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New push to 'restore democracy': US launches Venezuela affairs unit ... in Colombia


RT
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 19:56 UTC
US Embassy
© AFP / Luis Robayo
FILE PHOTO. The US Embassy building is seen in Caracas, Venezuela.
In a new bid to prop-up Juan Guaido, the self-styled "interim president" of Venezuela, Washington has announced the creation of a 'Venezuela Affairs Unit' (VAU). The new 'diplomatic' body will operate from Colombia.

The creation of the VAU was announced by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday. The new body will replace the basically non-existent US embassy to Venezuela - but it will only communicate with the Washington-propped Guaido, not the country's actual government of President Nicolas Maduro.

"The VAU is the interim diplomatic office of the US Government to Venezuela, located at the US Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, and has been established with bipartisan support from the US Congress," Pompeo said in a statement. "The VAU will continue to work for the restoration of democracy and the constitutional order in that country, and the security and well-being of the Venezuelan people."

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: US Regime Change Operation in Venezuela - This Time It's Legit?

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Newspaper

Brexit break rundown: The Queen approves Bojo's request, MPs are "outraged"


BBC
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 20:40 UTC
boris johnson

Boris Johnson: "We're not going to wait until October 31st"
Parliament will be suspended just days after MPs return to work in September - and only a few weeks before the Brexit deadline.

Boris Johnson said a Queen's Speech would take place after the suspension, on 14 October, to outline his "very exciting agenda".

But it means the time MPs have to pass laws to stop a no-deal Brexit on 31 October would be cut.

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said it was a "constitutional outrage".

The Speaker, who does not traditionally comment on political announcements, continued: "However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of [suspending Parliament] now would be to stop [MPs] debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the country."

Comment: MPs are reaching near hysterical proportions calling the move a "coup", and the 'darkest day for UK democracy' - seemingly forgetting the Iraq war, a decade of austerity, the billions in arms sales for the genocide in Yemen, etc..
MPs accuse Johnson of 'attempted coup' by requesting parliament suspension before Brexit

UK Parliament Speaker of the House John Bercow pulled no punches in his assessment of the current state of affairs, calling the move "a constitutional outrage."

"However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop parliament debating Brexit and performing its duty," he said.

Conservative MP, and the former chancellor of the exchequer under Johnson's predecessor Theresa May, Philip Hammond, echoed the speaker, and also dubbed the move a "constitutional outrage."

Meanwhile, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott claimed Johnson was "aiming for a coup against parliament" in an overall strategy that she said was designed only to benefit US President Donald Trump.

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon called for a united front in opposition to Johnson's plan, describing Wednesday as a "dark [day] indeed for UK democracy."

The Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, which essentially props up Boris Johnson's government, issued a statement welcoming the decision to hold a Queen's speech after what it called "the longest parliamentary session since the union of England and Scotland in 1707."

However, the party stated that its support for Johnson's move was contingent on a review of the so-called 'Confidence and Supply' deal struck between the Tories and the DUP.
Corbyn joins the outraged chorus:
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was "appalled" at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's request to Britain's queen for a suspension of parliament in the weeks leading up to the UK's EU withdrawal.

"If Johnson has confidence in his plans he should put them to the people in a general election or a public vote," Corbyn said, following Wednesday's flurry of Brexit developments. The opposition leader added that Johnson was attempting to "avoid scrutiny" of his Brexit plans.

Corbyn was expected to call for an emergency debate in parliament next week to pave the way for opposition MPs to introduce legislation to prevent a no-deal Brexit, but Johnson's proroguing request outmaneuvered him.

For his part, Johnson denies claims that he was wilfully circumventing parliamentary protocol with the request to suspend parliament, though many opposition MPs claim the move is tantamount to staging a coup.

Corbyn said that when parliament meets again next week, "the first thing we'll do is attempt legislation to prevent what [Johnson] is doing, and secondly to challenge him in a motion of no confidence."

He also accused the prime minister of wanting to run "head-long into the arms of Donald Trump."

He has reportedly written to the Queen about Johnson's request to suspend parliament and asked the monarch for a meeting on the issue.
The EU Brexit-rep considers the move "sinster":
The European Parliament's Brexit coordinator has spoken out against Boris Johnson's moves to suspend the UK Parliament as "sinister," expressing his "solidarity with those fighting for their voices to be heard."

