Puppet Masters

Israel will never do harm to 'friendly Iranian people' - Ex-diplomat writes disturbingly dishonest op-ed

Sputnik
Sun, 24 Feb 2019 09:02 UTC

Israel does not consider the people of Iran its enemy, Zvi Magen, diplomat, ex-Israeli ambassador to Russia told Sputnik, sharing his views on Tel Aviv's attitude towards Tehran, the idea of creating an Arab NATO, and Russo-Israeli interaction in Syria.

Tel Aviv does not seek to inflict damage on the Iranian people, said Zvi Magen, diplomat, ex-Israeli ambassador to Russia (1998) and an employee of the intelligence department of the General Staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), while speaking with Sputnik on the sidelines of the eighth Middle East conference of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

"First, Israel has never regarded the Iranian people as an adversary", the Israeli scholar stated. "We are bound by a very long history of mutual friendship that ceased to exist because of the interests of the current leadership of Iran. They decided that Israel should be seen as a threat and an enemy and mobilised various resources to pursue their interests in the region. But I believe that for Iran, Israel in fact is not the goal in the region: It is only a handy lever for promoting other domestic and regional issues".

Comment: If you reverse everything this writer is saying, then it will make much more sense. As Mossad's motto goes: By way of deception thou shalt do war.

Comment: This article reflects no one except pathological liars and the dangerously deluded: At Trump summit Netanyahu declares "common interest of war with Iran" sparking backlash from Tehran

See also:

And check out SOTT radio's:

"Yankee, go home": Venezuela expels Colombia's diplomats, US 'aid' trucks sent back - Bridge border standoff rundown

RT
Sat, 23 Feb 2019 19:04 UTC

Venezuela has severed relations with its neighbor Colombia and has expelled all diplomats from its embassy, President Nicolas Maduro has declared, during a rally in Caracas.

Maduro had earlier closed the border with Colombia in the run-up to Saturday's attempts by the opposition to deliver trucks of 'humanitarian aid' from Colombia, in defiance of Caracas. A part of the border where a forced crossing might take place has been the scene of a tense confrontation between opposition activists and security forces all day.

Addressing a crowd of thousands of supporters, Maduro condemned his Colombian counterpart Ivan Duque for meddling in Venezuela's internal affairs, calling him a "devil in the flesh".

Comment: Comment: RT provides an overview on US threats and motivations behind the performance:

Venezuelan government condemns US-orchestrated 'propaganda show' at Colombian border

© Reuters / Marco Bello
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido stands on a truck carrying humanitarian aid in Cucuta, Colombia
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has blasted the United States and Colombia for organizing a "propaganda show" at the country's Colombian border. The border is currently the scene of a standoff over aid shipments.

"From the propaganda show organized at the border, the governments of the United States and Colombia have violated practically all the principles and purposes of the UN Charter," Arreaza tweeted on Saturday. "The world community observes them and will take appropriate action within the UN."

[...]

Rabidly anti-Maduro Senator Marco Rubio has visited the border to drum up support for regime change in Venezuela, as has US envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, best known for smuggling weapons in aid shipments to Nicaragua's right-wing Contras in the early 1980s.

Tweeting in Spanish, Rubio warned the Venezuelan military, the majority of whom remain loyal to Maduro, to lay down their arms. "Now is the time, tomorrow will be too late," he said.

President Trump, who threw his support behind opposition leader Juan Guaido moments after Guaido declared himself interim president last month, was short on analysis and simply tweeted "God Bless the people of Venezuela!"

The United Nations has warned the US against using aid as a political pawn, and called for negotiations between Maduro and Guaido. "Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Wednesday.

More from RT with commentary from Maduro:

'We are defending our borders and freedom': Maduro amid humanitarian aid tensions

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has rallied a large crowd of supporters telling them that the country has been defending its sovereignty. The call comes as the opposition was trying to get 'aid' from the US across the border.

Maduro rejected the attempts by self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido to pressure border guards deployed to border crossings with Colombia to allow trucks in, calling the campaign an "attempted coup". He called on the people of Venezuela to band behind his government.

"It is not a time of betrayal, it is a time of loyalty to the country and the supreme ideals of Venezuela," he said.

Maduro dismissed the defectors, saying what they did was for show, just like the entire situation on the border orchestrated by the US government.

He stated that Venezuela was within its rights to defend its borders and the freedom of its people from a "Washington regime-change operation".

