May 022019
 


Bugatti Atlantic Coupé 1935

 

Julian Assange Legal Team Begin ‘Big Fight’ Over Extradition (G.)
US May Have To Stop Borrowing Later This Year – Treasury (R.)
From 2024, All US Debt Issuance Will Be Used To Pay For Interest On Debt (ZH)
Fed Sees No Strong Case For Hiking Or Cutting Rates (R.)
Venezuela and Binary Choice (Murray)
Nellie Ohr’s ‘Hi Honey’ Emails On Russia Collusion Should Alarm Us All (Hill)
Barr Cancels Second Day Of Testimony, Escalating Battle With US Congress (R.)
WSJ: Dems Vilifying Barr For ‘Acting Like A Real Attorney General’ (Hill)
737 Max Sensor Had Been Flagged Over 200 Times To FAA (CNN)
US Environment Agency Says Glyphosate Is Not A Carcinogen (R.)

 

 

Straight from the horse’s foul-smelling mouth, the Guardian. First judge called Assange a narcissist. This one says he cost taxpayers £16m. Judges in Britain are apparently not required to be objective. Here’s praying he’ll receive better treatment today.

Julian Assange Legal Team Begin ‘Big Fight’ Over Extradition (G.)

A struggle over the US request for Julian Assange’s extradition will open in court on Thursday morning, a day after the WikiLeaks founder was jailed for just under a year for breaching bail conditions to avoid being extradited to Sweden. Wednesday’s sentence was decried as an “outrage” by Kristinn Hrafnsson, the editor-in-chief of the whistleblowing website, who said the hearing at Westminster magistrates court to oppose Assange’s extradition would be the start of the “big fight” – a process he said would be “a question of life and death for Mr Assange”. A judge largely rejected the mitigating factors put forward by lawyers for Assange – who took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy to London in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations, which he has denied – and told the 47-year-old it was difficult to envisage a more serious example of the offence.

“You remained there for nearly seven years, exploiting your privileged position to flout the law and advertise internationally your disdain for the law of this country,” said Judge Deborah Taylor, as she sentenced him at Southwark crown court. “Your actions undoubtedly affected the progress of the Swedish proceedings. Even though you did cooperate initially, it was not for you to decide the nature or extent of your cooperation with the investigations. They could not be effectively progressed, and were discontinued, not least because you remained in the embassy.” Assange, who was arrested last month when Ecuador revoked his political asylum and invited Metropolitan police officers inside the country’s Knightsbridge diplomatic premises, had written a letter in which he expressed regret for his actions but claimed he had been left with no choice.

“I apologise unreservedly to those who consider that I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case. This is not what I wanted or intended,” he said in the letter read out by his lawyer, Mark Summers QC. “I found myself struggling with terrifying circumstances for which neither I nor those from whom I sought advice could work out any remedy. I did what I thought at the time was the best and perhaps the only thing that could be done – which I hoped might lead to a legal resolution being reached between Ecuador and Sweden that would protect me from the worst of my fears.”

Assange, wearing a black blazer and shorn of the beard worn when police carried him out of the embassy last month, was told by the judge that his continued residence there had cost £16m of taxpayers’ money “in ensuring that when you did leave, you were brought to justice”. “It is essential to the rule of law that nobody is above or beyond the reach of the law,” said the judge, who said Assange’s written apology was the first recognition that he regretted his actions.

Read more …

Don’t they say that all the time about twice a year?

US May Have To Stop Borrowing Later This Year – Treasury (R.)

The U.S. government will have to stop borrowing money between July and December if Washington doesn’t agree to raise a legal restriction on public debt, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday. Hitting that so-called “debt ceiling” could trigger a U.S. default on its debt and an immediate recession, a risk that has become a regular facet of U.S. politics over the last decade. The current debt limit was set in March. Treasury has been able to continue borrowing from investors by using accounting measures such as limiting government payments to public sector retirement funds.