Guy Verhofstadt drew on the 'Leave' slogan in his criticism of the push to prorogue Britain's parliament at a crucial point in the Brexit timeline, tweeting: "'Taking back control' has never looked so sinister."
Brits want it over with while MPs, who overwhelmingly don't want Brexit to happen at all, want to fillbuster at every turn. It's worth noting that Conservatives who don't want Brexit to happen aren't so impassioned that they'll risk losing power by teaming up with other parties for a no confidence vote:
Brits just want it over with

Johnson's ploy, however, is "understandable in the context" of Brexit negotiations having dragged on for so long already, journalist Neil Clark told RT. "The mood of the country is just to get [Brexit] done, it's gone on too long — whether Remainer or Brexiter, something's got to happen," Clark said.

The timing of Johnson's decision was interesting, Clark added, coming a day after Labour and other opposition MPs came together to agree a program to attempt to stop a no-deal Brexit.

"I think that's probably what triggered Johnson this morning," he said.

Opposition MPs don't want a deal, they want no Brexit

While many MPs are "rightly" warning that a no-deal Brexit in October could be bad for Britain, the issue is that "most of them don't want Brexit at all" and parliament has been very "pro-Remain or pro-very-very soft Brexit."

Despite their complaints, however, the opposition will still have "ample time" to debate Johnson's Brexit plans and introduce legislation aimed at stopping a no-deal exit, journalist and historian Adel Darwish told RT, noting that there will be seven sitting days between the Queen's Speech and October 31. Johnson and the opposition are simply "using the tools in their legal and constitutional toolkit."

In Darwish's view, while opposition MPs claim to want to avoid no-deal, "what they actually want is to stop Brexit altogether."

Parliament v direct democracy

Those views were echoed by Alan Sked, Professor Emeritus of International History at the London School of Economics, who founded the UK Independence Party. The opposition, Sked said, is "trying to bring down the government and overthrow the result of the 2016 referendum and stop Brexit."

"It's not as if [Johnson's] government is preventing [the opposition] from passing a vote of no confidence, so I don't see why it's a constitutional outrage," Sked said, though he added that Johnson had "outmaneuvered" the opposition for now.

Sked noted that the current parliament is dominated by pro-remain MPs — and even they voted against the deal agreed with Brussels by former PM Theresa May.

"If parliament has voted three times against the only deal the EU will accept, it's difficult to blame [Johnson], because the EU will not renegotiate and parliament has turned down the only deal it will accept," he said.

Clark said the crux of the issue is a clash between direct democracy (referenda) or indirect democracy (parliament).

"Where you stand depends on whether you believe direct democracy is more valid or overrides indirect democracy," he said. "If you believe referenda are the purest form of democracy, then we must leave the EU and parliament must enact that."
Bojo get's Trump's support:
US President Donald Trump has once again waded into the murky waters of Brexit and British politics, tweeting that PM Boris Johnson is "exactly" what the UK has been waiting for.

"Boris is exactly what the UK has been looking for," and he will prove to be "great" at the job, Trump wrote. "Love UK" he added.


Or, like in the US, you get what you deserve.


It's not the first time Trump has offered his personal take on Brexit and Johnson. The US president previously lavished praise on the new Conservative PM, calling him a "very talented guy" and a "friend." The blond-haired pair also appeared to hit it off at the G7 summit last week.

Johnson's feelings haven't always been so clear, however. When Trump claimed there were dangerous "no-go areas" in London, then-mayor Johnson accused him of "stupefying ignorance" and said he was "frankly unfit to hold the office" of US president.
RT reports that just one quarter of the Britons support Johnson's suspension of parliament. However, one wonders whether, amidst the melee, they actually understand what it is and what the implications are (if any), and, as noted, most voted based on their whether they wanted Brexit or not:
Only 27 percent of Britons are in support of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's month-long suspension of the UK's parliament, according to a new poll carried out by YouGov. The move comes just weeks before the Brexit deadline.

The snap poll of 5,734 Britons was conducted by the market research company on Wednesday, the same day Johnson announced the decision, and found that 47 percent of British people are against what critics have called an attempted coup.

Results also showed that opinions on Johnson's request were largely based on their preference for staying in the European Union. Half of Brexiteers backed the suspension, compared to just 9 percent of those who want to remain.
See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Dollars

US spending on defense is one really big lie

Jacob Hornberger
The Future of Freedom Foundation
Thu, 22 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Eagle Lies
© Unknown/KJN
Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson is worried. He thinks that maybe — just maybe — the U.S. government is not spending enough on defense. In a column entitled, "Here's Why We Could Be Under-Spending on Defense," Samuelson has come up with a complicated formula that has caused him to fear that China and Russia might actually be spending more money on their militaries than the United States. Bringing to mind the famous missile-gap controversy during the Cold War, Samuelson wrote, "Our reputed military superiority might be exaggerated or a statistical fiction."

