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Bad Guys

Did Trump float 'military option' in Venezuela with war-hawk Lindsey Graham?

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 19:23 UTC
trump maduro
Military option on the table - that's what Axios reporter Jonathan Swan was told when discussing the Venezuela crisis with Sen. Lindsey Graham. In a breaking exclusive Sunday evening, Axios has revealed key explosive contents of a recent meeting between President Trump and Sen. Graham wherein the president "mused to him about the possibility of using military force in Venezuela, where the U.S. government is currently pushing for regime change using diplomatic and economic pressures." According to Axios:
Graham, recalling his conversation with Trump a couple weeks ago, said: "He [Trump] said, 'What do you think about using military force?' and I said, 'Well, you need to go slow on that, that could be problematic.' And he said, 'Well, I'm surprised, you want to invade everybody.'"

Graham laughed. "And I said, 'I don't want to invade everybody, I only want to use the military when our national security interests are threatened.'"
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Chess

Russia drops US dollar in major arms deals with China


RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 19:24 UTC
Russian S-400 Triumph
© Reuters / Sergey KarpukhinRussian S-400 Triumph medium-range and long-range surface-to-air missile systems
Russia's Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation announced the start of negotiations with its Chinese counterparts in an effort to counter off Washington's sanctions.

"We are holding negotiations with our Chinese partners. The most important thing is to avoid disparities in other sectors due to the transition to mutual settlements in national currencies," the service's chief Dmitry Shugayev told NTV.

He added: "However, the sanctions have another negative aspect, namely to intimidate our partners quite unceremoniously."
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Gold Bar

Venezuela devalues currency to align it with black market


RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 21:48 UTC
Venezuela currency
© Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS
Venezuela has devalued the bolivar, in an attempt to align the currency's value with the country's black market, AFP reported. Amid hyperinflation, many Venezuelans rely on the black market to gauge the currency's value.

The Central Bank of Venezuela announced the devaluation on Monday and reported that the Interbanex private exchange platform would be allowed to exchange money in the country at a rate determined by supply and demand.

Interbanex has said that its exchange is rate 3,200 sovereign bolivars per US dollar.
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Bad Guys

Facebook launches censorship centers in Dublin and Singapore to police alternative news coverage during elections


RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 21:26 UTC
facebook
© REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Facebook will set up two new centers to monitor "election integrity," based in Dublin and Singapore. These centers will tackle fake news and hate speech, and will probably trigger fresh accusations of censorship.

After its hands-off approach to content policing led to accusations of fake news and misinformation in 2016, Facebook dramatically ramped up its content-policing efforts in the run-up to November's midterm elections in the US. The social media giant partnered up with third-party 'fact checkers' to vet news content, trained an AI to spot and remove "false news stories," introduced transparency rules for political advertisements, and went as far as building a physical "war room" to monitor elections for "foreign interference" in real-time.

Now, the social media giant is taking its aggressive approach worldwide.
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Calendar

EU prepares 'mechanism' to enable trade with Iran amidst US sanctions and waivers


Sputnik
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 08:24 UTC
iran oil
© AP Photo / Raheb Homavandi
The UK, France and Germany are set to announce the establishment of a financial mechanism to help their businesses trade with Iran despite US sanctions, according to a draft document obtained by Bloomberg.

The announcement of a special purpose vehicle might happen as soon as Monday, two diplomats familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, asking not to be identified as last-minute negotiations on the wording of the EU statement are still on-going.

The mechanism comes as part of the EU's effort to uphold the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The countries that signed the JCPOA agreed to lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for the Islamic Republic keeping peaceful character of its nuclear programme. The US pulled out of the deal back in May, reimposing sanctions.

Comment: Of course the EU is looking for a work around, look how many other countries are continuing business with Iran via US 'waivers' while the EU loses out. It's likely the US is content with having a threat to hang over Iran until a more opportune time presents itself.

See also:

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Attention

The forthcoming destruction of the 'Caribbean Basin'

Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet.org
Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Caribbean Basin map
© Response NetCaribbean Basin
President Trump has announced the withdrawal of US combat troops from the Greater Middle East, but the Pentagon is still pursuing the implementation of the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski plan. This time the aim is to destroy the States of the 'Caribbean Basin'. This is nothing like the overthrow of pro-Soviet regimes, as in the 1970's, but the destruction of all regional State structures, without consideration for friends or political enemies. Thierry Meyssan observes the preparations for this new series of wars.

In a series of previous articles, we presented the SouthCom plan to provoke wars between the Latin-American nations in order to destroy the structures of all the States in the 'Caribbean Basin' [1]. Preparations for wars of this magnitude, intended to follow on from the conflicts in the Greater Middle East according to the Rumsfeld-Cebrowski strategy, requires a decade [2].

