Journalist Claims Media, Government Are Lying About Venezuela

A freelance journalist who spent a month this year in Venezuela accused the U.S. government and media of distorting the ongoing crisis in the country, during a Tuesday night appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show. Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaidó called for a military uprising against socialist dictator Nicholas Maduro on Tuesday. Maduro is viewed by the Trump administration to be an illegitimate leader after they determined his re-election to be full of fraud and corruption.

“Your viewers won’t be shocked to hear this, Tucker, but the fake news media are lying about the situation in Venezuela,” stated Anya Parampil, who was in Venezuela in February. “Let me put it for you this way. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had refused to admit defeat after losing to President Trump in 2016 and banded together a group of 24 U.S. soldiers and attempted to take the White House by force. I don’t think that she would be walking freely on the streets the way that Juan Guaido is right now in Caracas and I certainly think that the news media will be calling it rightfully a coup.” “The opposition has no popular support. Juan Guaido proves today once again that he will only ride into power on the back of the U.S. tank and what’s more we hear about a humanitarian crisis there, Tucker, but we never hear is that is the intended result of U.S. sanctions, which have targeted Venezuela since 2015,” she continued. “President Trump if he truly cared about the American — or the Venezuelan people, and American people for that matter, he would end this disastrous policy, he would end the sanctions and he would look into John Bolton’s eyes, into Elliot Abrams’ eyes and Mike Pompeo’s eyes and say, you are fired.”

Columbia, Peru and Brazil came out in support of the military uprising in Venezuela against Maduro. Following opposition forces beginning a military operation to overthrow Maduro, Venezuela’s neighbors endorsed Guaidó, and called for a meeting to address the military uprising. The Daily Caller followed up with Parampil and asked her to explain why she believes the United States is backing Guaido. She said: Regime change has had bipartisan support in countries that resist the US sphere of influence from Yugoslavia to Iraq to Libya to Syria, and now Venezuela. Because Guaido and his shadow administration have promised to privatize Venezuela’s natural resources, which include the largest oil reserves in the world, he satisfies foreign policy elites in both parties, as well as their corporate paymasters. Bolton has even admitted that US companies would like to get their hands on Venezuela’s oil. It is their interests which many elected Democrats and Republicans both represent: not the desires of the Venezuelan people, and certainly not the US public, which elected Trump because he promised to end these wars. It is time for Trump to fire his national security team—which is lying to him—and abandon this failed and destructive coup policy. Not only is his legacy as president at stake, but the lives of millions of Venezuelans hang in the balance. They will be the first casualties if the deadly sanctions continue or if the regime change operation escalates into a military intervention.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/04/30/venezuela-guaido-maduro-tucker-trump/

27 West Virginia Hospitals Join Together To Sue Opioid Companies Including Purdue Pharma

Twenty-seven West Virginia hospitals and 10 affiliated Kentucky hospitals joined together to sue opioid companies for monetary damages, including Purdue Pharma, Monday. “Imagine what the hospitals — who are the entities of last resort — have gone through as part of this [opioid] crisis,” said the hospitals’ lawyer, Stephen B. Farmer, according to the Associated Press. “Their day-to-day ability to treat people effectively has been completely disrupted by the whole spate of opioid issues that come through their doors every day.” The hospitals say the opioid companies, some of the largest in the country, inundated the Appalachian region with the prescription pain pills. West Virginia has the highest age-adjusted opioid overdose rate in the country.

The suit is the first one brought by a big group of hospitals against opioid companies, the hospitals’ lawyers said. The suit cites statistics claiming the number of opioid-related emergency room visits has doubled nationally, blaming unlawful marketing and distribution for millions of dollars in uncompensated care hospitals have to shoulder, reported the AP. The hospitals are seeking “that the responsible parties be held accountable for the role they’ve played in this crisis,” Ronald Pellegrino, chief operating officer at WVU Hospitals, said.

Distributors AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health as well as the Sackler family, which controls Purdue Pharma, are additional defendants named in the suit, reported the AP.

