Head Of Venezuela's Secret Police Breaks With Maduro

Head of Venezuela's secret police breaks with Maduro

The head of Venezuela's feared secret police has turned his back on disputed President Nicolas Maduro in an open letter made public Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Maduro took to Venezuela's airwaves to proclaim that the uprising sparked by opposition leader Juan Guaidó had been defeated. In a rambling address, Maduro said his regime had responded to the rebellion with "nerves of steel, maximum serenity and effective action" and claimed that the leaders of the uprising were under arrest and being questioned.

"This cannot go unpunished," said Maduro, who added that "all of those involved must surrender."

Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, the head of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN), is the highest-ranking member of the country's security forces to break with Maduro since Guaidó called for a military uprising Tuesday morning.

In the letter, the authenticity of which was confirmed to The Associated Press by a U.S. official, Figuera wrote that while he always had been loyal to Maduro, "the time has come to seek new ways of doing politics" to try and "rebuild the country." The letter did not mention Guaidó by name but did say that Venezuela has experienced a damaging decline.

Earlier Tuesday, National Security Adviser John Bolton said the Trump administration was waiting for three key officials -- Maduro's defense minister, the chief judge of the supreme court and the commander of Maduro's presidential guard -- to act on what he said were private pledges to remove the beleaguered Venezuelan leader.

"All agreed that Maduro had to go. They need to be able to act this afternoon, or this evening, to help bring other military forces to the side of the interim president," Bolton said. "If this effort fails, [Venezuela] will sink into a dictatorship from which there are very few possible alternatives."

The defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, publicly condemned Guaidó's move Tuesday as a "terrorist" act and "coup attempt" that was bound to fail.

"Those who try to take Miraflores with violence will be met with violence," he said on national television, referring to the presidential palace where hundreds of government supporters, some of them brandishing firearms, had gathered in response to a call to defend Maduro.

Guaidó has said that in the coming hours he would release a list of top commanders supporting the uprising.

"The armed forces have taken the right decision," said Guaidó. "With the support of the Venezuelan people and the backing of our constitution they are on the right side of history."

Anti-government demonstrators gathered in several other cities, although there were no reports that Guaidó's supporters had taken control of any military installations.

The SIBE was responsible for holding Leopoldo Lopez, Venezuela's most prominent anti-Maduro activist, in custody since his arrest in 2014. Lopez appeared alongside Guaidó, his political protege, Tuesday and claimed that he had been released from house arrest by security forces adhering to an order from Guaidó.

It was not immediately clear what role, if any, Figuera had played in Lopez's release.

Bolton: All Options Are On The Tale With Venezuela

Bolton: All Options Are on the Table Regarding Venezuela

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said earlier in the day that the United States had signed off on an attempted coup in Venezuela by calling on the country's armed forces to support the opposition parliament.

During a speech at the White House, US National Security Adviser John Bolton said that all options were on the table regarding the current situation in Venezuela.

"We want as our principal objective a peaceful transfer of power," Bolton said. "But I will say again: [Venezuela's President] Nicolas Maduro and those supporting him, particularly those who are not Venezuelans, should know that all options are on the table."

The senior official further claimed that Venezuelan Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino, Supreme Court chief judge Maikel Moreno and presidential guard commander Ivan Rafael Hernandez Dala must make good on commitments they purportedly made to the opposition for a peaceful transition of power away from Maduro.

​Earlier in the day, Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president of the country Juan Guaido published a video calling on soldiers to join the ranks of his supporters against Maduro.

Earlier, Maduro accused Washington of orchestrating a coup to install Guaido as a US puppet. Russia, China and several other states support Maduro as the country’s legitimate president.

Police Arrive at Venezuelan Embassy in Washington With Handcuffs, Block Entrance

 US law enforcement officials blocked off the entrance of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington on Tuesday amid ongoing protests over the handling of the crisis in the Latin American country, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the embassy.

About 30 policemen with handcuffs arrived at the Venezuelan Embassy, which has been occupied by activists for more than two weeks, blocking the entrance from 30th Street.

The goal of the protesters is to prevent US-backed opposition figure Juan Guaido and his so-called government from taking possession of the building.

