The U.S. Embassy is remaining open and staffed; however, the State Department has requested all non-emergency U.S. government employees to leave Venezuela. Additionally, the U.S. embassy in Caracus is warning all American citizens to “strongly consider” departing the country while commercial flights are still available.
The security concerns surround a possibility an increasingly isolated dictator Nicolas Maduro may retaliate against Americans in Venezuela. National Security Adviser John Bolton discusses the current status.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department on Thursday ordered some U.S. government workers to leave Venezuela and said U.S. citizens should consider leaving the country, a day after Washington recognized an opposition politician as Venezuela’s president.
“We are taking this action based on our current assessment of the security situation in Venezuela. We have no plans to close the embassy,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro broke off diplomatic relations with Washington and gave U.S. embassy personnel three days to leave the country after President Donald Trump on Wednesday recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as president. (read more)
Additionally, Maduro has now stated he will close all Venezuela embassy locations within the United States…. That should be interesting.
President Donald Trump delivers remarks after the Senate failed to pass legislation to fund government and provide border security. The president reiterates the need for the border wall/fence, and says Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is negotiating with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for an interim compromise.
The diplomatic activity that took place in the lead-up to the events yesterday must have been exceptionally coordinated. Literally within minutes of Venezuela’s legislature decreeing opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president dozens of countries aligned with support and affirmation.
Earlier today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered remarks about the U.S. support for Guaido and the people of Venezuela during a speech at the OAS:
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[Transcript] SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you very much. The United States is a friend of Venezuela and of the Venezuelan people. We have watched Venezuelans suffer for far too long. We know what they know, that the tyranny of the now defunct Maduro regime has far too long – for far too long choked the country and its citizens.
Yesterday, in solidarity with the Venezuelan people, and out of respect for Venezuelan democracy, the United States proudly recognized National Assembly President Juan Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela. You’ve seen the statements from President Trump and from myself.
Many other countries, including a number of OAS states, have also recognized the interim president. We thank them for their support.
It’s now time for the OAS as an institution as a whole to do the same. All OAS member states must align themselves with democracy and respect for the rule of law. All member states who have committed to uphold the Inter-American Democratic Charter must now recognize the interim president.
The time for debate is done. The regime of former president Nicolas Maduro is illegitimate. His regime is morally bankrupt, it’s economically incompetent, and it is profoundly corrupt. It is undemocratic to the core. I repeat: The regime of former president Nicolas Maduro is illegitimate. We, therefore, consider all of its declarations and actions illegitimate and invalid.
In light of these facts, we call on Venezuelan security forces to ensure the protection of interim President Guaido’s physical integrity and his safety. We’ve seen reports that a number of protesters were killed yesterday and that more than one hundred were arrested, so I reiterate our warning about any decision by remnant elements of the Maduro regime to use violence to repress the peaceful democratic transition.
The United States did not arrive at this conclusion overnight. We came to this conclusion after a long and bitter experience and following a considered assessment of the facts. And we’re not alone. The OAS General Assembly has itself agreed to these facts. In June of last year, the OAS General Assembly declared the re-election of former president Maduro an invalid sham. This past January 10th, the OAS Permanent Council declared former president Maduro’s second term illegitimate.
Venezuela’s National Assembly became the only legitimate, duly and democratically elected body in the country. On January 23rd, National Assembly President Juan Guaido declared himself the interim president of Venezuela, pursuant to Article 333 and 350 of Venezuela’s constitution. He made this declaration with the full support of the National Assembly and, most importantly, of the Venezuelan people.
In his public address, interim President Guaido also outlined the steps he plans to take to restore democracy to his country, including free, fair, transparent, and truly democratic elections.
The United States stands solidly behind him. We stand ready to support the efforts of the National Assembly, the Venezuelan people, and the interim president to restore democracy and respect for the rule of law in Venezuela.
We also stand ready to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Venezuela as soon as logistically possible. Today, I am announcing that the United States is ready to provide more than $20 million in humanitarian assistance to the people of Venezuela. These funds are to help them cope with the severe food and medicine shortages and other dire impacts of their country’s political and economic crisis. Our announcement of aid is in response to a request from the National Assembly, led by the interim president.
As a friend of the Venezuelan people, we stand ready to help them even more, to help them begin the process of rebuilding their country and their economy from the destruction wrought by the criminally incompetent and illegitimate Maduro regime.
