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Arrow Up

Italy remains independent as EU states fold like cheap tents to US demands on Venezuela

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 13:45 UTC
Protesters Italy
© Getty Images/Stefano Montesi-CorbisProtestors demonstrate solidarity for president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro against the external interference of USA and their allies in front of the Venezuelan Embassy, January 26, 2019, Rome, Italy.
As the former British prime minister Harold Macmillan would have put it, "It's not one damned thing, it's one damned thing after another."

For the European Union, Italy has become that turbulent priest of whom they wish they could be rid, the fly in the ointment, the spanner in the works of neo-liberalism and war. If this is what they mean by "populism," it's little wonder that all roads increasingly lead to Rome.

There were sanctions on Russia, the flow of refugees from wars declared and waged by others, austerity budgets, and now the comic-opera farce of the recognition of Super-Bowl winner Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela. He didn't really win the Super Bowl of course; in fact he didn't even take part. But then he didn't take part in the internationally recognized presidential election in Venezuela either. On all these matters, Italy has resisted alignment with both Brussels and Washington, and has become probably the most independent country left in Europe.

Comment: Italy has set a standard most Western countries could, but will not match.

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Health

Top Pelosi aide privately suggests insurance execs not to stress over Dems pushing 'Medicare for all'

Ryan Grim
The Intercept
Tue, 05 Feb 2019 06:00 UTC
Wendell Primus
© FlickrWendell Primus, Chief Health Advisor to House Speaker Pelosi
Less than a month after Democrats - many of them running on "Medicare for All" - won back control of the House of Representatives in November, the top health policy aide to then-prospective House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Blue Cross Blue Shield executives and assured them that party leadership had strong reservations about single-payer health care and was more focused on lowering drug prices, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

Pelosi adviser Wendell Primus detailed five objections to Medicare for All and said that Democrats would be allies to the insurance industry in the fight against single-payer health care. Primus pitched the insurers on supporting Democrats on efforts to shrink drug prices, specifically by backing a number of measures that the pharmaceutical lobby is opposing.

Primus, in a slide presentation obtained by The Intercept, criticized single payer on the basis of cost ("Monies are needed for other priorities"), opposition ("Stakeholders are against; Creates winners and losers"), and "implementation challenges." We have recreated the slides for source protection purposes.

Democrats, Primus said, are united around the concept of universal coverage, but see strengthening the Affordable Care Act as the means to that end. He made his presentation to the Blue Cross executives on December 4. "We don't discuss private meetings, if there was such a meeting," said a BCBS spokesperson. Primus said that he did not discuss any kind of deal with the insurers. Henry Connelly, a spokesperson for Pelosi, said that the assessment of single payer was not related to any dealmaking with the industry.

Comment: Healthcare has always been a big tangled mess.

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Wine n Glass

Foreign policy analysts compare Trump's SOTU address to 'Neo-con wine in a new America First bottle'


RT
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 17:58 UTC
Trump/USAF
© REUTERS/Leah Millis; Mario AnzuoniPresident Trump during SOTU address • USAF
Donald Trump's State of the Union speech sent mixed messages about where the president stands on foreign policy, analysts told RT, as his anti-intervention views clash with his threats against Iran and Venezuela.

While the commander-in-chief praised US troops serving in Afghanistan and Syria as having "fought with valor," he gave little indication of a timeline for a possible pull-out from the region, despite previous sentiments to the contrary. The omission did not sit well with analysts.

Michael Maloof, a former Pentagon official, told RT that Trump's failure to provide specifics about a withdrawal timeline from the warzones was disappointing - especially because the president had earlier indicated that troops would be returning home in the near future.

The president likely "glossed over" a withdrawal timeline because it would have been "very controversial,"Maloof suggested, adding that ultimately, Trump may even embrace his cabinet's "neo-conservative approach to foreign policy."


Comment: Timeline for withdrawal: While we all would like the date, the chances of it being accurate is close to nil. It is not really, truly, ever, only the president's decision. It is what he is allowed to do and when he is allowed to do it.

