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US needs a 'major, shocking event' to shift dissenting opinions on Venezuela: Puppet Guaido better watch his back

Finian Cunningham
RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:45 UTC
guaido pence
© Agence France-Presse/Diana Sanchez
US Vice President Mike Pence (C) and Juan Guaido (L)
The much-hyped "aid weekend" involving a US Trojan Horse fell at the first hurdle. Venezuelan government forces averted the provocation intended by US aid convoys from Colombia and Brazil.

However, increasing frustration in Washington beckons more false flags.

Something shocking is "needed" in order to jolt world opinion into acquiescing to Washington's criminal agenda of "all options." In the fiendish mind of American imperialism, it is also prudent to consider "all options" as meaning more than military aggression. The foulest moves.

The torching of trucks purportedly ferrying US food and medicines across the border from Colombia was patently a planned provocation. Credible video footage and witnesses attested to the arson being carried out by supporters of the US-backed opposition figure Juan Guaido.

The vehicles never even made it to the crossing point where Venezuelan national guards were deployed.

Comment:

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Quenelle

The Yellow Vests and France's class wars

Serge Halimi & Pierre Rimbert
Le Monde Diplomatique
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:01 UTC
yellow vest grafitti
© Chesnot/Getty
"Tremble. middle class"
The working class was supposed to have been edged out of active politics, but instead France's elites have been frightened into making concessions by this winter's uprising of the yellow vests. Its continuing popularity suggests that it is recasting French politics.

France's elites have not felt such fear in half a century, and it's not the usual fear of losing an election, failing to 'reform' or seeing their shares slide on the stock market, but fear of insurrection, revolt, and loss of power. The street protests on 1 December 2018 caused some to feel a sudden chill. As BFM TV's star news anchor Ruth Elkrief shuddered: 'The most urgent thing is for people to go home.' The channel was showing footage of yellow vest protesters determined to claim a better life for themselves.

A few days later, a journalist from the pro-business daily L'Opinion revealed on TV that 'all the big industrial groups are going to give out bonuses, because they were really scared for a time that their heads would end up on stakes. So after that terrible Saturday when all the damage was done [1 December], the big firms called Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, the head of Medef [France's largest employers' federation], and told him to "drop everything! Drop it all, or else..." They felt physically threatened.'

Comment: The citizens of the Yellow Vest movement are pretty clear in what they want: among other things, a return to the political table in the form of Swiss-style direct referendums.
Gilets Jaunes' List of Demands

Economy/Work
  • A constitutional cap on taxes - at 25%
  • Increase of 40% in the basic pension and social welfare
  • Increase hiring in public sector to re-establish public services
  • Massive construction projects to house 5 million homeless, and severe penalties for mayors/prefectures that leave people on the streets
  • Break up the 'too-big-to-fail' banks, re-separate regular banking from investment banking
  • Cancel debts accrued through usurious rates of interest
Politics
  • Constitutional amendments to protect the people's interests, including binding referenda
  • The barring of lobby groups and vested interests from political decision-making
  • Frexit: Leave the EU to regain our economic, monetary and political sovereignty (In other words, respect the 2005 referendum result, when France voted against the EU Constitution Treaty, which was then renamed the Lisbon Treaty, and the French people ignored)
  • Clampdown on tax evasion by the ultra-rich
  • The immediate cessation of privatization, and the re-nationalization of public goods like motorways, airports, rail, etc
  • Remove all ideology from the ministry of education, ending all destructive education techniques
  • Quadruple the budget for law and order and put time-limits on judicial procedures. Make access to the justice system available for all
  • Break up media monopolies and end their interference in politics. Make media accessible to citizens and guarantee a plurality of opinions. End editorial propaganda
  • Guarantee citizens' liberty by including in the constitution a complete prohibition on state interference in their decisions concerning education, health and family matters
Health/Environment
  • No more 'planned obsolescence' - Mandate guarantee from producers that their products will last 10 years, and that spare parts will be available during that period
  • Ban plastic bottles and other polluting packaging
  • Weaken the influence of big pharma on health in general and hospitals in particular
  • Ban on GMO crops, carcinogenic pesticides, endocrine disruptors and monocrops
  • Reindustrialize France (thereby reducing imports and thus pollution)
Foreign Affairs
  • End France's participation in foreign wars of aggression, and exit from NATO
  • Cease pillaging and interfering - politically and militarily - in 'Francafrique', which keeps Africa poor. Immediately repatriate all French soldiers. Establish relations with African states on an equal peer-to-peer basis
  • Prevent migratory flows that cannot be accommodated or integrated, given the profound civilizational crisis we are experiencing
  • Scrupulously respect international law and the treaties we have signed


