China Responds To George Soros

While this year's now-concluded World Economic Forum conference in Davos was mostly a dud and increasingly a joke in financial circles, with Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid going so far as admitting that "we had a DB drinks reception for our clients last night and one said to me that in 11 years of coming here the best advice would be to trade in the opposite direction to the main theme of the conference over the next 12 months", there was one event that boondoggling billionaires were eagerly anticipating: George Soros' annual remarks.

And, as we reported previously, one year after he famously slammed Google and Facebook at Davos 2018, calling them a "menace" and "monopolistic" and predicting it's "only a matter of time before the global dominance of the US IT monopolies is broken," this time Soros took aim at what he believes is an even greater adversary, one which even Donald Trump might agree with: China.

"China is not the only authoritarian regime in the world but it is the wealthiest, strongest and technologically most advanced,” Soros lashed out at Beijing, while taking particular aim at China's president: "This makes Xi Jinping the most dangerous opponent of open societies."

Soros, who also warned that China's increasing use of AI and a social credit system to monitor its citizens (as if the US is any different) could result in the most ruthless yet technologically advanced authoritarian regime in history, proposed a "solution" to eliminating what he sees as China's ills: crash China's economy and market, an approach Soros' critics say he applies to every nation which he finds disagreeable:

The unspoken social contract in China is built on steadily rising living standards. If the decline in the Chinese economy and stock market is severe enough, this social contract may be undermined and even the business community may turn against Xi Jinping. Such a downturn could also sound the death knell of the Belt and Road Initiative, because Xi may run out of resources to continue financing so many loss-making investments

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-26/china-responds-george-soros

WATCH: Bill Maher attacks Covington Catholic students in disgusting tirade, 'jokes' about pedophilia

Liberal Bill Maher attacked the Covington Catholic High School students on his show "Real Time" Friday, launching into a disgusting tirade that included jokes about pedophilia.

What did Maher say?

During a monologue addressing the incident, Maher targeted Nicholas Sandmann, the 16-year-old student at the center of the controversy. Sandmann was videoed starring at Native American elder Nathan Phillips while wearing a "Make America Great Again." A short, out-of-context video clip sent the incident viral.

"I don't blame the kid, the smirk-face kid. I blame lead poisoning and bad parenting. And, oh yeah, I blame the f**king kid, what a little prick," Maher said, referring to Sandmann.

"Smirk face, like that's not a d*ck move at any age to stick your face in this elderly man," Maher continued, rebuking Sandmann for claiming he sought to defuse the tense situation on the National Mall.

Then Maher's attacks got worse.

"You know, I don't spend a lot of time, I must tell you, around Catholic school children, but I do not get what Catholic priests see in these kids," Maher said to cheers and applause.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/maher-covington-students-disgusting-tirade

Top FDA Official Blows Whistle as Agency Approves Drug 10X Worse Than Fentanyl, Funded by DoD

“The lack of insight that continues to be exhibited by the agency is in many ways a willful blindness that borders on the criminal.” — top FDA official.

In a massive move to expose the Food and Drug Administration’s loyalty to big pharma, a top official from within the agency has come forward with damning claims. The FDA has succumbed to Big Pharma’s influence and is approving deadly drugs to benefit their industry backers.

Dr. Raeford Brown, who is chair of the FDA’s committee to review various opioid based drugs before approving them, blew the whistle in an interview with the Guardian this week.

Brown told the Guardian that there is a “war” inside the FDA in regard to approving opioids. Brown said the agency has “failed to learn the lessons” of the recent epidemic which now claims tens of thousands of lives each year—around 150 deaths every single day.

Brown’s interview comes on the heals of the FDA approving a horrifyingly strong drug that is 1,000 times stronger than morphine and 10 times stronger than the incredibly deadly drug fentanyl.

As TFTP reported in November, the FDA sided with its Anesthetic and Analgesic Advisory Panel, which voted 10-3 to approve Dsuvia, a sublingual tablet form of sufentanil, against the recommendation of its chairman.

Brown, who was one of the “no” votes on the panel, called Dsuvia a “terrible drug” and noted how the entire approval process was manipulated.

Adding to the ominous nature of the recent approval is the fact that Dsuvia’s development was partially funded by the Department of Defense. Part of the problem critics of the new drug claim is that it is in pill form which will undoubtedly lead to abuse and black market sales. However, that’s exactly why the DoD wants it so they can administer it on the battlefield.

The company behind the drug, AcelRx projects $1.1 billion in annual sales on Dsuvia alone, showing just how large their reach will be.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/top-fda-official-blows-whistle-as-agency-approves-drug-10x-worse-than-fentanyl-funded-by-dod/

‘Puppet of big banks’: French hit back at Macron’s 'I’m one of you' overture

As France braced for the 11th week of the Yellow Vest protests, President Emmanuel Macron said that he is not a 'man of the elite' as his critics claim. Yet, people told RT he can’t relate to the struggles of ordinary citizens.