AmerisourceBergen responded to the hospitals’ suit in a statement. “A significant number of these doctors – 38 percent in the U.S. – are employed by hospitals, which is where in many cases they prescribe, fulfill through distributors, and then dispense medications to patients,” the statement reads according to the AP. “This is why hospitals pursuing legal action related to opioid abuse against other members of the supply chain is counterproductive and ignores the facts.” Other prescription opioid makers are starting to face lawsuits like the ones brought against Purdue Pharma. An Oklahoma suit against several drugmakers paints Johnson & Johnson as an opioid “kingpin,” according to media reports in mid-March. The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Purdue Pharma but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/04/30/opioid-lawsuit-purdue-2019/

National Security Agency ‘Unmaskings’ Skyrocketed Last Year

The National Security Agency (NSA) disclosed the identities of nearly 17,000 U.S. residents and businesses to American intelligence officials last year through a legal — but controversial — practice known as “unmasking,” according to a report released Tuesday. The number of unmaskings — 16,721 to be exact — marks a 75 percent increase from 2017, which saw the NSA make 9,529 disclosures to intelligence agencies. Between September 2015 and August 2016, the first 12-month period in which NSA statistics were gathered, only 9,215 unmaskings occurred. The unmasking process has become controversial over the past two years. Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials abused foreign surveillance laws by making unnecessary unmasking requests of Trump associates during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as during the presidential transition period.

Susan Rice, who served as President Obama’s national security adviser, told Congress in 2017 that she unmasked the identities of Trump associates who took part in a meeting with officials from the United Arab Emirates in December 2016. Samantha Power, who served as ambassador to the United Nations, said that an associate submitted 260 unmasking requests under her name in 2016. Some Republicans have accused Obama officials of illegally leaking information obtained through the unmasking process. So far, no Obama White House officials have been charged with any crimes related to unmaking or leaks to the media.

The NSA, which conducts legally authorized surveillance, can unmask U.S. persons or businesses at the request of U.S. intelligence officials at agencies like the FBI and CIA. According to Tuesday’s report, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the information can only be provided on a “need to know” basis, such as when the identity is “necessary to understand foreign intelligence information or assess its importance.” The Wall Street Journal reported that in a conference call with reporters, an official with ODNI attributed most of the spike to notifications given to the victims of foreign computer hackers and the targets of foreign spying efforts.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/04/30/national-security-agency-unmasking-skyrocket/

Maxine Waters: Barr Should Resign or Be Impeached

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “All In,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said in light of the of The Washington Post report that special counsel Robert Mueller told Attorney General William Barr his summary “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the probe, Barr should resign or be impeached.

Waters said, “I think that Barr should resign. If he does not resign, he should be facing impeachment proceedings also. He has abdicated on his responsibility. He’s lied. He has used the very words coming right out of the president’s mouth, ‘no collusion, no collusion, no collusion.’ And made a decision that despite what the counsel put into that report about obstruction of justice, he said he made the decision that he had not obstructed justice. It is outrageous, and he needs to go.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2019/04/30/maxine-waters-barr-should-resign-or-be-impeached/

Omar at ‘Hands Off Ilhan’ Rally: Trump, GOP Created ‘Monsters’ ‘Terrorizing’ Jews and Muslims

Black Lives Matter and other anti-Trump groups held a rally on the grounds of the Capitol on Tuesday to call for President Donald Trump to be censured for what he said about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) controversial statement that “somebody did something” on 9-11.

People chanted ‘“Hands off Ilhan” and in a series of speeches blamed the president and Republicans for the rise of “white supremacy masked as white nationalism.” Omar spoke at the event in praise of her homeland of Somalia and said the president and his Party are responsible for recent attacks on synagogues and mosques. “At this moment, the occupant of the White House and his allies are doing everything that they can to distance themselves and misinform the public from the monsters that they created that is [sic] terrorizing the Jewish community and the Muslim community,” Omar said.

Omar said she is criticized because she is a Muslim woman. “I also happen to be a refugee and immigrant from what they call one of the shithole countries,” Omar said, mocking the president for his alleged comments about war-torn countries like Somalia that drive their people out. “The reality is that shithole country raised a very proud, dignified person,” Omar said. “Our circumstances may not always be perfect but that doesn’t lessen our humanity and I am not in the business of defending mine.”

Omar was not as complimentary of the United States. “This is not going to be the country of the xenophobics,” Omar said. “This is not going to be the country of white people.” “This is not going to be the country of the few,” Omar said. “This is the country of the many.” “This is the country that was founded on the history of Native American genocide, on the backs of black slaves but also by immigrants,” Omar said.

According to her website: “Ilhan and her family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight-years-old. They lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for four years before coming to the United States, eventually settling in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis in 1997.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/04/30/omar-at-hands-off-ilhan-rally-trump-gop-created-monsters-terrorizing-jews-and-muslims/

>>6379009

Indeed, I was actually surprised the number wasn't higher.

Eric Swalwell: If Barr Doesn’t Testify Before Congress, He Should Be Impeached

Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” during coverage of The Washington Post report that special counsel Robert Mueller told Attorney General William Barr his summary “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the probe, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said in light of the report, Barr should be impeached if he does not testify to Congress about his handling of the report.