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Chess

Peru confirms it is US vassal state, will cancel Venezuelan diplomats' visas, consider them 'illegals'


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:33 UTC
hands off venezuela
© Global Look Press / Venezuelan Presidential Office
Lima has announced it would annul the visas issued to the Venezuelan diplomats representing President Nicolas Maduro while recognizing a representative of the self-proclaimed interim leader Juan Guaido as the new ambassador.

The visas of Venezuelan embassy staff will be cancelled within a period of 15 days starting from February 22, Peru's Deputy Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela told the local RPP radio broadcaster on Tuesday. He also said that the diplomats "were already informed" that Lima no longer sees them as representatives of Venezuela.
We are waiting for the deadline to be met and then we will tell them that we consider them illegals.
The deputy minister then announced that Carlos Scull, a man "representing" Venezuela's self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido, had already presented his credentials to the President Martin Vizcarra. The move apparently marks his formal recognition as an ambassador by Peru.
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Attention

Pakistan downs Indian combat jets over Kashmir - casualties


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:38 UTC
indian mig-21 kashmir
© Screenshot from Samaa TV
Screenshot from video reportedly showing the wreckage of the MiG-21 plane downed by Pakistan.
Indian Air Force jets intercepted Pakistani military jets after they crossed into Indian airspace over disputed Kashmir. While Pakistan struck India, it said its jets didn't cross the border and avoided "human loss."

Indian fighter jets forced the Pakistanis to retreat after an encounter over the disputed Kashmir region, an Indian official told Reuters.

Amid the reported incursion, Indian authorities shut down the Sheikh ul-Alam International Airport in Srinagar, Kashmir. Three smaller airports in the area suspended commercial flights over safety concerns.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said the country's military launched "a series of strikes" across the border, but claimed they were carried out from Pakistani airspace.

"This was not a retaliation to continued Indian belligerence. Pakistan has therefore, taken strikes at non military target, avoiding human loss and collateral damage. Sole purpose being to demonstrate our right, will and capability for self defense," the ministry said in a statement.


Comment: SAMAA TV released footage alleging to be the Indian MiG-21 bursts into flames, plus the wreckage:



India admitted the downing of one of its jets, but claims that it too shot down a Pakistani jet:
In an "aerial engagement a Pakistan Air Force fighter aircraft was shot down by a MiG 21 Bison of the Indian Air Force" and fell on the Pakistani territory, the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, Raveesh Kumar, told reporters on Wednesday.

India took a beating too, he announced, having lost "one MiG 21" in the encounter.


Kumar stated that Islamabad used its jets to "target military installations on the Indian side" but "due to our high state of readiness and alertness Pakistan's attempts were foiled successfully."

The Pakistani military claimed to have shot down two Indian aircraft over its airspace. The government said that a pilot was captured after landing on the ground, and posted a photo of him in custody.


After initially reporting the pilot as "missing in action," India confirmed that he was being held by Pakistan and condemned his interrogation video as a "vulgar display."

Islamabad for its part denied losing any of its aircraft as reports suggested that a Pakistani F-16 had been downed by the Indian Air Force.
There's no evidence yet for India's claim to have downed the Pakistani jet.

Indian police told media they recovered 7 bodies from the downed helicopter that fell near Srinagar in Kashmir. RT writes:
It remains unclear if aircraft was downed or crashed.

RT's video news agency Ruptly captured footage of the crash site, where smoldering remains of the aircraft were scattered over a significant area. Armed guards were placed around the perimeter to keep the growing crowd at a distance.

Police told NDTV that 6 Air Force officers and a civilian died in the crash.


Indian officials earlier said that poor weather and technical failure were responsible for the accident, though different death tolls had been cited.
According to Fort Russ, the casualties so far include the following: between 19-24 Indian soldiers, 8 Pakistani soldiers, and 4 Pakistani civilians.