I won't delve into Samuelson's complicated formula for arriving at his scary conclusion because, well, it is complicated, a point that even he concedes:
"The only way to find out is to estimate our and their defense budgets, using an unconventional methodology called "purchasing power parity" (PPP). To do that, Congress should create a task force of experts that would examine Russia's and China's defense spending and compare it with our own."
So, I'll leave his main point to that task force of experts. I do wish, however, to confront the other major point in Samuelson's analysis, one to which he, like so many others in Washington, D.C., is obviously oblivious: that U.S. spending on the military and the rest of the national-security establishment is for defense. That is one great big delusion and falsehood.

Comment: War has become the default for American foreign policy and to maintain it requires 'unconditional' support from both the politicians and the public. America has chosen the most difficult path for the least constructive returns. Blind faith, detachment, go-with-the-flow...are now aspects of the war psyche necessary to sway millions of tax payers to accept, without question, the war machinery of the MIC where lives are expendable and profit is the bottom line. If we, the people, try to change it...will it turn on us?

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Pirates

How Poroshenko embezzled and exported $8 billion from Ukraine

Aleksandr Chalenko
Stalker Stalker Zone
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 17:29 UTC
poroshenko

Former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko
On August 17th it became known that, according to US citizen Sam Kislin, the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko earned $8 billion from fraudulent schemes and managed to take it abroad. The publication Ukraina.ru decided to find out how this amount left the country.

Sam Kislin, an American billionaire of Ukrainian origin and economic adviser to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said that Petro Poroshenko withdrew at least $8 billion from the country during his tenure as President of Ukraine. He reported this in an interview with the "Strana" agency.

Poroshenko's capital, which he promised to give to a blind trust in 2014, at the time of his cadence became the main point of criticism voiced by political opponents and the main irritant of the constantly impoverished Ukrainian population. Thus, according to the declarations, in 2018 alone the former president became 82-fold richer.
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Target

Hezbollah preps for 'calculated strike' on Israel amid air raids on Lebanon


Sputnik
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 23:30 UTC
Hezbollah cadets
© arabcenterdc.org
Hezbollah cadets
Tensions between Hezbollah and Israel rose on Sunday 25 August, after two Iran-backed organization members were killed in an Israeli strike in Syria and two drones crashed near the Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut.

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group based in Lebanon, is planning a "calculated strike" against Israel in response to the crash of two Israeli drones in Beirut on 25 August, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

The strike would be a retaliatory measure for Israeli raids in Syria and Lebanon, but would be arranged "in a way which wouldn't lead to a war that neither Hezbollah nor Israel wants", according to sources cited by Reuters. "The direction now is for a calculated strike, but how matters develop, that's another thing," a source added.

Comment: See also:

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Chess

'We're going to work towards that end': Pompeo on inviting Russia back into G7


RT
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 17:23 UTC
pompeo
© REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
US State Secretary Mike Pompeo has said that the Trump administration, himself included, will make an effort to secure Russia's return to the G7, as it is what US President Donald Trump thinks Washington should do.

Pompeo doubled down on Trump's earlier statement that Russia, booted out of the cohort of the most industrialized nations over its reunification with Crimea and the Ukrainian turmoil, should be invited to the group's next meeting in an interview on Tuesday. Asked if Russia should be invited back so the group can become the G8 once again, Pompeo said: "Yeah, the President thinks so."

However, when asked if he agrees with his boss's stance on the issue, Pompeo dodged the question, merely stating that he would be pursuing that goal as well.
The President thinks that's what we should do. I work for the President. Of course, we're going to work towards that end.
While Pompeo fell short of explicitly agreeing with Trump's Russia policy, despite being his country's top diplomat and thus the man in charge of implementing it, he still reaffirmed Trump's interest in seeing Russia return to the club.
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NPC

CNN openly backing Hong Kong protesters? Outlet publishes handy 'what to wear' guide for activists

Danielle Ryan
RT
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 17:08 UTC
hong kong protesters
© Reuters / Edgar Su
Violent demonstrations in Hong Kong have entered their 12th week, but for any would-be protesters who have not yet taken to the streets, CNN recently published a handy how-to guide.

The CNN guide instructs budding protesters on exactly "what to wear" if they want to stay safe, just like the "seasoned pros" who have been pounding the pavements for weeks already.

The provocative protesters' manual is a clear indication that Western media is not merely providing informative news coverage of the anti-China protests, but actively backing and supporting a violent uprising abroad.