“Treasury expects that the extraordinary measures will be exhausted sometime in the second half of 2019,” Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Brian Smith said in a statement announcing the department’s quarterly debt issuance plans. Wall Street also sees Treasury exhausting its borrowing authority in the third or fourth quarter, according to the minutes of a meeting of a Treasury advisory committee of financiers. The debt ceiling is already affecting how the government funds itself. Issuance of Treasury bills – short-term debt – is expected to gradually decline over the second quarter due to debt ceiling constraints, Smith said.

Read more …

“..while we don’t know yet what the next reserve currency – either fiat, hard or digital – after the US dollar will be, we urge readers to own a whole lot of it.”

From 2024, All US Debt Issuance Will Be Used To Pay For Interest On Debt (ZH)

As part of today’s Treasury Presentation to the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, there is a chart showing the Office Of Debt Management’s forecast for annual US debt issuance, broken down between its three component uses of funds: Primary Deficit, Net Interest Expense, and “Other.” That chart is troubling because while in 2019 and 2020 surging US interest expense is roughly matched by the other deficit components in the US budget, these gradually taper off by 2024, and in fact in 2025 become a source of budget surplus (we won’t be holding our breath). But what is the real red flag is that starting in 2024, when the primary deficit drops to zero according to the latest projections, all US debt issuance will be used to fund the US net interest expense, which depending on the prevailing interest rate between now and then will be anywhere between $700 billion and $1.2 trillion or more.

In short: in the stylized cycle of the US “Minsky Moment”, the US will enter the penultimate, Ponzi Finance, phase – the one in which all the new debt issuance is used to fund only interest on the debt – some time around in 2024. From that point on, every incremental increase in interest rates, which will eventually happen simply due to rising inflation expectations, will merely accelerate the ponzi process, whereby even more debt is sold just to fund the rising interest on the debt, requiring even more debt issuance, and so on, until finally the “Minsky Moment” arrives. At that point, while we don’t know yet what the next reserve currency – either fiat, hard or digital – after the US dollar will be, we urge readers to own a whole lot of it.

Read more …

Get rid of the Fed or you will have no economy left. You already don’t have markets anymore, because the Fed became the market, and with the markets the economy will vanish too.

Fed Sees No Strong Case For Hiking Or Cutting Rates (R.)

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates steady and signaled little appetite to adjust them any time soon, taking heart in continued job gains and economic growth and the likelihood that weak inflation will edge higher. “We think our policy stance is appropriate at the moment; we don’t see a strong case for moving it in either direction,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a press conference following the end of the central bank’s latest two-day policy meeting. Overall, he said, “I see us on a good path for this year.” Fed policymakers said ongoing economic growth, a strong labor market and an eventual rise in inflation were still “the most likely outcomes” as the U.S. expansion nears its 10-year mark.


“The labor market remains strong … economic activity rose at a solid rate” in recent weeks, the Fed said in a policy statement a day after President Donald Trump called on it to cut rates by a full percentage point and take other steps to stimulate the economy. The policy statement, and particularly Powell’s insistence the Fed saw no compelling reason to consider a rate cut in response to weak inflation, prompted a modest selloff in stock markets and pushed bond yields higher. The S&P 500 index fell 0.75 percent, its largest daily decline since mid-March. Interest rate futures also reversed direction, signaling a lower degree of confidence the next Fed move would be a rate cut, exactly the point Powell was driving at in a “stay-the-course” message, said analysts at Cornerstone Macro.

Read more …

“Juan Guaido has been groomed for 15 years as a long-term CIA project.”

Venezuela and Binary Choice (Murray)

When a CIA-backed military coup is attempted by a long term CIA puppet, roared on by John Bolton and backed with the offer of Blackwater mercenaries, in the country with the world’s largest oil reserves, I have no difficulty whatsoever in knowing which side I am on. Juan Guaido has been groomed for 15 years as a long-term CIA project. His coup attempt yesterday, which so far appears to have stalled, was the culmination of these efforts to return Venezuela’s oil reserves to US hegemony.