A deadline set by Guaido for the Venezuelan government to let in the American shipment expires on Saturday. Since morning there was high tension in the Venezuelan border town of Urena as well as at the Simon Bolivar bridge about 10 km away. Some clashes occurred between opposition activists and Venezuelan security forces, who used tear gas on several occasions.

The opposition leader traveled to Colombia and is organizing a truck convoy, but so far has failed to force them through the police cordon.

The Maduro government sees the highly-publicized attempt to deliver the aid as a PR stunt to bolster the opposition and as a possible cover to smuggle arms to the opposition. Legitimate international humanitarian organizations like the Committee of the Red Cross refused to take part in the operation.

TASS reports that the Colombian Foreign Minister confirms the convoy was ordered to return - having achieved their objective of stirring up trouble:

Colombian leader orders humanitarian convoy to return
© GIAN EHRENZELLER/EPA-EFE
Colombian President Ivan Duque
Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said on Saturday that President Ivan Duque ordered the trucks with humanitarian assistance for Venezuela to return back from the border with Venezuela.

"Measures were taken upon direct instructions by President Duque. Protecting people in the border zone remains the Colombian government's priority, therefore, the trucks are returning," the minister told reporters in the city of Cucuta on the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Zerohedge provides more info:

Venezuela Aid Trucks Set Ablaze As Maduro Tells Trump: "Yankee, Go Home"
Update 2: True to his word, it appears the humanitarian aid trucks being sent from the west into Venezuela have been repelled by Maduro's guards as reports come in from social media that they are all now on fire.

Meanwhile, John Bolton is stirring the neocon pot...

Update 1: President Maduro addressed the nation on state-owned television, urging his supporters to revolt if he is harmed and telling Trump "Yankee, go home!" Headlines from the speech include (via Bloomberg):

*VENEZUELA'S MADURO SAYS HE WILL HOLD POWER FOR MANY YEARS

*VENEZUELA'S MADURO SAYS HE'S NO 'PUPPET OF THE EMPIRE'

*VENEZUELA'S MADURO: TRUMP, DUQUE DON'T DECIDE FOR VENEZUELANS

*MADURO: VENEZUELANS ARE DEFEATING U.S. COUP ATTEMPT

*MADURO: GUAIDO SHOULD CALL ELECTIONS IF HE IS PRESIDENT

*MADURO: PROTESTERS INCITING VIOLENCE ARE GOING TO PRISON

*VENEZUELA'S MADURO SAYS HE WILL GUARANTEE SECURITY ON BORDER

*VENEZUELA'S MADURO: GOVT HAS PLANS FOR ALL POSSIBLE SCENARIOS

*VENEZUELA'S MADURO TELLS PRESIDENT TRUMP: 'YANKEE GO HOME'

*VENEZUELA MADURO CALLS ON SUPPORTERS TO REVOLT IF HE IS HARMED

*VENEZUELANS SHOULD RESOLVE OWN PROBLEMS, MADURO SAYS

*VENEZUELAN HUMANITARIAN AID SEEKS U.S. INVASION, MADURO SAYS

President Trump has been quiet so far on Twitter, offering just this earlier today:

As we detailed earlier, unrest in Venezuela is intensifying at border crossings with Colombia after embattled President Nicolas Maduro declared the borders with both Colombia and Brazil closed late this week, and after violence at a town near the border with Brazil left two dead and 17 injured when national guard soldiers opened fire on a group of civilians attempting to keep open a segment of the southern border with Brazil for deliveries of humanitarian aid.

On Saturday CNN crews filmed confrontations between protesters and Venezuela's National Guard at Ureña near Colombia over demands of workers to cross into the neighboring country to work.

Source: Bloomberg Business' Andy Rosati via Twitter from Ureña. "Blocked by national guard, what was meant to be a peaceful protest in Venezuela is turning increasingly violent. Masked protesters hijacked a government bus and set it a blaze trying to break the soldiers' barricade."

"We want to work!" protesters chanted before being dispersed by tear gas and rubber bullets, after which the crowd hurled stones at the soldiers. Some among the crowed tried to dismantle a metal barrier blocking the Simon Bolivar international bridge, one of three major cross-border bridges near Urena, one of which has never been opened and was used by the US administration to claim Maduro had blockaded the country against outside aid.

It's also at this location that three members of Venezuela's Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) defected to the Colombian side on Saturday morning, later confirmed by Colombian authorities, but condemned by Caracas as an act orchestrated and staged by the opposition.

