The Real News Network has the video Left Media Coverage of Venezuela Questioned (1/7).

Prominent Venezuelan sociologist and intellectual Edgardo Lander says while it’s correct to oppose U.S. intervention and interference, Left media should not minimize the responsibility of the Maduro government for the economic crisis.

A very important discussion has been started here in the first part of the seven part episode. The application to Socialism in the USA is extremely pertinent. I don’t consider myself a socialist nor a capitalist. I call myself a “what worksist”. If we cannot look at various parts of our society to talk about what works and what doesn’t, then we are foregoing some of the opportunities to make the society work better for more people.

Some people might miss the point that some government sector capitalism is not the only alternative to private sector capitalism. Prof. Lander made clear what Venezuela and Cuba did well, and what did not work so well. Of course the USA interference made things much harder, but that is no excuse for refusing to look at what the Chavista movement could have done better even under the circumstances of USA interference. This is the first criticism from the left that I have heard that is specific about what Chavez and Maduro could have done better. I anxiously await the next 6 parts. People who favor some more democratic socialism in the USA should take to heart the lessons that Prof. Lander is trying to teach.

RT has the article ‘We saw this playbook in Iraq’: Ilhan Omar shoots back at VP Pence in socialism spat.

Freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has fired back at Vice President Mike Pence, after Pence accused her of “choosing socialism over freedom” by opposing regime change in Venezuela.

VP Pence is the one who deisn’t know what he is talking about. Are you enslaved by Social Security and Medicare? How does Socialism as practiced in the USA for several hundred years amount to a loss of freedom? Well there is an answer to that. Socialism means a loss of freedom for the oligarchs wanting to plunder our economy. This freedom to plunder is exactly what Pence wants. I don’t want it for the USA, and I think the people in Venezuela who reject it are right. Of course, what the people of Venezuela want is none of my business.

RT has the article Russia tops global gold buyers list as it turns away from US dollar.

Net gold purchases by central banks hit a six-year high in the first quarter of 2019, with Russia securing the leading position, as nations seek diversification of their assets and less dependence on the greenback.

This type of thing is an obvious attempt to dethrone the USA dollar as a world reserve currency. This dethroning is what Modern Money Theorists do not foresee in the near future as something that can happen to cause inflation in the USA. If Trump continues to weaponize the USA dollar with economic sanctions and tariffs, what MMT dismissed so easily before Trump could come to pass sooner than they could imagine.

It amazes me how many Progressives know that we should not be trying to change regimes in Venezuela, but even they are unaware of all the lies they have absorbed from the media about Venezuela.

One response said that before you can say the media is lying, you have to have solid evidence.

I provided a link to search this blog for posts about Venezuela. It struck me that more people need to see all the posts I have made about Venezuela.

Yesterday, I remarked about a Faux Noise interview Rep. Gabbard: Venezuela needs peaceful reconciliation, not military intervention.

This is a horribly weak response to Faux Noise. She never countered that the very steps we have taken to wage an economic war against Venezuela for over 20 years is exactly what has caused the suffering in Venezuela. She started off a sentence about if the USA really cared about the welfare of the people of Venezuela… She failed to finish that sentence with the demand that we lift all of the economic sanctions.

She could have mentioned that these sanctions of ours violate international laws.

She could have mentioned that the 50 countries that support our regime change attempts are either bullied by the USA or have economic interests in taking over Venezuelan oil or in competing with Venezuelan oil.

There are so many things she could have said to counter lie after lie told by the Faux Noise talking head. It is no wonder that people believe the Faux Noise lies, when even Tulsi Gabbard does not rebut them or give any indication that they are all lies.

Maybe she should have said, “I wish we had the time for me to rebut every false statement you have made in this interview.”

I have gone back to look at the Faux Noise interview to transcribe the comments of the interviewer so that I could make my own response.

Quoting our officials “This is not a coup, this is the will of the Venezuelan people. Let Guaido be in charge.”

Guaido was never elected to be in charge.

People in Venezuela have lost an average of 24 pounds. Hunger.

If those numbers are true, remember that it is our sanctions that are preventing Venezuela from importing food.

There are electricity issues to be clear.

The USA attacked their electric system and put it out of commission.

Millions of people have fled.

The USA has made life so difficult for the rich people in Venezuela, that many of them have fled to live with their relatives in the USA. They are urging the USA to get their riches back for them.

We have tried sanctions against the oil business.

Our sanctions have prevented Venezuela from receiving its main source of income. Any fallout from that is our doing.

None of that seems to be working to give the people of Venezuela what they democratically voted for.

The Venezuelan people democratically voted for Maduro, yet he is the one we are specifically trying to push out.

And the concern about this is that having this in our back yard you would have a foreign adversary have so much control from Russia that that is a threat to our security as well.

If we hadn’t been waging an economic war on Venezuela for over 20 years, there probably wouldn’t be any Russian or Chinese influence in Venezuela.

We hear from Secretary Pompeo and from the President that they are hoping for a peaceful resolution here, but you heard Secretary Lavrov say that our intervention is a grave violation of international law.