The situation in front of the embassy has been exacerbated amid tensions in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, where Juan Guaido released a video on Tuesday morning with a call on the country's military to join in the final stage of his so-called "Operation Freedom" from the La Carlota military base with the goal of ending the “usurpation of power” by President Maduro.

Maduro's government has slammed Guaido's actions as a coup attempt by a small group of "military traitors" who are seeking to fill "the country with violence". He later said that almost all military leaders remained loyal, despite Guaido's call.

The situation on the streets of Caracas remained largely calm with separate reports of clashes.

Things To Come: Symbolic Warfare Against Christians And Jews

Anti-Semitic Symbolic Warfare

The April 25th international edition of the New York Times published an anti-Semitic cartoon that portrayed a blind President Trump being led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted as a dog with a Star of David collar around its neck. After widespread criticism for perpetuating anti-Semitic tropes the New York Times apologized and deleted the cartoon. Which only brought more attention to it.

Cartoons, words, images, symbols and gestures that individually seem trivial, collectively reveal a pattern of stealth anti-Semitism. These continual incidents are casually explained as anti-Semitic tropes. The use of the word trope minimizes the threat, sounds like an unintended blunder and sugarcoats the covert agenda. 

These are not simply anti-Semitic tropes they are symbolic warfare tactics used in global information operations that target America, Israel, Jews and Trump supporters. These tactics were successfully used by Hitler and subsequently adopted by Islamists. Symbolic language that evokes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are skillfully being used by Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and sanctioned by democrat apologists to incite hatred against Jews, Israel and President Trump.   

Islamist anti-Semitism adopted many Nazi themes and symbols in their propaganda including the strategy of depicting Jews as dirty, filthy, impure life-threatening agents of disease and corruption. Both Nazi ideology and Islam are based on doctrines of purity resulting in the use of specific language, symbols and fears to perpetuate anti-Semitic hatred. Stigmatizing Jews as filthy impure dogs is effective because Islamic purity rules inculcate a particularly potent version of a moral revulsion against the unclean other.

Islamic purification rules function to protect true believers from both physical and spiritual contamination by designating specific things as taboo and impure. These impure taboo things are referred to as najis. There are two kinds of najis: inherent, which cannot be cleansed, and acquired, which become unclean through contact with an inherently impure thing. Things that are inherently najis and cannot be purified include: alcohol, dogs, swine, dead animals that were not ritually slaughtered, blood, urine, semen, feces, milk of animals whose meat is forbidden, dead bodies and unbelievers. Anti-Semitic images depicting politicians as dogs or pigs are chosen to evoke visceral emotions of disgust, impurity and uncleanness.

Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib understand the fear of impurity and have weaponized it. For this reason, symbols of Islamic impurity and the symbolism of contagion are found throughout anti-Semitic propaganda in both overt and subliminal images and language. Images of blood, pigs and dogs, all inherently impure unclean things, are often used by Islamists and frequently misinterpreted and perpetuated by Western Newspapers like the New York Times. Numerous political cartoons in which enemies are depicted or referred to as a dog, ape or pig are symbolic warfare tactics designed to evoke subliminal disgust emotions that evoke fear and incite violence.

This visceral reaction appeals to the unusual and accepted Islamic idea that Jews are descended from apes and pigs. For many this is not just symbolic or figurative derogatory speech but based on beliefs that Allah turned disobedient Jews into apes and pigs and that modern Jews are literally descended from them. Depicting Jews as the descendants of apes and pigs is extremely widespread in public discourse in the Arab and Islamic worlds which is why the New York Times cartoon depicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a dog, symbolizing inherent unclean evil.

Symbolic warfare is most successful when evoking deep-seated feelings of disgust and arousing fears of contagious impurity.

Anti-Semitism goes beyond perpetuating tropes when it equates Jews with impurity. Impurity is symbolically contagious in many cultural contexts, including that of Nazism and Islam. Impurity signifies the other and is experienced both physically and spiritually as a mysterious and harmful substance of the outside world that keeps attacking, contaminating, defiling and desacralizing the sacred world of true believers. True believers have to protect themselves and their communities against this threat of defilement and to get rid of it once the contamination has taken place. Individuals have to cleanse themselves by means of various purification rites and cathartic practices, while communities cleanse themselves by excluding, expelling, or proscribing the things and people whose presence defiles the community. Those unclean things are Jews, Christians, Trump and Israel supporters.