It is strange how the urgent installation of liberal democracy by force correlates so often with oil reserves not aligned to the USA, as in Libya, Iraq or Venezuela, while countries with massive oil reserves which permit US military domination and align with the West and Israel can be as undemocratic as they wish, eg Saudi Arabia. Venezuela is an imperfect democracy but it is far, far more of a democracy than Saudi Arabia and with a much better human rights record. The hypocrisy of Western media and politicians is breathtaking.

Hypocrisy and irony are soulmates, and there are multiple levels of irony in seeing the “liberal” commentators who were cheering on an undisguised military coup, then complaining loudly that people are being injured or killed now their side is losing. Yesterday the MSM had no difficulty in calling the attempted coup what anybody with eyes and ears could see it plainly was, an attempted military coup. Today, miraculously, the MSM line is no coup attempt happened at all, it was just a spontaneous unarmed protest, and it is the evil government of Venezuela which attempts to portray it as a coup. BBC Breakfast this morning had the headline “President Maduro has accused the opposition of mounting a coup attempt”… Yet there is no doubt at all that, as a matter of plain fact, that is what happened.

Read more …

We’re going to have a civil war. But it won’t be civil.

Nellie Ohr’s ‘Hi Honey’ Emails On Russia Collusion Should Alarm Us All (Hill)

First came the text messages between FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, which gave us a painful glimpse at potential political bias inside America’s most famous crime-fighting bureau. Now, a series of “Hi Honey” emails from Nellie Ohr to her high-ranking federal prosecutor husband and his colleagues raise the prospect that Hillary Clinton-funded opposition research was being funneled into the Justice Department during the 2016 election through a back-door marital channel. It’s a tale that raises questions of both conflict of interest and possible false testimony.

Ohr has admitted to Congress that, during the 2016 presidential election, she worked for Fusion GPS — the firm hired by Democratic nominee Clinton and the Democratic National Committee to perform political opposition research — on a project specifically trying to connect Donald Trump and his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to Russian organized crime. Now, 339 pages of emails from her private account to Department of Justice (DOJ) email accounts, have been released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch. And they are raising concerns among Republicans in Congress, who filed a criminal referral with the Justice Department on Wednesday night.

They clearly show that Ohr sent reams of open-source intelligence to her husband, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, and on some occasions to at least three DOJ prosecutors: Lisa Holtyn, Ivana Nizich and Joseph Wheatley. The contents tracked corruption developments in Russia and Ukraine, including intelligence affecting Russian figures she told Congress she had tried to connect to Trump or Manafort. “Hi Honey, if you ever get a moment you might find the penultimate article interesting — especially the summary in the final paragraph,” Nellie Ohr emailed her husband on July 6, 2016, in one typical communication. The article and paragraph she flagged suggested that Trump was a Putin stooge: “If Putin wanted to concoct the ideal candidate to service his purposes, his laboratory creation would look like Donald Trump.” Nellie Ohr bolded that key sentence for apparent emphasis.

Read more …

Still don’t get why they insist on lawyers asking their questions for them.

Barr Cancels Second Day Of Testimony, Escalating Battle With US Congress (R.)

Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday canceled plans to testify before the House of Representatives about his handling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, further inflaming tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and Democrats in Congress. Barr was due to face the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, but pulled out after the two sides were unable to agree on the format for the hearing. “It’s simply part of the administration’s complete stonewalling of Congress,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told reporters. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Nadler’s proposal to have committee lawyers question Barr was “unprecedented and unnecessary,” saying questions should come from lawmakers.


The Justice Department also said on Wednesday it would not comply with a Nadler-issued subpoena seeking an unredacted version of Mueller’s report and underlying investigative files from the probe. Earlier on Wednesday, Barr spent more than four hours before the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee where he fended off Democratic criticism of his decision to clear Trump of criminal obstruction of justice and faulted Special Counsel Robert Mueller for not reaching a conclusion of his own on the issue.

Read more …

The Wall Street Journal takes a very strong stand.

