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'Playing Secretary of State': Israeli stooge DeSantis lambasted for holding Florida cabinet meeting in Jerusalem


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 08:52 UTC
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
© Gage Skidmore | Flickr via Creative CommonsFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his cabinet kicked off controversy after conducting an official meeting on Israeli soil, prompting a flurry of criticism from watchdog groups and constituents alike.

DeSantis and his cabinet met Wednesday at the US Embassy in Jerusalem to proclaim support for the Jewish state and sign a bill prohibiting anti-Semitism in Florida's public schools. DeSantis, who has promised to be the "most pro-Israel governor in America," called the meeting "historic."

Comment: More on DeSantis:

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Dollar Gold

SOTT Focus: What is Behind Canada's Poisoned Relationship with China?

Matthew Ehret
Sott.net
Thu, 30 May 2019 10:52 UTC
freeland pompeo huawei
Watching Canada's behaviour towards China over the past several months has been like watching a train-wreck in slow motion, and one could not be blamed for coming to the conclusion that this display of consistent diplomatic incompetence on the part of Canadian policy-makers is intentional.

Believe it or not, efforts were being made by Canada's government to work with China not that long ago. Years of planning had been put into consolidating a Canada-China Free Trade Agreement, and Canada signed up to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in March 2017.

So what went wrong, and how did it happen so quickly?

How We Got Here

In its first two years in power, Canada's Liberal government could not help but speak down to China in an apparent attempt to pressure this developing superpower to 'go more green', reform their governance system and 'behave better' on corruption and human rights. This detached and condescending voice was not only alienating to China, but demonstrated the height of hypocrisy as Canada has never been known to treat its indigenous people justly or be free of corrupt practices at the highest levels (see the SNC Lavalin affair, for example).

The failure of this elitist strategy only dawned on Trudeau and his controllers when the Prime Minister returned red-faced from his Beijing trip in December 2017, having been given the clear message that the Free Trade Deal and dreams of a 'special relationship' were finished.
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USA

Best of the Web: NOT satire: US Energy Department rebrands LNG 'Freedom Gas', looks forward to 'exporting molecules of US freedom around the world'


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 09:59 UTC
lng tanker us flag
"Here we are world! It's more expensive, but that's because it's imbued with FREEDOM!"
The US Energy Department has renamed liquefied natural gas (LNG) "freedom gas" in a last-ditch effort to convince European and Asian markets its product is superior to cheaper supplies piped in from Russia.

The energy agency trumpeted the expansion of its Freeport, Texas LNG Terminal, boasting of a new facility constructed specifically to supply so-called "freedom gas" to those countries that don't have a free trade agreement with the US - huge markets like China and the EU that are, coincidentally, about to increase their purchases of cheaper Russian gas through nearly-completed pipelines due to open by the end of the year.

"Increasing export capacity from the Freeport LNG project is critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world by giving America's allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy," US Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes proclaimed at the Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in Vancouver, Canada.


Comment: Even the port it departs from is composed of freedom!


Comment: Remember 'Freedom Fries'?

fries chips
Now you too can taste real freedom by cooking freedom fries with molecules of freedom gas!

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Stock Down

Human costs of US 'regime change' in Venezuela: Hyperinflation hit 130,000% last year


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 09:45 UTC
Bolivar notes Venezuelan currency
© Reuters / Carlos Garcia RawlinsBolivar notes
Venezuela's inflation has been soaring dramatically and reached 130,060 percent in 2018, the country's central bank said in its first report on key economic indicators since 2015.

The latest data from the watchdog released on Tuesday means that an item that cost 1 bolivar in 2017, cost 1,300 bolivares a year later. Even compared to the huge inflation spike in 2017 of 862.6 percent, last year was disastrous for the country's economy.

Venezuela's central bank published its previous report three years ago. Before the latest release, inflation data and forecasts were published by the opposition-controlled National Assembly and some international organizations. For example, the International Monetary Fund projected an inflation of over 10 million percent for this and next year.
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Bad Guys

Glenn Greenwald: US war on Assange a 'blueprint' for criminalizing journalism


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 09:45 UTC
Julian Assange protest
© Reuters / Henry Nicholls
The latest indictments of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange are a blueprint for making journalists into felons, a test case for dismantling the First Amendment that will destroy journalism as we know it, Glenn Greenwald warned.

"If Assange can be declared guilty of espionage for working with sources to obtain and publish information deemed 'classified' by the US government, then there's nothing to stop the criminalization of every other media outlet that routinely does the same," Greenwald wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday, highlighting what he considers "the greatest threat to press freedom in the Trump era, if not the last several decades."

By redefining Assange's actions as "espionage" rather than "journalism" or "publishing," the Trump administration seeks to exempt him from legal protections governing speech that belong to everyone, from the Post itself to the lowliest blogger, the Intercept editor and former civil rights attorney explains.
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Eye 1

Report: Sanctioned TV mogul was US 'point man' in failed Venezuela coup


RT
Thu, 30 May 2019 09:45 UTC
Raúl Gorrín
© Instagram / raulgorrinbRaúl Gorrín, president of the TV network Globovision
A TV mogul wanted in the US on money laundering and bribery charges was a mediator between Washington and Caracas officials, offering them sanctions relief in exchange for turning on the government, a new report says.