Combined with the fundamental belief that impurity must be cleansed, relegating the other to dirt and disease makes it easier to commit violence. Symbolically, instead of harming a person you are just removing dirt, taking out the garbage. Name-calling prior to and during attacks symbolically functions as a method of transforming violence into a sacred cleansing ritual. There have been many incidents of anti-Semitic violence where the offender used phrases like dirty Jew to demonize the victims and legitimize the cruelty. This form of cursing transforms any potential feelings of remorse into righteousness.

Anti-Semitic symbolic warfare is flourishing. Once the trope, cartoon, image or conspiracy theory is injected into the internet, apologies only serve to spread the propaganda further. Anti-Semitism is the real highly contagious virus and U.S. Congresswomen, their democrat apologists and propaganda arms like the New York Times are all carriers of the disease.  

Dispute Over Donated T-Shirts With Bible Verse Ignites Battle At U.S. School

Bible verse ignites ferocious battle at high school

A dispute over donated T-shirts sporting a Bible verse that basketball players wore during warm-ups at a New Mexico high school has come to an end with the head coach resigning.

That’s according to a letter from Supt. Loren Cushman of Animas Public Schools to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which raised the issue after a “concerned” community member complained.

Todd Starnes reported the coach allowed his players to wear the donated shirts inscribed with “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” which is taken from Philippians 4:13 in the New Testament.

The coach, who was not identified, also was accused of holding Bible studies with players.

Starnes reported FFRF, which he described as “a Wisconsin-based group of perpetually offended atheists, agnostics and so-called free-thinkers,” boasted about the coach’s resignation.

“We’re pleased that the Animas school system took us seriously in remedying a constitutional violation,” FFRF co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor stated. “Such behavior cannot be excused in public schools.”

Many of the students, as well as the coach, attended the same church, where the coach was active in leadership. The church had arranged for the shirts, which were given to any player who wanted one.

FFRF wrote to the school: “It does not matter whether some players asked the coach to lead a Bible study or whether wearing the religious T-shirts is optional. Courts have summarily rejected arguments that voluntariness excuses a constitutional violation.”

The principal, Cushman, told FFRF that when he was the players “wearing the T-shirts during pregame warmups, I immediately questioned the coach and activity director.”

“I gave specific instructions at that time that this was not permissible and was not to happen again.”

Cushman confirmed the coach had resigned.

“It’s a mighty sad day in America when a high school basketball coach is deemed unfit because he is a follower of Jesus,” Starnes wrote.

FFRF posted social-media reports of its success, drawing a call for physical violence against the coach from one of its supporters.

Leroy Poudrier wrote on Facebook: “He was allowed to resign for ‘violating the constitution’? He ought to have had his a– kicked and jaw busted for rights violating.”

Open Borders And The UN

Coming To America 2019: Thousands Of Invaders Each Month

by Karen Schoen

We have shown you that UN Agenda 21/2030 and the New Green Deal calls for NO Borders.  It requires and demands that the UN be the end-all-and-be all for its One World Governance. All policies must comply with the UN.

One just needs to look at the actions of Obama and Bush, to see where their orders came from. They come from unelected boards and regional councils – created right out the UN play book! The Johannesburg Accord laid it out. It says that in order to implement the action of the UN, create unelected NGO’s and regional councils. Give them power to regulate. Destroy the economy using climate change and sustainability.  America has complied.

The ultimate goal is to strip America of its wealth and natural resources, mainly by the use of “Trade Agreements”, to make the US Constitution subservient to the UN Charter, to eliminate private property in the name of FAIRNESS, and to divert America’s economy to third world countries in the name of eliminating hunger and poverty.

In the last 70 years since its inception the UN has been the recipient of Billions from the US. Yet, we still have disease, hunger and poverty in third world countries. No one ever asks:  WHY?

Perhaps if the UN communists and the variety of dictators – the real recipient of the billions – were not stealing, their people would have money with a self sustaining economy.

How do I know? Again, I will ask – Where are the Billions that Americans donated for the Haitian people as a result of the earthquake? I know it was given to the Bush/ Clinton coalition; but somehow it never got to the Haitian people.

