The Coup against Maduro Gallops On...
‘Venezuelans take to streets in push to force Maduro from power; Demonstrators say they are close to achieving objective of forcing president to step down, via the Grauniad, groundhog day (note the photo)
“Tens of thousands of Venezuelan protesters streamed on to the streets of the nation’s capital on Saturday for what they described as the final push to force Nicolás Maduro from power.
“I believe [the end] is coming very soon – this week,” said Barbara Angarita, 49, as she and thousands of other demonstrators poured down the Avenida Principal de las Mercedes in Caracas. “We must have a free country, free for all Venezuelans and for our descendants.”
“I feel we are on the verge of achieving our objective,” added Angarita, lifting aloft a placard that read: “We all have reasons to protest in peace.”
Around her demonstrators broke out in chants of: “It’s going to fall, it’s going to fall, the government is going to fall.”
from @amalsaad_lb “This AFP tweet was written while it was 7 a.m. in Caracas, well before AFP could have an idea about the scale of protests. Yet it’s already reporting “tens of thousands” of pro-Guaido protestors are “set to pour onto the streets” so that we make the association no matter the numbers”
@maduro_en feb. 2 “The people have shown, during these # 20AñosEnBatallaYVictoria, a deep loyalty and infinite love for the Bolivarian Revolution, which fills us with strength to continue on the path of Commander Chavez. Thanks for so much love!” (his Tweet with photos)
@maduro_en “I thank the people of Miranda, Carabobo, Portuguesa and Monagas for the extraordinary mobilizations today #01Feb. They are signs of love, commitment and dedication for the Homeland of our Liberators. Long live the Bolivarian Revolution!” (Maduro’s Tweet w/ photos)
From telesurenglish Feb. 2: ‘Trump Admin Pressured Spain Gov’t to Support US-Backed Coup in Venezuela: Report’
“The United States has exerted considerable pressure on the left-leaning government in Spain, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in order to come out against the Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro, recognize the opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido as the country “interim president,” and not to endorse or participate in any talks or dialogue between the opposition and the government, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported Friday.
“We are under a lot of pressure – I won’t tell you from whom but you can figure it out –[ya think it might be Bolton?] to vote against the creation of this group,” Foreign Minister José Borrell told El Pais, alluding to an EU-sponsored international contact group meant to foster dialogue in Venezuela.
The newspaper reported that in several meetings ahead of Jan 23, the day Guaido proclaimed himself the interim president, and since, that U.S. diplomats and senior officials placed pressure on counterparts in the Spanish government and other in the European Union to follow the same position as that of the United States and its right-wing allies in Latin America.”
“The US diplomat made two demands: for Spain to immediately recognize Guaidó as the legitimate president, and to cut off all dialogue with Maduro,” the newspaper reported.
Spain’s secretary of state for Cooperation and Ibero-America Juan Pablo de Laiglesia was in Washington to meet with the assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kimberly Breier where the U.S. officials told the Spanish official that “important events” were expected in Venezuela in the coming days.”
@dancohen3000 “Both Reuters (his Tweet w/ banner images) and The Economist have changed their header images to photos of Juan Guaidó, the US’s pawn in Venezuela. They’ve abandoned any pretense of non-bias and are serving as regime change propaganda outlets.”
From Michael Hudson’s wide-ranging Feb. 1 Trump’s Brilliant Strategy to Dismember U.S. Dollar Hegemony’ (h/t mr. wd) narrating the history that’s led to the end of dollar hegemony sooner than he’d expected…
“The root cause is clear: After the crescendo of pretenses and deceptions over Iraq, Libya and Syria, along with our absolution of the lawless regime of Saudi Arabia, foreign political leaders are coming to recognize what world-wide public opinion polls reported even before the Iraq/Iran-Contra boys turned their attention to the world’s largest oil reserves in Venezuela: The United States is now the greatest threat to peace on the planet.
Calling the U.S. coup being sponsored in Venezuela a defense of democracy reveals the Doublethink underlying U.S. foreign policy. It defines “democracy” to mean supporting U.S. foreign policy, pursuing neoliberal privatization of public infrastructure, dismantling government regulation and following the direction of U.S.-dominated global institutions, from the IMF and World Bank to NATO. For decades, the resulting foreign wars, domestic austerity programs and military interventions have brought more violence, not democracy.
In the Devil’s Dictionary that U.S. diplomats are taught to use as their “Elements of Style” guidelines for Doublethink, a “democratic” country is one that follows U.S. leadership and opens its economy to U.S. investment, and IMF- and World Bank-sponsored privatization. The Ukraine is deemed democratic, along with Saudi Arabia, Israel and other countries that act as U.S. financial and military protectorates and are willing to treat America’s enemies are theirs too.”
“A point had to come where this policy collided with the self-interest of other nations, finally breaking through the public relations rhetoric of empire. Other countries are proceeding to de-dollarize and replace what U.S. diplomacy calls “internationalism” (meaning U.S. nationalism imposed on the rest of the world) with their own national self-interest.”
It’s long, fascinating, easy to understand, and Hudson hits it out of the park again.
‘The Making of Juan Guaidó: US Regime-Change Laboratory Created Venezuela’s Coup Leader’, Max Blumenthal and Dan Cohen, consortiumnews.com, January 29, 2019. It’s an exceptional in-depth piece of journalism, much I knew, but a hella lot I hadn’t, especially how deeply Otpor!, CANVAS, and Gene Sharpe was involved in Guaido’s rise from obscurity to Grabbing the Crown of Venezuela. A couple outtakes:
“Training for Insurrection
On Oct. 5, 2005, with Chavez’s popularity at its peak and his government planning sweeping socialist programs, five Venezuelan “student leaders” arrived in Belgrade, Serbia to begin training for an insurrection.
The students had arrived from Venezuela courtesy of the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS. This group is funded largely through the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA cut-out that functions as the U.S. government’s main arm of promoting regime change; and offshoots like the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. According to leaked internal emails from Stratfor, an intelligence firm known as the “shadow CIA,” “[CANVAS] may have also received CIA funding and training during the 1999/2000 anti-Milosevic struggle.”