In an apparent effort to brush aside the label ‘president of the rich’, President Macron decided to reaffirm that he is a ‘man of the people’.

“I’m not an heir,” the president said on Thursday.

“If I had been born with a silver spoon in my mouth, or the son of a politician, you could have a go at me. But that’s not the case.”

He made the remarks in the town of Bourg-de-Peage during the third round of ‘national debates’, a series of town hall-like events the authorities hope will help to foster compromise with the Yellow Vest protesters and other critics of the government. Some, however, find it hard to buy Macron’s ‘I’m one of you’ message.

“He obviously doesn’t come from lower-income brackets like some of us do,” a woman told RT on the streets of Paris.

“He can’t understand the everyday problems of French people living on minimum wage,” another Parisian said.

“But it’s not really important what he says now. His future actions will define his presidency.”

Not exactly a man of humble upbringing, Macron comes from a well-off family. Prior to first joining the government as minister of economy and finance, he was an investment banker with Rothschild & Cie Banque.

“He studied in elite schools, as aristocrats do. He was ‘made’ there. The French elite is created this way,” a man told RT.

Even if the president is right about not being born into the elite, his milieu most certainly was, another said.

“Throughout his career Macron has networked with people who were born with silver spoons in their mouths. I think he is more a president for the rich. He is a ‘puppet’ of the big banks.”

In the eyes of his critics, Macron well deserves the ‘president of the rich’ tag after scrapping the wealth tax, claiming it will prevent capital flight and boost the French economy.

On Saturday, France enters the 11th straight week of Yellow Vest protests, which have raged across the country. Beginning as a grassroots movement against planned fuel tax hikes, the Yellow Vests grew and started to roll out wider demands, like the resignation of Macron and his government.

The protests have often descended into fierce street battles with police in Paris and other cities. Many were injured on both sides, with more than a thousand people detained with connection to the Yellow Vest activities. At least 10 people have died since the rallies began in November – mostly in incidents stemming from roadblocks.

https://www.rt.com/news/449822-president-macron-heir-comment/

Trump Wants To Know Where Hillary’s Indictment Is After Roger Stone’s Arrest

President Donald Trump responded Saturday to news of his confidant Roger Stone’s Friday indictment with a list of Democrats and justice officials he wants to see in trouble for alleged lying.

“If Roger Stone was indicted for lying to Congress, what about the lying done by [James] Comey, [John] Brennan, [James] Clapper, Lisa Page [and] lover, [James] Baker and soooo many others? What about Hillary [Clinton] to FBI and her 33,000 deleted Emails? What about Lisa [and Peter Strzok’s] deleted texts [and Anthony Weiner’s] laptop? Much more!” Trump wrote Saturday.

Stone was indicted Friday morning on five counts of lying to Congress, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction of a government proceeding. Stone appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Friday evening and said Trump never told him to get in touch with WikiLeaks and claimed the indictment was about “silencing” him.

Trump accused Clinton of lying to the FBI in his Saturday tweet over the tens of thousands emails deleted from the private server she used while U.S. secretary of state. (RELATED: Stone Indictment Undercuts Trump-Russia Collusion Narrative)

The FBI looked into Clinton’s handling of classified information on a private server, and it was a sticking point in the 2016 presidential election. The Daily Caller News Foundation reported on Jan. 12:

Clinton was interviewed by the FBI as part of the investigation on July 2, 2016, three days before then-FBI Director James Comey announced he would be recommending that Clinton be charged in the case.

The FBI concluded that Clinton had been “extremely careless” in using a private email server, language that rebuked the former secretary of state but did not carry legal weight. Ex-FBI Director Comey, also mentioned in Trump’s Saturday tweet, had considered Clinton’s handling classified information on her private email account to be “grossly negligent” according to a 2016 memo draft, but the language was later softened.

Gross negligence in the handling of classified information can result in jail time.

Trump also dredged up the congressional interviews with former FBI employees Page and Strzok, who had central roles in the investigations of the Trump 2016 campaign and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, in his tweet. The president has used the pair’s apparent anti-Trump bias to characterize the investigations as a “witch hunt.”

Texts between the two former FBI employees, who were having an affair, show they said “we’ll stop” Trump from getting elected. The FBI “failed to preserve” five months’ worth of text messages between Strzok and Page.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/26/donald-trump-roger-stone/

Journalist Details Qatari Hacking And Intimidation Of Critics

One of several Arab journalists targeted as part of an extensive hacking operation allegedly carried out by Qatar says he was intimidated with threats, blackmail and the rape of his family members for being critical of the Gulf nation and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Amjad Taha explained how he was hacked and threatened by the Qatari government — over his criticism of the nation and its alleged support of terrorism — in an interview with The Daily Caller.