CNN's list of must-have protest gear includes goggles ("obscures identity from surveillance cameras"), black T-shirts ("makes it harder for authorities to identify an individual"), gas masks (also "obscures identity") and gloves (to protect hands when "creating barriers against police").
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Bad Guys

How the BBC and the European Court got the Browder-Magnitsky story wrong

Lucy Komisar
The Komisar Scoop
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 16:21 UTC
Magnitsky Browder
© HO / HERMITAGE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT / AFP; GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP / Drew Angerer
(L) Sergei Magnitsky ; (R) William 'Bill' Browder
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has just released a very flawed decision in a case brought by the widow and mother of Sergei Magnitsky and lawyered by a George Soros-funded Open Society Justice Initiative. I will analyze it soon, but this is a quicker take on a report by the BBC, which is published without a byline and is even more flawed. I will deal with the judgment shortly, but important to see what the corporate media tells the world.

The Fake whistleblower

Magnitsky, of course, is the accountant who was jailed in Moscow in November 2008 as a collaborator in massive tax evasion by William Browder, who was running the Hermitage hedge fund. He died nearly a year later. Attempting to create a smokescreen against the tax charges, Browder told a credulous world that Magnitsky was arrested for "blowing the whistle" on a 2007 fraud against the Russian Treasury. That is contradicted by the facts and by credible evidence that Browder was involved in the fraud.

The BBC has been a stalwart supporter of Browder's story; challenges to his fakery are not allowed.

Comment: Excellent reporting by Lucy Komisar, who has been on the Browder case for years. On Andrei Nekrasov's documentary: Must-Watch Russian Documentary, Banned in The West: 'The Magnitsky Act - Behind the Scenes'

More Browder shenanigans:

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Binoculars

Inventing '2nd Skripal case'? Moscow rejects any link to asylum-seeker assassination in Germany


RT
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 16:52 UTC
berlin forensic team
© AFP / dpa / Paul Zinken
Police and forensic team at a murder scene in Berlin. August 23, 2019.
Russia denies "any links" to the death of a Chechen man who was gunned down in Berlin last week. The German press, meanwhile, said the incident may end up being a "second Skripal case."

"This case has nothing to do with the Russian state, the [Russian] authorities," the Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Wednesday. "I categorically reject any links between... this murder and official Russia."

His comments came in response to speculation that Moscow may have been somehow involved in the assassination of a man in the Kleiner Tiergarten park in central Berlin on Friday. German media identified the victim as 40-year-old Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian national of Chechen origin who had fought against the Russian troops during the war in Chechnya. Public broadcaster Deutsche Welle cited a 2017 letter by a local NGO to the migration services, saying that Khangoshvili served under infamous warlords Shamil Basayev and Abu al-Walid, who coordinated terrorist attacks on Russian soil and were killed by Russian security forces.

Khangoshvili is said to have fled Georgia in 2016 after surviving an assassination attempt. He sought asylum in Germany but this was rejected. The German authorities had also reportedly considered him an Islamist threat at some point. Other reports said that Khangoshvili had ties with the Georgian security services and assisted in anti-terrorism operations.


Comment: It's hard to wrap your mind around the way news like this gets made. The narrative gets written without any hard evidence to back it up. But even if there were evidence, is it really that big of a deal, all things considered? Not if you look at the precedents. The Israeli Mossad has openly assassinated "terrorists" in multiple countries, yet we don't see them suffering the kind of bad press and sanctions the Russians do for merely being suspected of doing the same thing. And regardless of who is ultimately responsible for Khangoshvili's death, you'd think the Western media and press would be gushing about the death of an Islamic terrorist. Oh, but we forget, the likes of Basayev and al-Walid - despite their ties to al-Qaeda - were fighting Russians, therefore they weren't terrorists.

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Bullseye

Macron knows for Europeans the 'problem' country is not Russia but US

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 28 Aug 2019 16:55 UTC
trump
© REUTERS/Carlos Barria
'The End Times of Western Hegemony', I wish this were written by Macron although it might as well have been. He said exactly this after the G7 gathering which could be summed up in Shakespeare's words as "much ado about nothing."

Or to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, a story of the dog that didn't bark, the shoes that didn't drop.

Most of the world's biggest economies are not members of the G7, although Italy is albeit represented by a caretaker prime minister and now technically bankrupt (and in possession of enough French banking creditors to drown Macron and the whole French economy). China, India, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and of course Russia are not members and while some were willing to be patronized as "guests" others had more pride.

So, for example, the invisible issue of the US shredding of the INF and the siting of short-range nuclear missiles in Poland and Romania by NATO - though constituting a clear and present danger to the peace of the world - didn't get a look-in.Similarly the trade-wars currently rocking the world economy could not be properly dealt with because of the absence of China and other targets of US sanctions.
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