“Otpor was supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and Sharp’s Albert Einstein Institute. Sinisa Sikman, one of Otpor’s main trainers, once said the group even received direct CIA funding. According to a leaked email from a Stratfor staffer, after running Milosevic out of power, “the kids who ran OTPOR grew up, got suits and designed CANVAS… or in other words an ‘export-a-revolution’ group that sowed the seeds for a NUMBER of color revolutions. They are still hooked into U.S. funding and basically go around the world trying to topple dictators and autocratic governments (ones that U.S. does not like).”
“In 2009, the Generation 2007 youth activists staged their most provocative demonstration yet, dropping their pants on public roads and aping the outrageous guerrilla theater tactics outlined by Gene Sharp in his regime change manuals. The protesters had mobilized against the arrest of an ally from another newfangled youth group called JAVU. This far-right group “gathered funds from a variety of U.S. government sources, which allowed it to gain notoriety quickly as the hardline wing of opposition street movements,” according to academic George Ciccariello-Maher’s book, “Building the Commune.”
This photo has been identified by ‘many Venezuelans’ as Juan Guaido:
Guaidó was directly involved in the 2014 guarimbas. In fact, he tweeted video showing himself clad in a helmet and gas mask, surrounded by masked and armed elements that had shut down a highway that were engaging in a violent clash with the police. Alluding to his participation in Generation 2007, he proclaimed, “I remember in 2007, we proclaimed, ‘Students!’ Now, we shout, ‘Resistance! Resistance!’”
A few items I’d added late to Jan. 28th’s ‘The Coup against Nicola Maduro Intensifies’:
In his ‘US escalates threats against Venezuela’ today, Bill Van Auken, wsws.org brings us up to date on military options, among other dark arts afoot.
“Among the schemes floated by US officials is the opening of a “humanitarian corridor” into Venezuela for the ostensible purpose of sending in food, medicine and medical supplies. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced last week that the US was appropriating a paltry $20 million for that purpose, but Washington is also attempting to shift all assets and bank accounts that it can lay hold of into the hands of Guaidó.
The Trump administration’s newly appointed special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, the veteran US war criminal who played a leading role in defending the near-genocidal repression by US-backed dictatorships in Central America and in organizing the illegal CIA “contra” terrorist war against Nicaragua, floated the “humanitarian corridor” proposal Wednesday, declaring that “it is something we are looking at.”
Mauricio Claver-Carone, the right-wing anti-Castro activist elevated to the position of senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council, was somewhat more explicit, telling reporters that Washington was looking for “the best peaceful way” to deliver aid to Venezuela, but was “exploring many options” and would not rule out military intervention to open up a “corridor.”
But but telesur english is reporting today:
“Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, confirmed that Guterres responded to a letter, which was sent by Juan Guaido asking the agency to send humanitarian aid to Venezuela.
Guterres reiterated his concern about the impact of the current Venezuelan crisis on the people.
However, regarding Guaido’s request, the secretary-general requested to communicate with the Government of Venezuela, which is headed by President Nicolas Maduro.”
Now the Twittersphere seems to believe that the ‘humanitarian corridor’ will be by way of sea, not a Trumpeted ‘no-fly zone’, but from apnews.com: ‘Red Cross talks to US about risks of sending Venezuela aid’, Feb. 2:
“The International Committee of the Red Cross has talked to the United States about the risks of delivering humanitarian aid to Venezuela without the approval of security forces loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, an official with the agency said Friday.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido has said he will defy Maduro’s refusal to allow aid by asking neighboring nations to help send in large convoys of medicine and food. Guaido has declared himself interim president of the country.
The Trump administration has announced it is ready to deliver aid to Venezuela whenever and however is decided by Guaido.
Alexandra Boivin, ICRC delegation head for the United States and Canada, said the ICRC had told U.S. officials that whatever plans “they have to help the people of Venezuela, it has to be shielded from this political conversation.”
It’s not even clear to me if Guaido/Bolton had asked the ICRC to help; it’s sure hard to imagine…
@AmbJohnBolton “Pursuant to the request of Interim President Juan Guaido, and in consultation with his officials the US will mobilize and transport humanitarian aid—medicine, surgical supplies, and nutritional supplements for the people of Venezuela. It’s time for Maduro to get out of the way.”
@VP “As I told the crowd in Miami, this is no time for dialogue. This is time for action, & the time has come to end the Maduro dictatorship! The National Assembly & Pres. @jguaido have our full support because we recognize the truth – Maduro’s dictatorship is destroying Venezuela.”
‘Twitter takes down hundreds of accounts linked to Venezuela amid US calls for regime change’, rt feb.1 (well, over 11 hundreds), via RT
“Host of the Empire Files, a documentary & interview series, Abby Martin lamented that amid Twitter censorship of pro-government supporters, “pro-coup Venezuelans & right-wing exiles dominate the media sphere.”
And as he’d promised when he’d stopped by c99%, Brett Wilkins’ Elliott Abrams: A Human Rights Horror Show in Three Acts’, Feb. 1, counterpunch.org (an edifying in-depth, if not enjoyable exposé)
‘Act I: Dictators, Death Squads and Drug Dealers
Act II: Neoconned
(PNAC, approval of the 2002 coup against Chavez, and more)
Act III: Prelude to Regime Change?’
And h/t Café author/commenter Greyson Smythe: ‘Son of Brazil President Bolsonaro joins Steve Bannon group’, france24.com, Feb.2 (a chip off the Old Block)
“Bannon, who left as White House strategist in August 2017 and had a public falling-out with Trump, started The Movement in Europe to transmit far-right nationalist values and tactics he hopes will win sympathizers seats in the European parliament.
Bannon said enlisting Bolsonaro, a deputy in Brazil’s Congress, was part of the group’s “pursuit of a populist nationalist agenda for prosperity and sovereignty for citizens throughout the world.“
(cross-posted from Café Babylon)
Comments
Great Compendium of the News on VZ
that we can't get elsewhere.
Anyone who considers her/himself well-informed has to take a good look at these articles.
Off to read the Hudson piece for starters.
Thank you, Wendy Davis.
welcome,
hudson is so...comprehensible, as he speaks not in economic jargon to sound like an 'erudite economist', but in plain tongue. he's got several essays on VZ, but it's too late to dig them out.
i did want to add to blumenthal and cohen piece on 'the making of juan guiado, that they'd breezed by (accidentally?) the facts that socialist milosevic was exhonerated of war crimes posthumously after dying in a cell at the hague. he was also under a gag order during his trial (from 2003).