Our support for Venezuela’s democratic hopes and dreams is in sharp contrast to the authoritarian regimes across the globe who have lined up to prop up former President Maduro. And there is no regime which has aided and abetted Maduro’s tyranny like the one in Havana. Maduro’s illegitimate rule was for years sustained by an influx of Cuban security and intelligence officials. They schooled Venezuela’s secret police in the dark arts of torture, repression, and citizen control. Maduro was a fine student at the Cuban academy of oppression.
We call on the OAS and all its member states to act on basic, decent, democratic principles and the incontrovertible facts on the ground.
Each of us – each of us – must live up to our calling to promote and defend democracy, as expressed in the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, to which everyone in this chamber is a signatory.
And we call on all our partners and responsible OAS member states to show leadership and pledge support for Venezuela’s democratic transition and for interim President Guaido’s pivotal role in that.
We look forward to welcoming Venezuela back into the fold of responsible democratic nations and remaining in our inter-American community. We look forward to welcoming representation of the interim Venezuelan Government to the OAS at the earliest possible opportunity. And we look forward to working with all responsible OAS member states, with the Venezuelan people, our inter-American system, and with the interim government of President Guaido to restore democracy in Venezuela.
We – we each – have a critical opportunity to help the Venezuelan people live free once again. I ask my colleagues to reconvene a meeting of foreign ministers to continue our conversation on the peaceful democratic transition for Venezuela. History will remember whether we help them or not. The United States calls on all nations of the OAS to make the right choice and make that right choice right now.
Yes, the most corrupt Senate committee; at the epicenter of the legislative corruption within the ‘spygate’ fiasco; joins the resistance effort, and files a subpoena to compel testimony from Michael Cohen.
It must be remembered that SSCI Chairman Richard Burr and SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner, have previously admitted they are closely coordinating their efforts with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
(CNN) President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was subpoenaed Thursday to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in mid-February, a source close to Cohen told CNN.
It is not clear how Cohen will respond. The source said that Cohen has the same concerns regarding the safety of his family that led him to postpone his scheduled public appearance before the House Oversight Committee next month. Senate Intelligence traditionally does their interviews behind closed doors, not publicly.
Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, declined to comment on the subpoena. A spokeswoman for the committee also declined to comment. (read more)
Apparently CNN received the information from Cohen’s handler, Lanny Davis. Cohen is currently scheduled to deliver public testimony on February 7th, to the House Oversight Committee (Elijah Cummings); and, according to their released statements, Cohen will also give closed-door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee (Adam Schiff).
Lanny Davis proclaimed (without evidence) yesterday that Cohen was being threatened by President Trump. This framework is likely part of a publicity narrative to further the larger ‘obstruction‘ premise that underlines the impeachment need (Nadler).
As the narrative is being sold Cohen does not want to testify. However, adding weight to the likelihood Cohen’s prison deferment is part of an agreement to testify, Chairman Schiff and Chairman Cummings said “not appearing is not an option“. According to Cummings there was prior agreement between himself, Schiff and Cohen:
[…] when our Committees began discussions with Mr. Cohen’s attorney, not appearing before Congress was never an option. We will not let the President’s tactics prevent Congress from fulfilling our constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities. (link)
Again, there is very little doubt the approach has already been mapped out in post-election meetings between: Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, the Democrat committee heads, allies in the lawfare community, political allies inside the executive branch (IC, DOJ, FBI etc.), along with feedback from political networks, DNC (Perez) and major resistance donors. All the evidence to support this strategy was outlined in Speaker Pelosi’s Rules.
This was worked out months ago. Michael Cohen’s deferred prison sentence is part of this planning and coordination. Yes, the current DOJ helped coordinate and plan. It is virtually guaranteed the DOJ (SDNY) and Robert Mueller team members met with select emissaries of congressional democrats, Lawfare and media. Together they had this outline drawn up immediately following the mid-term election.
It should be noted Mr. Cohen is being represented at committee hearings by DNC operative Lanny Davis. However, Mr. Lanny Davis is not being paid by Mr. Cohen; he is being paid by democrat groups supporting the ‘resistance’ strategy.
“If they go down the presidential harassment track, if they want go and harass the president and the administration, I think that would be the best thing that would happen to me. I’m a counter-puncher and I will hit them so hard they’d never been hit like that,” he said during a 36-minute Oval Office sitdown.
The commander-in-chief said he could declassify FISA warrant applications and other documents from Robert Mueller’s probe — and predicted the disclosure would expose the FBI, the Justice Department and the Clinton campaign as being in cahoots to set him up.