Tensions appear to be coming to head this weekend as previously US-backed Juan Guaido promised to personally lead caravans to ensure aid is brought in from both Colombia and Brazil, in order to undermine and otherthrow the Maduro government.

Footage emerged on Saturday which appears to confirm that "Interim President" Guaido is present at the Tienditas International Bridge which connects Tachira, Venezuela with Norte de Santander, Colombia.

Guaido is vowing to break the border blockade by personally entering Venezuela with an aid convoy.

He's reportedly there with with Colombian president, Iván Duque and President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera - all of which are promising to facilitate the entry of aid.

Meanwhile as unrest at multiple border towns in Venezuela grows, Maduro called on Venezuelans to "mobilize" Saturday.

"Let's all take to the streets to defend our independence with conscience and joy," Maduro said via his official Twitter account.

Juan Guaido on the Colombian side of the Tienditas International Bridge Saturday.

This further comes a day after British billionaire Richard Branson sponsored a Live Aid-inspired show in Cucuta, Colombia, involving popular Latin American singers and appearances by the presidents of Colombia, Chile, and Paraguay.

Guaido himself also made a surprise appearance at the end of the concert in defiance of a ban on him leaving Venezuela.

According to the AP, Guaido may have traveled across the border on a Colombian air force helicopter:
It's not clear how Guaido sneaked into Colombia - in one video circulating on social media he appears running across a bridge near the Colombian town of Puerto Santander, while in another he could be seen boarding a helicopter belonging to the Colombian air force.
Last week, Guaido warned that Maduro had until February 23 to allow aid into the country, which in the US was echoed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who told Axios on Wednesday that Saturday could ultimately decide the fate of Maduro as the standoff over aid comes to a head, given the opposition is ready to force the issue in as visible way as possible.

The provocative actions to undermine Maduro's power have been acknowledged as just that by the opposition, who've recently openly stated that the "humanitarian channel" is a direct political jab at Caracas. Though the tons of much needed aid, including food and medicine supplies, is reportedly piling up along border points especially in Colombia, it's anything but merely "benevolent" - the opposition acknowledges.

"The impact of the humanitarian aid is highly political," Juan Miguel Matheus, an MP for the opposition told CNN earlier this week. "Our first and primary goal is to provide relief for the Venezuelan population, but after that, with this move we want to checkmate Maduro."

"If the aid gets in, Maduro is shown to have lost control of the situation; if it doesn't get in, we show that Maduro doesn't care for the suffering of the people," he added.

The spotlight also remains this weekend on Cucuta, where US aid shipments are being delivered via US Air Force planes and staged for delivery. Meanwhile national security adviser John Bolton has canceled a planned trip to South Korea to "focus on events in Venezuela."

developing...

* * *

Live Feed:

Venezuela struggles to find buyers for its oil after US sanctions

Tsvetana Paraskova
OilPrice,com
Thu, 21 Feb 2019 14:30 UTC

Following the U.S. sanctions, Venezuela's oil inventories have swelled to a five-year high, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing satellite data-a sign that Venezuelan oil buyers are fleeing and the country sitting on top of the world's largest crude resources is struggling to sell its oil.

At the end of January, the U.S. imposed sanctions on PDVSA to "help prevent further diverting of Venezuela's assets by Maduro and preserve these assets for the people of Venezuela. The path to sanctions relief for PdVSA is through the expeditious transfer of control to the Interim President or a subsequent, democratically elected government," Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin said.

The sanctions block all payments to PDVSA accounts, and buyers of Venezuelan crude are directed to deposit payments in a separate account, to which PDVSA doesn't have access.

Comment: With Iran, Russia and now Venezuela, all major energy supplying nations under sanctions the US is putting the world in a bind and it's likely this arrogance will, eventually, backfire - or the US will take its nefarious games up a notch:

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

'Challenging' Russia in the Arctic: Political posturing or a war in the making?

RT
Sat, 23 Feb 2019 09:16 UTC

As Russia bolsters its efforts to secure and tap the Arctic, both the UK and the US have been vowing to meet its "challenge" - a premise that could lead to war, experts say, if their naval powers could muster the capabilities.

"It's nobody's lake," said US Admiral James Foggo in a recent interview with US media - the latest in a string of American warnings against Russia's northward push. His concern is primarily for "Arctic Council nations - of which we are a member," and which are not interested in the Northern Sea Route being exploited by adversary powers like Russia and China.

UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson recently joined the chorus of warnings, saying Britain would "stay vigilant to new challenges" by "sharpening our skills in sub-zero conditions, learning from longstanding allies like Norway or monitoring submarine threats with our Poseidon aircraft."

Comment: See also:

Pepe Escobar meets Dugin in Moscow ahead of Putin's State of the Nation address: On Eurasianism, populism and multipolarity

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Sat, 23 Feb 2019 22:44 UTC

© AFP / Alexander Nemenov
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his Putin of the nation address in Moscow on Wednesday.

President Putin's state of the nation address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow this week was an extraordinary affair. While heavily focused on domestic social and economic development, Putin noted, predictably, the US decision to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty and clearly outlined the red lines in regard to possible consequences of the move.

It would be naïve to believe that there would not be a serious counterpunch to the possibility of the US deploying launchers "suitable for using Tomahawk missiles" in Poland and Romania, only a 12-minute flight away from Russian territory.

Putin cut to the chase: "This is a very serious threat to us. In this case, we will be forced - I want to emphasize this - forced to take tit-for-tat steps."

Later that night, many hours after his address, Putin detailed what was construed in the US, once again, as a threat.

Japan's PM Abe plans to ignore result of Okinawan resident's referendum on re-location of US air base

Walter Sim
The Straits Times
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 13:42 UTC

© AFP
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said his government would ignore a referendum on the re-location of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in densely populated Ginowan to the coastal district of Henoko.

Okinawa residents will vote in a controversial referendum in the prefecture on Sunday (Feb 24) on the re-location of a key American air base, a non-binding poll whose result Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said his government would ignore.

About 1.16 million people aged 18 and above are eligible to cast their ballots, as a decades-long impasse comes to a head over the plan to move the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in densely populated Ginowan to the coastal district of Henoko.

The central government, which has even resorted to taking the Okinawa government to court to force the move, has gone ahead and restarted long-stalled land reclamation work off Henoko despite massive local opposition and protests.

The base issue has long been an irritant to the US-Japan security alliance.

Voters will have three options: yes, no, or neither. The "neither" option was only added after five of Okinawa's 41 municipalities, led by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said they would not take part in the referendum if it was merely a binary vote.

Comment: As many so-called democracies are no longer bothering to maintain the pretense of either listening to or acceding to the will of the people, we are witnessing the predictable results:

Okinawan residents have been protesting for years against the abuses of the US military to little effect; how much longer will they be willing to put up with their own government's disregard?

70,000 people protest plan to relocate US army base in Okinawa

Video emerges of a shirtless and drunk Bernie Sanders singing with Communists

Jim Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 21:28 UTC

As reported earlier by Cristina Laila...

Footage of a shirtless, drunk Bernie Sanders in the USSR on his 'honeymoon' singing with presumed Soviets in 1988 surfaced and was posted to Twitter in late January.

The video of Bernie was posted to Twitter by Travis Justin, a Navy veteran and leader of "Draft Beto 2020."

TRAVIS JUSTIN-> NEW: Recently discovered footage from 1988 reveals a shirtless Bernie Sanders with his wife, Jane, on their honeymoon in the USSR, drunkenly singing "This Land Is Your Land" with a group of presumed Soviets.

https://twitter.com/TopRopeTravis/status/1089909214213038081

During the 2016 presidential election, then-candidate Bernie Sanders was heavily criticized for taking his 'honeymoon' to the Soviet Union in May of 1988.

Comment: Socialist? Bernie Sanders has 3 houses, makes millions

Planned chaos: The nightmare of the Green New Dealers' scarcity-free fairyland

Richard M. Ebeling
American Institute for Economic Research
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC

Then with beautiful little birds chirping in the air in a clear blue sky, we will all live happily ever after in the Green New Deal paradise. The End.

When a small child runs around waving their arms saying, "I'm a bird, I'm a bird," we often will say what a creative imagination they have. If an adult runs around doing the same, we usually say that that person needs help because they are clearly out of touch with reality. Anyone who takes the time to read the proposed Green New Deal legislation can only conclude that the authors are living in a fairyland that is also deeply out of touch with reality.

Read through the list of desired and, indeed, demanded activities the congressional sponsors say they want the federal government to undertake over the next decade. The sponsors resemble a child running around the toy store saying, "I want that, and that, and that, and that, and..." while all the time completely oblivious to the fact that everything they want costs money that their parents do not have an unlimited quantity of.