WSJ: Dems Vilifying Barr For ‘Acting Like A Real Attorney General’ (Hill)

The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Wednesday excoriated Democrats for making Attorney General William Barr out to be a “villain,” defending Barr as merely “acting like a real Attorney General.” “Washington pile-ons are never pretty, but this week’s political setup of Attorney General William Barr is disreputable even by Beltway standards,” the board wrote in an op-ed published just hours after Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The editorial, which was shared by President Trump on Twitter, slammed Democrats’ criticism of Barr’s handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian election interference and possible obstruction of justice by Trump.


The board also took issue with Mueller, saying that the letter he wrote to Barr expressing concerns with how the attorney general summarized his investigation amounted to “posterior covering.” “Democrats leapt on the letter as proof that Mr. Barr was somehow covering for Donald Trump when he has covered up nothing,” the board wrote, arguing that Barr’s four-page memo adequately summarized the chief findings of Mueller’s investigation. The board wrote that the “trashing of Barr shows how frustrated and angry Democrats continue to be that the special counsel came up empty in his Russia collusion probe.”

Read more …

“Single sources of data are considered acceptable in such cases by our industry..” As I explained when this came out, you need three sources. One is crazy, two is too dangerous.

737 Max Sensor Had Been Flagged Over 200 Times To FAA (CNN)

The device linked to the Boeing 737 Max software that has been scrutinized after two deadly crashes was previously flagged in more than 200 incident reports submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration, but Boeing did not flight test a scenario in which it malfunctioned, CNN has learned. The angle-of-attack (AOA) sensor, as it’s known, sends data to a 737 Max software system that pushes the nose of the aircraft down if it senses an imminent stall. That software, triggered by erroneous data from AOA sensors, is believed to have played a role in crashes of Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines jets. Former Boeing engineers and aviation analysts interviewed by CNN have criticized Boeing’s original software design for relying on data from a single AOA sensor, claiming that those devices are vulnerable to defects.

FAA data analyzed by CNN supports that assessment. The FAA has received at least 216 reports of AOA sensors failing or having to be repaired, replaced or adjusted since 2004, according to data from the FAA’s Service Difficulty Reporting website. [..] In one 2011 case, the flight crew on a Boeing 737-800 reported that the “angle of attack and airspeed failed” and declared an emergency. An AOA sensor was then replaced. The FAA also issued two directives for various Boeing aircraft models before the 737 MAX was released, indicating that Boeing was aware of the potential for the sensors to cause problems in its planes. A 2013 directive mandated inspections of certain AOA sensors to prevent possible problems that included “obstacles after takeoff, or reduced controllability of the airplane.”

Another FAA directive published in 2016 warned that AOA sensors on Boeing MD-90-30 airplanes needed to be modified and tested to address “the unsafe condition on these products.” While those directives did not involve the 737 Max, Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and a CNN aviation analyst, said AOA sensors fundamentally work the same on different aircraft models. “This is a fairly simple external device that can get damaged on a regular basis,” Goelz said. “That’s important because Boeing made the decision to rely on them as single sources for streams of data.”

In a statement to CNN, a Boeing spokesperson said the 737 Max and its stall-prevention system, called MCAS, were certified in accordance with all FAA requirements, and that Boeing’s analysis for the plane determined that in the event of erroneous inputs from an AOA sensor, pilots would be able to maintain control of the plane by following established procedures. “Single sources of data are considered acceptable in such cases by our industry,” the Boeing spokesperson said.

Read more …

Unbelievable. Might as well end the EPA too. There is only one way to deal with GMO and the poisons that keep them alive: precautionary principle.

US Environment Agency Says Glyphosate Is Not A Carcinogen (R.)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Tuesday that glyphosate, a chemical in many popular weed killers, is not a carcinogen, contradicting decisions by U.S. juries that found it caused cancer in people. The EPA’s announcement reaffirms its earlier findings about the safety of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Bayer’s Roundup. The company faces thousands of lawsuits from Roundup users who allege it caused their cancer. “EPA continues to find that there are no risks to public health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label and that glyphosate is not a carcinogen,” the agency said in a statement.


