News Dump Saturday: Battle Royal Of Headlines

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 07/23/2022 - 6:49pm

This has got to be one of the better headlines that you will ever read.

There's a brewing trade dispute between the U.S. and Mexico on energy policy, and it’s getting ugly fast.

“Ooooh, I’m so scared,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said at a Wednesday press conference, referencing a popular Mexican song and taunting the Biden administration by ordering his staff to play it.
When reporters asked him how he proposes to solve the policy spat, AMLO was defiant: “Nothing will happen.”

What is going on here?
It started early on Wednesday, when U.S. officials argued that AMLO’s energy policies favor Mexico's state-run electrical utility and oil companies and undermine American business....It was a first step in a process that could lead to tariffs on some Mexican products.

Mexico has been attempting to prop up its state-run electrical utility, the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), and its national oil and gas company, Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), with policies that U.S. trade ambassador Katerine Tai argues “prioritize the distribution” of energy from these firms, disincentivizing market competition and clean-energy production in the country.

AMLO has partially nationalized their power systems, and the U.S. is complaining because Texas won't be able to send their non-existent surplus power to Mexico.
Meanwhile, this right-wing rag wants us to know that center-left politics is no different from socialism.

When I asked Colombia’s center-right President Ivan Duque whether Colombia runs the risk of becoming a new Venezuela after his successor Gustavo Petro — a former leftist guerrilla — takes office on Aug. 7, the outgoing leader dodged the question three times in a row.

Let's start with the idea that Duque is "center-right". He's a flat out fascist who liked to have left-wing opponents assassinated.

Petro is more likely to follow the steps of Mexico’s populist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is giving away massive cash subsidies to the poor to consolidate his party’s hold on power for years to come, at the expense of investing in quality education, health, innovation and industries of the future.

Now let's look at some good news.

With a victory in Cleveland on Friday, Starbucks workers officially reached 200 union election wins across more than 30 U.S. states, a remarkable achievement in the face of a full-throttle union-busting campaign by the coffee company's management and its billionaire interim CEO, Howard Schultz.
The speed with which Starbucks workers across the country built on the historic victory in Buffalo in December—when employees voted to form the company's first-ever unionized store in the U.S.—has stunned observers who've seen the nation's labor movement wither in recent decades amid a ruthless corporate assault.
...As More Perfect Union, a progressive media outlet, noted Friday, "Eight months ago there were 0 unionized Starbucks stores."
"Starbucks Workers United has won an amazing rate—about 5 of 6 elections," wrote labor journalist Steven Greenhouse. "It has won 52 unanimous votes."

There are still another 120 stores that have filed but haven't voted for a union yet.
Remember when Howard Schultz spent something like $100 million on his failed presidential run, and he felt he had to because of Bernie?

After announcing that 16 Starbucks locations would close because of what the company said were safety concerns, CEO Howard Schultz said in a leaked video that more store closures were coming.

In the footage, Schultz was apparently addressing a group of employees.
He said: "This is just the beginning. There are going to be many more."
... The pro-labor publication In These Times reported that two of the 16 stores set for closure in the most recent announcement had recently voted to unionize. Another was set to have a unionization vote in August, the publication added.

Because Schultz really cares about worker safety. Fortunately, the workers aren't taking it sitting down.

Workers at the first Starbucks to unionize in Atlanta picketed their store instead of working on Sunday to protest the company's refusal to improve working conditions....
On Monday, a Starbucks near Boston University's campus that voted to unionize in June tweeted a letter to management, saying workers would strike until further notice because working conditions had continued to decay....

Workers picketed in front of three stores in Pittsburgh last week after Starbucks fired two union workers, which the union alleges was retaliation for union activity.

Finally, remember when Biden decided to roll back one of only a handful of good decisions that Trump ever made - Biden sent troops back into Somalia to fight al-Qaeda just over a month ago? (as opposed to al-Qaeda in Syria, which we helped arm. Or al-Qaeda in Yemen, which our Saudi allies are arming)

Biden announced in May that several hundred troops would return to Somalia, a year and a half after President Donald Trump announced the full withdrawal of the resident U.S. mission in Somalia, where about 900 service members had been deployed.

So what do you think were the results of this new deployment?

Somalia — In the predawn hours, the militants of al-Shabab attacked the peacekeepers’ base from every direction with lethal precision.
Suicide bombers detonated three cars filled with explosives. Islamist fighters then pounded the facility with heavy gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, killing several dozen African Union peacekeepers from Burundi. Footage posted on social media showed bodies in military uniforms scattered around the base.

And result #2.

The rare border-area attack occurred on Wednesday when fighters of the al Qaeda-linked group raided Yeed and Aato villages in Somalia's Bakool region after the killing days earlier of one of their commanders on the Ethiopian side of the border, the Ethiopian commander said.
Attacks by al Shabaab in areas near Ethiopia's border are rare because of a robust Ethiopian security presence in the region and inside Somalia, where they are also part of an African peacekeeping force.