“I think that would help my campaign. If they want to play tough, I will do it. They will see how devastating those pages are.”
But Trump told The Post he wanted to save the documents until they were needed.
“It’s much more powerful if I do it then,” Trump said, “because if we had done it already, it would already be yesterday’s news.”
The McConnell (Republican) amendment to the appropriations bill which would have funded government, including funding for a border wall/fence, failed to pass the Senate.
One Democrat Senator (Joe Manchin) voted to support the republican plan. Two Republicans (Mike Lee and Tom Cotton) voted against the Republican plan.
Next up…. The Chuck Schumer (Democrat) amendment to the appropriations bill, which would have funded government without including funding for a border wall/fence, also failed to pass the Senate.
However, six republican senators joined the Democrats: Lamar Alexander, Susan Collins, Corey Gardner, Lisa Murkowski, Johnny Isakson and Mitt Romney.
No Democrats voted against their plan.
WASHINGTON — Six Republican senators crossed the aisle on Thursday to vote for a Democratic measure to end the 34-day government shutdown, but the proposal still failed.
The Democratic measure, which would have reopened federal agencies until Feb. 8 but provided no funding for a border wall, was defeated in a 52-44 vote. Moments earlier, the Senate also failed to advance a Republican spending measure proposed by President Donald Trump that would have provided $5.7 billion for his border wall in exchange for temporary protections for so-called Dreamers brought illegally to the country as children. (more)
COMMENT: Good day;
The great public pension fraud here in Ontario, Canada allowed the public service unions to endorse Liberal candidates who would give them their 3% raises every contract. This gave them an 18% head start (the number of public sector employees) to win an election that only required 34% to gain power.
The percentage of Liberal voters rises since children of public employees are likely to vote the same as their parents.
Even when Conservative’s hit the campaign trail, they too promised better civil pay because they knew 1/5th the voters worked for the government. Corrupt as hell!
Your comment on government pensions hits the mark. Ontario is the largest by population of 14 million. The number of public service employees is nuts, 18.6% (1.3 million) of the total employed. The pension burden is enormous. As private wages have stagnated for 2 decades now, pension and benefit costs came out of the employee’s wages, but our civil servants got the raises and the benefits.
Suspicions are the current employees are paying today’s pensioners but data is held close to the chest.
Analysts find it difficult to gather data on public pension funds. Go figure, we funded it. But it is clear they are finding excuses to either hire more or at least keep current levels.
What is upsetting, I never found anyone besides you who realized these changes. And you’re not even Canadian. It’s terrible how politicians could create this divide between the working people in both public and private classes. The fuse is ready to light.
Stick around for the fireworks, it’ll be a show.
RH
REPLY: The pension crisis is not unbelievable. A blind man can see that this system is simply going to meltdown and lead to serious civil unrest. Why I am often the only one saying things is fairly simple. It is not that I am the ONLY person capable of seeing such a trend. The problem stems from the fact that I am INDEPENDENT and we are not a one-man-band newsletter. We have the resources and are global and have always been. Therein lies the distinction. Because we are global, we have to monitor the world. We have been the LARGEST institutional adviser with more than 25,000 institutions stemming from back in the 1990s.
Now, how did that ever happen? It was actually explained to me at lunch in Geneva by one of the heads of a major Swiss bank. He pointed out that there were no real European analysts that anyone listened to because that all had to be politically correct. The top analysts are at banks and brokerages. They CANNOT come out and say the euro will crash or the system is screwed because that will then be attributed to the bank or brokerage house and they will instantly lose their job.
Here is an Advertisement by Merrill Lynch from 1975 as the economy was crashing into the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. Paul Volcker explained in 1979: “By the early 1970s, the persistence of inflationary pressures, even in the face of mild recession, began to flash some danger signals; the responses of the economy to the twisting of the dials of monetary and fiscal policy no longer seemed quite so predictable. But it was not until the events of 1974 and 1975, when a recession sprung on an unsuspecting world with an intensity unmatched in the post-World War II period, that the lessons of the ‘New Economics’ were seriously challenged.”
There is no bank or brokerage house that has EVERforecast the top in a market. They do not try to do that unless they are trying to sell you bonds. There is a new documentary film coming out soon. I managed to get a few RETIRING bond dealers who worked in banks to appear and explain how the ECB has destroyed the bond market. They could NEVERspeak out when working for the bank. The central bank would be on the phone demanding they be fired.
