James Bloodworth, when he isn't applauding Obama's murderous drone attacks on Pakistan, occasionally takes time out to complain about leftists supporting the Venezuelan government. He claims that Venezuela has become a "nightmare"and that, despite elections that he appears to acknowledge are clean and transparent, Venezuelans are, nevertheless, "living under tyranny" because of the government's "unwillingness to tolerate dissent".

Bloodworth says that he supported the Chavista movement when a US backed coup violently ousted Hugo Chavez in 2002. "I have no trouble remembering which side I was on" he claims - very dubiously as I'll explain.

Bloodworth doesn't remember that Leopoldo Lopez was among the leaders of that coup. This video shows Leopoldo Lopez and Henrique Capriles (a state governor who ran against Maduro in April of 2013) supervising the illegal "arrest" of a Chavez government minister during the 2002 coup. Bloodworth objects to Lopez's arrest for leading protests over the past few weeks that are clearly aimed at repeating what happened in 2002, but Bloodworth never considers an incredibly obvious point. Lopez would have been locked up for decades (if he were lucky) had he participated in the violent overthrow of the UK or US governments. If not for the Venezuelan government's unusually high tolerance for dissent, Lopez and Capriles (his "moderate" ally) would never have been around to lead protests, much less hold public office as Capriles now does. One can only shudder at what their fate would have been in the USA after participating in a briefly successful coup. Chelsea Manning has been locked up for years and openly tortured simply for exposing human rights abuses and embarrassing the US government. Manning will not be leading violent protests or holding public office (even if she wanted to) any time soon.

Turkish riot police in Istanbul fired tear gas and water cannon Saturday at thousands of people protesting new legislation tightening control of the Internet. Police took action to push protesters away from the city's Taksim Square, a focal rally point, media report.

Protesters responded by hurling fireworks at police, who detained dozens of people, according to media reports.

The controversial law came into effect last Wednesday after it was signed into effect by the Turkish President Abdullah Gul despite repeated calls for veto.

It gives the telecoms authority the power to order a webpage blocked if the content is deemed to infringe privacy or is offensive.

Sleepwalking Again

On the 100th Anniversary of World War 1, the Western powers are again sleepwalking into destructive conflict. Hegemonic ambition has Washington interfering in the internal affairs of Ukraine, but developments seem to be moving beyond Washington's control.

Regime change in Ukraine for a mere $5 billion dollars would be a bargain compared to the massive sums squandered in Iraq ($3,000 billion), Afghanistan ($3,000 billion), Somalia, and Libya, or the money Washington is wasting murdering people with drones in Pakistan and Yemen, or the money Washington has spent supporting al Qaeda in Syria, or the massive sums Washington has wasted surrounding Iran with 40 military bases and several fleets in the Persian Gulf in an effort to terrorize Iran into submission.

So far, in Washington's attempt at regime change in Ukraine large numbers of Americans are not being killed and maimed. Only Ukrainians are dying, all the better for Washington as the deaths are blamed on the Ukrainian government that the US has targeted for overthrow.

The problem with Washington's plot to overthrow the elected government of Ukraine and install its minions is twofold: The chosen US puppets have lost control of the protests to armed radical elements with historical links to nazism, and Russia regards an EU/NATO takeover of Ukraine as a strategic threat to Russian independence.

Protesters took control of Ukraine's capital Saturday, seizing the president's office as parliament voted to remove him and hold new elections. President Viktor Yanukovych described the events as a coup and insisted he would not step down.

Ukraine's parliament has voted to call early presidential elections for May 25.

The decision comes just hours after embattled Yanukovych said he wouldn't respect any decisions made by parliament.

After a tumultuous week that left scores dead and Ukraine's political destiny in flux, fears mounted that the country could split in two. Parliament called early elections for May 25, but the president said he would not recognize any of the lawmakers' decisions as valid.

Investigative journalist Eva Golinger traces the roots of current opposition protests, and argues "the revolution that is here to stay is the Bolivarian Revolution, which began in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was first elected president".

For those of you unfamiliar with Venezuelan issues, don't let the title of this article fool you. The revolution referred to is not what most media outlets are showing taking place today in Caracas, with protestors calling for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The revolution that is here to stay is the Bolivarian Revolution, which began in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was first elected president and has subsequently transformed the mega oil producing nation into a socially-focused, progressive country with a grassroots government. Demonstrations taking place over the past few days in Venezuela are attempts to undermine and destroy that transformation in order to return power to the hands of the elite who ruled the nation previously for over 40 years.