Farmers spray glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in U.S. agriculture, on fields of soybeans and other crops. Roundup is also used on lawns, golf courses and elsewhere. The EPA did previously find ecological risks from the chemical and has proposed new measures to protect the environment from glyphosate use by farmers and to reduce the problem of weeds becoming resistant to it. Bayer said it was pleased the EPA and other regulators who have assessed the science on glyphosate for more than 40 years continue to conclude it is not carcinogenic. “Bayer firmly believes that the science supports the safety of glyphosate-based herbicides,” it said in a statement. The company has repeatedly denied allegations that glyphosate and Roundup cause cancer.

Read more …

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle May 2 2019

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)
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  • #47081

    Bugatti Atlantic Coupé 1935   • Julian Assange Legal Team Begin ‘Big Fight’ Over Extradition (G.) • US May Have To Stop Borrowing Later This Year
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle May 2 2019]

    #47082
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Calvin and Hobes

    Yep. Exactly correct!
    That’s why it’s called Intelligent Life! 😉

    The worst of it for me is; I can see it as well; and it leads me to feel myimpotence, knowing I can do nothing to stop the madness.
    I come here every day and feel the pain of awareness; the pain of helplessness; and the constant demand to do something; the inevitable double bind of consciousness…

    #47083

    My longtime favorite Calvin.

    #47084
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    My longtime favorite Calvin.

    Mine as well; thanks for correcting my incompetence with images…

    #47085

    From the Onion, May 2016.

    Man’s Garbage To Have Much More Significant Effect On Planet Than He Will

    “Within just a couple decades of his passing, Aaron Jacobson and all his achievements in life will be completely forgotten and never spoken of again, while the refuse he produced, on the other hand, will exert a profound influence that will endure for millennia,” said head researcher Kevin Wright, who confirmed that each of the everyday items Jacobson regularly tosses into the garbage—including soda bottles, plastic bags, food wrappers, and the like—will be considerably more important in determining the future of the planet than his roughly 80 years of life will be.

    Researchers noted that while Jacobson has visited a total of just nine U.S. states and one foreign country during his lifetime, the influence of his trash has already spread far and wide, leaving its mark across the globe. Over the past four decades, experts stated, the raw tonnage of refuse produced by Jacobson—a man who interacts with, at most, 12 people in an average week, and whose most recognized personal accomplishment is making pretty good lasagna—has crossed oceans and begun bringing about significant changes in marine ecosystems as distant as Asia, South America, Europe, and parts of North Africa.

    Moreover, Jacobson’s discarded cleaning products, batteries, and takeout containers will reportedly have a considerable effect on the political landscape, eventually serving as the source of heated policy discussions and debates—even spurring vast movements of entire civilizations—thousands of years after everything the man has ever said or done has been erased from human society’s collective recollection.

    Seeking to further elucidate just how profoundly impactful the man’s garbage will be in relation to Jacobson himself, experts noted that the Styrofoam packing peanuts that the local resident unthinkingly dumped into his trash can earlier today will still be on earth, altering the environment, dictating wildlife population numbers, and consequently upending food chains a million years from now.

    “And it’s not just Jacobson’s trash that will have profound effects on the planet—the emissions that result from him routinely leaving his car running while he waits in parking lots will influence the climate worldwide for an eon and will eradicate not just one, but scores of species from the earth’s surface,” Wright said. “If you put that next to the most notable goals in his life—running a 5K in less than 25 minutes and sealing his deck by himself without the aid of a professional—the two legacies aren’t even comparable.”

    “Basically, when the last person on earth with any memory of him dies—which by our calculation, is little more than 50 or 60 years away—the paint cans and single-serve coffee pods he’s thrown out will just be getting started,” Wright continued. “Future generations won’t know the name Aaron Jacobson, but rest assured, his garbage will leave a mark on each and every one of their lives.”

    #47086
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    “Basically, when the last person on earth with any memory of him dies—which by our calculation, is little more than 50 or 60 years away—the paint cans and single-serve coffee pods he’s thrown out will just be getting started,” Wright continued. “Future generations won’t know the name Aaron Jacobson, but rest assured, his garbage will leave a mark on each and every one of their lives.”