"Mr. Milosevic has been deprived of visits from his wife and immediate family since March 2003. In August, the Registrar banned visits from members of the Serbian Socialist Party and “associated entities”. The present order constitutes a wide ranging ban on all visits, with very limited exceptions: legal counsel, and consular representation."
that was bill clinton's Nato war, iirc.
ach, i've waited too long to collect
solidarity events for maduro; lots of new tweets at #HandsOffVenezuela on twitter by now. london, canada, baltimore, nicarugua, one comnig in deecee in march(???).
but the second images accidentally tells the story:
night all; i'm closing down for then night. we'll see what tomorrow may bring.
Wow.
dfarrah
rollin' on the floor, etc.
: D
Jimmy Dore gets the truth about
why the US is engineering the coup in Venezuela.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AyrFhQGqFs]
ach, i guess i'm a sourpuss,
but i don't find any of it a laughing matter, CB. not to mention pompeo doesn't need truth serum, neither does bolton, as they say all of this right out loud bold as brass. invade colombia? hell, that's where the invasion would start, a number of amerikan bases are there, and colombia's in Nato.
sigh, sorry to be grumpulous, but then i don't care for dore, in any event.
on later edit, via RT today:
"Any military action against Caracas will have a destructive impact not only on Venezuela itself, but the whole region, former UN Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas believes.
“I’m concerned, that if there’s an attack – from Colombia and Brazil, coordinated and with the logistical or other support from Washington – that there will be a civil war and tens of thousands of deaths,” de Zayas told RT, adding that as “the United States is threatening with the use of force,” which is illegal under international law, Washington’s behavior should be immediately addressed by top UN officials.
At the same time, the US is seemingly aiming at fueling dissent within the country – and its military in particular – hoping it will drift under the banner of the self-proclaimed “president.”
“I think that the United States is betting that the military will eventually switch over to Guaido, that they will not remain loyal to Maduro. That, of course, would be a massive defeat for the principle of national sovereignty, for the principle of democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela, but it would avoid, of course, the shedding of blood,” de Zayas said." ???
but yeah, bolsonaro (guaido's BBF) will want a piece of it.
Your instincts are correct by any standard.
I think it is unsafe not to be watching RT, if you are an American. The amount of brainwashing we have all absorbed is a danger to our nation and to our lives. RT, while it lasts in the US, is the only antidote to the toxin of normalcy we have been dosed with. Watch the US version, especially.
On another note, Dore is not on RT yet. Like him or not, he is one of the few people around who has actual immunity to US propaganda. It is not a political stance for him. He does not need to go though an intellectual process to get there; he appears to have no receptors for propaganda. Most people have to work to reinstate their critical thinking and reasoning skills; or they have to stay on top of it and look facts up all the time to maintain their logic and clear-headedness in the face of propaganda bombardment.
What we are hearing from Pompeo and Bolton are words that should horrify any American capable of thought. But I'm not reading or seeing any horror from the masses. The worst part is, those two Deep State Neocons are not saying things that they even believe themselves. They are saying things that they believe will make you surrender to them.
That's how they mastered control over Trump's blank-slate mind. Fear.
As for the outcome
There is only one goal, as you know. Control over all oil-producing nations. It is the only protection the US has over having its own economy routed and held hostage, while it is attempting to reach full Empire status over the world.
The Deep State of the US State Department has done this dozens of times in dozens of places. They are working from a script. Bolsonaro works for the US Deep State. They created him for this very purpose.
i agree, but i really do
believe the other part of the equation is finally smashing the bolivarian revolution to bits; it began in mexico, was murdered in prep for (iirc) IMF loans, and the ruling class unwound the ejido agricultural commons system. then came nieto and NAFTA, and all hell broke loose for the peasant class, an not only due to: no more seed and food sovereignty. but the day it went into effect, the zapatistas took charge of their own lives, even though their communities in chiapas were bombed and strafed by the IDF. but it's long been said that the reason they survived was because the ordinary citizens were in their camp, and proud of them.
but there was that one WSJ thing (behind a paywall i couldn't manage to trick) that said "Cuba's next!" and wouldn't that be authored by marco rubio and the 'cubano exiles'?
can't have no leftist gummnits, nossir, while the right-wing nationalists are gaining power! (jair's son eduardo and bannon, for instance)
I'm amazed Cuba was allowed to exist
...as long as it did. I've asked both ordinary Republicans and Democrats about the ridiculousness of a 50-year sanction on a nation that poses no threat to the US — but sadly and without exception, their brains are too broken to engage in the topic. The most cogent reply I ever got was that Cuba was still being punished for being communist. I would point out that the US trades with many communist nations. Then they suggested it was because the Soviet Union put missiles there. I would point out that there haven't been missiles there for 50 years.... and so forth.
Their brains were broken by exceptionalism, the same thing that broke the brains of the banking class.
Still, why does Cuba still exist? The US was not waiting for a random Rubio to come along to vaporize it.
Cuba must be serving a different purpose.
The purpose of Cuba
is to demonstrate how 'bad' socialism is. It is interesting that Cuba has a considerably lower child mortality rate compared to the US plus they live longer.
Any progress made by Cubans to improve their lives will be slapped down by the war mongers in the US government.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imI6vXwJQ-E]
Ah so. That explains the crickets.
The State Department actually did stoop that low.
Operation Mockingbird
is alive and flourishing.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false" - William Casey, CIA Director, February 1981
cuba also sends mass
quantities of doctors and supplies to nations damaged by natural disasters. as when hugo chavez sent heating oil the the US northwest, it put him closer into a target for amerika (was it dubya?)
but i found it at sputnik news. 'US to Boost Pressure on Venezuela, Cuba to Curb Russia, China in Region – Report', jan. 31
now 'insiders' could be the WSJ editorial board, gina haspel, who knows? but it's interesting, as a construct in any event.
while i a agree that many 'dissidents'
to the empire's conventional wisdom get a gig at RT, many other lesser known sites are important to 'contravening the empire's corporate news' as well. and it can depend on which subject area where i travel online on a particular day.
dore may have some innate eye to getting agitprop, but on this occasion...he's clearly misinformed. why do you thing nato grabbed colombia, for instance? not for all the amerikan bases there, eh? why does amerika have a military understanding memo now that rafael correa was putched? (even if one agrees or not on the various takes on 'the whys' of that.) no, not just the desire for a large loan from the IMF; it's all gladio, alla time, as well as control of the oil spigots.
and bolsonaro has been at the thick of the coup from the get-go. fuck me, he was even at davos when i was there.
so don't press me on dore and won't tell you what i really think of him; lee camp has a gig there, and i haven't cared for him since he'd appointed himself King of Komedy of the Occupy movement, the potty-mouthed show-boater. and yes, i know most of you her adore jimmy; i simply don't care for his smarmy style, his stupid hounds-tooth hat, nor his failure to keep actually/factually informed. ooopsie, i've said too much.
gotta shut down and rest my burned out 5 a.m. eyes. ; )
Your criticism of Jimmy is fair.
