[QUOTE=chalsall;509435]And disagreements are healthy! :bow:[/QUOTE]

Except for the unhealthy kinds, that is.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;509676]I [I]did[/I] have a care: I put the word in quotes. That is generally accepted as an indication that the usage isn't entirely serious.

I was trying, however feebly, to live up to my moniker. In point of fact, I do not consider Mr. Maduro to be saintly. I also thought the similarity to the name Saint Nicholas, the dispenser of free gifts, might be apropos. [Also, AFAIK, except in the figurative laudatory usage ("you're a saint," or "living saint"), saints all share the property of being dead, so Mr. Maduro does not qualify.]

I am unable to conceive of anyone considering the appellation "Saint" to be pejorative (at least, if taken seriously), so I am unconcerned about a defamation suit.

If you can find someone who actually took my usage seriously, I suggest you refrain from taking any advice from them.[/QUOTE]
It was fairly clear in the context of your writing that you meant it in a derogatory manner. But no matter.

Venezuela set for more false flags… US puppet Guaido better watch his back
 

[url]http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51171.htm[/url]
[QUOTE]The much-hyped “aid weekend” involving a US Trojan Horse fell at the first hurdle. Venezuelan government forces averted the provocation intended by US aid convoys from Colombia and Brazil.

However, increasing frustration in Washington beckons more false flags.

Something shocking is “needed” in order to jolt world opinion into acquiescing to Washington’s criminal agenda of “all options.” In the fiendish mind of American imperialism, it is also prudent to consider “all options” as meaning more than military aggression. The foulest moves.

The torching of trucks purportedly ferrying US food and medicines across the border from Colombia was patently a planned provocation. Credible video footage and witnesses attested to the arson being carried out by supporters of the US-backed opposition figure Juan Guaido.

The vehicles never even made it to the crossing point where Venezuelan national guards were deployed.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]As easily as they are lionized, US puppets can be just as easily disposed of. Guaido playing the dirty game of regime change with the most criminal organization in the world – the US government – is a very dangerous game. He’d better watch his back.[/QUOTE]

The Chef Boyardee War: Venezuela’s Clueless Opposition
 

And for a very different take on the Venezuela, we have Justin Raimondo. His view strains my credulity a bit. I think he gives Il Douche too much credit in plotting ability, but his drive for revenge [I][U]is[/U][/I] one of his strongest motivations.
[QUOTE]My contrarian view of Venezuela’s regime change drama – that it’s regime change theater put on by President Trump for purely domestic political reasons – was confirmed on the big day when the conflict was supposed to come to a head, when the looming confrontation proved to be … dueling concerts! Regime change as entertainment – there’s something so American about that.

What the heck, a little music is what every regime change operation needs: however, the theme song of this one is turning out to be more John Cage than John Philip Sousa. Instead of “President” Guaidó rallying his forces and leading them into battle, he’s trying to cross a bridge that has never been used with 1000 cans of Chef Boyardee, 500 cartons of mac-and-cheese, and enough airline “food” (courtesy of Richard Branson) to kill off a number of Chavistas.

That flopped big time, with the trucks transporting this culinary Trojan Horse set on fire and the whole incident degenerating into an argument over who lit the match.

What did neocons expect? Did they really think the Venezuelan army, at that dramatic moment, would lay down their arms and defect to the opposition? The whole thing was a farce, and I mean that literally – in the sense that this stunt was never meant to succeed, or even to be taken seriously. It’s all a show, produced and directed by that expert showman: Donald J. Trump.

As I explained in a previous column, this fake regime change campaign is a ploy by Trump to stick the neocons with a well-publicized failure. After all, his newly-appointed special envoy to Venezuela, [U]Elliott Abrams, declared Trump “unfit” to be President[/U]: the rest of the neocon network is now marching at the head of the “Resistance.”[/QUOTE]

The War on Venezuela Is Built on Lies
 

[URL]https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/55228-the-war-on-venezuela-is-built-on-lies[/URL]
[QUOTE]Every major chavista reform was voted on, notably a new constitution of which 71 per cent of the people approved each of the 396 articles that enshrined unheard of freedoms, such as Article 123, which for the first time recognised the human rights of mixed-race and black people, of whom Chavez was one.