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Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Sat, 07/23/2022 - 10:09pm

It pisses the US off that Mexico has nationalized oil

The US targets, for economic destruction, most of the nations that have nationalized their oil, such as Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China, etc.

Indeed, the US is present in Africa largely to prevent the nationalization of any natural resources — in other words, conferring the ownership of a nation's resources upon the People. This is at the heart of most of the US interventions and war crimes throughout the world. Libya, for example. "Nationalized resources" for the United States is the 'One Ring that Rules them All'. China's government is designed to act as the fiduciary for the Chinese People, and thus, China has even nationalized its land for the benefit of future generations.*** This is what underlies the US plot to damage China so that it is unfit for any sort of multipolar leadership role. To the rabid Neocon colonialists, nationalizing resources is considered the greatest unforgivable sin of communism. The money and power that can be generated by natural resources should not be wasted on social and human development because it rightfully belongs to the wealthy elite investors, who support and fund colonial (anti-communist) interventions. This was the 'intended' principle upon which the United States was founded, and was the law of the land after the the Native American genocide was complete.

So, now that the Neocon Coup government is in control (State, Pentagon, Executive, and Judicial) — directed by the Neocon embeds, who hold the positions of highest authority in these key departments via Presidential appointments — international matters are changing rapidly. As for the Executive branch, it is bristling with Neocons who rode in on the Trojan horse of the brain-addled President. The chaotic ripple effect of the Neocon's weapons exports, forced wars, and trade sanctions (in quest of the New American Century) is rapidly degrading the economic and physical wellbeing of the American people.

Meanwhile, elected members of the Federal government are keeping their mouths shut, and are languishing in the pickling brine of corruption. And, of course, many of them are too ignorant and self absorbed to notice the unprecedented shameful insanity of the United States on the world stage.

However, the entire world has a clear view of the current array of foreign betrayals, sabotage, and atrocities that the US is involved in — which brings us back to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The Mexican President is intellectually honest enough to actually see it for what it is — and just brazen enough to call it out for what it is:

López Obrador to campaign to ‘tear down the Statue of Liberty’ if the US convicts Julian Assange

Mexico City - JUL 05, 2022 - 7:37 EDT

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has come out in defense of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and has asked that US authorities drop the charges against him. “If they take him to the United States and he is sentenced to the maximum penalty and to die in prison, we must start a campaign to tear down the Statue of Liberty,” said the president, who often goes by his initials AMLO, at his news conference on Monday.

[Propaganda insert]

López Obrador’s comments followed information published this weekend by The Washington Post and the organization Reporters Without Borders, criticizing the situation of insecurity and violence experienced by members of the media in Mexico. Twelve journalists have been murdered in the country so far this year, at a rate of two murders each month. “It is a smear campaign against the government of Mexico,” the president asserted on Monday.

Convicting Assange would imply that the monument in New York “is no longer a symbol of freedom,” said AMLO. The Mexican president said that he had already discussed the issue with former US president Donald Trump. “There can be no silence,” he added.

Assange is wanted in the US on 18 counts, including a spying charge, relating to WikiLeaks’ release in 2010 of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which Washington said had put lives in danger. His extradition was recently approved by the United Kingdom following a long legal battle. The activist had lived at the Ecuadorean embassy in London for seven years, between 2012 and 2019, before being turned over to British authorities. Courts in Spain were also involved after it emerged that the head of the Spanish firm employed to provide security at the embassy had secretly made recordings of Assange speaking with his lawyers and may have conveyed this information to the CIA.

Assange’s supporters say he is an anti-establishment hero who has been victimized because he exposed US wrongdoing in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that his prosecution is a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.

“When this information was released, various media participated [in its publication], they agreed to release all the information because they considered that it was a contribution to the defense of human rights, to freedom of expression, not to continue with the double talk, with the lies, with saying one thing and doing another,” said López Obrador.

López Obrador was invited to Washington after announcing that he was not going to participate in the Americas Summit organized by the Biden government at the beginning of last month, in protest over the fact that Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua were not invited.

Ever since Ecuador withdrew Assange’s asylum, the López Obrador administration has considered offering diplomatic protection to the founder of WikiLeaks, and there have been contacts between the lawyers who represent him and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The president himself endorsed the offer in May and June, but so far the asylum has not materialized.

Submitted by MrMickeysMom on Sun, 07/24/2022 - 12:29am

@Pluto's Republic Rather than give this

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic Rather than give this post a thumbs up, which I haven't figured out how to do (more interested in conversing), I'm gonna say that AMLO has got integrity and a nice set of balls on himself. Of course, you have to be brazen in Mexico and be willing to stand up to corruption in Mexico. Put it in the sunshine... YesssireeeBOB.