More from RT: Iranian FM on Trump's SOTU: US support of 'dictators, butchers & extremists' ruined Middle East
"Dictators, butchers and extremists" backed by the US are leaving the Middle East in ruins, Iran's foreign minister said, after Donald Trump labeled his country "the world's leading sponsor of terror" and a "corrupt dictatorship."

"Iranians - including our Jewish compatriots - are commemorating 40 years of progress despite US pressure, just as Donald Trump again makes accusations against us," Mohammad Javad Zarif told his Twitter followers, referring to the US president's attacks on Iran in his 2019 State of the Union address. US hostility "has led it to support dictators, butchers and extremists, who've only brought ruin to our region," Zarif stated.

In his second SOTU address, Trump sought to justify recent US actions against Iran. He assured lawmakers that his administration "has acted decisively to confront the world's leading state sponsor of terror: the radical regime in Iran."

Going further, Trump said the US had walked out of the "disastrous" Iranian nuclear deal - which was the result of years of talks and a concerted diplomatic effort by five world powers - "to ensure this corrupt dictatorship never acquires nuclear weapons."


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Star of David

Netanyahu's electoral rival calls for abandoning control over Palestinians


Sputnik
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:51 UTC
Benny Gantz
© YnetnewsBenny Gantz
Israel should seek a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which it will not have to keep the Palestinian people under control, Benny Gantz, the main rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming general election, said on Wednesday to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

"We need to find a way in which we're not controlling other people", the former chief of general staff of the Israel Defense Forces said in an interview with the newspaper.

Gantz also expressed a belief that he had all the chances to win the April 9 election. He, however, did not rule out that he could join Netanyahu's new government unless the prime minister was indicted on corruption charges, which the police were seeking to press against him.

The majority of polls predict a victory of the ruling Likud party with a lead of several seats over Gantz's Israel Resilience Party.

Likud pledges to maintain the country's military presence and expand the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The right-wing party also accuses Gantz of attempting to create a left government with the participation of Israeli Arabs.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Zarif: Iran's Jews revel in '40 years of progress'


Sputnik
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:53 UTC
Iranstudents
© AFP 2019/STRIranian students
A Jewish population has inhabited Iranian territories for centuries, but following the Islamic revolution in 1979, a significant part of their community emigrated from the country to Europe, the US, and Israel. However, the remaining families were granted immunity by Ayatollah Khomeini.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has responded to recent accusations by US President Donald Trump, who slammed the Islamic Republic for threats of "genocide against the Jewish people" by tweeting that the Iranian Jewish population will commemorate "40 years of progress" along with their compatriots. His statement comes ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

Zarif also slammed modern US policies, which, as the foreign minister wrote has, "led to the support dictators, butchers and extremists". He also insisted that these policies have "brought ruin" to the region.

Comment: See also:
Despite historic Israel-Iran tensions, Iranian Jews say they feel safer there than in US or EU

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Vader

Venezuela: The next phase of US' global demise

Finian Cunningham
The Strategic Culture Foundation
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 20:27 UTC
burning dollar
© Ohde / face to face / Global Look Press
"The end of America's unchallenged global economic dominance has arrived sooner than expected," wrote US political economist Michael Hudson in a recent cogent essay.

Hudson goes on to point out with copious irony how the "end of US monetary imperialism" has been accelerated by a rightwing former real estate magnate, President Donald Trump, surrounded by a cabal of Neocons in his White House administration.

The author, whose earlier book, Super Imperialism, prefigured much of today's geopolitical configuration, contends that: "International finance and foreign investment have become the key flash point in global power politics today."

Central to the historic loss of US global economic dominance is the imminent demise of the dollar as the premier international currency, and thereby its use as a monetary weapon for Washington.

Comment: The wise have eyes to see. Prudent countries such as Russia and China are converting their dollars into tangible assets such as gold in anticipation of the dollar's death rattle.