I am not his defender. I'm not even a podcast watcher.
My comment was about RT, and Dore not on RT. I don't watch Lee Camp (too loud) or Larry King (too boring). I was talking about news streams and about a dozen regular shows like On Contact, Renegade, CrossTalk, Keiser Report, Rick Sanchez, Documentary, Watching the Hawks, etc.
Basically, I was comparing live television to live television.
Reading essays on the Internet is another thing altogether. I spend most of my time with that.
My current interest, however, is with the media where Americans who insist on voting get their news.
Have a nice rest.
yeah, i don't care for video
news, and most of the time i just pass them by unless there's transcript. now i'm always glad when RT grabs 'putin apologist' stephen cohen's colums from the nation, finian cunningham, too, cheeky dude that he is. ; )
Yeah, I can't deal
Speaking is just too slow for me, except when the speaker is really fast. I would much rather read transcripts - it is much quicker.
dfarrah
I never watch the "phone call" episodes of Dore.
To me, the episodes I watch are good, but with some significant holes.
For instance, he is one of the few left-of-center people in this country talking about oil resources and the petrodollar. And he champions Assange and calls out the CIA. Well worth continuing to watch even though he gets some things wrong.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i'm glad you enjoy him,
then, amiga. we all have different sensibilities, a feature, not a bug (i hope). ; )
I've enjoyed RT programs for years
This happened just before the New Year and I spent a lot of time on the phone talking to one dept. after another only to get from the expected, 'I don't know', to a line telling me it was a contract problem which another dept.said they couldn't say whether or not that was true, down to another person telling me it might be my cable box (I laughed at that before I could stop myself). Then they told me all about the benefits of the new cable box to which I asked why would that matter and was told they didn't know but were sure I'd like the newer one better.
A dead end and so far I've received no answer from one email address I found for RT here in the US.
I don't think RT will be around much longer in the US.
The panicked US government is determined to gain iron-fist control over the US narrative. That narrative is key to brainwashing American voters, and key to normalizing the absurdity of the kabuki democracy.
There is no realistic remedy to the American surrender, in any event, because the people are now far too ignorant to muster their reality-based self-determination — and self-determination is the one fundamental human right that could have empowered them.
Nevertheless, if the actual facts in the world continue to be reported on broadcast media by RT — it would eventually exacerbate the anger and despair Americans are about to suffer as depopulation and reduced quality of life is accelerated for them. Thus, RT must be blacked out in the US along with a good portion of the Internet.
I knew I would have to leave, at some point. I can't help from inside the US, that's for sure.
hadn't amerika insisted that
RT register as a foreign agent or some such, and they'd complied? any idea where you'd head?
They registered as foreign agents.
And they were immediately taken off the air in the Washington DC area.
It's hard to tell, but I think there's a lot of people
who don't buy the garbage they're selling; it's just that those people are exiting politics. They correctly perceive that politics is now a no-win game and also a toxic pile of garbage teeming with maggots, so they don't talk unless somebody else brings it up. Those who opt out might be left, right, or neither; what they have in common is their unwillingness to go along with the current assumptions and talking points that are being sold.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Jimmy Dore is one
of the rare people that can reach the Dems with the truth. He does it with humor, many times black, sarcastic and profane.
If you have not been following, I suggest the following:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWfwqxwSUF8]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMplqEpfGhs]
i appreciate it,
but i won't partake, although others surely will. as i'd said, tulsi can kiss my grits over 'being conflicted about torture', as well as a few other reasons...on is spelled narendra modi.
Best of a bad lot.
Who do you have in mind to run in 2020?
no one i can
think of; i've voted green the last several cycles, nader, then stein, then ajamu baraka. but if stein runs, i sho' won't vote for her again. raising buckets of money in three states because: 'russian (later foreign) interference' in our elections. all against the wishes of the green steering committee and her own damned running mate.
but then...at least she's not conflicted about torture (i hope). but it slays me that at RT she's called a russian operative by some...still...after all that rot. don't have to vote for any prez candidate, though. but how fooking idiotic that 'stupid season' began the day after the congressional primaries, don't you think?
Thx for the links.
From Hudson at consortium......
By 2010, Popular Will and its foreign backers moved to exploit the worst drought to hit Venezuela in decades. Massive electricity shortages had struck the country due the dearth of water, which was needed to power hydroelectric plants. A global economic recession and declining oil prices compounded the crisis, driving public discontentment.
Stratfor and CANVAS – key advisors of Guaidó and his anti-government cadre – devised a shockingly cynical plan to drive a dagger through the heart of the Bolivarian revolution. The scheme hinged on a 70 percent collapse of the country’s electrical system by as early as April 2010.
“This could be the watershed event, as there is little that Chavez can do to protect the poor from the failure of that system,” the Stratfor internal memo declared. “This would likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate. At that point in time, an opposition group would be best served to take advantage of the situation and spin it against Chavez and towards their needs.”
By this point, the Venezuelan opposition was receiving a staggering $40-50 million a year from U.S. government organizations like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, according to a report by the Spanish think tank, the FRIDE Institute. It also had massive wealth to draw on from its own accounts, which were mostly outside the country.
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
epic skullduggery.
and once again, bless wikileaks and julian assange.
consortium news was max and dan, but there are so many links in this edition it's easy to get confused. but yanno, it puts paid to the 'unknown guaido' meme, doesn't it? whoa, nellie, the earliest necons new him very well.
a dimension entered by flag at this guido march yesterday:
I wonder what would happen if we put 40 or 50
million a year into climate change mitigation.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Reducing demand for fossil fuels weakens the Saudis, Gulf emirs,
and the sultan of Brunei . . .