We in the US go around with special people and "talk" countries into letting us privatize their (our) oil. If we can't convince em with an economic hitman, fuck em. They're dead by military force. The CIA's been there already

So, what does López Obrador do? He puts his money where his mouth is while Biden shakes the hands of Saudi Princes who murder and chop up Washington Post reporters. Meanwhile, MSNBC watchers continue to sleep.

Not AMLO... He, instead, talks about Journalistic truth and the one who's being tortured for writing it, jailed for telling it... extradition for execution.

I beg Biden to blink, but he does nothing. He doesn't even communicate with Mr. & Mrs. America unless they call and leave a "brief" message through operators Tuesday through Thursday 11 am to 3 pm Eastern.

The US targets, for economic destruction, most of the nations that have nationalized their oil, such as Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China, etc.

Indeed, the US is present in Africa largely to prevent the nationalization of any natural resources — in other words, conferring the ownership of a nation's resources upon the People. This is at the heart of most of the US interventions and war crimes throughout the world. Libya, for example. "Nationalized resources" for the United States is the 'One Ring that Rules them All'. China's government is designed to act as the fiduciary for the Chinese People, and thus, China has even nationalized its land for the benefit of future generations.*** This is what underlies the US plot to damage China so that it is unfit for any sort of multipolar leadership role. To the rabid Neocon colonialists, nationalizing resources is considered the greatest unforgivable sin of communism. The money and power that can be generated by natural resources should not be wasted on social and human development because it rightfully belongs to the wealthy elite investors, who support and fund colonial (anti-communist) interventions. This was the 'intended' principle upon which the United States was founded, and was the law of the land after the the Native American genocide was complete.

So, now that the Neocon Coup government is in control (State, Pentagon, Executive, and Judicial) — directed by the Neocon embeds, who hold the positions of highest authority in these key departments via Presidential appointments — international matters are changing rapidly. As for the Executive branch, it is bristling with Neocons who rode in on the Trojan horse of the brain-addled President. The chaotic ripple effect of the Neocon's weapons exports, forced wars, and trade sanctions (in quest of the New American Century) is rapidly degrading the economic and physical wellbeing of the American people.

Meanwhile, elected members of the Federal government are keeping their mouths shut, and are languishing in the pickling brine of corruption. And, of course, many of them are too ignorant and self absorbed to notice the unprecedented shameful insanity of the United States on the world stage.

However, the entire world has a clear view of the current array of foreign betrayals, sabotage, and atrocities that the US is involved in — which brings us back to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The Mexican President is intellectually honest enough to actually see it for what it is — and just brazen enough to call it out for what it is:

López Obrador to campaign to ‘tear down the Statue of Liberty’ if the US convicts Julian Assange

Mexico City - JUL 05, 2022 - 7:37 EDT

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has come out in defense of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and has asked that US authorities drop the charges against him. “If they take him to the United States and he is sentenced to the maximum penalty and to die in prison, we must start a campaign to tear down the Statue of Liberty,” said the president, who often goes by his initials AMLO, at his news conference on Monday.

[Propaganda insert]

López Obrador’s comments followed information published this weekend by The Washington Post and the organization Reporters Without Borders, criticizing the situation of insecurity and violence experienced by members of the media in Mexico. Twelve journalists have been murdered in the country so far this year, at a rate of two murders each month. “It is a smear campaign against the government of Mexico,” the president asserted on Monday.

Convicting Assange would imply that the monument in New York “is no longer a symbol of freedom,” said AMLO. The Mexican president said that he had already discussed the issue with former US president Donald Trump. “There can be no silence,” he added.

Assange is wanted in the US on 18 counts, including a spying charge, relating to WikiLeaks’ release in 2010 of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which Washington said had put lives in danger. His extradition was recently approved by the United Kingdom following a long legal battle. The activist had lived at the Ecuadorean embassy in London for seven years, between 2012 and 2019, before being turned over to British authorities. Courts in Spain were also involved after it emerged that the head of the Spanish firm employed to provide security at the embassy had secretly made recordings of Assange speaking with his lawyers and may have conveyed this information to the CIA.

Assange’s supporters say he is an anti-establishment hero who has been victimized because he exposed US wrongdoing in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that his prosecution is a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.

“When this information was released, various media participated [in its publication], they agreed to release all the information because they considered that it was a contribution to the defense of human rights, to freedom of expression, not to continue with the double talk, with the lies, with saying one thing and doing another,” said López Obrador.

López Obrador was invited to Washington after announcing that he was not going to participate in the Americas Summit organized by the Biden government at the beginning of last month, in protest over the fact that Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua were not invited.

Ever since Ecuador withdrew Assange’s asylum, the López Obrador administration has considered offering diplomatic protection to the founder of WikiLeaks, and there have been contacts between the lawyers who represent him and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The president himself endorsed the offer in May and June, but so far the asylum has not materialized.

Submitted by MrWebster on Sun, 07/24/2022 - 11:58am

You know what this means? Mexican cartels will get HIMARS

How else to ensure American interests.