robbo203
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Those exploding pagers…
Unnamed US and Israeli officials told Axios that the explosions were initially planned as the opening move in an “all-out” offensive against Hezbollah. But in recent days Israel became concerned Hezbollah had become aware of the plan – so they were detonated early.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz04m913m49o
and the possible repercussions…
People here will continue to support UK policy.
Some people will but I have noticed quite a lot of other people don’t, on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. You notice connections being made between, for example, between the apparent ease with which the UK government finds itself able to generously support the authoritarian Zelensky regime in the war against the authoritarian Putin regime but when it comes to providing UK pensioners with the traditional heating allowance suddenly the money has mysteriously run out and the state coffers are empty. Flag-waving nationalist loonies might not think much about the war possibly escalating into a nuclear conflict but a lot of people are worried and I think this does act as a kind of constraint on policy as well – perhaps not so much in the case of the sociopathic nutjobs that run the so-called Labour Party in the UK but certainly in Washington where decisions carry greater weight
“In 2017 Labour said 4,000 pensioners would die if the universal winter fuel allowance was scrapped & Angela Eagle said such a move by the Tories would be outrageous
Eagle is now a govt minister and says its needs to be scrapped because the economic situation is different”
Yeah, I agree. That is a fair point- although that did not stop the Orinoco Times peddling the BS about the failure to release the detailed results being due to a “massive and unprecedented cyberattack aimed at damaging the electoral and corrupting the electoral system.” Even if that was true you could always recount the actual paper ballots which all went to the CNE – supposedly – if that evidence has not already been destroyed.
This ridiculous excuse is what is allowing this corrupt antidemocratic regime to cling on to power in the face of the fact that it lost the elections by a wide margin. Even many Chavistas recognise this and are deeply unhappy with the situation. It seems to me more and more obvious that the regime is not going to release the results. Its entire credibility would be on the line. Of course, it could try to fake the actas but I don’t believe that is possible…
Yeah but that idiot Starmer doesn’t look like he is gonna get his way – assuming he is for giving Ukraine the unconditional assistance of long range missiles which is pretty sick considering the possible consequences…
It seems the Pentagon is not in favour of the idea although the State Department is
Sir Keir Starmer was set to leave Washington on Friday night without any announcement on allowing Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russia.
The Prime Minister held talks with Joe Biden in the White House to discuss pleas from Volodymyr Zelensky to let the country use the Storm Shadow missiles.But John Kirby, a spokesman for the US national security council, said there would be no announcement on long-range missiles after the meeting. He did not rule out one at a later date.
Foreign Office sources had briefed against expecting the green light at the end of Starmer’s visit, but it will come as a disappointment to leave without a decision.
After the meeting, Sir Keir said the pair had come to a “strong position” but suggested a final decision on Storm Shadow had been deferred to the UN General Assembly at the end of the month.
“While France has not announced an official position on the matter, unnamed diplomats told the French daily that Paris is concerned about the risk of escalation and has been working to avoid it, RT reported.
“We must do everything possible to avoid World War III,” an unnamed official told the newspaper.”
The Orinoco Times is a blatantly pro-government outfit. It is not a reliable source. It seems pretty clear that the gangster capitalist Maduro and his cronies stole the election and that they are not going to release the detailed results despite promises. The deadline for doing so has long passed. Maduro is a lying scumbag who wants to cling to power at all costs so he and his chums can keep their grubby paws on the oil revenue, drug trafficking money and so on.
All the excuses they come up with are transparently just a means of wriggling out of the constitutional obligation to reveal the detailed voting results. As I understand it, there was no “massive cyberattack”- the farcical claim of an attack emanating from North Macedonia was disproven – though there was apparently an attack on an outlier computer not locked into the CNE system (which is unhackable). And even if there was an attack, the CNE presumably has all the paper voting slips (if they haven’t destroyed these already). It has no excuses for not revealing the results
It appears that many Chavistas are themselves starting to question the official results. I was looking at an interview with one Chavista who was saying that while she supported the government she was not a cheat. Some Chavistas had access to actas – the voting tallies – which they said were identical to those posted on the opposition website showing Maduro lost by a huge margin.
Here in Spain, there has been quite a lot of news just lately about Venezuela and wealthy Venezuelans who have links to the regime who have bought up expensive property in places like certain posh suburbs of Madrid. The suggestion is corrupt money might be involved but the situation is tricky for the PSOE regime here because of its ties with Venezuela.
I do agree with one thing the CNE statement says, however:
The United States of America has one of the most pathetic and obsolete electoral systems on the planet, incapable of providing certainty in its results, leaving many doubts in its elections, as has been evident on countless occasions. For this reason, the United States government lacks the moral authority to evaluate and give opinions on electoral issues anywhere, and much less in Venezuela, where there is an electoral system of the highest global standards.
The American election is indeed a joke, However, the last bit about the Venezuelan electoral system being of the “highest global system” is only true in a technical sense but what is the point in having an election if you are determined to lie about the result that the system delivers?
But is not this a Russian propaganda channel?
