Popular Resistance has the article US-Led Coup In Venezuela: The Plot Thickens.
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This article updates activists so we remain well-informed and can educate others in the face of a bi-partisan and corporate media narrative supporting the coup.
Medium has the article “I Oppose Interventionism, But-” But Nothing. Don’t Be A Pro Bono CIA Propagandist.
“All of a sudden now there are millions of Venezuela experts in America, and many of them could not point Venezuela out on a map five days ago,” McAdams said. “And everyone has to have this disclaimer, ‘Well, I know it’s probably worse than North Korea, but the US government shouldn’t get involved.’ It’s cowardice, because once the war starts, they can say ‘Hey I never called for US intervention!’ No, but you’re a conveyor belt for propaganda. You’re a conveyor belt to get the machine ginned up for war. And so you’ve got to stand up and take responsibility.”
I am out of my Caitlin Johnstone fan phase, but I think this column makes an important point.
There is probably very little that you and I think we know about Venezuela that wasn’t put in our heads by the world oligarchs’ news media.
Tonight was the first time that I shut off the television when the “news” came on.
YouTube has the video Nicolas Maduro’s message to USA.
Only 114 people have watched this on YouTube. I just watched it myself. I can see that we are falling down on the job if we can’t get more people to view this as an antidote to all the crap they are being fed by the oligarchs’ news media.
The Intercept has the story NBC News, to Claim Russia Supports Tulsi Gabbard, Relies on Firm Just Caught Fabricating Russia Data for the Democratic Party.
NBC News published a predictably viral story Friday, claiming that “experts who track websites and social media linked to Russia have seen stirrings of a possible campaign of support for Hawaii Democrat Tulsi Gabbard.”
But the whole story was a sham: the only “experts” cited by NBC in support of its key claim was the firm, New Knowledge, that just got caught by the New York Times fabricating Russian troll accounts on behalf of the Democratic Party in the Alabama Senate race to manufacture false accusations that the Kremlin was interfering in that election.
I knew they were lying to me when I heard the story. I may just stop watching the oligarchs’ news media. I had settled on NBC as the least objectionable news to watch, but they have fallen below my minimal acceptable standard.
The Tulsi Gabbard campaign has a page where you can watch (and sign up) for TULSI 2020: Tulsi Gabbard Presidential Campaign, The ALOHA Launch – Live from Hawaii, USA.
The festivities don’t even get under way until 40 minutes or so into the video. Tulsi doesn’t even appear until the last 30 or so minutes. You can watch as much of the pre-appearance entertainment as you want, or you can use the slider to go right to Tulsi’s speech. I found her speech to be inspiring.
YouTube has the video Bernie Sanders answers student question about the coup d’état against Salvador Allende in 1973 in English with Spanish subtitles.
After seeing this video, could you possibly believe that today’s Bernie Sanders could be as naive about Venezuela as he claims to be? Bernie certainly understands how dangerous it is to give any credibility to USA propaganda even if he makes a good policy choice in the end.
These tweets should be read from the bottom up. In other words, this is in three parts, with the first one at the bottom.
Naked Capitalism has the article Michael Hudson: Trump’s Brilliant Strategy to Dismember U.S. Dollar Hegemony.
The end of America’s unchallenged global economic dominance has arrived sooner than expected, thanks to the very same Neocons who gave the world the Iraq, Syria and the dirty wars in Latin America. Just as the Vietnam War drove the United States off gold by 1971, its sponsorship and funding of violent regime change wars against Venezuela and Syria – and threatening other countries with sanctions if they do not join this crusade – is now driving European and other nations to create their alternative financial institutions.
14 hours ago I posted a question “How long can the USA wage economic war against other countries before they band together to rebel?” Now I see the answer in this article.
Here is that previous posting on my Facebook page Internal US Gov’t Document Outlines Program of ‘Economic Warfare’ on Venezuela
YouTube has the video Venezuela Propaganda Debunked – People Are Against Coup.
One question that Abby Martin raised that I often wonder about, too – if the reporters from the oligarchs’ news media go to these countries to report, how is it that they do not see what Abby Martin sees? It is just so hard to listen to the lies they tell with a straight face. It has gotten to the point that I have to mute the TV when Andrea Mitchell speaks.
Naked Capitalism has the article Is China’s Debt Crackdown Hitting California’s Commercial Real Estate Bubble?.
This comes at a time when the Chinese government is cracking down on capital flows from China to other countries, particularly to fund real estate projects, and when it is also cracking down on the ballooning debt of Chinese conglomerates, after a reckless binge of buying up everything in sight. HNA, Anbang, and other conglomerates are now being forced to unload these toys. In HNA’s case, this includes the $305 million deal to sell a building in Manhattan a year ago. And it has put numerous other recent acquisitions on the market.
Anbang Insurance Group, which had purchased the Waldorf Astoria in New York for nearly $2 billion in 2014 and which in 2016 handed Blackstone Group $5.5 billion for a portfolio of 15 hotel properties, collapsed and has been taken over by Chinese regulators, and its founder was sent to prison. Now these investments are up for sale.
Chinese regulators are apparently not afraid to regulate, unlike their USA counterparts.
For a long time, as I have been reading Modern Money Theory (MMT) blogs, I have noted that some commentators have been warning about the untenable situation with Chinese private debt. Until recently, I could not understand what they were talking about. The whole point of MMT is that countries like China that are sovereign in their own currency cannot run out of money and default on their debt. Michael Hudson has been publishing a lot of material lately that has clarified the point that I had missed. Public debt of the Chinese government is not a problem just as I had thought, but private sector debt is quite another matter. That was the also the whole point of MMT, also, but I couldn’t connect the dots.
Compound interest on the private debt gets to be a drag (overhead) on the economy. Compound interest grows exponentially, but there is no economy in the world where the productive capacity of the economy can grow exponentially for very long. One way or another, the government will have to intervene to put an end to an unsustainable growth bubble of private debt. Michael Hudson has been publishing lately about erasing debt, so the economy could restart with a clean slate.
In the current situation, the Chinese government may have a different plan on how to puncture the bubble. As Naked Capitalism put it,
China gets a cold and California real estate gets pneumonia.
As investors frequently say, the action that will burst the bubble will come from an unexpected place. I have certainly have not been expecting the Chinese government to be the one to burst capitalism’s bubble.
Naked Capitalism has the article Venezuela Coup Attempt Part of US Plan to Remake Latin America.
The Wall Street Journal has just published an important, disheartening story, U.S. Push to Oust Venezuela’s Maduro Marks First Shot in Plan to Reshape Latin America. The Trump Administration has apparently decided to embark on a large-scale interventionist campaign to reverse supposed undue influence of Russia, China, and Iran in Latin America. Venezuela and Cuba are the first targets, and Nicaragua is next on the list. John Bolton, in too obvious a nod to Bush’s “axis of evil” has called them the “troika of tyranny”.
One would think the fact that our “remake the world in our image” plans worked out so well in the Middle East might curb US adventurism. And it isn’t just that we made a mess of Iraq, failed to break Iran, and failed to install new regimes in Afghanistan and Syria. The New American Century types are deep in denial that this geopolitical tussle not only cost the US greatly in terms of treasure, but it also wound up considerably enhancing Russia’s standing.
It is no accident that Bolton and Abrams of the New American Century fame have suddenly come back into the USA government.
The reason why Trump is so desperate for the wall is that he knows what flood of refugees is coming in response to his planned activities in Latin America.