See also:

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Light Sabers

Analyst to RT: Pakistan 'sponsoring terrorism' against India, tensions only to rise


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:12 UTC
Indian border guards
© Reuters / Mukesh Gupta
Indian border guards patrol the fence with Pakistan in Ranbir Singh Pura sector, Jammu & Kashmir, February 26, 2019
An Indian air raid on the Pakistani side of the disputed Kashmir has raised the specter of war between two nuclear-armed nations. One Indian scholar told RT that such raids have happened before and full war is not inevitable.

"I do not think this conflict is dangerous for the world or for the two countries," Smruti S. Pattanaik, research fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, told RT. "This air strike and the earlier surgical strike proves that limited military action against the terrorists can be taken" short of resorting to nuclear weapons, she added.

Indian jets bombed locations in Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir on Tuesday, saying they were camps for terrorist groups responsible for the February 14 terrorist attack that killed more than 40 Indian security officers in Pulwama.
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Handcuffs

US-backed Venezuela puppet Guaido could face 30 years in prison - judge


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:00 UTC
Juan Guaido
© Reuters / Luisa Gonzalez
Self-proclaimed president of Venezuela Juan Guaido at the Lima Group meeting in Bogota, Colombia, February 25, 2019
Opposition politician Juan Guaido, who declared himself president of Venezuela with US backing, may face up to 30 years in prison, a judge said. Meanwhile, US is threatening new sanctions against Caracas to compel regime change.

Guaido's visit to Colombia on February 22 violated the travel ban imposed by Venezuela's supreme court, deputy judge of the Supreme Tribunal for Justice Juan Carlos Valdez told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"He is a person hiding from justice. What happens with runaways who are re-entering the country and are found by the authorities? They must be caught and sent to prison," Valdez said, adding, "He may face up to 30 years in jail."

State prosecutors are currently analyzing Guaido's conduct for possible crimes, the judge added.
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Bug

US military arrive in Donbass and assess: Ukraine is 'too corrupt' to wage war

Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ News
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC
Ukrainian soldiers
U.S soldiers have reportedly just arrived in the Donbass, amidst an increase in tensions along the line of demarcation, according to numerous reports. Commenting on this, "NATO countries intend to turn Ukraine into a platform for sabotage warfare", said Otaman of the Faithful Cossacks International Public Organization Alexei Selivanov.

According to him, American intelligence officers arrived in the area of ​​the operation of the combined forces in the Donbass to audit and analyze the weapons brought from the United States. Such measures have been followed because of corruption among the Ukrainian military, explained Selivanov.

"As our sources in the Ukrainian military department tell us, the Americans were not satisfied with what they saw, and the officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces's accompanying officers from the Center for Peacekeeping and Implementation of International Treaties informed about it," he told REN TV .

Comment: Ukraine is an utter mess - too corrupt and disorganized to even get its act together enough to be the proxy force against Russia that the US would have them be! See also:

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Megaphone

Venezuelan FM: Photos show 'aid trucks' carrying nails and wire for barricades


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:23 UTC
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza
© RT
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza shows images at the UNSC that purport to depict some of the cargo carried by the 'aid trucks'
Addressing the UN Security Council, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said trucks supposedly carrying humanitarian supplies to Venezuela were also loaded with nails and wire, showing photos of seized cargo.

The opposition-led and US-backed operation to drive trucks with humanitarian aid over the Colombia-Venezuela border led to violent scuffles which saw many police officers injured and several trucks set on fire.

Denouncing the botched delivery as a "well-orchestrated operation to violate the territory of Venezuela," Arreaza presented what he called evidence of the US-led effort being a Trojan horse aimed at inciting a coup.

"And let me tell you, when the trucks were inspected, it turned out that there was not just food and medicine in the trucks, but there was equipment for barricades. There were nails, wire and so on and so forth. And this is what is used by the opposition in Venezuela," Arreaza said, showing the photos of what looked like piles of heavy wire lying on the ground.
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Die

The establishment's last roll of the dice: What will become of Europe?

