Puppet Masters
Bolsonaro's visit was not published on his agenda and members of the press were barred at the door while the president and his justice minister, Sergio Moro, hobnobbed with the spooks at the agency's Langley HQ.
Moro, as Ben Norton pointed out on Twitter, led Operation Car Wash - the "money laundering investigation" that resulted in former President Dilma Rousseff's replacement with the US-linked Michel Temer.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) with his cabinet as they introduce the administration's National Development Plan 2019-2024. March 17, 2019
During the unveiling of the administration's National Development Plan 2019-2024, AMLO said: "The neoliberal model and its economic policy of pillage and handouts are abolished" in the country.
The head of state added: "The nightmare that was the neoliberal policy (is) finished. We formally declare, from the National Palace, the end of the neoliberal policy."
Comment: One wonders how well President Obrador's new direction will play in Washington. The deep state may well look at this as a rebellion of a vassal.
- Political earthquake in Mexico: Leftist AMLO achieves historic landslide election victory
- State Dept. warns 'narco-terrorism' will worsen under Mexico's new President
- Who is López Obrador? Mexico's AMLO, Trump and the error of comparison
- Can President-elect Lopez Obrador pull Mexico out of the grip of the US imperial grasp?
- Mexico's president rejects Venezuela coup - takes stand against US imperialism
The coup was losing momentum. Then, on March 7, just days after Guaidó's anti-climactic return to Caracas, the country was plunged into a nationwide blackout from which it has not yet fully recovered. What caused it? How is it related to the "regime change" attempt? And, most importantly, what are imperialism's plans and how can they be fought?
February 23 was supposed to be the coup's D-Day. The idea was never to actually deliver "humanitarian aid" into the country, but rather to create a "people's power" moment, where large crowds of opposition supporters on both sides of the border defied the Venezuelan armed forces, which, when faced with a large crowd of peaceful demonstrators, would then switch sides and join Trump's puppet, Juan Guaidó. On the day, however, things did not go according to Washington's plan. The crowds of opposition supporters did not materialise in the expected numbers. "Aid" trucks did not cross the border and by the end of the day, Rubio, Abrams and Guaidó were left with egg all over their faces.
We can see how he works if we look at how Mueller ran his second-most important investigation as FBI Director. In September of 2001, an entity began mailing anthrax through the US Postal system, hitting such prominent targets as NBC and Senator Daschle's office. The terrorist attacks killed five and left others hospitalized. The world panicked.
Under Mueller's management, the FBI launched an investigation lasting ten years. They now brag about spending "hundreds of thousands of investigator hours on this case." Let's take a closer look at Mueller's response to understand the context of the investigation - who his people investigated, targeted, and found guilty.

A worker is seen inside a Boeing 737 MAX 9 at the Renton plant. The circular sensor seen at bottom right measures the plane’s angle of attack, the angle between the airflow and the wing. This sensor on 737 MAX planes is under scrutiny as a possible cause of two recent fatal crashes.
As Boeing hustled in 2015 to catch up to Airbus and certify its new 737 MAX, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) managers pushed the agency's safety engineers to delegate safety assessments to Boeing itself, and to speedily approve the resulting analysis.
But the original safety analysis that Boeing delivered to the FAA for a new flight control system on the MAX - a report used to certify the plane as safe to fly - had several crucial flaws.
Comment: Asking a company to regulate itself is inherently flawed which is why there's supposed to be independent oversight.
That flight control system, called MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System), is now under scrutiny after two crashes of the jet in less than five months resulted in Wednesday's FAA order to ground the plane.
Comment: See also:
- China vindicated in grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 8, rightfully challenges US authority in worldwide civil aviation
- Governments worldwide ground Boeing 737 MAX, mystery "new data" emerges: What do we know so far? UPDATE: Boeing 'pauses' deliveries
- See ya: Indonesia's Lion Air planning Airbus order switch after second Boeing 737 Max crash in 5 months
- US pilots reported major problem with Boeing 737 MAX late last year: Sudden downward pitching
- China and Russia take on aviation giants Boeing and Airbus in launch of joint venture to build wide-body commercial jet
- Faulty US welding delays Britain's new £31 billion nuclear missiles
- Poland balks at "unacceptable" $10.5 billion cost for US Patriot missiles that don't work
- 'No money for faulty F-35s' government auditors tell Congress
- US Navy destroyer crashes into Philippine container ship near Japanese coast - Update: 7 found dead, at least 3 injured
- Seahawk helicopter of most 'disaster-prone' fleet crashes on flight deck of USS 'Ronald Reagan' in Philippine Sea
The sparring threatened to spiral out of control and only interventions by U.S. officials, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, headed off a bigger conflict, five sources familiar with the events have told Reuters.
At one stage, India threatened to fire at least six missiles at Pakistan, and Islamabad said it would respond with its own missile strikes "three times over," said Western diplomats and government sources in New Delhi, Islamabad and Washington.
Comment: It's notable how often these days China and Russia are at the center of creating peace, whether by their diplomatic efforts or through business partnerships:
- Pakistan-India showdown: What you're not being told
- Pakistan pivoting from US to China, Saudi Arabia & UAE
- No de-escalation in sight! Russia and China warn India-Pakistan skirmishes can easily spiral into war
"Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?" the Florida senator piously tweeted, lifting a verse from Luke for reasons which will forever remain a mystery.
As Rubio is one of the most vocal cheerleaders for forcefully reshuffling the government in Caracas, while simultaneously serving as an altar boy for American exceptionalism, his divine message struggled to resonate with many Twitter users.
"Why do you notice the crisis in Venezuela (caused by the US) but do not perceive the crisis in your own country? 41 million live in poverty, 13 million kids are hungry & drug overdose deaths are soaring thanks to pharmaceutical industry. Where's your aid for them Little Marco?" fired back journalist Anya Parampil.
Comment: If there is one thing Twitter is good for, it is psychos like Rubio exposing their disconnect with reality. See also:
- Twitter mercilessly roasts Rubio for blaming Venezuelan power outages on explosion at imaginary 'German dam'
- American Psycho: US 'conservative' congressman Marco Rubio posts tweet of Gaddafi's lynching as threat to Venezuela's Maduro

