Puppet Masters
It is a recognised pattern for dictatorship to commence with emergency measures designed to combat a threat. Those emergency measures then become normalised and people exercising arbitrary power find it addictive. A new threat is then found to justify the continuation.
It is by no means clear to me that it is a rational response to covid-19 to tear up all of the civil liberties which were won by the people against authority through centuries of struggle, and for which people died. To say that is not to minimise the threat of covid-19. It is also worth pointing out that a coronavirus pandemic was a widely foreseen eventuality. People keep sending me links to various TV shows or movies based on a coronavirus pandemic, generally claiming this proves it is a man-made event. No, that just proves it is a widely foreseen event. Which it is.
President Donald Trump said he was doubling U.S. military resources in the region, including destroyers, surveillance planes and personnel, in an anti-drug crackdown to deal with what he called a "growing threat."
The beefed-up operation - quickly dismissed by the Maduro government - will also call for sending Navy ships closer to Venezuela, according to a U.S. official and two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But it was unclear how close they would get to Venezuelan shores, the sources said.
Trump, joined by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, made the announcement at the start of the White House's daily briefing on efforts to battle the spreading pandemic. It followed the indictment last week of Maduro and more than a dozen current and former officials on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, drug trafficking and corruption.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration offered, however, to begin lifting Venezuela sanctions if the opposition and members of Maduro's Socialist Party form an interim government without him, marking a shift in a U.S. policy.
Comment: The US has manufactured another excuse to justify its vendetta against Maduro. Never mind it was Guaido who was photographed in the company of Colombian drug-runners who helped him get back and forth across the border.
See also:
- Venezuela: Guaido subpoenaed 'among main perpetrators' for attempted coup, assassinations
- Coup plan B! US tells Guaido he may renounce his Venezuela' presidency' claim - but they're not giving up just yet
Schiff, who chairs the House intelligence committee, told the Washington Post about his plans in an interview, pledging to introduce a bill that would enact a nonpartisan commission to study "our mistakes" in dealing with the epidemic. The commission's work, he said, would have to wait until after the crisis, but he assured the outlet his committee was already reviewing "intelligence materials" pertaining to the pandemic.
Comment: Stuck in a loop, Schiff will (again) increase chaos to a 'feverish' pitch by pitting the Democratic leadership and its gullible constituency against the president. The result will be lucky to match his bogus impeachment efforts. That this is a crucial time to bring the country together to heal and reboot its economic engine won't even cross the barren landscape of his mind.
Their meetings were effectively indirect negotiations with the Gaza Strip's ruling authorities, led by Hamas. The Israelis reportedly argued for the natural-gas-rich emirate to continue paying millions in aid to the besieged coastal enclave.
Even these indirect, limited negotiations with Hamas - the Islamic Resistance Movement whose armed wing opposes Israel's military incursions - were treated as a minor scandal in Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The visit to Qatar was revealed by his bitter rival, the former minister (and anti-Arab psychopath) Avigdor Lieberman, who told the media about it in order to embarrass the Prime Minister in the most recent round of the apparently interminable cycle of General Elections in Israel.
Unfortunately, this contact between Qatar and Israel has a precedent. The government in Doha has actually ramped up its ties with Israel over the past few years.
One of the world's most regarded annual reports on democracy and good governance, the V-Dem Report is produced by the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
While Tunisians can be proud of the prospect of democracy in their country, Israelis have little to be proud of. A country that has long prided itself, however misleadingly, of being 'the only democracy in the Middle East', has lost the title to Tunisia, a small North-African Arab nation of just over 11 million people.
Understandably, Tunisians might find their overall ranking ahead of well-established democracies less meaningful, considering that the politically unstable country is still undergoing a painful democratic transition. However, considering that the country has registered a sizable improvement in every democratic aspect examined by the V-Dem Report, Tunisia truly deserves the title of "the star pupil of democratization of the past ten years."
Israel, however, has been, once more, exposed for its charade democracy. Since it was established atop the ruins of the Palestinian homeland, Israel has relentlessly touted its democratic virtues while excluding millions of Palestinian Arabs from any form of democratic participation.
Comment: Putin has extended the "paid holiday" period until the end of April:
The move comes a day after the President acknowledged that the situation with COVID-19 in Russia was becoming "complicated," during a meeting with officials, conducted remotely. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova used the opportunity to suggest extending the paid time off.The UK will remain in lockdown until at least after Easter. (The British MoD is keeping silent on the number of infections among soldiers.) Trump has announced $25bn in emergency cash for public transit systems. According to a French official, the US bought a shipment of face masks bound for France with cash - they apparently offered to pay double the price, essentially outbidding France. Aid to Cuba, on the other hand, was blocked at the last minute due to US sanctions. The Pentagon is stocking up on body bags (100 thousand of them) to distribute to hospitals and morgues. And poor Netanyahu, just out of self-isolation, is back in it (along with other top officials) after Israel's health minister tested positive.
Putin said the peak of the coronavirus epidemic is yet to come both globally and in Russia. Moscow, which is the hardest hit Russian city, announced almost 600 new confirmed cases on Thursday.
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According to Putin, the combination of isolation regimes and holidays will allow Russia "to buy time for proactive measures." However, he conceded its too early to talk about turning the tide of infections.
See also:
- Less than a third of America will rush to get Coronavirus vaccine
- Mike Rowe rips universities' rising tuition costs as classes go online: 'What are we paying for?'
- Israeli gov't expanding settlements while settlers step up assaults in the Occupied Territories
- The New York Times embarrasses itself over coronavirus misinformation, again
- Tucker Carlson: DHS offering 100,000 seasonal worker visas amid unemployment crisis
- UK: Woman fined £660 for refusing to tell police why she was out
- Facebook removes Project Veritas video for violating policy against coronavirus misinformation
- What seems unnatural about COVID-19 (SARS CoV-2)?
- US alcohol sales increase 55 percent in one week amid coronavirus pandemic
- The US just signed a $450 million coronavirus vaccine contract with Johnson & Johnson