It is time to stop the money train. You know, like those commercials stating “just donate $19.95 for starving children in Africa.”  Wonder why after 40 years of donations – we see the same commercials over and over again? REALLY?

Have you ever looked at the salaries and overhead of those UN sanctioned  organizations?  

Illegal immigration, refugees, open borders – all are just code for:

MONEY, POWER, and CONTROL.

How do I know?

They tell us, we just don’t listen.  We don’t believe they mean what they say. This is a breakdown of ONE of the groups bleeding the America people:  the IRC.

The International Resettlement Committee (IRC), headed by David Miliband gets it orders from the UN. Who do you think is funding those caravans? The UN determines how many refugees come to America. Isn’t this the job of the American government? The UN determines how much money to give to the many religious charities to accept refugees while Americans can not put food on their tables and veterans sleep in tents and cars.

Wait…that David Miliband is not THE David Miliband, failed Labour Party leader in England? Tell me NO, it’s not possible:  It is possible, and now David Miliband has a new gig, as the Refugee Resettlement Head of the UN.  How much does he make for working 37.5 hours a week?

Aside from his bloated salary, what did he just say:  Resettlement contractor David Miliband admits your anger over Syrian refugees is a threat to “Global Governance”.  Just shut up or you won’t be part of the global community.

Finally, the Truth:  WHAT does David WANT?  Sustainable Developments. Why? So that people can be MANAGED and CONTROLLED.  The Regime can’t have any “threats” to their dominance and plans.

David Miliband is President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where he oversees the agency’s humanitarian relief operations in more than 40 war-affected countries and its refugee resettlement and assistance programs in 28 United States cities.

Who will head this Global Governance?

Why, the U.N., of course!!

David’s International Rescue Committee (IRC) – is really a lobby group that “awards” good officials and bureaucrats for doing their bidding.  George Soros and the late John McCain are some of the recipients.  Remember that awful bill headed by the Gang of Eight.  IRC also lobbied the Gang of Eight – including Marco Rubio!!

Why are Americans ignorant of the theft by the UN NGO’s?  Because of the Mainstream Media, and Public Schools.

The media refuses to report anything they are not told to report

and…worst of all:

The schools now teach the government is the answer. Americans are now being taught: Do not resist. Do not question the government. You must comply. You must be PC. Go along, to get along. Do more for less. America is bad. Only the UN can help.

Following Cloward & Piven:  “In order to destroy capitalism, overload the system.”  Americans sit silent, while HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of illegals and refugees who will not assimilate…take our TAX DOLLARS.  They take our money, our resources, and our freedoms. 

Illegal immigration and refugee programs are not about helping anyone. IT IS ABOUT DESTROYING THE WEST. DESTROYING AMERICA. while creating a global regime who will dominate the world. Money, Power, Control. It’s all there.

Socialism Reality - Directly From Venezuela

As Mainstream Media Ignores, Here's How Bad Socialism Really Is in Venezuela

Most Americans are aware of the political and social chaos that has engulfed Venezuela, but how often do we hear the horrifying details about what’s really going on in the collapsing socialist state? How often does the U.S. media promote American socialist politicians like Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders instead of showing what socialism actually looks like and the lives it destroys?

BBC News has published a compelling video that shows the destruction wrought by a six-day blackout on the country, as told by native Venezuelan and journalist Vladimir Hernandez.

“Without any power you can’t buy food. You can’t get fuel for a generator. Hospitals are struggling to keep on working,” Hernandez begins the video.

“It’s a country in darkness. People are dying.”

Text then appears in the video, reading, “This is what a blackout looks like. Venezuela’s had one for six days.”

Hernandez implores viewers to understand this isn’t just a story to him, it’s personal.

“This is like the walking dead. This is like living in the apocalypse.”

“You can’t go to a cash machine. You can’t get on the internet. You cannot go to a shop and buy something you need,” Hernandez says.

Sick and dying children might be suffering the worst.

“I’ve been speaking to doctors in different hospitals and they tell me how much of a struggle it is to keep, for instance, intensive care equipment going,” Hernandez says, heartbreakingly.

“So children with intensive care equipment had to be switched off. But when I asked ‘What happens to them in the meantime?’ She was like, ‘Well, they are in the hands of God.'”

