Beet L. Jooz

Socialist nation descends into civil war as the disarmed population begins to fight back.

'If the military have the guns, they have the power,' says reporter.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared on CNN Tuesday and claimed that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was about to flee his country this morning — before Russia convinced him to stay.

Pompeo spoke to Wolf Blitzer and shared this stunning news:

He had an airplane on the tarmac, he was ready to leave this morning, as we understand it, and the Russians indicated he should stay. We think the situation remains incredibly fluid. We know that there were senior leaders inside the Maduro government that were prepared to leave. They told us as much over the past few weeks, and we’re convinced that the Venezuelan people are going to get their democracy back.

“Are the Russians responsible now for what’s going on?” Blitzer asked. Pompeo called out both Russia and Cuba, and said, “The United States is prepared to stand with the Venezuelan people, to support the interim government, to help a free and fair election to take place and then to build back this country.”

Minutes later, Blitzer made a point of asking Pompeo to clarify, saying, “I just want you to elaborate, Mr. Secretary, on what you said earlier, that he was apparently ready to leave, head off to the airport, Maduro, but the Russians talked him out of that. Is that right?”

“That’s right,” Pompeo said. “He was headed for Havana… Many, many conversations that have given us every indication that the fact that Maduro’s plane was parked on the tarmac and he was preparing himself to depart is a fact.”

When Blitzer asked Pompeo if the United States would allow Maduro to safely fly to Cuba, Pompeo replied, “Maduro understands what will happen if he gets on that airplane. He knows our expectations.”

You can watch part of the interview above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

CNN and the BBC were quickly taken off the air in Venezuela on Tuesday by the government amid an apparent coup by forces loyal to National Assembly Leader Juan Guaidó.

As reported by CNN, "DirecTV, Net Uno, Intercable, and Telefónica all received orders from Venezuela's government regulator Conatel to block CNN. (DirecTV and CNN are both owned by AT&T.)" while a spokesperson from the BBC told CNN that BBS Global News had been similarly taken off air by the South American country. 

Momento exacto cuando el gobierno dictador saca del aire a CNN (en inglés) de la parrilla de programación por cable (canal 706) y censura aún más con Conatel.

¿Alguno tiene duda de que la libertad de expresión no existe en Venezuela? pic.twitter.com/WR0XReOWNW

— Jhomar Lóp[e]z (@JhomarLopez) April 30, 2019

Earlier Tuesday, CNN broadcast footage of military vehicles running over protesters in the capital city of Caracas. 

🇻🇪 | REBELIÓN EN VENEZUELA: Tanquetas militares arrollan a grupo de manifestantes en Caracas: pic.twitter.com/BLirOAoFkP

— Alerta News 24 (@AlertaNews24) April 30, 2019

Meanwhile US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claims that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was willing to leave the country for Cuba, only to be talked out of it by Russia. 

"We've watched throughout the day, it's been a long time since anyone's seen Maduro," said Pompeo in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. 

"He had an airplane on the tarmac, he was ready to leave this morning as we understand it and the Russians indicated he should stay," he added, noting "He was headed for Havana." 

Secretary Pompeo just told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that Maduro had a plane on the tarmac ready to go earlier today... but Russia talked him out of it

wow. pic.twitter.com/mouqKcGefW

— Jason K. Morrell (@CNNJason) April 30, 2019

Brazil's right-wing government threw its support behind Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido's push to oust President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday, and called on other nations to do the same.

Last week's message from a booming economy should have rocked the Democratic field

'Here we go again Bernie'

Bart Chilton, arguably the most famous CFTC commissioner who on various occasions vowed to crack down (unsuccessfully) on precious metals and VIX manipulation, who called for cryptocurrency regulation, and who sported shoulder-length silver hair and wore cowboy boots during his frequent TV appearances, has died "after a sudden illness", RT reports. He was only 58.

Chilton, who most recently was an op-ed writer for Forbes and had his own daily business and finance television show "Boom Bust with Commissioner Bart Chilton on RT America" spent a career in government during the Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations, on Capitol Hill as a senior staffer in the House and Senate, concluding as a CFTC financial regulator between 2007 and 2014 where he repeatedly railed against precious metal manipulation and called for appropriate regulation of crypto currencies. In his own words, "I’ve always looked out for average folks and spoken my mind."

