Maduro was telling the truth
In late February our news media was telling us Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was a monster for blocking humanitarian aid from coming into the country by calling it a "coup attempt".
Really? A coup attempt? How ridiculous.
Time: Nicolas Maduro Has Closed Venezuela's Border With Brazil to Block Aid
WashPost: Venezuela’s Maduro closes Brazil border to block aid entry
As a showdown looms over humanitarian aid destined for Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro closed off his country’s border with Brazil, vowing on Thursday to block the emergency food and medicine that has rallied his opponents and which he claims is part of a U.S.-led coup plot.
...Maduro’s decision to close the vast, jungle border with Brazil came a day after he blocked air and sea travel between Venezuela and the nearby Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao, where the first cargo of relief supplies arrived Thursday, sent by the large Venezuelan exile community in Miami.
Ah, yes. That large Venezuelan exile community in Miami, like that large Cuban exile community in Miami, would never do anything violent.
And yet, there was this Bloomberg article from today.
Late last month, as U.S. officials joined Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido near a bridge in Colombia to send desperately needed aid to the masses and challenge the rule of Nicolas Maduro, some 200 exiled soldiers were checking their weapons and planning to clear the way for the convoy.Led by retired General Cliver Alcala, who has been living in Colombia, they were going to drive back the Venezuelan national guardsmen blocking the aid on the other side. The plan was stopped by the Colombian government, which learned of it late and feared violent clashes at a highly public event it promised would be peaceful.
Almost no provisions got in that day and hopes that military commanders would abandon Maduro have so far been dashed. Even though Guaido is back in Caracas, recognized by 50 nations as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, the impromptu taking up of arms shows that the push to remove Maduro -- hailed by the U.S. as inevitable -- is growing increasingly chaotic and risky.
Uh, excuse me? That sounds like a Bay of Pigs invasion to me.
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Sounds like Guaido is a puppet, and things aren't going as planned.
Venezualans showed incredible restraint.
Considering they were under attack from incendiaries by an irregular foreign force, they were well within their rights to open fire. The fact they didn't shows that Maduro's a hell of a lot smarter than the US thinks he is, and that his troops are a LOT more disciplined than we think they are.
Invading them would be a disaster of the first rank. It's clear intel is dropping the ball here, and there's NOTHING I hate more than bad intel. That gets people killed, and the CIA has a nasty habit of letting little details slip in order to create "Incidents". Of course, there ain't a general who will say that publicly in US service because their career depends on NOT seeing that.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6r1dAire0Y]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Nah
Then why are 10's of thousands maybe more Venezuelas in Columbia and Brazil living in tent cities?
Maduro hasn't told the truth ever. The best part of his life has been taking over for Chavez when the Cubans couldn't save his cancerous ass.
I really don't understand this support or implied support for a Dictator. He's a victim?
Phhhhtttt
Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!
Firesign Theater
Stop the War!
Nonsequitur
Why do you think this precludes Maduro from telling the truth?
Remember that Columbia has literally millions of internal and external refugees, one of the largest refugee populations in the world. It's bigger than Venezuelan's refugee population.
What do you think that says about Columbia's honesty?
A) He's not a dictator. Venezuelan elections are more free and fair than ours.
B) He's not a victim. The Venezuelan people are. A regime change invasion won't help them anymore than it helped Iraq, Syria, or Libya.
Maybe because poverty has ben cut in half by...
the Chavista movement.
You ought to give a listen to Greg Palast in Jimmy's show yesterday...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeNCbXVHrR8 (28 min)
8 min follow up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnlEVf7oaVQ
Or Abby Martin's coverage with UN inspector (38 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii5MlQgGXyk
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Greg Palast on Jimmy...
Does it get any better
than that??
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
He is a "dictator", eh?
OK, I've been politically aware since roughly 2010 (thanks Obama). One of the easiest truths to learn for me is the definition of "dictator" and "regime"... at least here in the US.
Dictator: Some foreign leader who refuses to accept American hegemony.
Regime: Some foreign government that refuses to accept American hegemony.
If we were really worried about brutal dictators and awful regimes, don't you think a quick look at places like Israel, France, or here in the good old US of A are worth looking at? If not, why not?
Israel is shooting reporters, children, and people in wheelchairs with snipers. They have an
unapologetically apartheid government.
France has Macron. I think the Yellow Vest movement pretty much says it all there but man, being the good guys that we are, shouldn't we go help out those poor suffering French people?
The United States has a joke of an election system with easily subverted voting mechanisms, privately owned political parties, no election integrity oversite, and not even real exit polls to check for problems. When problems are found, they are swept under the rug (witness the 2016 Democratic primaries).
Further, if we were actually interested in humanitarian purposes don't you think a quick look at Yemen is something to consider? Or, for that matter, we could just lift our sanctions and allow Brazil to buy the food and medicine it needs with the money that it [used to] have.
So I'm game. Why do you think of Maduro as a "dictator" and what does that word even mean to you?
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Not necessary
If we were actually interested in humanitarian purposes we should start with Flint, Michigan. Or Skid Row in Los Angeles. Or our overcrowded prison system (can you imagine if Maduro's Venezuela had the largest prison population in the world AND executed the mentally ill?)
Or our global drone strike program.
Facts matter
http://www.unz.com/tsaker/maduro-1-abrams-0-but-this-match-is-far-from-o...
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
@EdMass Are you aware that when
Are you aware that when Venezuela was run by the right -wingers a large portion of the population lived in shanties with little education, despite the wealth from oil. Those are the people who worshipped Chavez and still do. They don't think Maduro has done a good job but, they have fresh memories of what their lives were like before Chavez.
It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Carl Sagan
May be Maduro was also doing the right thing
to expell the German Ambassador to Venezuela for 'meddling'? Venezuela expels German ambassador Daniel Kriener for meddling.
If the labdogs don't do was their master say, they need to be punished and send away. That's life. Sigh /s
https://www.euronews.com/live
Somebody's been
watching too much lamestream media.
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
The US can send all the humanitarian aid that they want
Just do it the right way, through the Red Cross or the UN. This ploy of Bolton's is strictly from the US coup manual. Screw the supplies of food and medicine through sanctions and theft of assets, then claim that the democratically elected Socialist leader is a thug because he won't let a few trucks of questionable supplies across the border. Neither the International Red Cross nor the UN sanction this highly political "humanitarian aid" ploy.
I'm hoping that Maduro can turn out a huge rally this Saturday. If it's in the millions then even our sick MSM will have to cover it. Otherwise it's clear that the US will send in the marines and claim it's to save the "legitimate" government of Guaido. The admin is already beating on the MSM to not call Guaido by any other name than the President of Venezuela. These are really evil times with the MSM and all US politicians, both parties, behind this unconscionable attempted coup by the US.
This just serves to remind me that the protest against the Vietnam War will never be done. There were no good permanent changes in the behaviour of the US. It's built in to our Capitalist society. The establishment will always beat the drums for war, the media will obediently report the propaganda, and the public will go along. A poll taken in 2002 about invading Iraq:
I don't think that this country will ever change if continues to operate as it has. I do think, though, that most of the people in the world get it, that the US is aggressive, dangerous, and doesn't give a hoot about international law, agreements or treaties. In the end, it won't be able to lead, because its own behaviour is unacceptable in a fair world.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Lamest. Coup. Ever.
Terrible planning.
Worse execution.
Over before it even began.
Heck, even at Bay of Pigs the US managed to land 2500 heavily armed expat mercs on the beach in the middle of the night.
Bolton couldn't even get two trucks of supplies across the border.
Typical neocons: their venality is exceeded only by their ineptitude.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?