Hernandez says that part of the enduring stress of Venezuela’s collapse is that there is really no way to check on friends and relatives because “the mobile phone systems are down.”

How bad is it? No one really knows. “I still don’t think we know how deep of a problem it still is because some regions are virtually out of reach,” Hernandez says.

The video shows a woman stockpiling water and cooking whatever food she has immediately so it doesn’t go bad.

In 2017, native Venezuelan Andres Malave recounted similar horrors in his home country in an essay at Investor’s Business Daily:

“In practical terms, Venezuela’s misery means that it is not uncommon to see children rummaging through the garbage for food. And as basic medical supplies and medicine run dangerously low, newborns and the elderly die unattended in Venezuelan hospitals.”

“These heartbreaking scenes are difficult for anyone to bear, but for me, it’s personal,” Malave wrote. “I know many Venezuelans who held out hope that this ’21st Century’ form of socialism would turn out better than the 20th century version, but their dreams were quickly dashed.”

Today, prominent Democrats try selling a newer and better socialism to the American people. But there is no such thing. All socialism ends the same way, and it ends badly. We can’t just pretend the 20th century didn’t happen. We can’t pretend the current chaos in South America isn’t happening.

That we must learn from the mistakes of the past so we don’t repeat them is a cliche for a reason.

FLASHBACK: Venezuelan socialism victims send message to American socialists

Amid a historic uprising in Venezuela, where opposition leader Juan Guaidó is attempting to overthrow socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro, some Venezuelan expatriates here in the United States have a dire warning for American socialists: don't do it.

Wanting to know if the people who support socialism had ever heard from people who’ve suffered under it, Campus Reform's Cabot Phillips headed to a Venezuelan Freedom rally in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. It soon became abundantly clear that the Venezuelans in attendance were horrified by the idea of bringing socialism to the United States. Asking them, “What is your message to those who want socialism here,” the attendees were in agreement: don’t do it. “You do not ever want anything close to socialism,” one attendee said, while another added, “people are eating from trash cans in the streets, so how has socialism helped?”Another attendee, whose family is still in Venezuela, said, “No Venezuelan can like socialism, because we’ve seen it put in place very well.”

What else did they have to say? Watch the full video:

HORRIBLE: Maduro military truck intentionally RUNS OVER crowd of protesters in the middle of the street – [VIDEO]

Maduro forces riding around in their military vehicle literally plow into a crowd of protesters in the middle of the street, running them over:

!!! Intense clashes, a Venezuelan military vehicle just drove into a crowd of civilians on the highway. #Venezuelapic.twitter.com/pcSTd3TwMf

— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) April 30, 2019

This coup appears to be going in full force – it must be if Maduro’s henchmen feel the need to run over protesters in the middle of the street like this. 

You can clearly see that this isn’t some accident either. The vehicle crosses the media for the sole purpose of attacking these people.

It’s Tiananmen square all over again. And it’s horrific.

 
UPDATE: A few hours ago this video was taking showing massive crowds headed for Maduro’s palace in Caracas:

#BREAKING: Massive movement in Caracas, #Venezuelatowards the presidential palacepic.twitter.com/H7ldu9t0IH

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) April 30, 2019

The Erosion Of Modern Day Life: The World Is Sadder And Angrier Than Ever

The World Is Sadder & Angrier Than Ever

In this day and age when most people have everything they could possibly need and then some, the world is sadder and angrier than ever before. The standard of living around the globe has never been higher, but neither has the discontentment.

According to a major analysis of global well-being, the world really is getting more miserable. Human beings worldwide are sadder, angrier and more fearful than they have ever been before.  

Something just isn’t right on Earth. In Gallup’s annual Global State of Emotions report, all three emotions (sadness, anger, and fear) rose to record levels in 2018, for the second consecutive year.

Chad took the undesirable honor of being the world’s most negative country. Wrought with war, political crisis, and human rights violations, the country is the world’s worst in terms of emotional health, according to CNN.

Futurism reported that the researchers who conducted this study found that the number of people who said they’d experienced anger increased by two percentage points over the previous year, while both worry and sadness increased by one percentage point which is setting new record highs for all three negative emotions.