Waging an economic war is, by defintion, not an attempt to get a peaceful resolution. Lavrov is right that what we are doing is a grave violation of international law. Is he supposed to pretend that this isn’t happening so we can have a peaceful resolution? Contrary to Tulsi saying Venezuela needs internationally brokered and overseen elections, she seems to forget that Venezuela already had elections that were fairer than many elections in the USA. Since when does a sovereign country need international brokered and overseen elections in order to be deemed to be a democracy?

Do you believe Nicholas Meduro has been a horrific leader for his people and that he should go?

This sounds like a typical push poll question. Put an idea out there without providing any evidence that even you believe the statement is true.

The Venezuelan people have made that decision (that Maduro should go).

Another push poll type of question. In fact the majority of Venezuelan people have said that Maduro should stay.

Fifty countries that have backed Guaido, and say that he is the rightful democratic leader of that country.

Guaido was never elected by the Venezuelan people to lead the country. When he declared himself president, less than 20% of the Venezuelan people even knew who he was. In fact, the Venezuelan people elected Maduro as their leader. Of these 50 countries, all of them have either been bullied by the USA, or they want part of Venezuela’s oil riches, or they sell oil in competition with Venezuela. How many countries have either condemned what the USA is doing, or have been cowered into silence?

If you are a person who loves Venezuela and lives there looking to the United States and saying please help us, are you saying that you would turn your back on them even if they do need to military support and say sorry we are not doing it.

Another push poll type of question. Has Faux Noise taken any measure of how many people like this are living in Venezuela? Most Venezuelans on either side of the issue do not want USA interference. Many of the people who do want that interference want the USA to put back their rigged system that had most of the wealth flowing to the top, and very few crumbs left for the poor. We are fighting that battle in our own country, and cannot even get agreement on that fight.

Democracy Now has the video Ilhan Omar Speaks Out Against U.S. Sanctions & Bipartisan Support for Regime Change in Venezuela.

Now we have two women in Congress who have shown the courage to speak out against our crimes against Venezuela. When are we going to find some male Congress members with some courage?

Democracy Now has the episode As Venezuela Coup Attempt Fails to Overthrow Maduro, Guaidó Calls for More Street Protests.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is claiming to have defeated a coup attempt launched by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly. On Tuesday morning, Guaidó appeared in an online video standing among heavily armed soldiers, calling for the military to back what he called the “final phase” of an effort to topple Maduro’s government. Guiadó appeared alongside Leopoldo López, a longtime opposition leader, who was reportedly released from house arrest by renegade officers. Guaidó has been attempting to topple the Venezuelan government since January, when he declared himself to be Venezuela’s interim president. The Trump administration, as well as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and others, openly supported the coup attempt. Earlier today, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox Business that military action in Venezuela is possible, “if that’s what is required.” We speak to Miguel Tinker Salas, Venezuelan historian and professor at Pomona College.

There are some important details here that you will never know about if you only listen to the USA oligarchs’ news media, and our own politicians. So far Tilsi Gabbard and Ilhan Omar are the only ones with the courage to speak out.

Democracy Now has the interview Economist Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Sanctions Have Devastated Venezuela & Killed Over 40,000 Since 2017. To say nothing of the impact of our economic war over the last 20 years against Venezuela.

More than 40,000 people have died in Venezuela since 2017 as a result of U.S. sanctions, according to a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research co-authored by economists Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot. The report examines how U.S. sanctions have reduced the availability of food and medicine in Venezuela and increased disease and mortality. We speak with Jeffrey Sachs in our New York studio. In the report, he writes, “American sanctions are deliberately aiming to wreck Venezuela’s economy and thereby lead to regime change. It’s a fruitless, heartless, illegal, and failed policy, causing grave harm to the Venezuelan people.”

What people in the USA never consider is that if the USA is going to use the dollar as an economic weapon, then the world is going to try to free itself from the dollar as the world reserve currency. When they finally succeed, and the more we push, the more the world will push back. We will lose a lot of economic policy freedom when the world stops accepting the USA dollar as a means of payment.

I agree with the Modern Money Theorists when they say inflation in the USA is unlikely in any near term scenario, except they don’t talk about what will happen if we drive the dollar out as the world reserve currency. That is only one of two ways that I see that could drive inflation in the USA under the current circumstances.

Niko House has the video Only ONE Presidential Candidate Has Called For Peace In Venezuela.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Let Niko House explain it. We should demand that every Presidential candidate speak out against our actions in Venezuela. Let’s isolate Joe Biden the way he needs to be isolated.

If we don’t react, the politicians will think they get a free pass to cheer on yet another regime change war. There needs to be a political price for supporting regime change war.

RT has the episode From copycats to innovators to ultimatums (E1377).

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss the 5G war raging between the US and China’s Huawei, which is reportedly 12-18 months ahead of its Western competitors in its technology roll out… and at half the price. As China moves from low cost manufacturer and tech copycat to innovator in high tech and beyond, are trade wars about to get more fierce? In the second half, Max interviews Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen’s energy program about the US pulling all waivers for Iranian sanctions. What impact will this have on global markets?

Between the laughable and the frightening, this is quite a ride. Max Kaiser is no physicist.