. . .folks who, in a capitalist, money-driven world, are fantastically rich and therefore also fantastically powerful in discreetly invisible ways.
These are people who can literally get away with murder — Khashoggi? Who’s that?
Ergo, moving away from a capitalist model of economic growth and stopping use of fossil fuels in a way that affects profits is not going to happen unless the world’s current ruling elites are overthrown.
I wonder why droughts always happen
....in regions where they best serve the Neocons immediate goals.
Because God is not amused?
Just kidding.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
i don't know that they
actually do, depending on what time period. but part of the reason i'd put in the global drought monitor (kept fairly current in time) was so folks might look at VZ for instance, which looks pretty good except for the southern end to me. the blumental/cohen (imo, cohen was the better influence on max) story on drought and the electricity for hydro plants, etc.
unless of course you're pinging those who say that the climate is down to intentional geo-engineering by chemtrails. the café had such an author for a time, and i read every damned link he'd provided, and still dinnae see it.
now drought by neo-colonization in south america and africa, etc. , yes, but those ingredients are a much longer conversation.
China earmarked
$360 BILLION for renewable energy in 2017 to be spent over a period of 3 years and they ARE spending the money for this purpose. They will probably attain their goals this year - a year ahead of time. This was 47% of the world total. For comparison, the US pledged $5 billion or 1.4% for the same period in 2017. As a result, China is now the world leader in solar cells, wind energy and electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, the US, under Obomba, pledged a trillion (1,000 billion) dollars over the next decade to make nuclear weapons user friendly.
It's nice to see Germany, Spain, and China
popularizing and probably perfecting the technology Americans invented back when we invented other things than bombs.
Funny how we invented the technology and then broke its fingers and stuck it in a cage for forty years.
Meanwhile others go "Huh. Looks like it could be useful," and offer asylum to the beleaguered tech, which thrives in its new environment.
I just wish that global power were more based in nation-states, less, well, global. If that were true, renewable energy and climate mitigation would be much further ahead. The U.S. can isolate itself as a nation, but it's barely a nation at this point: the real problem is the business interests who park here for some obscure reason. It sure as hell isn't because they have any feelings for the place they were born.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
it would be a start...
but there is no acknowledgement of climate anything let alone climate emergency by the ptb. yes, a few congress critters but not enough. not to mention mitigation, sequestration, adaptation planning...
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
and tragically, imo,
the emergency began 20 years or more ago, and was ramped up at the sick joke of the 'Rio 2012 sustainability conference'. the conference forced the Indigenous to hold side meetings: they weren't allowed in with the Big Boy Capitalists. their indictments, by the by, were spot on, and when in my reporting i'd learned how craven the Big US Climate Gods were/are.
but yeah, now the bucks should be going to deep adaptation and mitigation, as in relocating the inhabitants of island nations under water as the oceans are rising, what, 40 times faster than predicted even four years ago? yeppers, i'm a grouch on that subject as well, but rather philosophical about the sixth extinction being baked in lest: help by aliens. but how would any technology cool the oceans in which most of the heat is stored?
with such a crap memory, i can only guess i've read the same about the arctic ice and warm water, not just methane release, but see: February 4, 2019 'Thwaites Glacier Startles Scientists by Robert Hunziker, counterpunch
and the himalayan glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. maybe the species that remain will evolve into better custodians of this once-gorgeous blue-green ball of a planet.
on noon noon: from nasa 2015, , same grace, etc. programs: ‘Warming Seas and Melting Ice Sheets’
“The Greenland Ice Sheet, spanning 660,000 square miles (an area almost as big as Alaska) and with a thickness at its highest point of almost 2 miles, has the potential to raise the world’s oceans by more than 20 feet. Situated in the Arctic, which is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, Greenland fell out of balance in the 1990s, and is now shedding more and more ice in the summer than it gains back in the winter.
“In Greenland, everything got warmer at the same time: the air, the ocean surface, the depths of the ocean,” said Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at University of Washington. “We don’t really understand which part of that warming is having the biggest effect on the glaciers.”
Observations from the Jason series have revolutionized scientists' understanding of contemporary sea level rise and its causes. We know that today's sea level rise is about one-third the result of the warming of existing ocean water, with the remainder coming from melting land ice.
but iirc, the dark ice melt absorbs even more heat, and somehow the deep seabed methane is released, even causing volcanoes to erupt. but of course, not all climate scientist agre on that. ; )
how warm were ocean in 2018? global ocean temps.
https://www.seatemperature.org/
by nation:
https://www.seatemperature.org/countries.htm
if the site is correct, of course.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/warming-seas-and-melting-ice-sheets
aggregate average temps they dinnae have.
but it might be time to call your newsletter 'hot air, hot water'.
End-stage capitalism, ladies and gentlemen.
It won't be long before capital has no more markets or countries to rape for their own personal gain. Most people likely won't miss it when capitalism finally dies as it should have in 1929.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
and a globe disobeying the emperor
with no clothes? (as per hudson as well). a multipolar world w/ 2 alliances creating alternatives to SWIFT? ah, but they will be punished! this was rather shocking news to me:
"The World Bank, for instance, traditionally has been headed by a U.S. Secretary of Defense. Its steady policy since its inception is to provide loans for countries to devote their land to export crops instead of giving priority to feeding themselves. That is why its loans are only in foreign currency, not in the domestic currency needed to provide price supports and agricultural extension services such as have made U.S. agriculture so productive. By following U.S. advice, countries have left themselves open to food blackmail – sanctions against providing them with grain and other food, in case they step out of line with U.S. diplomatic demands."
guess that was what had prompted biden to say that if Leader __, didn't play ball wid us, he won't get his IMF loan.
but isn't it always said that as empires die, they are at their most dangerous with their loose-cannon policies, both militarily and 'war by other means'? so tragic that the long, long, agitprop against maduro has been been reified to this point:
'Will Venezuela oil sanctions be the silver bullet to fell Maduro regime?; Drivers in the oil-rich country fear the pumps may soon run dry as US tightens economic screw... thanks, guardian of the empire.
It's not necessary to think too hard about this:
South America is finished.