One of his tutorials on the road quoted a feminist writer: "Love and solidarity are the same." His audiences understood this well and expressed themselves with dignity, seldom with deference. Ordinary people regarded Chavez and his government as their first champions: as theirs.

This was especially true of the indigenous, mestizos and Afro-Venezuelans, who had been held in historic contempt by Chavez's immediate predecessors and by those who today live far from the barrios, in the mansions and penthouses of East Caracas, who commute to Miami where their banks are and who regard themselves as "white". They are the powerful core of what the media calls "the opposition".[/QUOTE][QUOTE]Although identity politics are all the rage in the pages of liberal newspapers in the West, race and class are two words almost never uttered in the mendacious "coverage" of Washington's latest, most naked attempt to grab the world's greatest source of oil and reclaim its "backyard".

For all the chavistas' faults - such as allowing the Venezuelan economy to become hostage to the fortunes of oil and never seriously challenging big capital and corruption - they brought social justice and pride to millions of people and they did it with unprecedented democracy.

"Of the 92 elections that we've monitored," said former President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Centre is a respected monitor of elections around the world, "I would say the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world." By way of contrast, said Carter, the US election system, with its emphasis on campaign money, "is one of the worst".
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]In her 95 years, Mavis Mendez had seen a parade of governments, mostly vassals of Washington, preside over the theft of billions of dollars in oil spoils, much of it flown to Miami. "We didn't matter in a human sense," she told me. "We lived and died without real education and running water, and food we couldn't afford. When we fell ill, the weakest died. Now I can read and write my name and so much more; and whatever the rich and the media say, we have planted the seeds of true democracy and I have the joy of seeing it happen."[/QUOTE]

Burning Aid: An Interventionist Deception on Colombia-Venezuela Bridge?
 

[URL]https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/02/24/burning-aid-colombia-venezuela-bridge/[/URL]

Sen. Marco Rubio and coup leaders claim the Venezuelan National Guard burned US aid trucks on the bridge in Colombia. But all available evidence points in the opposite direction.
By Max Blumenthal
[QUOTE]By the end of the day, the trucks lined up on the Francisca de Paula Santander bridge were flanked by gangs of guarimberos.
These were the nihilistic masked youth who form the shock troops of the right-wing opposition, and who placed Caracas under siege with violent barricade protests, known as guarimbas, at several points between 2014 and 2017. A mob of guarimberos burned to death Orlando Figuera, a 22-year old black Venezuelan accused of supporting Maduro, on an eastern Caracas street in broad daylight, back in June 2017.

On the Santander bridge this February 23, the guarimberos rained down a hail of rocks and molotov cocktails on Venezuelan national guardsmen holding the line against the USAID trucks. Suddenly, the trucks caught fire and the masked youth began unloading boxes of aid before they burned. Within minutes, pro-opposition media reported that the Venezuelan national guard forces were responsible for the fires.

A reporter for the private anti-government channel NTN24 claimed without evidence that the Venezuelan security forces had caused the fires with tear gas:

The claim was absurd on its face. I have personally witnessed tear gas canisters hit every kind of vehicle imaginable in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, and I have never seen a fire like the one that erupted on the Santander bridge.

In 2013, the San Bernadino Sheriff’s Department deployed [URL="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1099500136068202496"]special incendiary teargas canisters[/URL] (“burners”) to torch the house where fugitive cop killer Chris Dorner had holed up. But it is highly unlikely that the Venezuelan national guardsmen had anything like this weapon in their arsenal when they confronted the rioters on February 23.
[/QUOTE][QUOTE]Colombian writer Humberto Ortiz produced footage from a pro-opposition channel showing what appears to be the exact moment when a guarimbero sets the aid on fire with a molotov cocktail:

Creo que @NoticiasUno nos puede ayudar a aclarar si la molotov lanzada por este muchacho pudo causar el incendio del camión. pic.twitter.com/UCR7x9qNkA