At the CFTC, he headed the Energy and Environmental Advisory Committee and the Global Markets Advisory Committee. He has served on multiple local, federal and presidential campaigns, the Obama presidential transition team, and in the US House, Senate, and Executive branch. His subject matter spanned from politics and policy – specifically US and global financial markets, agricultural, energy and the environment, and transportation – to music, movies, and pop culture. Commissioner Chilton was known for his individualistic approach to financial regulation, his myriad media appearances, speeches, and frequent opinion editorials. From 1995 to 2001, Commissioner Chilton was a political appointee of President Bill Clinton, rising to Deputy Chief of Staff to US Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman.

RT America, one of the media outlets to write a eulogy for the former commissioner had this to say:

“We remember his intelligence, his compassion, his joyful laughter. With his passing, nothing could fill the void in our newsroom, nor the space Bart held in our hearts,” said Mikhail Solodovnikov, RT America’s News Director. “We will seek solace, and honor his memory, by delivering the best news content to our viewers, with the dedication and diligence that is the hallmark and legacy of our friend Bart Chilton.”

Our News Team expresses deepest condolences to Bart’s wife, Sherry.

Over the years, Zero Hedge had repeatedly covered Chilton's seemingly sole attempts to crackdown on precious metals regulation, often critically, as in the end he was unable to put an end to an activity that has subsequently cost banks billions in legal settlement fees. That said, Chilton was at least one of the few regulators to admit that Wall Street is rigged, most notably in his Christmas 2013 CFTC parting letter which we posted at the time, and which we excerpt from one last time.

* * *

While one may criticize now-ex CFTC commissioner Bart Chilton for years and years of sound and fury signifying nothing, countless promises of regulatory enforcement (all of which fell short of the target) and finally putting an end to precious metals manipulation only for the world to discover that while every other asset class is manipulated (involving such individuals as JPM's chief currency dealer), gold and silver are exempt, one must admit the former regulator does have a way wtih words (and of course haircuts). Sure enough, Chilton's most memorable parting gift will not be something he did, but rather what he said.

William Cohan memorializes his parting message: "As we long suspected, Wall Street continues to use every trick in its playbook to do whatever it can to eviscerate numerous post-financial-crisis rules. The arsenal includes high-powered lobbyists who outnumber lawmakers 10-to-1; $1,000-an-hour letter-writing lawyers who gain strength from negotiating over arcana; and the occasional hoodwinking of a president whose knowledge of the ways of finance are close to nil."

Chilton's take home message: “The lesson for me is: The financial sector is so powerful that they will roll things back over time,” Chilton says. “The Wall Street firms have tremendous influence, and they can impact policy to a greater degree than any one regulator or a small group of regulators can.”

What are Chilton's other laments? Why being underfunded of course. Because if the CFTC only had more money, all would have been fixed.

In fiscal 2013, for example, the CFTC requested funding of $308 million and got only $195 million ($10 million less than the previous year) despite many new responsibilities. “There are crooks who are getting away with crimes because we don’t have the resources to go after them,” Chilton says. The SEC has a similar discrepancy between its appropriation and what it needs to fulfill legal mandates.

With its regulators overwhelmed and underfunded, Wall Street firms then move to the relentless negotiation stage. “As you try to deal with the regulatory agency,” he says of Wall Street, “the first thing you do is you say, ‘Well, would you exempt us?’ And when that doesn’t work, you try to ameliorate your regulation.” If that strategy fails, the industry defaults to litigation.

Chilton said he has noticed one additional tactic that Wall Street has been employing lately: stalling or thwarting nominees to regulatory agencies. The nomination of Timothy Massad, the U.S. Treasury Department official who managed the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to replace Gary Gensler as CFTC chairman came late in the year and a confirmation vote has now been delayed, probably to February 2014. That means further Dodd-Frank rule-writing and enforcement could be delayed, too, because only two of five commissioners will be seated and they would both have to agree to get anything done. “It’s a gift to Wall Street,” he said. “This is what they’ve been trying to do. They’ve been trying to stop Dodd-Frank.”