Both China and Russia are deeply invested in Venezuela and deeply committed in trade agreements with other SA nations. But they will be forced to abandon these allies and put all their resources into weapons. Everyone knows that a first strike against the US is their only hope.
you may be right,
but for now i'm forced to remain agnostic on that. guess we'll see sooner than later.
not really true, but if it's important or not I don't know
according to Wikipedia three out of twelve were related to the Department of Defense, McCloy, McNamara and Wolfowitz, only McNamara was Sec. of Defense, the other two either deputy or assistant Sec. of Defense. The rest were mostly bankers, lawyers etc.
Peace.
Just saying...no offense.
https://www.euronews.com/live
no offense taken,
i was just quoting michael hudson; thanks for digging into it. i appreciate it; i hope i hadn't taken him out of context, but that looked pretty straight forward to me.
do you have a link to what Hudson said?
I like him a lot, just get lost in threads and links here and elsewhere and don't know to which link you related his words.
Sorry for that.
https://www.euronews.com/live
i am sooooo
sorry, ma soeur; there wasn't a link, but i've added it. #WhatAKnothead
but here it is...
Thank You, Wendy, it's an excellent and very long article
I remember now that I had started to read Hudson's article before, just gave up and not reading it to the end. I think it's hard to decide what the most important message from that article is for people not that knowledgable about how the IMF and Worldbank work. I thought this one to be 'telling' (I had to do my own excerpting to get through all the goodies of that article by Hudson. Please forgive, if all of it was mentioned in your essay, it is not meant as an offense, just a way to get my thoughts in order)
and this:
and this:
and this:
and this
FUBAR. I am shocked and awed by Mr. Moustache, the Pompelman and godly Abraham. Indeed. Well done, those steaks, and tough like leather. Undigestible.
https://www.euronews.com/live
bolton's threatening the
judges at the ICC would have deserved its own diary, really, the fuquewad. but this is exactly what lotlizard had called 'ironic' on the last VZ thread:
"How remarkable it is that it is only right-wing parties, Alternative for Deutschland (AFD), or Marine le Pen’s French nationalists and those of other countries that are opposing NATO militarization and seeking to revive trade and economic links with the rest of Eurasia."
but what he said about the Great Orange One's sanctions and threats forcing alternatives to the SWIFT system was what he'd asked 'intentional or unwitting destruction of dollar hegemony', or close. as i remember it, he sure did have his tongue in his check while he had some fun with it.
Good job on highlighting this, mimi
And bringing forward all the salient points. It's an excellent reference on the corrupting of the global economy via politics. Really. The quotes you pulled may be the weakest link. Future historians will spend centuries analyzing this one depraved event, because this is precisely where western civilization turned to complete shit.
Following your links a bit too late.
Just to say, Michael Hudson is an uncommon god among economists. I need to read more and talk less.
i like him a lot,
as i like mark weisbrot and another fellow at CEPR. they all tie their economics to social an political globally, but not in the way, say, of bloomberg news. 'Bloomberg’s Hit Job on Venezuela – and Me', michaelhudson.com, april 3, 2017
he often quotes marx, but obviously can't come out as a socialist. ; )
"I told her [bloomberg reporter jenkins] that I had not followed Venezuela’s economy closely in recent years. I did say that I had discussed how Argentina and Greece were subjected to austerity as a result of foreign debt, and my belief that no sovereign nation should be obliged to impose austerity on its population to pay foreign bondholders. That has indeed been the problem confronting Latin America for decades, and is a central theme of all my books since Super Imperialism in 1972.
And to cap matters, of course, U.S. foreign policy has mobilized the World Bank and IMF to back creditor interests, foreign investment and privatization – while isolating countries from Cuba through Venezuela (and now Greece) to demonstrate that neoliberal diplomacy will make such a country a pariah if it makes a serious attempt to oppose austerity and financialization.
She said that the country looked like it was straining to pay its foreign debts and might soon default. I replied with the same advice that I had given Greece: If you are inevitably going to default on sovereign debt, it’s best to stop paying now and keep what foreign exchange you have, and try to renegotiate the debt to bring it within the ability to be paid. Otherwise, you will end up suffering the legal tangle of default, but be stripped of funds needed by the domestic economy to survive."
This bit of macroeconomic advice Hudson offers
...scales down to individual sovereignty , as well:
Play to win.
And then .... China came along. They made the Yuan a reserve currency with the IMF — then built a fairer banking model than the World Bank. With one-hundred nations signing on as partners, the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank of China has the money and the clout to build a 21st-century economic infrastructure — at a record pace — across the entire Eastern Hemisphere.
And it was good.
hudson's a mensch,
isn't he? "and it was good", by way of an Amen. i hadn't kept up w/ the BRIICS bank, last i'd seen, it wasn't all that well capitalized, but i do know he'd have some knowledge. ; )
consortium news has borrowed his recent column, but it was too hellish long for me to read. maybe it's in there. but at least CS has stopped their BS: "special to consortium news", when most of their exclusives are published at many sites, especially escobar (almost always at atimes.com
Speaking of Escobar
...I notice he has something at Consortium referenced at Zero Hedge: Escobar: MAGA Misses The Eurasia Train. Haven't read it yet, but it's generally on this topic.
BRICS is much smaller that the AIIB, and limited to just a few nations.
The AIIB has basically won the world. Every day it looks more and more like the UN. Climate change is their first order of business. But it is so much larger than that. Little wonder that DC is beside themselves, making one mistake after another.
Really, after a second look, Escobar really puts this new world rising into perspective:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-04/escobar-maga-misses-eurasia-train
yes, that was the link i'd
provided at consortium news, having thought you dinnae need the title. and apologies, in my increasing dotage, i'd confused the two banks.
but the guardian had another hit on maduro today, 'Maduro issues threat to jail Venezuela’s opposition leader', but toward the end:
linking to this tweet:
@cordeliers "The whole world knows that Foodlike Products from @usaid are cheap smears of lipstick on the ghastly face of US imperialism."
i would like to offer my apologies to those i'd
told that tulsi gabbard had voted for the house Nato Defense bill. when i'd read that not one dem had voted against it, i assumed she had. but just to be certain, i did finally find the roll call vote, and she just hadn't voted, nor had a long list of other Ds, for whatever reasons.
but according to stephen lendeman chronicling her mixed record:
"After the February 2014 US coup in Ukraine, replacing democratic governance with illegitimate Nazi-infested fascist rule, Gabbard supported supplying the regime with “military assistance,” shamefully claiming America can’t stand “idly by while Russia continues to degrade the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
No “Russian aggression” existed then or now. Yet Gabbard disgracefully claimed otherwise, urging “more painful economic sanctions” on Moscow, pretending the regime in Kiev is a “peaceful, sovereign neighbor.”