Research has noted the impact negative feelings can have on a person’s physical health — studies have linked angerto an elevated risk of heart attack and stroke, while chronic worry and sadness can be signs of anxiety disorders and depression, which carry an increased risk of heart disease.

If people continue to experience these negative emotions in greater numbers, we could be headed toward a future in which the global population is increasingly unhealthy — a situation that carries its own troubling side effects. –Futurism

Research has indicated that stress and other negative emotions can wear on the body and even manifest in the form of health problems. According to the people living on the Earth, the world is just not that happy of a place. But there are ways to improve our happiness.

Alcoholism and other addictive behaviors and suicides are also on the rise in the United States. Feelings of hopelessness and despair are overwhelming far too many in the U.S. So much so, that people are turning to alcohol, drugs, and suicide to numb the pain of their lives.  Government enslavement and the stranglehold on the economy are making life even more difficult on those already struggling to get by. And this is seen in new “death” numbers released.

The Erosion Of Everyday Life

Volume One of Fernand Braudel's oft-recommended (by me) trilogy Civilization & Capitalism, 15th to 18th Century is titled The Structures of Everyday Life. The book describes how life slowly became better and freer as the roots of modern capitalism and liberty spread in western Europe, slowly destabilizing and obsoleting the sclerotic tyrannies of feudalism.

Today I want to discuss the erosion of everyday life as a manifestation of the endgame of the current version of state capitalism, more precisely neofeudal state-cartel financialization, which combines financial predation of the home (core) economy and global exploitation of the Periphery (a.k.a. neocolonialism.)

Unlike the era Braudel describes, our era is characterized by the decline of liberty and the distortion of capitalism to serve the few at the expense of the many.

The over-used analogy of the boiled frog remains apt in understanding the erosion of everyday life: everyday life has become increasingly more difficult, more stressful, less rewarding financially, more deranging and less free for the past two generations. This erosion has gathered momentum in the 21st century as the status quo has ramped up its dysfunctional dynamics to keep the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth, power and liberty in place.

Traffic congestion

Workloads

Loss of purchasing power, a.k.a. inflation

Loss of political agency

Financial insecurity

Nonsensical narratives

I could go on, but you get the picture: everyday life is eroding, getting harder and less free for the bottom 95%.

Gold Rush By More Countries - Is This A Sign That Economic Crisis Is Looming?

Countries Around The World Are Bringing Gold Home

European Central Bank’s President Mario Draghi recently announced that the ECB would be required to approve any management of gold reserves within the euro zone countries. The statement was specifically directed at two Italian members.

Why was Italy singled out? According to the Wall Street Journal, Italian citizens are preparing to take control of Italy’s gold reserves. During the past few years, a multitude of small investors lost billions of dollars due to the failure of several Italian banks. The Bank of Italy is seen as an elitist, inefficient entity indifferent to the needs of ordinary people. Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio is leading the attack against Italy’s central bank, along with the “5 Star Movement” and the nationalist “League,” all of whom blame the countries financial woes on the incompetence of the central bank.

The 5 Star Movement is asking Italy’s Parliament to approve measures that would allow private banks to sell their share in The Bank of Italy at 1930’s prices. Taking it a step further, they are also demanding that ownership of the Bank of Italy’s 2,451.8 tons of gold be taken over by the country’s citizens and spent on populist policies. The current value of these gold reserves is $102 billion.

If these laws are passed, investors would be able to sell gold and greatly deplete the central bank’s reserves. As Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy states, “The gold belongs to the Italians, not the bankers.”

Italy’s lawmakers hold a different view and are warning against any action that will upend the sovereignty of the central bank’s policies. Such expropriation of government gold would not be tolerated.

But the 5 Star Movement and the League are determined to return ownership of the country’s gold to the public. Approximately 60 percent of lawmakers support the movement, guarantying the law will be enacted. There is also rumbling about nationalizing the Central Bank of Italy entirely.

In the realm of global commerce, gold has become a most potent weapon.

Italy is not the only country embracing gold.

Romania has plans to repatriate gold reserves currently being held by the Bank of England. Romania currently has around 103.7 tons of gold, valued at $3.84 billion. Sixty-five percent of the yellow metal is being kept in storage at the Bank of England. According to a new law, only 5 percent of the country’s gold may be stored abroad. The rest will be repatriated. While the current leadership approves of the repatriation, the National Bank of Romania does not. Mugur Isarescu, director of the central bank, insists that the gold is for economic emergencies and should remain where it is.

