From CNN, another bastion of fake news, we have the story Bernie Sanders to sign ‘affirmation’ he will run as a Democrat in 2020.

The Democratic National Committee said on Tuesday that it planned to meet in the coming week with the presidential primary campaigns and distribute a form to the candidates, who under bylaws agreed on last August will be required “to affirm in writing” that they “are a member of the Democratic Party, will accept the Democratic nomination” and “will run and serve as a member of the Democratic Party.”

I am hoping that he realizes the giant loophole in this affirmation, and doesn’t make the foolish 2016 mistake of committing not to run as an independent if he didn’t get the nomination.

I take this affirmation that he will run in the primaries as a Democrat, and that if he is elected from the Democratic Party ticket, he will serve as a Democrat.

If the Democratic party screws him out of the nomination again, then he cannot run for President as a Democrat, and must run as an independent or Green Party. If he gets elected from one of those methods, he can serve as an Independent or as a membe of the Green Party.

To leave the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of the Democratic Party leaders he will have to make it clear that this is his interpretation of the affirmation.

Politico, that bastion of fake news, has the article ‘He is not going to be the nominee’: Dems slam Sanders over Maduro stance.

Here is a comment about the situation in Florida.

Many Venezuelans have flocked to the state as the country’s economy crashed and repression increased.

Bernie is too much of a gentleman to point out that these fleeing Venezuelans are probably Venezuelan oligarchs. Just the kind of people that are ruining this country, and against which Bernie is fighting. Rep. Donna Shalala shows what kind of a Democrat she is when she sides with the oligarchs.

In another section of the article, we have the following:

In a follow-up question, Ramos asked Sanders if he thought Maduro is a dictator who should step down. Sanders refused to say yes or no.

“I think clearly he has been very, very abusive,” Sanders replied.

First of all, I have heard from many independent reporters, that the charge of being abusive may be fake news. On the other hand, perhaps the 20 year economic war that the USA has been fighting against Venezuela and the multiple assassination attempts by the USA are making Maduro a little skittish.

Bernie should pay attention to what the Venezuelan oligarchs are doing to Maduro. The USA oligarchs are likely to try the same stuff against Bernie when he becomes President.

Louis Ruykeyser would often have two guests on his show with opposing points of view. He would finish of the segment by saying “One thing is for sure, they can’t both be right.” He left it up to the viewers to think, “Yes, but they could both be wrong.” In this case even Bernie concedes stuff that he should not concede. Bernia also ignores stuff he should not ignore.

RT has the article Caving under MSM pressure? Tulsi Gabbard interview on The View has some supporters fuming.

Questioned aggressively by panelist Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Senator John McCain, Gabbard said there was “no disputing the fact” that Syrian President Bashar Assad is a “brutal dictator” who “used chemical weapons against his people.”

I had heard reports that she beaten Meghan McCain to a pulp over the questioning on the USA TV show The View. I didn’t bother to look any farther than the headline, until, thanks to V Rex Cullum on Facebook who brought this to my attention.

Oh, Tulsi, say it isn’t so. I like Tulsi’s stands against USA meddling in other countries, but I did have a little trepidation that her stance was not based on a deep enough understanding of the facts in the world. Too bad she had to slap me in the face with that shallowness.

Her stance on Venezuela is correct, but just as shallow. She thinks the USA has no business meddling in other country’s internal affairs, but she does not seem to understand the 20 year economic and humanitarian war the USA has been fighting against Venezuela. She accepts the lie that Venezuel’s trouble are all the fault of Chavez, Maduro, and their socialist and dictatorial policies despite the fact that most, if not all of this, are lies told by the oligarchs’ news meddia in the USA and around the world.

YouTube has the video An Ocean of Lies on Venezuela: Abby Martin & UN Rapporteur Expose Coup.

I have another thought experiment to propose to you. I realize that some people are incapable of thinking about anything that does not already exist, so they cannot do this thought experiment.

Suppose that for some reason the USA empire crumbles and we don’t get to write the history books. How will history remember the people of the USA as they allowed this Venezuelan war to be waged by the USA? Will history believe the USA people are not guilty because they didn’t know? Think of how history talks about the German people of WW II who allowed Hitler’s genocide because they claim they didn’t know? Maybe your parents and grandparents never passed on their understanding of the WW II era history.

Even the supposedly peaceful candidate, Bernie Sanders, feigns ignorance of what is going on in Venezuela. He does not mention that the humanitarian suffering that is plaguing Venezuels could be ended if the USA would lift its sanctions against Venezuela. It is not enough that our sanctions violate international law, but we have to pretend they aren’t crimes against humanity.

MIT Technology Review has the article Once hailed as unhackable, blockchains are now getting hacked.

More and more security holes are appearing in cryptocurrency and smart contract platforms, and some are fundamental to the way they were built.

It had to happen. It is almost an irrefutable principle that anything designed by humans to be secure, can be broken into by some other devious human.

See the previous post The Lunacy of Cryptocurrency for comments on the economic reasons why cryptocurrencies have problems.

I know I am going to need this video every time somebody tries to smear Tulsi Gabbard over this issue.

American Affairs Journal has the L. Randall Wray article Does America Need Global Savings to Finance Its Fiscal and Trade Deficits?

Interesting article by L. Randall Wray. Lot’s of insights. Here is one.

To summarize, bond sales by either the central bank or the Treasury serve the functional purposes of removing reserves from the banks and offering a higher-interest-earning alternative to the central bank’s support rate. If, however, the central bank wants to push interest earnings down toward the support rate, it can engage in open market purchases—taking the bonds out of the system (à la “quantitative easing”).

In his usual style, the beginnings of his article start with a long description and justification for the conventional wisdom, and the latter half tells you why that is all wrong. You have to get a feel for where the switch happens.

YouTube has the video Trump: End socialism & Maduro’s reign in Venezuela.

As US politicians are putting rhetoric against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro into high gear, US President Donald Trump gave a speech in Miami calling for Maduro to step down and for an end to socialism in Latin America. RT America’s Manila Chan interviews political analyst Jim Kavanagh to discuss why he considers the Trump administration’s attacks on Maduro as nothing more than “overt imperialism.”

When Bernie Sanders decries the economic situation in Venezuela as if it were created by Socialism, remember this interview. Bernie Sanders cannot possibly be ignorant of this history. You have to wonder what Bernie Sanders is up to. What will he do for us, or to us, if he becomes President. Does Bernie want to lose the war of words with Trump this early in his campaign for 2020?

YourTube has the video Noam Chomsky​ Lecture with introduction by Bernie Sanders​.

“Deciphering Foreign Policy Jargon” (05/20/1985)

This fascinating and remarkably timely discussion comments not only on the historical state of our political system, but offers deep insights into the current state of our election processes.

At 5 minutes to midnight, I don’t have time to watch this all. I’ll have to do it later. In less than 7 minutes of watching, I am reminded of what Bernie Sanders knew about Nicaragua in 1985. That is what astounds me about what he now says about Venezuela.

YouTube has the video Michael Parenti on Bernie Sanders. Notice the date in the following quote.

Michael Parenti answers a question about Bernie Sanders, while Sanders’ presidential campaign was going on, in 2015.