Alistair Crooke
Strategic Culture
Fri, 15 Feb 2019 12:00 UTC
EU flag
Francis Fukuyama in his End of History essay, Gavin Jacobson writes in the TLS, "is ordinarily read as the apologia for rampant capitalism and Anglo-American interventions in the Middle East. Yet little 'Redemption' is to be found in his liberal end-state. Indeed, the [future, Fukuyama wrote], risked becoming a "life of masterless slavery", a world of civic putrefaction and cultural torpor, exfoliated of all contingency and complication. "The last men" would be reduced to Homo Economicus, guided solely by the rituals of consumption, and shorn of the animating virtues and heroic drives that propelled history forward."

Fukuyama warned that people would either accept this state of affairs, or, more likely, revolt against the tedium of their own existence.

Effectively since the Great Wars, but more particularly, "since the financial crash of 2008, across Europe and in the United States, there has been (to borrow a phrase from Frank Kermode) a "sense of an ending". Liberal orthodoxies have fallen into radical doubt. Populist movements are arrayed against the political and economic order that has stood in place for the past fifty years. Electorates have leaped into unknown futures", Jacobson concludes - linking this to Fukuyama's prediction that Homo Economicus' ennui ultimately would lead them to revolt.

Well, orthodoxies have indeed fallen into doubt - and, for good reason: The prevailing liberal construct, with its grand theory about bringing peace and economic prosperity to the world by pulling down borders and uniting mankind into a new universal order, is in serious disarray. It has lost its credibility.

Comment: In light of the above, the demented pantomime that is Brexit begins to make much more sense: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Bad Guys

Will the future bring the US a socialist president?

Robert W. Merry
The American Conservative
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 20:54 UTC
Bernie Sanders
© Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Lately we have seen numerous conservative commentators posit the thesis that the Democrats are disqualifying themselves from a 2020 presidential victory by lurching too far left on key economic and social issues. The idea is that the American people simply aren't prepared to follow the Democrats into the leftist territory that seems to be their nesting place these days. Ergo, the party is in the process of ceding the White House to the incumbent Republicans, meaning a likely Trump reelection triumph.

This may be comforting to conservatives, but it is based on faulty political analysis. There is a strong prospect that 2020 will see the emergence of a new leftist president who represents democratic socialism of the European style - a brand of politics eschewed by America since at least the end of World War II.

This perception is based on four broad political axioms worth exploring as the 2020 presidential spectacle gets under way.

Comment: "History may not repeat, but it does rhyme"? Though the below was written in the era of GW Bush, the same possibilities lurk. The massive societal dislocation that would be caused by attempting to impose a socialist structure, via the 'Green New Deal' or some other mechanism on the US would set the stage for the emergence of a "strong man" that would make Trump look positively refined.

A Tale of Two Cities: Weimar and Washington
The Weimar Republic, which replaced rule by the German emperor in the aftermath of World War I, was a liberal democracy in the 19th-century sense, which means it had a constitution that guaranteed individual and group rights, multi-party systems, and free elections at regular intervals. It took its name from the city of Weimar, where the constitution was drawn up in a national assembly convened in 1919. From the start, Weimar was plagued by a failure to create a sustainable political culture because of the high level of polarization and violence instigated by both the major and fringe parties, even though the relatively moderate Social Democrats were normally dominant.

[...]

Hitler benefited from the political paralysis of Weimar, which had forced his Reich chancellor predecessors to rule by presidential decree to bypass the logjam in parliament, but he could not actually legislate in that fashion and did not have a free ride. There was considerable resistance to his policies. All of that changed, however, when the seat of parliament in Berlin, the Reichstag, was burned down on Feb. 27, 1933. It was an act of terrorism that shocked the nation, and it was eventually attributed to an addled Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe, though it was almost certainly carried out by the Nazis themselves. Hitler convinced President Hindenburg to sign a "Reichstag Fire Decree" on the following day, canceling the constitutional guarantees of habeas corpus and freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, and the privacy of communications. It authorized police search and seizure without any judicial warrant. It was no coincidence that the fire took place two weeks before parliamentary elections in which the Nazis, who beat and otherwise intimidated opponents and "monitored" the polling stations, won nearly 44% of the votes. The opposition, including the technically illegal communists, took 42% and Hitler was denied his majority, but he arrested socialist opponents, barred the communists, and was eventually able to form a government with his parliamentary allies.


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