After the period of economic destabilisation [3] and that of military preparation, the actual operation should begin in the years to come by an attack on Venezuela by Brazil (supported by Israël), Colombia (an ally of the United States) and Guyana (in other words, the United Kingdom). It will be followed by others, beginning with Cuba and Nicaragua (the 'troïka of tyranny' according to John Bolton).

Comment: If even half of the scenarios above come to fruition, it would create an apocalyptic turn of events for S.A. No question there is such in the works.

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Arrow Up

Govt. shutdown cost the US more than Trump's wall demand

Michael B. Kelley
Yahoo
Sat, 26 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC
Govt shutdown cost chart
© S&P/Getty Images.jpg
Lost productivity from furloughed workers and weakened economic activity during the 35-day partial government shutdown cost the U.S. economy at least $6 billion, according to a new analysis from S&P Global Ratings.

On Friday, after staff shortages caused disruptions at some of that nation's busiest airports, President Donald Trump agreed to end the longest-ever shutdown without Congress fulfilling his demand of $5.7 billion for a border wall. Congress then passed seven stopgap spending bills to fund affected government agencies through February 15.

"Although this shutdown has ended, little agreement on Capitol Hill will likely weigh on business confidence and financial market sentiments," S&P said in a news release.

'Direct impacts of the government shutdown will flow through GDP'

On January 22, The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) estimated the cost of the shutdown to be $26 billion. That would be more than four times as much as Trump demanded for a border wall."

Comment: Entrenched disagreement has a steep price, not only financial.

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Stock Up

Bolton admits US interest in Venezuela's 'oil capabilities' as 'good for business'


RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 16:33 UTC
Bolton
© UnknownNational Security Advisor John Bolton
With the Venezuela crisis escalating after the US' provocative intervention against elected leader Nicolas Maduro last week, an honest admission by National Security Advisor John Bolton was overlooked by the media: It's about oil.

Trump's top adviser, who has been branded the most fervent hawk in the administration, has admitted that Washington is heavily invested in political outcomes in Caracas particularly because of Venezuela's vast untapped oil reserves.

Indeed, it just so happens that Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves.

Speaking to Fox Business host Trish Regan, Bolton said that the US had "a lot at stake" in Venezuela's political crisis, specifically citing the country's oil and the economic benefit it could bring to the US. "It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela."

Comment: See also: The forthcoming destruction of the 'Caribbean Basin'

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Brain

'Conspiracy derangement' strikes again: Even Bernie Sanders is a Russian agent, argues MSM journalist


RT
Sun, 27 Jan 2019 18:51 UTC
Bernie Sanders
© Democratic socialist or Russian agent? Senator Bernie SandersReuters/Yuri GripasDemocratic socialist or Russian agent? Senator Bernie Sanders
Progressive godfather Bernie Sanders is rumored to be ready to announce a run for the presidency in 2020. He's the most popular senator in the US, but according to one columnist, he's also an agent of Putin. Yes, really.

Senator Bernie Sanders didn't run in 2016 to push his bold platform of economic and social justice on America. No, instead his campaign was orchestrated by the Kremlin to divide the left and help Donald Trump take the presidency. At least that's according to former New York Times columnist, and current Wired editor and Los Angeles Times writer, Virginia Heffernan.

Many of his 2016 supporters, she tweeted on Saturday, were "Kremlin minions." For evidence, Heffernan relies on indictments against the Russian Internet Research Agency "troll farm" - claims that have never, and will never be proven in court.

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Attention

FM Arreaza: 'US not just behind Venezuelan coup, it is leading it'


RT
Mon, 28 Jan 2019 10:45 UTC
FM Jorge Arreaza
© RT SpanishVenezuela's FM Jorge Arreaza
Venezuela is well aware the US is actually leading an effort to topple President Maduro, but is ready to sit down with the Western-backed opposition and could be doing so "in half an hour," the country's Foreign Minister told RT.

Hitting back at the Western pressure, Venezuelan government will now focus its efforts on "the main leader of the coup, the 'director of the circus,' namely, the US government, Mr Trump and his representatives."

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza gave an inteview to RT Spanish on Sunday. Without further ado, he accused Washington of spearheading what he said an effort to overthrow democratically elected President Nicolas Maduro. "The US government is not just behind the coup but is leading it. We are focused on neutralizing Washington's attacks."

Adding to a US-led pressure for President Maduro to step aside, Spain, France, Germany and the UK on Saturday issued the elected leader an ultimatum, calling on Maduro to call for new elections within eight days.


Comment: Does Venezuela have enough global backup to make US back down?
See also: The forthcoming destruction of the 'Caribbean Basin'

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