "Monroe Doctrine" as its exclusive zone of political, economic, and military influence. In practical terms it meant that whenever a Latin American government pursued a policy at odds with Washington's preferences, it would be subjected to measures ranging from economic sanctions to outright military invasion.

Latin America became one of the many battlefields of the Cold War when several countries sought to leave the US shadow and align themselves with USSR. The US retaliation was harsh, and included the support for the brutal military coup in Chile, training of "death squads" in Honduras and El Salvador, support for the so-called Contras in Nicaragua, not to mention the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Once the Cold War was over, however, a relative peace settled over the region, with Cuba remaining the only hold-out against US power. Even the coming to power of soft Marxist "pink wave" governments in Venezuela and Bolivia did not seem to overly ruffle Washington's feathers. But the current escalation of the US campaign against Venezuela suggests a revival of US activism in the region.

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Info

Some Dems float idea of primary challenge for Ocasio-Cortez

Scott Wong
The Hill
Tue, 29 Jan 2019 06:00 UTC
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has infuriated colleagues by aligning with a progressive outside group that's threatening to primary entrenched Democrats. Now some of those lawmakers are turning the tables on her and are discussing recruiting a primary challenger to run against the social media sensation.

At least one House Democrat has been privately urging members of the New York delegation to recruit a local politician from the Bronx or Queens to challenge Ocasio-Cortez.

"What I have recommended to the New York delegation is that you find her a primary opponent and make her a one-term congressperson," the Democratic lawmaker, who requested anonymity, told The Hill. "You've got numerous council people and state legislators who've been waiting 20 years for that seat. I'm sure they can find numerous people who want that seat in that district."

Comment: While it's nice to see some of these establishment Democrats get put in their place, the progressive agenda is insidious and is likely more dangerous than the status quo.

See also:

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Bad Guys

George Galloway: The mystery of the seized Venezuelan gold

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 30 Jan 2019 10:31 UTC
Gold ingots
© Global Look Press / Bundesbank
Gold ingots
Pirates don't have to look like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. They can fly the Union Jack rather than the skull and crossbones. They can be called the Bank of England rather than the Jolly Roger.

The 'Old Lady of Threadneedle Street' is a port in a stormy world for all kinds of countries in which to moor their national wealth. And it's not even necessarily voluntary.

After the fall of the communist regime in Albania, I had a brief tenure as joint chairman of the Britain-Albania Society with the Tory MP Steve Norris. He and I had to move mountains to try and persuade the British government (which then entirely controlled the Bank of England) to give the Albanians back their gold, which had been seized by the British during Second World War.
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