Puppet Masters
"Give Cuba an ultimatum - without Cuba, Maduro doesn't last one day - tell Cuba to get out of Venezuela. Do what Reagan did in Grenada - put military force on the table!" Graham told a Fox News host, going from zero to invasion in ten seconds flat in response to a question about how Trump should handle his foreign conflicts.
"We need points on the board," the South Carolina senator insisted. "Start with your own backyard... Fix Venezuela and everybody else will know you're serious." North Korea and Iran, he implied, would fall right into line after Venezuela was put in its place.
There are "genuine trade wars" going on all across the world, Putin told the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, adding that restoring trust is essential among all countries.
"Unfortunately, [some nations] are fighting without rules, [they] intimidate and eliminate competitors through non-market means."
It is crucial to "find the way out of this situation" and "establish rules of fair economic cooperation," the Russian president said. "At the very least, social and humanitarian issues should be exempt from trade and economic restrictions, namely essential goods, medicine and medical equipment," he added.
Comment: Putin never rests trying to show the world a way out of the psychopathic rulers' dominion. A lofty goal but fraught with complex challenges.
The WikiLeaks founder faces an 18-count indictment, issued by the US Department of Justice, that includes charges under the Espionage Act.
At Westminster magistrates court on Friday, the chief magistrate, Emma Arbuthnot, ordered that a full extradition hearing should begin on 25 February.
Ben Brandon, representing the US, formally opened the case, a day after an extradition request was signed off by the home secretary, Sajid Javid.
Comment: Meanwhile Ecuador has taken the UK at its word that Assange won't be executed, but will 'merely' spend the rest of his life in prison for publishing the news. RT reports:
Julian Assange will not be executed if he's extradited to the US, Ecuador has reassured the world. This is good news for Assange, who will have a full life to live after completing his 175-year prison term.Also see:
The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry announced that no matter what happens to Assange, the UK has promised that it would not extradite him to a country that will kill him. The soothing statement was issued ahead of the first London court hearing to decide if the Wikileaks co-founder will be shipped off to the US in shackles.
Amid so much doom over Assange's fate, it's refreshing to have a bit of optimism coming from Ecuador's conscientious diplomats. After revoking Assange's political asylum and allowing UK authorities to frog-march him out of their embassy, Ecuador is obviously deeply concerned about the journalist's well-being.
Instead of being executed for exposing war crimes, Assange currently faces up to 175 years in prison for publishing factual information that embarrassed powerful people.
- 18 Ways Julian Assange Changed the World
- Glenn Greenwald: US war on Assange a 'blueprint' for criminalizing journalism
- George Galloway: 'Julian Assange exposed great crimes & now a great crime is committed against him'

Sen. Rand Paul has led the fight to ban US weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies.
Garris wrote of the vote which came hours after the Gulf tankers incident: "Both votes were considered highly likely to pass up until they were rushed to the floor today. The timing appears almost certainly to have been related to Thursday tanker bombings in the Gulf of Oman, and shifted a number of Senators' votes in favor of continuing the arms sales." He noted that "some senators switched sides to kill the bills" following news of the tanker attacks.
The vote, according to Defense News, indeed came very close:
Comment: From blaming Iran and endangering the Eurasian projects to empowering the US and Israel, the attacks on the tankers appear to have primarily benefited the war mongers and their allies: 7 Reasons to be Highly Skeptical of the Gulf of Oman Incident
See also:
- EU and Russia reportedly agree to ditch dollar in Bilateral Transactions
- 'Intimidation attempt... against defenseless states': US Marines put on a show of air power
- Weapons worth $8 billion headed to Middle East without congressional approval
In what the USMC called a "dynamic display of strength," aircraft from the Marine Aircraft Group 16 in Miramar, California staged a mass take-off last week. Video of two dozen MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotors and 16 CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters shows them in "elephant walk" formation on the tarmac before they take to the skies.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Maros Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission for the Energy Union, have agreed to set up a working group that will deal with a transition to using the rouble and euro in bilateral payments, Russian media outlets reported, citing Siluanov's spokesman, Andrei Lavrov.
Both sides have reportedly emphasised that the use of national currencies will be mutually beneficial, as it reduces certain risks for entrepreneurs in Russia and the EU.
Trump told ABC News reporter George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday that he would want to hear information offered to him by a foreigner about his election opponent and said that gathering opposition research is common practice.
"Somebody comes up and says hey, I have information on your opponent. Do you call the FBI?" Trump asked Stephanopoulos, who predictably responded: "If it's coming from Russia, you do."
George Kurtz ascended to the billionaire rankings on the back of soaring stocks immediately after the company went public, carried no doubt on the winds of the international fame it gained from its central protagonistic role in the most well-known hacking news story of all time. A loyal servant of empire well-rewarded.
Never mind that US government insiders like Hillary Clinton had been prepping for escalations against Russia well in advance of the 2016 elections, and that their preexisting agendas to shove a geostrategic obstacle off the world stage benefited from the hacking narrative as much as George Kurtz did.
Never mind that Crowdstrike is tied to the NATO narrative management firm known as the Atlantic Council, which receives funding from the US government, the EU, NATO, Gulf states and powerful international oligarchs. Never mind either that Crowdstrike was financed with a whopping $100 million from Google, which has had a cozy relationship with US intelligence agencies since its very inception.
Never mind that to this day the DNC servers have not been examined by the FBI, nor indeed were they examined by the Special Counsel of Robert "Iraq has WMD" Mueller, preferring instead to go with the analyses of this extremely shady outfit with extensive and well-documented ties with the oligarchic leaders of the US-centralized empire. Also never mind that the Crowdstrike analyst who led forensics on those DNC servers had in fact worked for and was promoted by Robert Mueller while the two were in the FBI.
Why do we need an answer? Well, our election system is ... how do you say ... a festering rancid corrupt needlessly complex rigged rotten infected putrid pus-covered diseased dog pile of stinking, dying cockroach-filled rat shit smelling like Mitch McConnell under a vat of pig farts. And that's a quote from The Lancet medical journal (I think).
But have no fear: The most trustworthy of corporations recently announced it is going to selflessly and patriotically secure our elections. It's a small company run by vegans and powered by love. It goes by the name "Microsoft." (You're forgiven for never having heard of it.)
The recent headlines were grandiose and thrilling:
"Microsoft offers software tools to secure elections."
"Microsoft aims to modernize and secure voting with ElectionGuard."

FILE PHOTO: Retired General of the United States Army, Wesley Clark, in Kosovo
Clark was in Kosovo this week along with other leading figures from the conflict, to mark the 20th anniversary of NATO troops occupying the Serbian province on behalf of the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army." While he did not get a medal, like former US President Bill Clinton, or a statue like former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the retired general was interviewed by the government TV station RTK about his vision for the region.
Speaking with RTK's Evliana Berani, Clark described NATO's presence in Kosovo as an "important continuing commitment" that's helping peace and stability in the Balkans - but warned that a threat from Russia was looming over the region.
Comment: It's notable that while Clark claims US presence is bringing 'peace and stability' to the region, tensions are actually rising: Serbian troops on high alert after Kosovo's forces raid Serb-populated regions
See also:
- Kosovo's US-backed army: A nominal claim to statehood, revenge on EU and future NATO vassal
- The Weight of Chains: US/NATO Destruction of Yugoslavia (Documentary)













Comment: Beware the warmongers are itching for a fight.