______________________________I think the guy who writes the substack is pro-Russian, yes. Its the first time Ive come across it so I am not all that familiar with it. But it interesting that Sikorski should suggest that what politicians say in public is not necessarily the same thing as what they say in private. The hype about crossing red lines and whatnot may just be a case of posturing
This might be relevant :
“The relief, of course, is that Sikorski confirms: “There is no willingness in Europe to have a war with Russia, this is an absolute red line.”This is good news, as it shows behind the scenes Europe has a few saner and cooler heads than we sometimes imagine, and Sikorski even goes on to admit that much of his posturing is for the public’s sake to make Putin “wonder”—i.e. part of the infamous “strategic ambiguity” that Europe has banked on out of desperation.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/zelenskys-last-hail-mary-gets-off
Interesting article. It looks increasingly like the Kursk adventure backfired and that the Ukrainian regime is going to pay a heavy price for it. The Russian military has already recaptured a part of Kursk taken by the Ukrainian military and has destroyed a large part of the latter´s equipment and personnel there. If the plan was to get the Russian military to divert resources from Eastern Ukraine where it has been steadily advancing, this has not worked.
Realistically, there is no chance of the Zelensky regime achieving its goals of evicting the Russian regime in the East and Crimea. But whoever wins this war, and it’s looking increasingly like Russia will, the workers on both sides will have lost in the pathetically stupid cause of nationalism. Let’s hope this tragedy comes to an end sooner rather than later and the pointless bloodshed stops….
Interesting piece from the Communist Party of Venezuela. At least they recognise that Maduro´s gangster capitalist regime is no friend of the workers:
“In Venezuela there is a fierce confrontation between two bourgeois poles disputing the domination of the state apparatus in order to control the management of the oil rent: On the one hand, there is the sector of the traditional bourgeoisie and its parties grouped in the Democratic Unitary Platform that have attempted coups d’états, the imposition of foreign sanctions and the theft of public patrimony abroad. And on the other side is the new bourgeois and landed class of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies that emerged from 25 years of privileged access to oil revenues with an administration plagued with corruption and an inability to transform the rentier and dependent base of Venezuelan capitalism.”
“Opposition technicians argue that voting records are very complex difficult to hack — they have electronic signatures, a specific paper and a QR code — and that it would be very easy to verify whether or not they are authentic. “There are people who say that they [the Chavistas] are working to show some records,” said María Corina Machado at an opposition rally in Caracas. “I hope they do it. It would be public proof of fraud. I am waiting for them: publish your records.”
Even when the elections commission released its result, it was botched, Jacques says. “The first state tv announcement listed all the candidates with their percentages and when you added it up, it totaled 132%,” he said. “You would think someone would have checked the addition.”
Brussels-based technology writer Jan Govaerts says the Maduro government doesn’t care that it has been caught red-handed. “They plan to stonewall it, stick to their numbers even though the world knows it’s a lie,” he says. “Maduro and his lieutenants have a lot to lose if they admit defeat — they would probably face long prison terms – so why not stick to the lie. They’ve gotten away with it so far.”
Also, the Court seemed to request that the electoral commission publish the full “election results” within 30 days of the proclamation of Maduro as the winner. Maybe there is someone out there who can say when the result was officially proclaimed? Maybe it wasn’t 30 days after the date of the election?
I think it was 30 days after the election which has now passed. I can’t see them providing the breakdown results now. Its all a charade to provide the regime with a veneer of legitimacy by involving the Supreme Court (packed with Maduro loyalists) etc etc. If Maduro had actually won in reality it would be in the interest of the CNE to publish the breakdown results ASAP (as happened under Chavez for example). If they have got the actual proof why the delay? That in itself makes one smell a rat. They are trying to hide the fact that Maduro lost
“Machado and Gonzalez have made several confusing claims, that they have 40 percent of the voting records, then 70 percent and also 100 percent. President Maduro has gone to the Supreme Court filing a review appeal which involves the government submitting all the ‘voting records’ in the possession of his coalition, asking the Supreme Court to summon all 10 candidates for them to submit their voting records.
I am not quite sure where the (government supporting) Orinoco Times gets its information from but as far as I understand it, the opposition collected somewhat over 80 per cent (83%?) of the actas which were then published on its website. It had organised a massive campaign beforehand to get its supporters to collect the physical evidence in the form of these actas which were then scanned and published on the website. In a small number of cases, the voting centers refused to give actas to opposition parties so only the CNE would have 100& of the actas. But even with 83% of the actas there is enough evidence to show Maduro lost by a big margin…..
Valid point, by the way, asking why the pro-US opposition didn’t submit its tally sheets to the court. What had they to lose?
From what I read, they are fearful of handing over the original evidence – their physical copies of the actas – because they believe the CNE will destroy this evidence (bearing in mind these actas have the original “wet signatures” of the officials who signed them). But I would have thought the scanned copies that appear on their website would surely be enough evidence to submit to the CNE as they are unforgeable and could easily be checked against the government’s own set of duplicate actas. Still, it is a little odd that the opposition has not submitted the original actas as they now have nothing to lose by submitting them if the CNE is just going to ignore the actual breakdown results…
There is also, of course, the little matter of Gonzalez and Machado probably being arrested should they make an appearance at the CNE….