In July 2017, she supported legislation imposing illegal unilateral US sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea."
i'd offer more reasons that she's not 'anti-war', but bats for the Empire, but that's enough for now. but again: my sincere apologies for my mistake.
So, why do you suppose the US Failed State
...is so vehemently opposed to Gabbard?
perhaps it's because
they believe her self-styled branding, as they do freaking ocasio-cortez's?
So, non-conformity kills.
i'd later remembered
seeing the title of snoopy's (close) to 'russia wants tulsi for president', and that must be because she'd gone to syria, had met with assad', etc. yes, that would have earned her demerits with the CIA dems, most especially, if that's which entities you mean by the deep state. i dunno how many iterations of that term there are, myownself, sometimes in competition, some times in concert.
i hadn't meant to derail this diary by starting arguments/discussions over her, but apparently...i've done just that, but as i'd indicated,i'd wanted to apologize for my assumption that she'd voted on the Defense of Nato bill. but as we're on the subject, i will say that any candidate for prez who's 'conflicted about torture...because presidents and ticking time bombs', well good gawd all-friday. jeffrey kaye must be rolling over in his canoe. she can kiss my grits! was she 'charlie hebdo' back in the day?
okay, sorry, that was uncalled for; but that shit was just after all the photos from abu ghraihb were published.
i went spelunking
on breaks while making thai sesame noodles sauce. yeppers: on the twit machine:
@jeff_kaye Jan 16
Replying to @TulsiGabbard
Tulsi, can you say the same about your comments about torture. You may not know it, but there are many foreign torture survivors living in America now, having been granted political asylum. Your old comments could be quite painful to them as well.
@pmcall
Replying to @jeff_kaye @TulsiGabbard
Thanks Jeff. I didn't know about this so I went looking. I just found this video and quite frankly I'm shocked at what Tulsi said about the torture report : (
(the video)
@jeff_kaye Jan 16
Replying to @pmcall @TulsiGabbard
If I’m not mistaken, this is similar to Hillary Clinton’s position re ticking bomb scenario circa 2013 https://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/hillary-torture-blog-entry-1.1661354 …
It's not just torture,
https://www.votetulsi.com/node/25013
But we know what the war on terror is and has been for the last 17 years and we know what really happened on 9/11. She can't and won't go against U.S. imperialism, just some of the tactics. She's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations for gawds sake. This business that the establishment/deep state, whatever, hates her therefore she must be the real deal is misguided in my view. In fact, I'm still trying to figure out really why she's running. Kind of like why was Bernie running.
whooosh.
too much for me to grok at the end of hard day in RL. member of CFR along w/ george clooney, don cheadle, warren beatty et.al.?
'look out south sudan; hollywood stars are on the case!, café babylon, sept. 2016 wooot!
CIA plan to add film to bolster imperial psyops: what was the program (what IS the program?)
on edit: i'd missed this in my stupor: "it's her acknowledgement that the war on terror is real, that it is about defeating radical Islam, which is total bullshit and THE excuse for 21st century imperialism, although Russia and China are now coming front and center."
oh, my yes. if the west would stop occupying those nations the FUKUS do, plus nato and africom...for fun and profit, well, then...peace might break out. can't have that now, can we?
My point posting that was how Russia Gate is
never going to end and how the media can make up lies about anyone who speaks against the empire gets tarred with agreeing with Russia's goals.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
i do see that,
and read much the same in the twittersphere over the past couple days.
but this was my personal fave, i guess, and i thought after seeing your (misremembered title), had i the time, i would have dropped it by. you may have seen it already...
Be sure to read the essay.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
i'll try,
but not tonight, that's for certain. victoria and albert are on, and OMG, do i need to veg out.
There's two different fights going on at all times
(at least). Pushing AOC serves the purposes of one of those fights; shutting her down serves the purposes of the other.
One fight is about politics (in the sense of candidates, elections, parties) and the other is about perception management.
We have a Hannity and Colmes politics: helpless, largely mild-mannered left-of-center types "arguing" with aggressive extreme rightists in a parody of debate which always ends in the liberal conceding. This charade exists to prop up a political system which is, I think, ultimately run by neither the extreme rightists nor the helpless liberals. Let me clarify: I'm talking about neo-Nazis in pickup trucks with little money, not the richer ones who work for think tanks, intelligence agencies, etc. I have no idea how many of those infested our halls of power after World War II, nor how many homegrown shitheads were already Nazi sympathizers along with Dulles, and I don't know how many are still around wielding power.
In this fight, it's useful to have an Ocasio-Cortez making some noise as long as she is massively outnumbered and ends up having no impact on policy. In other words, as long as she never wins. Since she never accomplishes anything beyond advancing her own career, she becomes an emblem of futility. Or, what is even better, she is used to transform the very notion of what a political victory actually is, which ends up having little or nothing to do with policy change. At its most extreme, this strategy uses hope itself (the next campaign cycle, the next progressive running) in place of victory: rather than noticing that nothing is changing, one is supposed to consider any progressive getting elected as a win in itself and a sign that things are getting better.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
She's supports the war on terror, or the war OF terror
well now,
i hadn't known that. that could cover a lotta ground if she doesn't specify which war on terror she'd continue. i do remember one tankie on twitter who'd provided a transcript of an interview w/ tulsi on CNN in 2015 or 2017 saying she'd wanted to federalize iraq, but that's none of bidness either is it? save for the old saw about "you broke it, you own it", arrgh.
Can I declare myself President of the United States?
I'll get people in my city to wave signs with my face on them. If I can get a few thousand supporters on camera, then I can legitimately claim to be President, and then we won't have to live through another campaign season.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
lemme hear 2 amens to this:
"... then we won't have to live through another campaign season."
now it's possible if you'd played your cards right earlier... but i really can't imagine why anyone would i) want to be president of this #shitholenation, and ii) have the hubris to believe they could do it well (dependidng on what the person's 'well' was. some wag had offered long ago that there were three professions for which applications...anyone should be immediately disqualified. now i likely have the first two wrong, but 'cop, priest' or President', but po-po and prez for certain.