A man wears a face mask as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, in Caracas, Venezuela. March 23, 2020.
"Unfortunately, we are seeing how certain countries - we should say, not the countries as a whole, but certain political forces there - are still being driven... by the desire to exploit the difficult situation in the world, the grave epidemiological situation in Venezuela to achieve their political goals," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday.
Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to relay some "great" news for the oil and gas industry, as he expressed his hopes for some supposedly upcoming cuts in crude oil production by Saudi Arabia and Russia which could reverse the current plunge in oil prices. According to the president, oil production could be scaled back by as many as 10 million barrels in total - or even "substantially more."
In his statement, Trump referred to his conversation with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who he said had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin. This statement seems somewhat bizarre, since Moscow has confirmed that the talks never occurred, nor are there any plans to cut production.
"No, there was no such conversation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's Interfax news agency when asked about Putin's supposed talks with the Saudi crown prince. Moscow said earlier that no talks between the two nations have been held since the strife between Russia and the OPEC members earlier in March, which was described as an oil price war between Moscow and Riyadh.

Buildings under construction in Gilo, an illegal Jewish settlement in the mainly Palestinian eastern sector of Jerusalem, June 6, 2019.
For its part, B'Tselem organization for Human Rights condemned the continued Israeli occupation authorities' violations in the occupied territories without giving any attention for the situation in which the whole world including the Palestinian citizens suffer due to the Coronavirus epidemic. The organization said that the Israeli army exploited the current opportunity to expel the Palestinians in the Bedouin and the in the Jordan Valley, adding that Israel holds the responsibility of the safety of the five million Palestinians under its control. While the United Nations confirmed that the Israeli government bears legal responsibility for the benefit of Palestinians in the occupied territories from basic health services to combat the spread of the new Corona virus in the world.
"Upon information and belief, Iran or its proxies are planning a sneak attack on U.S. troops and/or assets in Iraq," Trump tweeted on April 1.
"If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed!" he added.
It was not immediately clear if Trump meant the United States actually has intelligence of such a plan.
Over the past year, the United States has accused Iranian-backed militias of attacks on Iraqi military bases hosting coalition forces and on foreign embassies, particularly the U.S. mission.
Comment: RT reports on the increased sanctions on Iran and military presence in the region:
The Trump administration has been criticized for continuing economic sanctions on Iran, which has over 47,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and over 3,000 deaths from the virus, according to the country's health ministry. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did admit on Tuesday that the US could consider easing sanctions on Iran in the future to help fight the spread of the coronavirus.See also:
"We evaluate all of our policies constantly, so the answer is - would we ever rethink? - of course," he told reporters when asked about the possibility.
The US sanctions are part of a "maximum pressure" policy to curb Iran's nuclear, missile and regional activities.
While US troops are supposed to be exiting the Middle East, a New York Times story claimed military commanders were ordered last week to be prepared for an escalation of combat in the country.
- US hopes sanctions & Covid-19 in Iran will force regime change - but it's a mass murder that will only strengthen Tehran govt
- Joe Quinn on PressTV: 'Like Iran, Trump Wants US Forces Out of Iraq, But Only With Trade Guarantees - Elephant in The Room is Israel'













Comment: Or: this is how it finishes. The disease is in the system and the mask is coming off!