    I do not believe that for one minute.
    The planet, Gaia, is far more desilient than can be imagined by humans.
    The Chernobyl disaster; 36 years ago, is supplying some interesting facts about nature and the actual effects of the worst of human disasters inflicted upon the earth.
    I offer no defense for human stupidity and its continuing destruction of the environment; however; I posit, it will kill itself rather soon (geologically speaking); but not Gaia; she is imortal, unlike us mere humans.
    The earth (Gaia) will endure long after we’re gone…
    (I would love to see that paradise; resurrected, once again…)

    #47087
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “US Environment Agency Says Glyphosate Is Not A Carcinogen (R.)”

    Did you see the movies and interviews on this? It’s even worse: thanks to Monsanto CEO being the head of the EPA, they can’t say whether it’s carcinogenic or not because it’s never been tested. EPA doesn’t demand any testing, any evidence no matter how many lawsuits are brought. So they can’t say it does NOT cause cancer as an affirmative statement. Monsanto won’t allow any research, cutting off, suing, and ending the careers of anyone who tries. But I think clearly, those are the actions of an innocent man who has nothing to hide.

    “Venezuela and Binary Choice (Murray)”

    The Maduro troops were firing tear gas to disperse the crowd outside the airport. The “unarmed coup/noncoup protesters” were live-firing automatic weapons into the military base in response. I don’t have to tell you what kind of restraint when an army base is under attack from live fire and they don’t shoot back? Yeah. Oh and some dictator, letting Guido the Drone wander around doing this unarrested. But the more they don’t have to the funnier it is.

    How did OUR oil get under THEIR jungle?

    But the MIC won’t be convinced, fine. They need some kind of embarrassing costly failure to point to, fine. We’ll make one, and point out how their actions drove nations like Syria and Venezuela into the arms of Russia, devastating our geopolitical position. Then with Pompeos and Boltons out there, daily losing for the U.S. as we can no longer accomplish or even broker peace agreements in North Korea or anywhere that would give us credit. Instead Putin now does all that. Fine. Good on him. So don’t just look at the actions, look at the results: the U.S. is shrinking, the military and CIA are impotent, and we extend the multipolar world to a point where no one looks to or follows the U.S. anymore, and our arm-twisting and military threats are laughed at vs the S400 and the F35. Good. Fine. I could care less how we look as long as the result dismantles them. If that’s what it takes to drive Boeing and the MIC into the sea and us back to our borders, fine.

    I wouldn’t get complacent yet, though. At Ron Paul said, Guiado is now more valuable dead than alive, and the CIA has a history of such things. Is that the Overton window that he can say that in public as a normal course now? About bloody time.

    #47088
    zerosum
    Participant

    Yesterday, I quoted Jesus
    The truth will set you free

    However, there are major side effects for us normal people

    “I come here every day and feel the pain of awareness; the pain of helplessness; and the constant demand to do something; the inevitable double bind of consciousness…”

    We live in 3 dimension plus one dimension of time
    How many sides does truth have …. one, three, six, twelve?
    Is truth going to be different tomorrow?

    I takes eight minutes for the light from the sun to travel to our awareness.
    Its too late to take action
    All we should do is enjoy our awareness.