Chilton knows why Wall Street always seems to win. Financial-industry executives contribute more money “in every election, than any other sector, and they have made more profits in every single quarter since the fall of 2008 when many of them helped crash the economy,” he explains. “So while the rest of the nation is suffering still, and trying to get a leg up to get out of the ditch, the financial sector didn’t miss a beat.”

In case you didn’t catch Chilton’s meaning, here is the shorter version: Unless and until Wall Street’s disproportionate ability to bully Washington is curtailed, the rest of us will be held hostage to its agenda. For those interested in the fuller version, Chilton has been writing a book. Its working title: “Theft.”

One sure can't say that those 30 years he spent in Washington of which nearly 7 years at the CFTC were lost on the Alexander Godunov lookalike: at least he figured out who runs the show.

President Trump said late Saturday that the U.S. is already sending immigrants to sanctuary cities and that it was his "sick idea.""Last month alone, 100,000 illegal immigrants arrived at our borders, pl...

U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to fill a vacant seat at the Federal Reserve said on Sunday a smear campaign was being waged against him, after past writings and comments about women sparked renewed criticism by Democratic lawmakers.

The American media’s lazy reporting and obsessive hatred for President Donald Trump have given us years of sloppy, biased, misleading, and often completely false news coverage. White House Special Assistant Steven Cheung called the media out on Thursday for uncritically pushing North Korean propaganda.

1. Graham: 'I don't care' if Trump told McGahn to fire Mueller | TheHill  The Hill
2. Graham: 'I don't care' what happened between Trump and McGahn  POLITICO
3. View full coverage on Google News

(ABCNEWS) — Police in Pennsylvania have arrested a suspect in connection to two separate arson fires at the same church earlier this week.

Wilmer J. Ortiz Torres, 43, was arrested Friday and charged with arson, burglary and criminal trespass in the two fires that occurred between Tuesday and Thursday at the Iglesia Pentecostal de Bethlehem, police said in a statement.

The post Man arrested for 'setting church on fire twice' appeared first on WND.

'Felt like an earthquake'

A New Zealand citizen faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison for sharing the video of the Christchurch mosque shooting on Instagram.

MSM only highlights stories that fit their anti-American narrative.

Police in San Diego County said Saturday that they identified the 19-year-old suspect thought to be behind a shooting at a synagogue that killed one person and wounded three others.San Diego County Sheriff William...

The New York Times is reporting on a shooting at a synagogue in Southern California on Passover weekend.

After an impassioned opening in which Bill Maher explained how disappointed and disgusted he (and the miasma of Hollywood liberals) are at Mueller's refusal to find the bad man in The White House guilty of something, anything, no matter the evidence...

Bill Maher is extremely angry and disgusted with Robert Mueller - for following the law and cowardly refusing to abuse his power, and thus failing to destroy the Bad Man. At least Maher is honest about what he was hoping for & the lawlessness & lying he wanted to achieve it: pic.twitter.com/IuqLinwKrn

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 27, 2019

The controversial talk show host turned his attention to none other than Rep. Adam Schiff carrying on his theme by mocking the Democratic Party Congressman over his obsession with President Donald Trump and Russia:

“But this was our big gun. Now it just looks like you’re stalking him”

Maher went on to note that Bob Mueller was the "last thing America - left and right - agreed on... that he was an honest straight shooter," asking Schiff:

"if you couldn't impeach before, how are you going to impeach after?"

Schiff then seemed to back away from his constant tirade of 'impeach the mother-fucker'-esque comments, admitting that he's not there on impeachment yet, but he made a point of saying if they ultimately don't, it sends a message that the obstructive conduct laid out in the Special Counsel Mueller report "is non-impeachable."

"At the end of the day, Bill," Schiff concluded, "there's only one way to deal with this problem, whether we impeach him or not, and that is to vote his ass out of office."