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Bullseye

Tucker Carlson: On sexual assault, Democrats only believe some women


RT
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:21 UTC
activists
© Reuters / Stephen Yang
Virginia's Democrat Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax has been accused of serious sexual assault. With the party silent, Fox News host Tucker Carlson asks, where's the "believe all women" crowd this time?

After Governor Ralph Northam was discovered posing in a Ku Klux Klan robe in his medical school yearbook photo, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax looked in line for a promotion. Any ambition Fairfax had, however, was quickly dashed when Northam refused to resign, and Fairfax got hit with an accusation of sexual assault.

Stanford professor and active Democrat Vanessa Tyson claimed this week that Fairfax attacked her in a hotel room during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Tyson says Fairfax physically forced her to perform oral sex on him, but the lieutenant governor has claimed that Tyson's story is a "false allegation" and that their encounter was consensual.

"It's not easy to dismiss her claims out of hand, and yet Fairfax is," Carlson said on Tuesday. "And here's the interesting thing: his Democratic colleagues are standing with him and against her."
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Propaganda

Venezuela crisis: Examining the mainstream media's jingoistic coverage

Danielle Ryan
RT
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 20:07 UTC
Maduro Venezuela support
© HHO / Venezuelan Presidency / Agence France-Presse
If you've been following Western media coverage of Venezuela's crisis, you'll know that a brutal dictator, whose socialist policies have ravaged the country, is clinging to power with an iron grip, as his people beg him to leave.

That's the narrative that has been plastered across headlines and op-ed pages since US President Donald Trump intervened in Venezuela's political crisis last month to call on "illegitimate" Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down, while declaring support for opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who ceremoniously declared himself the rightful president of the country.

Mere minutes after Guaidó announced himself as interim president, the Trump administration, in a very obviously coordinated moment, gave him its full backing and, sure enough, minutes after that, Western media followed suit.
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Vader

Venezuelan security forces discover cache of smuggled US-made weapons as US' slow-rolling coup grinds on

Alexander Rubinstein
MintPress News
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 19:47 UTC
weapons US venezuela smuggle
Authorities believe the cache was sent from Miami, Florida, a city notorious as a nexus of Pink Wave emigres and a major throughway in the international black-market arms trade.

Venezuelan authorities discovered a cache of weapons and ammunition from the United States and are investigating the intended recipient as the country faces a coup attempt backed by Washington.

According to Endes Palencia, Venezuela's Deputy Minister for Prevention and Citizen Security, the Venezuelan National Guard and the National Integrated Service of Customs and Tax Administration made the discovery at the Arturo Michelena International Airport in Valencia, Venezuela.

In total, some 19 rifles, 118 magazines, 90 radios and six cell phones were uncovered inside a commercial cargo plane.
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Bad Guys

Trying to recover from Russiagate failure, federal prosecutors subpoena Trump inaugural committee

Erin Burnett, Erica Orden, Gloria Borger and Caroline Kelly
CNN
Tue, 05 Feb 2019 19:24 UTC
trump inaugural
Federal prosecutors in New York on Monday subpoenaed President Donald Trump's inaugural committee for documents related to donors, vendors and finances, according to a copy of the subpoena reviewed by CNN, a step that appears to escalate that office's ongoing investigation of the committee's activity.

The wide-ranging subpoena from the Manhattan US attorney's office requires the committee to turn over documents related to virtually every donor or donation, attendee at a committee event, piece of paperwork related to the legal requirements attached to donations and even "the possibility of" donations made by foreign nationals.

It discloses that prosecutors are investigating a litany of potential crimes: conspiracy against the US, false statements, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, inaugural committee disclosure violations, and violations of laws prohibiting contributions by foreign nations and contributions in the name of another person, also known as straw donors.


Comment: The insinuation continues that Trump was involved in a conspiracy against the US in which Russia played a part. These guys just don't know how to fold a losing hand.

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