    #47089
    John Day
    Participant

    http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/05/contingency-plans.html
    Moon of Alabama figures Guaido got snookered… Thanks Eleni.
    There is no official explanation why the Trump administration believed that the comical coup attempt by Juan Guaidó and his master Leopolo López would work.
    There are signs though that the government of President Nicolas Maduro set a trap. Several people in the top echelon of the Venezuelan government gave false promises that they would join the U.S. proxy side. They snookered Guaidó into launching his coup to let him fail…
    ​ ​Everyone in Washington believed that significant figures in the Venezuelan government would change sides. They did not do so. Vladimir Padrino rejected the coup within an hour after Guaidó announced it. It seems that the Guaidó side got played by the Venezuelan Defense Minister and several other officials and officers. They seem to have promised to support Guaidó only to bait him into taking steps that would embarrass him.
    ​ ​A McClatchy piece headlined “What went wrong?” seems to confirm this interpretation:
    ​ ​Shortly after Guaidó gave his predawn speech at the Carlota Air Force Base in Caracas, rumors spread that Armed Forces Chief of Staff Jose Ornelias and powerful commander Jesús Suárez Chourio were behind the military uprising. But just as quickly both men joined a growing list of officials swearing loyalty to Maduro.
    …​ ​That military officials who owe their careers and livelihood to Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela didn’t abandon him shouldn’t have come as a surprise, said a former U.S. diplomat in Washington, who would only talk on background.
    ​ ​He said he’d known about Guaidós plans to call for an uprising for at least 10 days.
    “If I knew it, then everyone knew it,” he said. “The [Maduro] regime saw it coming and was prepared. The regime probably even knew that people in the government were talking to the opposition and probably even approved of it.”
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/05/venezuela-guaid%C3%B3-got-snookered-white-house-starts-beating-war-drums.html#more

    ​Ron Paul points out that Guaido might be worth more to the CIA and State Department as a martyr now, and they are good at arranging it, then blaming others.
    “The big danger is a hard war breaking out. I’d still bet it won’t be too bad, with thousands of troops moving. But it could be a guerrilla war or something like that. If there is a false flag or some important official on either side gets killed, you can’t tell what might happen,” he said.
    ​https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-01/ron-paul-warns-hapless-guaido-now-worth-more-dead-alive-washingtons-venezuelan-coup

    A peek at our Denisovan heritage.
    It’s not human “races” or even species, which are important, but heritable TRAITS…
    ​ ​A human jawbone found in a cave on the Tibetan plateau has revealed new details about the appearance and lifestyle of a mysterious ancient species called Denisovans.
    ​ ​The 160,000-year-old fossil, comprising a powerful jaw and unusually large teeth, suggests these early relatives would have looked something like the most primitive of the Neanderthals. The discovery also shows that Denisovans lived at extremely high altitude and, through interbreeding, may have passed on gene adaptations for this lifestyle to modern-day Sherpas in the region.
    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/01/denisovan-jawbone-discovered-in-tibetan-cave

    #47090
    zerosum
    Participant

    What should also be considered: uniforms and equipment were stolen with the intend of impersonating military that had defected. The 25 soldiers were filmed firing live round at the soldiers guarding the airport who responded with non-lethal rubber bullets.
    Meanwhile, there was a peaceful, large demonstration happening which was not filmed by the USA.

    I remember, reading about how and what Turkey did to get rid of his political opposition.
    The USA and allies said and did nothing against Turkey.
    What has Venezuela done to eliminate their political opposition?

    #47091
    Chris M
    Participant

    “Still don’t get why they insist on lawyers asking their questions for them.’

    Lawmakers that don’t know the law.

    Dandy.

    #47092
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    There seems to be no end of depravity; San Francisco has found a way to monetize the homeless; $30 million USD’s to “study homelessness, its causes, and remedies”; wtf?
    These people are delusional, wasted bags of flesh…

    #47093
    zerosum
    Participant

    More faces of the truth.
    https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/02/guaido-vecchio-failure-coup/#more-7766
    DC embassy protectors force Guaido’s shadow ambassador to flee in failure as coup flops in Venezuela

    #47094
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    @zerosum
    Thanks. Guaido and his handlers are getting buggered at every turn.
    Fortunately, the incompetence of the press and the U.S. is helping immensely…
    The formula, so oft repeated, is no longer effective due to overuse…

    #47120
    Nomanisanisland
    Participant

    “These people are delusional, wasted bags of flesh…”
    @v_arnold – are you talking about the city, state and federal policy makers or the unfortunates who have had forced upon them, or for some chosen a life on the edge of what you consider normal. Homelessness is so much more than just the people not in adequate housing.
    But that money sure would house a lot of those in need rather than pay some graduate policy anal ysts salary

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