Chinese and Russian marines hug during a joint naval drill in Zhanjiang, south China’s Guangdong Province, Sept. 14, 2016.
What if the rules are defined and ratified by all countries of the world, but a small group of the strongest (militarily) nations totally ignores them, while using its professional propagandists to reinterpret them in the most bizarre ways?
Describing the world, I often feel that I am back in my primary school.
When I was a child, I had the misfortune of growing up in a racist Czechoslovakia. Being born in the Soviet Union, and having an half Russian and half Asian mother, I was brutally beaten up between classes, from the age of seven. I was systematically attacked by a gang of boys, and humiliated and hit for having 'Asian ears', for having an 'Asian mother', for being Russian. During winters, my shoes were taken out into the bitter cold and pissed into. The urine turned into ice. The only consolation was that 'at least' I was Russian and Chinese. If I was a Gypsy (Roma) boy, I would most likely not have made it, at least without losing an eye, or without having my hands broken.
I tried to be polite. I did my best to 'play by the rules'. I fought back, first only half-heartedly.

Girls demonstrate against the Saudi-led coalition outside the UN's offices in Sana'a, Yemen.
Armed Forces Minister Mark Lancaster was responding to a question in parliament from Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, on military personnel seconded to BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia, when he admitted that the RAF have provided engineering and "generic training" to the Saudi Air Force involved in the bombing of Yemen.
"RAF personnel on secondment to BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia have provided routine engineering support for UK-supplied aircraft operated by the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), including aircraft engaged in military operations in Yemen."Lancaster insisted UK personnel were not involved in the loading of weapons for operational sorties, in response to Russell-Moyle's claim that the "British support keeps Saudi's air war going."
Comment: See also:

India's Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers patrol along the fenced border with Pakistan in Ranbir Singh Pura sector near Jammu February 26, 2019.
At one stage, India threatened to fire at least six missiles at Pakistan, and Islamabad said it would respond with its own missile strikes "three times over", according to Western diplomats and government sources in New Delhi, Islamabad and Washington.
The way in which tensions suddenly worsened and threatened to trigger a war between the nuclear-armed nations shows how the Kashmir region, which both claim and is at the core of their enmity, remains one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints.
The exchanges did not get beyond threats, and there was no suggestion that the missiles involved were anything more than conventional weapons, but they created consternation in official circles in Washington, Beijing and London.
Comment: See also:
- How Modi changed the India-Pakistan paradigm, and forced its neighbor to confront terrorism
- Pakistan didn't violate the Geneva Convention, it instead confirmed its adherence
- No de-escalation in sight! Russia and China warn India-Pakistan skirmishes can easily spiral into war
- India's geopolitical hate for Pakistan is being used by the US to sabotage the North-South Transport Corridor
- Kashmir crisis: Though tempers run high, India and Pakistan to avoid all-out war say analysts










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