People ask for solutions, but no solutions are possible in a disinformed world. Populations almost everywhere are dissatisfied, but few have any comprehension of the real situation. Before there can be solutions, people must know the truth about the problems. For those few inclined to be messengers, it is largely a thankless task.

The assumption that man is a rational animal is incorrect. He and she are emotional creatures, not Dr. Spock of Star Trek. Humans are brainwashed by enculturation and indoctrination. Patriots respond with hostility toward criticisms of their governments, their countries, their hopes and their delusions. Their emotions throttle facts, should any reach them. Aspirations and delusions prevail over truth. Most people want to be told what they want to hear. Consequently, they are always gullible and their illusions and self-delusions make them easy victims of propaganda. This is true of all levels of societies and of the leaders themselves.

We are witnessing this today in western Ukraine where a mixture of witless university students, pawns in Washington's drive for world hegemony, together with paid protesters and fascistic elements among ultra-nationalists are bringing great troubles upon Ukraine and perhaps a deadly war upon the world.

As they seize weapons, take over government buildings and fire on media outlets, the US-backed Ukrainian protesters are being afforded legitimacy with the aid of a Kony 2012-style viral video which triumphs the grass roots nature of the demonstrations yet is linked to shadowy NGOs that have been directly involved in staging phony 'color revolutions' in the past.

The video, entitled I am a Ukrainian, already has over 3 million views. It features an attractive woman insistently claiming that the Ukrainian uprising is solely about freedom and democracy.

The video is typically glib and simplified emotional propaganda which purports to explain that "there is only one reason" behind the protests in Ukraine, a bald faced lie which ignores the multi-faceted geopolitical factors behind the uprising, which center on the tug of war between the United States, the EU and Russia.

Press TV has conducted an interview with James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst, from Washington, about the situation in Ukraine.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Our guest in New York [Mr. Peter Sinnott] is basically saying that the situation in Ukraine has nothing to do with external forces and is basically homegrown and a simple reaction to a government that the people no longer wanted, your take, sir.

Jatras: I think it's much more complicated than that. Certainly there are strong homegrown elements in Ukraine because there are very sharp divisions among people in Ukraine.

In the United States, we're familiar with the concept of the red states and blue states, and the divisions in Ukraine are far sharper and far more fundamental than even those in the United States.

Regarding this idea for example that the European orientation for Ukraine is something that the Ukrainian people wanted, this is not entirely true. Yes, a very large portion of the Ukrainian people want that but a very large portion of the Ukrainian people want a close relationship with Russia.

That's why it's a huge mistake of the Western powers to insist that Ukraine must have a single, pro-Western orientation.

Let's keep in mind too, the European Union was never offering Ukraine membership. They went out of their way to offer even the distant prospect of membership that this was purely a trade agreement and one that would lock Ukraine into a Western orientation essentially against Russia and against Ukraine's economic benefit especially in the eastern part of the country.

US military officials say a joint military exercise in which Japanese and US forces practiced how to invade an island was not a message to China.

In last week's annual military exercise, called Iron Fist, Japanese soldiers and US Marines practiced how to invade and retake an island captured by enemy forces in Camp Pendleton in the US state of California.

The joint drill came against the backdrop of rising tensions between China and Japan over a set of islands claimed by both countries in the East China Sea.

Tensions between Beijing and Tokyo dramatically intensified after Japan nationalized some of the islands in 2012. Beijing claims around 80 percent of the South China Sea as its historic waters.

However, according to the New York Times, US military officials insist that the joint military drill in California had nothing to do with the simmering territorial dispute between the two countries and was not a message to China.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has called the latest developments in the country a coup d'etat, denying speculations of his resignation. He also accused international mediators of not fulfilling their obligations.

"I'm always threatened with ultimatums. I'm not going to leave the country," Yanukovich said in an interview with local UBR TV channel. "I'm not going to resign. I'm a legitimately elected president."

The interview with the embattled president was broadcast right after the opposition claimed it had received verbal assurances that Yanukovich was resigning.

But as parliament deputies said they were waiting for the written confirmation on his resignation, the president announced his plans to travel across the country's southeast, which is "so far, less dangerous."

"Everything that is happening today is, to a greater degree, vandalism and bandits and a coup d'etat," Yanukovich said in a televised statement.

On Saturday, Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) held a new emergency session, during which it passed a law on the return to the 2004 constitution without the president's signature, saying that the president had removed himself from power.

It also appointed a new head of the Ministry of Interior and a new head speaker of the Rada. In addition, parliament ruled to free former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko from prison and set early presidential elections for May 25.