You must understand that 99% of the professional analysts work for institutions that must be politically correct. We were the FIRST to do FOREXglobally. That is why we grew internationally. There were 37 countries represented at the WEC in Orlando. Nobody puts together such global audiences. No analyst could say the pound would crash or the D-Mark because it was not politically correct no matter what they personally believed. Consequently, there is no other analytical firm that even visits central banks on all continents. We have no conflicts of interest. That is ESSENTIAL. The top analysts at major banks or institutions cannot get in the door for they represent proprietary trading by institutions which presents conflicts of interest.
So the reason it is often me standing alone is complicated, but it all stems from politics. By no means am I really the only person who sees what is coming. Other Canadian analysts cannot come out and say, “OMG!” their employers would respond, “OMG! You’re fired
Believe it or not, Illinois confiscated and sold 50,000 cars because people had tickets that they could not pay. They still have to pay the banks on their car loans. The tickets are for expired “city stickers” that were implemented to collect more taxes from Chicago drivers. So these are not even tickets for parking or speeding. These are stickers to allow you to drive in the city. Worse still, if they get more than you owed, they keep it and it is not applied to your debt. This is no longer a government for the people. It is a hostile environment against the people at every turn
QUESTION: Marty; Are there any cycles dealing with the trade dispute with China that are relevant?
OP
ANSWER: Actually, yes. The United States created a two-tier monetary system in 1873 to accommodate trade with China who was on a silver standard rather than gold. The actual timing is 17 intervals if the 8.6-year frequency of the ECM, which brings us to 2019.2 (March 19th, 2019). The US began to mint two types of silver dollars. The “Trade Dollar” was used to make payments to China for their standard was different from the West. The idea was promoted by the silver miners because the price of silver began to decline due to increased mining efforts in the western United States.
The silver miners effectively donated huge money to the Democrats to support the price of silver, which ended up nearly bankrupting the United States by 1896 and gave the Democrats the name “Silver Democrats.” It was the presidential election of 1896 in which William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate for president, made his fiery speech that the cancelation of the silver mandates during the Panic of 1893 placed the United States exclusively on a gold standard. The Democrats stood against gold and sought to overvalue silver to satisfy the silver miners who were funding the Democrats back then.
The first trade dollars were struck in 1873, and the majority of the coins were sent to China. Curiously enough, as they began to flood the economy, the coins were officially demonetized in 1876 becoming the first US currency to actually be canceled. Nevertheless, the coins continued to circulate. The actual production ended in 1878. The trade dollar was re-monetized when the Coinage Act of 1965 was signed into law. The main coin in world trade had been the Spanish 8-reales. This became the basis of the American dollar. The Chinese had grown accustomed to the Spanish silver coins and this became their standard. Lacking the true ability to read Western languages, the Chinese were very sensitive to any changes in the coin’s design. Therefore, they were reluctant to accept any coin that was unfamiliar to them. The American silver dollar, 7.5 grains (0.49 g) lighter than its Spanish pillar dollars, which made them unacceptable in Asia. This was the reason for American merchants who had to trade only in Spanish coins during the 1800s which were carrying a premium to American coins.
It was in 1866 when the monetary system in Asia went into chaos. Maximilian I (1864 – 1867) was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire. He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. Maximilian traveled to Mexico and declared himself Emperor of Mexico on April 10th, 1864. He changed the monetary system from reales to peso. The historic 8 reales suddenly became 1 peso in 1866 with his portrait in the European tradition. This altered the Mexican pieces that were recognized in trade to a premium over even the US dollar. Therefore, starting in 1866, this design change caused widespread nonacceptance of the Mexican coins in China. This simple design change altered the coin which had been accepted throughout Asia as the standard.
This is the backdrop to how the Financial Capital of the World slipped through the reign of power from the Spanish to America. Most people have no idea that Mexican coinage was more valuable than America’s prior to 1866.
A magnanimous and deferential President Trump announced via Twitter his intent to delay the State of the Union address until after the partial government shutdown impasse is resolved…
Wow. Unexpected.
1. This puts pressure on Pelosi to answer his compromise with one of her own
2. Trump acknowledges the separation of powers (something Obama did not)
3. The president shows a softer side, clearly addressing his key 2020 weakness
Well-played. And cost him nothing.
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
As the Shutdown was going on, Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address. I agreed. She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative – I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over. I am not looking for an….
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 