— Humberto Ortiz (@graffitiborrao) February 24, 2019

Telesur reporter Madelein Garcia published photographs showing a guarimbero with a gas canister next to one of the burning trucks:

1. #ÚltimoMinuto| en #exclusiva @teleSURtv aquí las evidencias de quienes quemaron el camión con supuesta ayuda humanitaria en #Ureña, fueron los mismo guarimberos pic.twitter.com/4gv2K54NpE

— Madelein Garcia (@madeleintlSUR) February 23, 2019

Drone footage also published by Garcia shows how far away the trucks were from Venezuelan national guardsmen when they caught fire, and demonstrates that they were clearly on the Colombian side of the border:

2. Ahora veamos las imágenes aéreas este fue justo el momento cuando quemaron los camiones pic.twitter.com/M66Wy7nOQM

— Madelein Garcia (@madeleintlSUR) February 23, 2019[/QUOTE][QUOTE]Meanwhile, the International Red Cross issued a statement condemning Venezuelan opposition activists disguising themselves as Red Cross workers – a blatant breach of humanitarian protocol. A screenshot from pro-opposition NTN24 coverage shows a fake Red Cross worker near one of the burning trucks.[/QUOTE]

VIDEO: The Real Humanitarian Aid: Inside Venezuela’s State-Subsidized Communal Markets
 

[URL]https://grayzoneproject.com/2019/02/24/humanitarian-aid-venezuela-state-subsidized-communal-markets/[/URL]
[YOUTUBE]qlX3yfXNX_g[/YOUTUBE]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;509496]Meanwhile, in Venezuela, the Humanitarian Aid Show goes on. "Saint" Nicolas Maduro's troops have managed to kill at least one civilian and burn a couple of the trucks, but apparently a couple others got through. Maduro has closed Venezuela's borders with Colombia and Brazil, and has severed diplomatic ties with Colombia.

.....[/QUOTE]
I have been meaning to ask, what is it like to be such a pathetic dupe of MSM and government propaganda?

Hadn't heard the story that tear gas had set the trucks on fire. Never occurred to me, doesn't even make sense. I'd just assumed the fuel tanks had been breached accidently by bullets.

The following definition from [u]The Devil's Dictionary[/u] may be apropos:[quote][b]RIOT[/b], [i]n[/i]. A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders.[/quote]It also never occurred to me the soldiers would set the trucks on fire [i]deliberately[/i], since this would deny them the opportunity to [strike]steal[/strike] confiscate the supplies.

I didn't take the burning of the trucks very seriously. I assumed it was accidental. And, as I said before, the whole supplies confrontation is theater. For all I know, the trucks were empty anyhow, just props.

The folks demanding the supplies be brought in turning around and torching the trucks with molotov cocktails -- we're talking Tony Award here!

I view the previous shooting dead of a civilian much more seriously. But I suppose you'll say that was "friendly fire."

Meanwhile, over in Israel...
 

According to this [url=https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/AG-expected-to-announce-intent-to-indict-PM-Netanyahu-for-bribery-tomorrow-581950]article in The Jerusalem Post[/url],[quote]Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit is expected to announce his intent to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery today, in a decision that could decisively impact the April 9 election.
<snip>
Mandelblit is expected to indict Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in Case 4000, "the Bezeq-Walla Affair," and for breach of trust in Case 1000, "the Illegal Gifts Affair." No decision has been formally leaked regarding Case 2000, the" Yediot Aharonot-Israel Hayom Affair," but indications are that either the case will be closed, or the charge will also be only for breach of trust, not bribery.[/quote]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;509763].....
I view the previous shooting dead of a civilian much more seriously. But I suppose you'll say that was "friendly fire."[/QUOTE]
Were you there? What is the incontrovertible source of your information? Do you know who was shot, and from what direction?
Of course, it goes without saying that the masked ones throwing Molotov cocktails are innocent victims. Nobody on that side of the bridge could possible have any firearms. Just fire and petrol.