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.
Please dispense with the gratuitous criticisms of Nicolas Maduro until you can present a full picture of what's happening. Yeah I know south Florida Democrats don't like you.
This week I want to focus on the myriad of cycles in which we live and interact. When I first thought of this topic, my idea was the cycle of seasons, the carbon cycle and its balance of photosynthesis and respiration, the slow geologic gyre of the rock cycle and soil formation, the phase changes of the water cycle, the chemical cycles like nitrogen which orchestrate a dance between the atmosphere, soils, and biosphere, and so on...all natural processes on which we depend for stability of the ecosystem. However, as the week progressed I couldn't help but think back to my youth and the Vietnam war. I fear our immanent invasion of Venezuela will be like multiplying the Vietnam and Iraq fiascos...and then squaring it. With the appointment of Elliot Abrams it really is deja vu all over again.
-- in which Hudson goes into detail on how precisely the US and its agencies inside Venezuela have been able to destabilize the Venezuelan economy. This paragraph is critical:
The United Snakes of America is spreading its poison again...this time declaring the elected president of Venezuela is a dictator, and recognizing the leader of the assembly as president. That's like Russia and China announcing Pelosi is now our president. The Carter Center stated "As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we've monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world." Old tiny hands, the liar in chief, is at it again. We use slightly different strategies in different countries to prop up corporate hacks as president. Both parties have been complicit. Consider Honduras and the stolen election the US recently recognized. Not to mention the coup supported by Obomber and the $hill. Brazil provides more evidence of our support of corporatists with the illegal removal of Dilma, and the imprisonment of Lula on trumped up charges. Bannon was in Brazil promoting Bolsonaro as was the CIA.
I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.
― Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket: by America's Most Decorated Soldier
33 days of Trump-induced government shutdown came to an end yesterday. Why did all the people (not to mention the economy) have to suffer such consequences?
The reference to "soft underbelly" arose from Winston Churchill's appellation of Italy being Europe's soft underbelly during WW 2.
I happened to run across a Fox News article from 2010 titled:
What socialism? Private sector still dominates Venezuelan economy despite Chavez crusade
In my experience, the most confident and strident defenders of capitalism are the ones who know the least about socialism. I can't fully blame them for this because there is so much intentional misinformation, as well as suppressed information, that it takes a herculean effort to get a more accurate viewpoint.
This essay is a follow-up to this previous one.