One of the key figures behind the abortive April 30 uprising intended to oust President Nicolas Maduro in favor of the US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido was Raúl Gorrín, president of the TV network Globovision, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Gorrín, who fled the US after he was indicted for money laundering and bribery last November, was acting as a go-between with three senior Venezuelan officials who were seen as key to regime change in Caracas: chief justice of the Supreme Court Maikel Moreno, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, and military counter-intelligence chief General Ivan Hernández.
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Target

Austria's 'Russiagate' setup targeted EuroRealists just as much as the FPO

Andrew Korybko
Eurasia Future
Mon, 20 May 2019 12:00 UTC
Heinz-Christian Strache Johann Gudenus
© AFP / Spiegel and Sueddeutsche ZeitungHeinz-Christian Strache and party member Johann Gudenus meet with the woman in Ibiza
The most immediate target of Austria's "Russiagate" setup was obviously the Russian-friendly FPO, but the timing at which the scandal broke two years after the fact strongly suggests that the real target is the rest of the EU's EuroRealist parties ahead of the upcoming European Parliamentary elections this weekend.

Austria's "Russiagate" scandal was a "deep state" setup to to frame the leader of the FPO as an overly wiling "Russian puppet" (a role that he all too eagerly played) in order to later take down the coalition government that he was a part of precisely at the point when his country was approaching a strategic partnership with Russia, thereby allowing the Mainstream Media to reframe the rapid rapprochement between the two as a "Russian conspiracy" to "capture control" of the Central European country that forms a crucial part of both the Polish-led "Three Seas Initiative" and prospectively even China's Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). There's more to it than just that, however, as both the French Economy Minister and German Chancellor Merkel hinted in a pair of quotes that were included by Reuters in one of its recent reports on the issue.

Comment: Judging by the big wins for nationalist parties in the UK, France, and Italy, any effect the contrived scandal had was regional and will likely not be very long lasting. As for who the likely plotters were, check out SOTT's analysis: NATO 'Deep State' And Israeli Interests Served by Ousting of Austrian Government

See also: Mossad was behind video leak that led to collapse of Austrian government - German Ex-Spy Chief

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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Mossad behind video leak that collapsed Austrian government - German ex-spy chief


Sputnik
Tue, 28 May 2019 12:04 UTC
mossad
© CC0
Austrian politics has been rocked by "Ibiza-gate" allegations that the country's vice chancellor was discussing the possibility of a foreign citizen investing into a local newspaper in exchange for favourable media coverage.

Rudolf Adam, a former diplomat and deputy head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, claims that the scandal that turned Austria's politics upside down was orchestrated by Israeli secret services.

Writing for the political magazine Cicero, Adam argues that the plan to bring down Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache with an explosive video leak was unlikely to have been hatched by the United States, which is currently "fully occupied with Korea, Iran and China".

Comment: For more, check out SOTT's analysis: NATO 'Deep State' And Israeli Interests Served by Ousting of Austrian Government

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Arrow Down

Ukraine returns citizenship to eccentric fugitive former Georgian president Saakashvili


RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 11:49 UTC
Mikheil Saakashvili
© Reuters / Kacper PempelMikheil Saakashvili with reporters in Warsaw, Poland, 2018
Ukraine's newly minted President Volodymyr Zelensky has restored the Ukrainian citizenship of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and onetime governor of Odessa.

"Thank you President Zelensky! Glory to Ukraine," Saakashvili announced on Facebook on Tuesday, linking to the presidential decree granting him re-entry. Saakashvili later said he will return to Ukraine on Wednesday.

Saakashvili served as Georgia's head of state from 2004 to 2007, and again from 2008 to 2013. He presided over the caucasian state during its conflict with Russia in 2008, and traded his Georgian citizenship for Ukrainian papers in 2015. After serving as governor of the Odessa region, Saakashvili was booted from Ukraine by then-President Petro Poroshenko in 2017, and barred from entering the country until 2021.

Comment: Mikheil Saakashvili: The tie-eating, rabble rousing nutball the neocons wanted in NATO

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Bizarro Earth

Tehran "ready for war" with US, but hopes for dialogue and peace - Iran's deputy FM


RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 10:11 UTC
Iranian Army
© Reuters / Raheb HomavandiFILE PHOTO: Members of the Iranian Army
Iran is prepared for the possibility of war with the United States, but hopes instead that tensions between the two nations can be solved with dialogue, the country's deputy foreign minister has said.

"We hope that we can start a dialogue, but we are ready for war," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told RIA Novosti.

He stressed that Iran was aware of "certain elements" within the US government pushing for war with Iran, even though such a conflict would be "catastrophic" for the entire Middle East.

"We know that there are certain elements and people who are trying to push the United States to war with Iran for their own ends. However, we hope that wisdom will prevail in Washington," he said.

Comment: Trump said himself that, despite what he wants to do, there are some in the US who are always pushing for war:
'You know what I'll do, I'll leave a couple hundred soldiers behind,' but if it was up to them, they'd bring thousands of soldiers in. Someday people will explain it, but you do have a group, and they call it the military-industrial complex. They never want to leave. They always want to fight."
See also:

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