Swalwell said, “We will hear it from Barr and ultimately from Mueller. If Barr backs out, you are going to get subpoenas. If he doesn’t answer, he will face contempt and think he should face impeachment. If he’s going to say I’m not going to follow the law and Congress, there has to be consequences. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but what do you do when you have enables the president’s worst instincts. You have to speak their language as well. That’s the only thing they understand.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2019/04/30/eric-swalwell-if-barr-doesnt-testify-before-congress-he-should-be-impeached/

https://twitter.com/repswalwell/status/760649110487638016

>>6379105

Exactly, I am not sure if we know the whole of the story on how she and whom ever she came with actually got here. Perhaps we should dig for specifics.

>>6379140

He's certainly working hard to change that with his inflammatory statements.

>>6379172

I saw that he was planing on running a couple of months ago, I didn't realize it was offical. I don't think this will end well for her this time.

Cuban News Agency: John Bolton a ‘Warlock,’ ‘Neo-Nazi of the Purest Strain’

Cuba’s government-run Radio Reloj website published a commentary Monday referring to American National Security Advisor John Bolton as a “warlock” and “neo-Nazi” for his opposition to the communist Castro regime.

The column, titled “John Bolton: Sinister Godfather of Helms-Burton,” appeared to be an attempt at a biographical feature in the context of the Trump administration allowing lawsuits against corporations that profit from property stolen from Americans during the Cuban Revolution. Americans have a right to sue over these properties as a product of the 1996 Libertad Act, known commonly as the Helms-Burton bill for its authors. Donald Trump is the first president not to bar Americans from exercising this right since the law passed over two decades ago. The brief Radio Reloj article, rather than make an argument about the bill, instead strives to define Bolton as an enemy to Cubans who may not be familiar with the senior American official, using offensive epithets but framing them as biographical facts.

“His name is John Robert Bolton, he was born in Baltimore in 1948,” the article begins. “A neo-Nazi of the purest strain, not just because of his image, he has served as a permanent representative to the U.N. for Republican and Democratic governments.” After accusing him of being a Nazi, the article condemns Bolton for “maintaining an intimate relationship … with the genocidal government of Israel.” The article then calls him “the warlock of the Helms-Burton law,” without explaining this term, and goes on to urge Cubans to rally against the United States during Wednesday’s May Day march, an annual celebration of Marxism.

In 1996, when the law passed, Bolton was working as an attorney at a private law firm. He worked at the Department of State from 1989 to 1993, but did not return to senior government service until the George W. Bush administration. Upon being nominated to represent the United States at the U.N., he faced significant criticism from the far left for working with Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), co-author of the Helms-Burton law. Radio Reloj, like all legal media outlets in Cuba except for the newspaper 14 y medio, operates under the auspices of the Cuban communist regime – run through the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television. As a state-run outlet, it represents the opinions of the Cuban government.

The United States’ new policy was announced first by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on April 17 and later reinforced in a speech by Bolton that day. “The Trump administration is proud to announce several further measures we are adopting to reverse the consequences of the disastrous Obama-era policies, and finally end the glamorization of socialism and communism,” Bolton said to an audience featuring veterans of the 2506 Brigade, responsible for the 1963 invasion at Bay of Pigs. “I am pleased to stand before you and announce that we have decided to end the Helms-Burton Title III Waivers, once and for all. Americans who have had their private and hard-earned property stolen in Cuba will finally be allowed to sue,” he said.

The regime has expressed frothing outrage at President Trump’s decision to allow the Helms-Burton lawsuits. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla claimed Monday that the law “is inapplicable” and that Cuban communist law will protect corporations implicated in the U.S. lawsuits. “They have the backing of Cuban law, international law, and legislation in their own countries,” Rodríguez claimed, according to the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma.

Granma claims that Cuban “Law 80,” which declares the Helms-Burton law void, can stop U.S. courts from accepting lawsuits. Cuba’s second-in-command, President Miguel Díaz-Canel, announced Monday that this year’s May Day parade will be dedicated to condemning America and demanding the freedom of Brazilian socialist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, serving an eight-year prison sentence for corruption.

In 1959, before he had openly declared himself a communist, Fidel Castro began a series of mass thefts of private property in Cuba. While most victims were Cuban nationals, the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that Castro stole $8.5 billion worth of American property – including ports, agricultural estates, hotels, and other buildings. Washington has certified nearly 6,000 claims against the Cuban government, which many use as an estimate for how many lawsuits are possible now that the White House no longer stands in the way of Helms-Burton lawsuits.

https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/2019/04/30/cuban-news-agency-john-bolton-warlock-neo-nazi-purest-strain/