Official Qatari government documents also obtained by The Daily Caller list the names of journalists Doha explicitly planned to target for hacking and espionage operations. Many of the targeted journalists were critical of the Gulf nation and its policies, are liberal in their political views or have criticized the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups that are supported by Qatar.

The hacks were carried out as part of an extensive operation that targeted over 1,000 people in several countries between 2014 to 2018, including a range of victims from “Syrian human rights activists to Egyptian soccer players,” according to Bloomberg.

Taha wrote an article about construction for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, exploring the harsh working conditions of migrant workers and the unwillingness of the Qatari government to enforce safety standards to protect workers.

“I’m just a British journalist,” Taha said. “Yet, I was one of the main people — me and a Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and certain congressmen — our emails were under attack by some Qatari officials and people backed by Qatari officials,” he said.

“I received direct threats from a Qatari intelligence officer who, on various occasions, asked me ‘where I am right now,’ while I was attending a Human Rights Council conference in Geneva.”

“He called me and threatened to blackmail me, promising to publish the content of some of my private emails if I continued to critique the Emir of Qatar personally on news networks for Doha’s financing of terrorism,” Taha continued.

“When we were in Geneva, Switzerland, we would get random calls where the people on the line would say, ‘We are going to report you to the police that you did this and that even though you didn’t,’ and, ‘We will say you assaulted this woman and ruin you.’”

“It’s propaganda and it’s been going on for a while by people who are close to Qatar and to be honest with you it’s very similar to the Iranian regime. Both are doing it directly. The Qataris and the Iranians,” he asserted.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/25/journalist-details-qatari-hacking-intimidation-critics/

Brexit ‘Can’t Be Delivered’, Leave Vote Was ‘Manipulated’, Macron Tells France

The UK’s Brexit vote was caused by misplaced “anger” and foreign disinformation, Emmanuel Macron said, in a speech warning critics of his globalist regime in France to beware “people who manipulate you with miracle ideas”.

Speaking at an event near Lyon as part of his ‘grand debate’ tour launched after weeks of anti-government protests, the French president told unhappy citizens to “be aware of people who sell you dreams, that tell you all your anger can be solved by a referendum”, before dismissing Brexit as “rubbish”.

“Take the British. They voted for Brexit,” Macron told the audience in Bourg-de-Peage of around 250 people, a number of whom were dressed in the yellow vests of the ‘gilet jaunes’ movement.

He said: “There were people [in Britain] who, in good faith, were sometimes as angry as you are, and they said that the source of all their ills was Europe. It’s rubbish!” he said, explaining that voters were swayed by Leave campaign buses emblazoned with messages “reading that you were going to save something like 36 billion pounds” if Britain were to leave the EU.

“There were entire buses going by saying you’re going to save – I can’t remember how much now – something like 36 billion pounds if you leave,” he said, in an attack on pro-independence campaigns, which he alleged also tricked the British into believing divorce from the EU that Brexit would “be done in a fortnight”.

“There were people who voted for Brexit, who did it in good faith, they were angry, and they thought their situation was impossible, because the system was unjust,” stated Macron, before claiming that UK citizens are now “starting to realise that all the figures they were given are entirely false, and what they were told could be done overnight in fact can’t be delivered.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/26/brexit-leave-vote-foreign-lies/

Yellow vests not doing enough? cabal needs a war so Macron & Jew owned media pulls this shit?

Colombia Won't Provide US With Bases Needed for Invasion in Venezuela

The Colombian government is not going to provide the United States will military bases so that the latter could launch a possible military invasion in Venezuela, the Colombian Defense Ministry told Sputnik.

"No," the Defence Ministry's representative said, answering the question, whether Bogota was going to provide Washington with military bases needed for a possible operation against Caracas.

The Colombian Defence Ministry also said that Colombia is not preparing a military intervention in neighbouring Venezuela.

"The troops will remain at bases, there has been and there is going to be no redeployment of troops," the ministry said on late Friday.

According to the press service, the vessels and aircraft were also not redeployed, while the high alert in the Armed Forces and police is linked to the recent deadly terror attack on a police academy in Bogota.

"Colombia is not staging provocations and will not allow anyone to provoke it, as Defence Minister [Guillermo] Botero has said, and we are conducting such policy toward Venezuela," the ministry added.

On Tuesday, the opposition-run Venezuelan National Assembly adopted a statement declaring President Nicolas Maduro a "dictator." On Wednesday, opposition leader Juan Guaido proclaimed himself the country's interim president at a mass rally in Caracas.

The United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile and Colombia, among others, have recognized Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, while some other countries, including Russia and Mexico, expressed support for incumbent President Maduro.

On Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov called on foreign states to refrain from any kind of military invasion in Venezuela.

https://sputniknews.com/latam/201901261071833500-colombia-usa-venezuela-invasion/

Trump-bashing Iraq war architect Elliott Abrams to lead US regime change in Venezuela

Washington seems so dead-set on regime change in Venezuela, the State Department has just appointed a former diplomat with a sordid track record in Latin America and Middle East to spearhead “restoring democracy” in Caracas.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday the appointment of Elliott Abrams to “help the Venezuelan people fully restore democracy and prosperity to their country.” Abrams is expected to coordinate all diplomatic efforts to replace President Nicolas Maduro with the self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido, recognized by the US, OAS and several EU members.

“I left this building 30 years ago this week – last time I worked here – so it’s very nice to be back,” Abrams told reporters at the State Department on Friday. “This crisis in Venezuela is deep and difficult and dangerous and I can’t wait to get to work on it.”

The appointment is an attempt by the US to introduce a direct control of Venezuela as a “future regional vassal,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Democracy was ‘restored’ in Iraq. In Libya, too. In Syria they tried but failed, or rather weren’t allowed to. And now in Venezuela

Many US journalists and observers – even those supportive of regime change in Venezuela such as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes – were appalled by the news as well, recalling the former diplomat’s dark history in Latin America.

https://www.rt.com/usa/449756-abrams-pompeo-venezuela-iran-contra/

US Follows Ukraine, Syria Roadmap in Venezuela Regime Change Push

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Since the decision of the Trump administration on Wednesday to recognize a member of the Venezuelan opposition, Juan Guaidó, as an unelected “interim president,” the situation in the South American country has become increasingly tense, with efforts to force the current government of Venezuela — led by Nicolás Maduro — out of power having grown in intensity over the past few days.

Despite the enormous pressure his government faces from both local and international sources, Maduro has managed to maintain his position thanks to a combination of factors. These include the loyalty of the country’s well-armed military, in addition to popular support from Venezuelans who recently voted for Maduro, as well as Venezuelans who may not like Maduro but prefer him to a politician hand-picked and foisted upon them by the United States.

Yet, the long-standing campaign of the United States to effect regime change in Venezuela — a campaign that has been ongoing ever since Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s predecessor and mentor, was elected in 1998 — has shown time and again that the U.S. is unwilling to let go of its dream of installing a “friendly” government in the world’s most oil-rich country.

For that reason, if the Trump administration’s attempt to simply install a Venezuelan president fails to produce the intended result (regime change), there is substantial concern that the U.S. will turn to other means to bring about a change in government, including the instigation of a new proxy war.

While direct military intervention by the U.S. has not been ruled out, it has long been seen as more probable — based on the U.S.’ troubling history of ousting leftist Latin American governments through right-wing coups — that the U.S. would follow the roadmaps it used to push for regime change in both Syria and Ukraine. In other words, the danger of another major proxy war — this time in Latin America — looms large and, much like what has transpired in Syria and Ukraine, the manufacture of such a conflict would again pit the U.S. against both Russia and China, both of which have invested heavily in Venezuela, and by extension in the current government, for nearly two decades.

Also troubling is the fact that the U.S. has already laid much of the groundwork for such a proxy war and the chaotic situation on the Venezuelan-Colombian border offers U.S. intelligence enough cover to funnel arms, money and personnel into Venezuela to further destabilize the country. If Maduro is to be believed, the U.S. has already been doing this for much of the past year.

Raising the temperature and the stakes

Juan Guaidó, a relative newcomer to Venezuelan politics and a founding member of the Popular Will political party, declared himself to be the new president of Venezuela on Wednesday, a move that was quickly backed by the U.S. with the support of all countries closely allied with the U.S. throughout the Americas, North and South.

The U.S. decision to back Guaidó, as has been pointed out by many analysts in recent days, was significant as it shows a clear effort by the U.S. to push the already tenuous situation in the country to its boiling point. Indeed, by effectively creating two governments within Venezuela, the clearest consequence is to deepen the rift in Venezuelan society by forcing the country’s citizens to choose sides.

Though Guaidó’s relatively short time in Venezuelan national politics gives him the benefit of having relatively little political baggage, his association with the Popular Will Party, known as Voluntad Popular in Spanish, makes it clear why he so quickly won the U.S.’ support.

Much more:

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/70588/us-follows-ukraine-syria-roadmap-in-venezuela-regime-change.html