The child may very well throw a temper tantrum when they are told that not everything they want can be had, or at least not right now all at the same time. What the child is not yet fully cognizant of is the existence and meaning of scarcity, costs, and trade-offs. Food, clothing, a room in which to sleep, and various other nice things from their parents just seem to be there. So why can't they just have all these other things as well, and just for the asking?

Comment: The Far Left's Green New Deal has more in common with Mao's Cultural Revolution than FDR's New Deal

Just as Mao's Cultural Revolution empowered students over their parents, so this bill sets up identity politics groups as having power over the major sectors of the economy. It even calls for a national "mobilization, "as Mao did.

Referencing historical discrimination, this bill in effect does away with one person one vote, or democracy as we know it, since in this resolution, redress of the past requires that only these designated groups would have a say in running this plan, whose administration would in effect be the domestic policy of the country.

US appropriates ISIS's slogan - 'remaining and expanding' - by deciding to keep occupation forces in Syria after partial withdrawal

Ellijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 20:17 UTC

Washington declared it won't fully withdraw its troops from Syria but will leave "400 peace keeping forces", making these soldiers an official occupation force since the last ISIS stronghold is about to be freed. This new situation leaves the US and European allies without any cloak of legality, since the pretext of counterterrorism is no longer plausible. The number of remaining forces is irrelevant because the US has never revealed an accurate count of the number of its troops deployed in Syria and Iraq. Moreover, even if the number of soldiers is small, these remaining US forces can call for air strikes and prevent any forces, including the Syrian army, from crossing the Euphrates - at any moment they can call on US units stationed nearby in Iraq. Moscow and its allies foresaw the US decision not to withdraw from the start. Russia, Iran and Syria never trusted Donald Trump's announcement of full withdrawal from Syria.

Now that the dust has settled over the real US intention to remain in the Levant, Russia and its allies need to reconsider their plans. Negotiations between the Kurds and the government of Damascus will become more complicated and the relationship between Russia, Iran, and Turkey will be recalibrated. Tensions between the US and Turkey and between Russia, Turkey and Iran will impose themselves again in the Syrian arena.

The continuing presence of US troops at al-Tanf on the Syrian-Iraqi borders and in north-eastern Syria makes it likely that the Kurds in al-Hasaka and Qamishli may not reach a clear deal with the Syrian government until the outcome of the US decision becomes clearer.

Review: The War on Normal People

Uri Harris
Quillette
Sat, 29 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC

"I am writing from inside the tech bubble to let you know that we are coming for your jobs."

So begins Andrew Yang's book, The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income is Our Future. Despite the tagline, this isn't fundamentally a book about Universal Basic Income (UBI). It's about the market, and our attitude towards it.

American society has been reorganising over the past few decades. Some business sectors have faded, while others have surged. Importantly, many of the surging sectors are concentrated in a few key regions. This has led to what Yang refers to as "six paths to six places," meaning that the most qualified college graduates generally choose a career in one of six sectors and in one of six places: finance, consulting, law, technology, medicine, or academia in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Washington, DC. All these sectors are highly knowledge-intensive.

The result has been an increasing stratification of American society. The most qualified people leave their hometowns to pursue a career in one of these sectors, while those who remain behind are generally forced into far less attractive sectors such as retail, transportation, and manufacturing. This has led to entirely different climates. People in the right sectors and regions experience a climate of abundance, whole those in the wrong sectors and regions experience a climate of scarcity. Income inequality has risen to historic levels.

Comment: For more perspectives on the future of AI in the workplace and its implications for the human workforce, see also:

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Puppet Masters

Israel will never do harm to 'friendly Iranian people' - Ex-diplomat writes disturbingly dishonest op-ed

"Yankee, go home": Venezuela expels Colombia's diplomats, US 'aid' trucks sent back - Bridge border standoff rundown

Venezuela struggles to find buyers for its oil after US sanctions

'Challenging' Russia in the Arctic: Political posturing or a war in the making?

Pepe Escobar meets Dugin in Moscow ahead of Putin's State of the Nation address: On Eurasianism, populism and multipolarity

Japan's PM Abe plans to ignore result of Okinawan resident's referendum on re-location of US air base

Video emerges of a shirtless and drunk Bernie Sanders singing with Communists

Planned chaos: The nightmare of the Green New Dealers' scarcity-free fairyland

US appropriates ISIS's slogan - 'remaining and expanding' - by deciding to keep occupation forces in Syria after partial withdrawal

Review: The War on Normal People

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