Well, I don't want to be president of this country
But the point I was making was something more like this:
"If I went round saying I was an Emperor, just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away."
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
dayum, i'd missed
that brilliant jewel. i thank you for it profusely. just re-read mark weisbrot on the subject (and a lot of other things), so now...i can quote him:
this author at marxist.com,
in his ‘US tightens the noose on Venezuela: will the coup succeed?’, jorge martin, jan. 31...
sanctions, sanctions, stolen oil revenues, death by sanctions, make the economy scream', bolton's bellicose threats, and much more, but he notes so far the military is standing w/ maduro. as bill auken at wsws often says (with a lot more venom):
but this is what i'd found most interesting:
which is why i'd kinda sighed when i'd seen various versions of this: ‘Venezuela's Maduro Marks 20 Years of Bolivarian Revolution, Calls for Parliamentary Elections’ feb. 2, telesur english
baffling, but in one version he'd noted he'd have to consult the supreme court. he's said Boss Tweet won't meet w/ him because: bolton, but he does seem to be well...groveling too much. but maybe his top generals advise it, and he's afraid too many are being bribed by the CIA?
is he pinging de zayas?
Wendy, what is a "tankie"?
Thanks.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
for some, socialist.
for others, commie. and oooh, do they loathe fake socialists, esp. @aoc.
I thought it referred to one of those think tank
...phonies that flood DC.
grin.
ajamu baraka, glen ford, cordelier, red kahina and others, my fave is cordeliers, but all are anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and staunch supporters of the maduro administration's survival. cord and kahina loathe ocasio in particular as she's their congresswoman, and know deleted history well. alliances with de blasio's gentrification schemes, and things like that.
@cordeliers
one recent tweet as a thread; click for stand-alone to read what he posts underneath.
Opposition cannot overthrow Maduro. Next. Syria or Panama?
My reading indicates the right wing opposition does not have the numbers nor the military at this time to overthrow Maduro. Next step is for Trump to invade or supply mercs and weapons to opposition.
More war.
can the opposition
turn more generals is the big Q right now. and it's not hard to believe that this will all end in blood soon.
eric london had a lot to say this a.m in his 'US issues new threats of war for oil against Venezuela' at wsws, but he doesn't say where he'd scored some of what he's claiming in regard to 'colombian troops at the border' and 'maduro's death squads against protestors at night'.
but i did see this part at common dreams yesterday:
i did grab the video of hewitt's show, but dinnae watch. moving on:
oh fie, i've been trying to narrate some of the rest, but i'll paste in more:
but it sounds as though the parties want a greater war w/ china and russia. i can't say if china would intercede save for diplomatically, nor if russia would be prepared to, but iirc (hardly likely) jorge martin at marxist.com upthread dinnae think so.
further assassination attempts on maduro *do* seem likely, though. and most of the western capitalist nations' ruling class would weep crocodile tears...on twitter. if that.
At least w/Iraq, Syria, Libya they had the Arab/Muslim card
tells me the it's a step to far for tptb, though that
won't stop them from going for it.
I would highly doubt China/Russia interfere here but they
could make life for the empire quite dicey elsewhere on
the globe while we go huntin for oil. China for sure is the
wildcard, as Guido tells China he's better for biz w/them
than Maduro and Xi cares about his pocket like tRump does.
Just my .02c
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Dvt2EqXF4&feature=youtu.be]
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
mornin', amigo,
and thanks for the perkins cartoon. i'd wondered if t'were he as i watched and listened. yeah, monthly review authors call this iteration of capitalism 'monopoly capitalism', noting that in earlier iterations corps were kinda family bidnesses, then as they consolidate their power, fewer and fewer ruled the planet, with the disastrous results afoot now (i'd been kinda prepping a post of 'monoply capitalism and mental health issues based on one long essay there.) but as i remember it, marx had foretold it all, but scantily.
now make of this what you will as so many authors are gaming the issue, but today: ‘Make Latin America Great Again? On the REAL chances of a US invasion of Venezuela’, RT this a.m. (Mikhail Khodarenok, military commentator for RT.com. He is a retired colonel. He served as an officer at the main operational directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.)
he gets to the point...eventually:
but not full-scale bombing efforts...
awesomely enough, john perkins of 'confessions of an economic hitman' fame, kinda plagiarized by klein and her 'shock doctrine', started a blog on 'spiritual capitalism'. it was kinda funny, but when i tried to find it again a year or so ago, i wasn't able to.
monopoly capitalism it is
monopoly "markits" are the only way today's CEO's know
how to operate, Steve Jobs might've been the last great
amerikan innovator, today it's all about outsourcing,
layoffs, tax cuts and stock buybacks, w/out those the
amerikan corporations would all be in the shitter(not
sure they ain't)
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
i'd meant to say
that mikhail k. kinda agrees with you.
as to monopoly capitalism, paul sweezy says it came into full bloom post WWII, and it was accomplished by:
marxist theory is all quite out of my comfort zone and academic heft, but monopoly capitalism doesn't always require merger, perhaps not even the hostile takeovers we've seen so often. a case in point is when walmart, for instance, tells Rubbermaid: nope, we won't buy this or that unless you cut the price, and Rubbermaid eventually goes bankrupt, someone's there to strip the corporations of its assets, etc.
and of course, cutting labor costs, even outsourcing to nations whose people earn $2 a day, need suicide nets (apple in china), etc. has sincerely taken a toll on mental health. think how many just in this #ShitholeNation are working 2 or 3 job a day, no benefits, never see their kids, and are one pay cycle away from bankruptcy. well, anyway, i dunno if i'll ever grok it all enough to be able to fashion a diary, but the 'mental health' statistics matthews, i think his name is...sure do beg some exploring.
two drought maps:
US and global:
for the global one, click + on the right sidebar to zoom in. here in SW CO we've finally moved out of Exceptional to Extreme (they almost needed to add Existential it's been so dry here. but...we had some snow last week, and last night was unseasonably warm....and it rained.
rain rain rain rain...beautiful rain. g'night. let this be the closing song; see you anon, lawd willin' and the creeks don't rise.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUH7PM0-cpI]
ab from the twittersphere today:
and hellary and kam lovers: