Puppet MastersS


Che Guevara

Venezuela's electoral process: "The best in the world"

Dr. Maria Páez Victor, Edu Montesanti
Global Research
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
maduro
© REuters/C. BarriaPresident Maduro shows details of the new Constituent Assembly up for vote.
The renowned sociologist Maria Páez Victor at Law Commission of Ontario in Canada, deeply analyses the Venezuela's Constituent Assembly to be voted on July 30, in the context of the Caribbean nation, and speaks on the biggest challenges the Bolivarian Revolution faces today.

Edu Montesanti: Professor Doctor Maria Páez Victor, thank you so very much for granting me this so important interview; it is an honor to me. What is the importance of the upcoming National Constituent Assembly in Venezuela? The opposition claims it is undemocratic: how do you respond to it?

Maria Páez: The parties and leaders of the violent protests that for three months have disturbed the peace of Venezuelans, are the very same who in 2002 supported the coup d'etat against President Chávez. During those tense 48 hours, one of the very first things they did was to abolish the Constitution of 1999 - the one they now purport to defend. (See the film, available on the internet: The Revolution will not be Televised)

Comment: Venezuelans are guardedly aware that the overthrow from 'without' is as destructive to their society as the overthrow from 'within.' They are taking action.

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Snakes in Suits

Beijing to Pompeo: China wants peace but won't let others hurt its interests


RT
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 11:27 UTC
dragonish
© washingtontimes.com
China has rejected the CIA director's concerns that Beijing is the top threat to America. Beijing said it backed peaceful cooperation and was not in the habit of infringing on other nations, but that it wouldn't allow others to threaten its interests.

CIA chief Mike Pompeo described China as the biggest long-term threat to America in a recent interview with the Washington Free Beacon. He said China's strong economy and large population gave it a better chance against the US than Russia or Iran.

"I think it's very clear when they think about their place in the world, they measure their success in placing themselves in the world where they want to be vis-à-vis the United States and not as against anyone else," the US spy chief said.

The speculation was dismissed by Beijing on Thursday, however.

"We noticed those statements. Following their reasoning, whoever has a stronger economy and military capability poses the greatest threat to the world," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lu Kang told the media.


Comment: Touché!


Comment: CIA Director Pompeo seems to have little in the way of PCI: personal central intelligence. He should refrain from speaking in public on foreign affairs unless it is a requested report based on rock-solid intel.

See also: CIA Chief Pompeo: China tops Russia and Iran as America's biggest long-term threat to domination

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Arrow Up

Steve Bannon: 44 percent marginal tax rate for the very rich

Ryan Grim
The Intercept
Wed, 26 Jul 2017 04:25 UTC
Bannon
© The Sun
Top White House adviser Steve Bannon is pushing for tax reform to include a new 44 percent top marginal tax rate, hitting people who earn more than $5 million a year, with the revenue paying for tax cuts for the rest, according to three people who've spoken to him recently.

The top rate is now 39.6 percent and most Republicans have been planning to lower it significantly as part of tax reform. The plan Trump put out previously would have only three brackets, with the top one brought down to 35 percent.

Raising taxes on the very rich has been a rare policy that President Donald Trump has publicly espoused throughout much of his life. On Tuesday, he told the Wall Street Journal, "If there's upward revision it's going to be on high-income people."

"I have wealthy friends that say to me, 'I don't mind paying more tax,'" he said. White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders was pressed on Trump's comment at a televised briefing Wednesday, and said that further specifics of the plan would be released shortly, with an emphasis on tax cuts for the middle class.
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Light Saber

Trey Gowdy asks a simple question about weed, and exposes the US' tyrannical drug war

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 17:36 UTC
Gerald Connolly
The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) met with members of Congress this week to discuss multiple issues when a Republican congressman asked a question that would expose the state's immoral and tyrannical war on drugs in an accidental stroke of logic.

Harold Watson "Trey" Gowdy III is a member of the Tea Party movement and the Republican Party and serves as a congressman from South Carolina. He is also the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. During the meeting with the ONDCP this week, Gowdy asked why marijuana was a schedule I drug.

Schedule I "drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," the DEA claims. Given the mountains of evidence showing the beneficial nature of the cannabis plant, the DEA's claims are nothing short of asinine and tyrannical.

However, marijuana continues to be categorized as such, paving the way for the police state to lay waste to rights and fill prisons for profit.

When Gowdy asks Richard Baum, the acting director of Trump's ONDCP, why marijuana is a schedule one, Baum immediately skirts the question. He then digresses into support for big pharma's version of synthetic marijuana by saying that the FDA-approved versions of marijuana components can help people.

While Gowdy didn't go so far as to call for the legalization of cannabis - because it would likely mean political suicide among his staunchly conservative base - his line of questioning set off a conversation that would eventually expose the war on drugs.
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Attention

King of Jordan urges 'political showman' Netanyahu to put Israeli embassy shooter on trial


RT
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 17:37 UTC
Jordan's King Abdullah II
© Reuters
King Abdullah II of Jordan has issued a sharp rebuke to "political showman" Benjamin Netanyahu, who has given a hero's welcome to an Israeli guard who shot an assailant and another man at the country's embassy in Jordan.

"The Israeli prime minister is required to honor his responsibilities and take the necessary legal measures to ensure that the killer is tried and justice is served, rather than exhibiting political showmanship in dealing with this crime to score personal political points," Abdullah said at a meeting of the National Policies Council at his Al Husseiniya Palace near the capital Amman, with statements later being posted to an official Twitter account.

"Such conduct is utterly rejected and provocative. It angers us all, threatens regional security, and fuels extremism. It is absolutely unacceptable," added the monarch.
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Bullseye

Corbyn to Maduro in 2014: The EU is bad for the poor


RT
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 17:48 UTC
corbyn maduro
© Reuters
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong Euroskeptic, reportedly told Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that EU institutions are bad for the poor.

The Daily Mail - which calls the democratically-elected Maduro Corbyn's "dictator pal" - says the Labour leader made the comments in 2014, a year before he was elected party chief.

The paper claims that a recording of a meeting between the two reveals Corbyn telling the Latin American leader that European Central Bank (ECB) policies are "detrimental to the poor of Britain and other countries" and that the EU is a barrier to "building socialism and the fight against capitalism."

His political mentor, the late socialist Labour MP Tony Benn, was very much of the same stripe when it came to the EU.
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Eye 1

Corbett Report: Revisiting Psychopathy

Corbett Report Extras
YouTube
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 19:32 UTC
Revisiting Psychopathy
Previously on The Corbett Report we examined the topic of psychopathy. A number of articles, papers, documentaries and books have emerged to shed more light on the issue. But as this growing understanding of psychopathy begins to shape the way we understand the global economic collapse and the moves toward political tyranny, do we run the risk of starting a new witch hunt?


Comment: See also: James Corbett: Our Leaders Are Psychopaths - An Introduction to Political Ponerology (VIDEO)

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Attention

Max Keiser: 'New anti-Russia sanctions are economic suicide for America'

Max Keiser
RT
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 17:25 UTC
US Congress building
© Reuters
Additional sanctions on Russia may make the American economy suffer greatly, says Max Keiser, host of RT's Keiser Report. Germany is not going to go along with the sanctions; they are just pushing Germany into the arms of Russia, he adds.

The EU has voiced alarm over the latest anti-Russia sanctions bill, passed by the US House of Representatives on Tuesday. The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker warned the new measures could harm energy security on the continent.

The trade restrictions against Russia were included in a bill, which also counters so-called aggression from Iran and North Korea.

If President Donald Trump approves the US sanctions, they will punish companies with ties to Russia's energy sector.

Comment: There is a lot of news on why these new sanctions are a very bad idea:

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Chess

German economic minister warns US: EU may respond to new Russian sanctions with counter-sanctions, trade war


RT
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 09:48 UTC
Dollar versus Euro
© Siegfried Layda / Getty Images
New sanctions against Russia approved by the US House of Representatives on Tuesday could result in counter-sanctions, warns the German economy minister, adding that a trade war between the EU and the US would be "very bad."

Speaking to ARD television, Brigitte Zypries warned of a trade war between the European Union and the United States.

"There is a possibility of counter-sanctions because this is envisaged by the WTO (World Trade Organization)," she said, adding that a trade war would be "very bad."

She also said that new US sanctions may harm German companies and hamper Berlin's ties with Washington.

Comment: German opposition to the latest round of anti-Russian sanctions is understandable given the threat to Germany's robust trade with Russia. German exports to Russia were recently forecast to grow by 20% this year:
The Eastern Committee of the German Economy expects growth in exports to Russia to double this year despite all the political and economic hurdles. It also opposes new US sanctions against Russia, saying they will hurt German businesses.

"Earlier we expected this year's growth in exports would be ten percent compared with 2016," the committee's executive director Michael Harms told journalists on Thursday in Berlin, adding "now we believe the growth rate will come at 20 percent."

In previous years, the committee has reported a steady decline in German exports to Russia due to Western sanctions which threatened thousands of jobs in the country. It said that within the EU, the German economy had paid the highest price for the crisis with medium-sized enterprises most affected.
See also: No more! New anti-Russian U.S. sanctions prompt German business lobby to urge EU action

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Info

Iraqi major speaks quietly about Mosul's bloodbath: 'We killed everyone - IS, men, women, children'


Middle East Eye
Thu, 27 Jul 2017 18:49 UTC
An Iraqi soldier walks through the ruins of Mosul
© ReutersAn Iraqi soldier walks through the ruins of Mosul
Iraqi soldiers receive brutal, final order in last days of battle with IS - Kill anything that moves. Results can be found crushed in the rubble

The Iraqi soldier looks out from his tiny three-walled room across a wasteland of rubble that crumbles steeply down to the banks of the Tigris River and contemplates the last days of the savage fight against the Islamic State (IS) group.

"We killed them all," he says quietly. "Daesh, men, women and children. We killed everyone."

What remains of this part of Mosul's Old City, where IS militants made their last stand, and what lies beneath betrays the horrific final days of the battle.

Hundreds of corpses lie half-buried in the broken masonry and rubble that was once a bustling, historic quarter. The stench of decaying flesh, which comes fast in the 50C summer heat, overwhelms the senses.

Comment: See also: The Battle for Mosul: Cause for Celebration or Humanitarian Concern?

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