And finally, in a stunning piece of hypocrisy, after spending almost three years doing nothing but discuss Russia and the traitorous Putin puppet in the White House, Schiff tells Maher - with a straight face - that he has been advising his colleagues running for president not to talk about Russia:

"Don't talk about Russia. You're not going to persuade people to vote Democrat or Republican based on Russia."

Watch the full interview below (we suggest emptying your mouth of fluids and removing sharp objects from the room):

Tonight President Donald Trump is holding a massive ‘Make America Great Again’ rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the Resch Center. President Trump is expected to highlight the U.S. economic growth, jobs and continued success following a first quarter GDP … Continue reading →

THE LA TIMES: A man is being held for questioning in connection with the shooting Saturday at the Chabad of [READ MORE]

The post 19-year-old suspect arrested after Synagogue shooting near San Diego appeared first on The Savage Nation.

Air strikes hit the Libyan capital late on Saturday as eastern forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar pursued a three-week campaign to take Tripoli and also confirmed for the first time they had dispatched a warship to an oil port.

(NBC News) One person died after a 19-year-old man walked into a Chabad synagogue in a San Diego suburb Saturday morning and shot people inside, and the suspect is in custody, the sheriff said.

Three other people were injured in the shooting at Chabad of Poway, which occurred around 11:23 a.m., and those people are hospitalized and stable, San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore said.

“This individual was with an AR-type assault weapon and opened fire on the people inside the synagogue,” Gore said.

The post Shooting at synagogue in San Diego kills 1, injures 3 appeared first on WND.

As the state with one of the highest costs of living, largely due to its 'green' regulations on vehicle emissions and other initiatives that have earned it the nickname 'taxifornia', the last thing most Californians want to do is pay even more in unnecessary surcharges, fees and taxes.

Yet that's exactly what one militant climate-change advocacy group is asking them to do.

According to CBS Sacramento, a group called the Perennial Farming Initiative is asking restaurateurs to sign up for passing an "optional" 1% surcharge along to their patrons. The money will be funneled to the California Air Resource Board, and spent on plans to implement "carbon plans on farms and ranches."

The plan, called the Restore California Renewable Restaurants, ultimately aims to take carbon emissions out of the air and transplant them into the soil, where they can help plants grow.

But unsurprisingly, people in liberal-leaning Sacramento appeared to be split on the plan.

"There’s always going to be the people who say, why is this on the bill? I don’t want to pay it. I don’t care what it’s for. I don’t want to pay it," Christopher Barnum-Dann, the owner of Localis, said.

Though the group argued that the 1% surcharge would be insignificant to most people, and diners relying on a fixed income can avoid it by simply preparing their meals at home.

"We’re not asking our fixed-income people to pay that on their property tax. We’re asking that of someone who had made a choice to go out and spend money," another resident, John Peters, said.

Also, because the program is intended to be 'optional', diners who don't want to contribute to saving the environment can simply ask the have it taken off the bill (that is, if they even notice it's there).

Still, for all the talk about how the 1% charge is 'insignificant', one resident pointed out that California is already 'pretty freaking expensive', and that asking people to keep paying new fees and surcharges in a state with one of the highest tax burdens in the country is tantamount to asking them to spend money that they don't have.

"Well I live in California and I don’t know if you know this or not it’s pretty freaking expensive here. One percent to somebody who doesn’t make that much money ain’t a lot but it’s a lot more than they have," resident Mike Mattingly said.

Undeterred by these complaints, the campaign's organizers are pressing ahead: They hope to have 200 restaurants signed up by the end of the year. Ultimately, one organizer said that if they can get 40,000 of the state's nearly 90,000 restaurants to sign up, they'd be pulling in "a decent chunk of money".

1. Truck driver closed his eyes in fear moments before fatal Colorado pileup crash  CNN
2. Houston truck driver blamed in horrific Colorado crash  KHOU 11
3. Bond set at $400,000 for driver in deadly Denver-area crash  NBC News
4. Bond set for man accused of causing fiery crash on I-70 that killed 4  9News.com KUSA
5. Trucker driver accused in fatal I-70 crash, fire appears before judge  FOX 31 Denver
6. View full coverage on Google News

Ban follows the death of 15 people, including six children, in military raid on suspected terrorist safe house in Kalmunai