Another European country, Germany, has quietly called back 674 tons of gold from France and the U.S. Federal Reserve to its central bank, the Bundesbank. Ninety-eight percent of Germany’s gold was stored abroad during the height of the Cold War to keep it out of the reach of Russia. With the weakening of the Euro, Germany wants the gold closer to home. The Bundesbank now has half of the country’s gold in safe storage.

Following the trend to keep gold close to home, the National Bank of Hungary will be recalling 100,000 ounces of gold from the Bank of England. Hungary has traditionally kept its gold reserves low, with only 50 tons being held in 1989. The global 2008 financial crisis had Hungary rethinking its approach to gold. Now, it wants its gold reserves home for safekeeping in the event of a geopolitical crisis.

Gold is seen by central banks as a way to maintain financial trust during economic upheaval. The move by global central banks to repatriate their gold may be a sign that an economic crisis could be looming in the near future.

With Gun Ban Not Working, Politicians In Britain Now Want To Ban Knives

With Gun Ban Not Working, Politicians In Britain Now Want To Ban Knives Nationwide

If ever we needed proof of the expression that "guns don’t kill people, people kill people" look no further than Britain, where families may have to start practicing cutting their steak and bread at dinner with a spoon. This is, of course, because Britain's politicians have now made the absurdly ridiculous move to call for the banning of what Reason magazine called "the most useful tool ever invented" - the knife.

Reason reported this morning that British politicians have "declared war on knives" and are moving swiftly to try and ban them, since gun laws aren't working to help stop crime altogether:

Having failed to disarm criminals with gun controls that they defy, British politicians are now turning their attention to implementing something new and different: knife control. Because criminals will be much more respectful of knife laws than of those targeted at firearms, I guess.

"No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife. Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law," London's Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted on April 8.

Not to be outdone, his predecessor, Boris Johnson, currently Foreign Secretary, called for increased use of stop-and-search powers by police. "You have got to stop them, you have got to search them and you have got to take the knives out of their possession."

Poundland (the British equivalent of a dollar store) announced last week that it will no longer sell kitchen knives in any of its 850 stores. Similar stores are being slapped with fines for selling knives to minors.

The insanity disguised as regulation continues to get worse:

British politicians propose banning home delivery of knives and police promote street-corner bins for the surrender of knives while also conducting stings against knife vendors. Their goal is to "target not only those who carry and use knives, but also the supply, access and importation of weapons."

It all sounds all so familiar, doesn't it? And yet so utterly pointless. If British authorities have been unable to block criminals' access to firearms—mechanical devices that require some basic mechanical skill to manufacture, or at least a 3D printer—how are they going to cut off the flow of knives, which require nothing more than a piece of hard material that can take an edge?

There are also practical downsides to discouraging the public from possessing knives—one of the oldest and most useful tools ever invented. Poundland, after all, isn't dropping the sale of combat blades; the company's move applies specifically to the tools people use to make their meals. The law looks much more likely to inconvenience peaceful people planning to carve a roast than to put off thugs who, push comes to shove, can find a way to sharpen a piece of rebar against a rock.

This nonsense comes in the wake of a growing number of stabbings since Britain outlawed guns altogether. While Britain can now boast, as Piers Morgan famously did in his interview with Alex Jones, that they were only about 30 gun murders in Britain in the year prior, British politicians failed to notice that crime continues to happen, just through different means. It became clear when Britain's crime stats were put up against those of gun toting New Yorkers. From Reason:

As ridiculous as the idea of the knife ban sounds, it hasn’t stopped its advocates from beating the drum even harder over recent weeks. However, let us tell you how this is going to work out, for those that don’t already know. We think that politicians will be shocked to find that similar circumstances take place with the knife ban as they did with the gun ban. Criminals will find a different method to commit violent crimes and those who don’t obey the law to begin with certainly won’t be deterred by more regulation.

However, if you're a law abiding citizen in Britain preparing dinner for 10 from scratch at your house, you may find things a little more inconvenient in the comfort of your own home. Thanks politicians and regulators!