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.

The Nation has the article How the Right Is Using Venezuela to Reorder Politics.

The social-democratic wing of the Democratic Party must find a way to put forth a compelling counter-vision.

The article covers many important aspects of the situation in Venezuela. However, here is one excerpt I want to mention.

And the left Democrats want to keep the political debate focused on domestic politics: saner taxes, Medicare for All, and a Green New Deal are, in the context of the horridness of US domestic politics, a lot to take on.

Recognition of this desire of the left Democrats is exactly why Trump is trying to turn the focus to foreign affairs. The left Democrats have to be ready for evasive action by Trump to turn the political situation his way. If you ignore what he is doing to go around you, then he will succeed in out flanking you.

Another excerpt that struck me is the following:

“They want to make us into Venezuela,” he [Trump] said recently. As social rights—to health care, to education, to a decent life—gain in popularity, the right has perfected the “but Venezuela” response. In doing so, it conveys a whole, fairly coherent worldview. Ocasio-Cortez, say Republicans, is “hellbent” on turning Americans into “Venezuelan socialists”

Actually the fight is to turn back control to the oligarchs in Venezuela which is exactly what is going on in the USA with our oligarchs. Our oligarchs and the Venezuelan oligarchs want all wealth to flow to them. They want to keep the already down-trodden in their state of debt bondage, so that the oligarchs can have the run of the place.

January 29, 2019

It pays to follow links when they are offered.

Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar provided the strongest statement: “We cannot hand pick leaders for other countries on behalf of multinational corporate interests,” she said. “If we really want to support the Venezuelan people, we can lift the economic sanctions that are inflicting suffering on innocent families, making it harder for them to access food and medicines, and deepening the economic crisis.” Those sanctions had considerable Democratic Party support.

Here is the referenced statement.

If we really want to support the Venezuelan people, we can lift the economic sanctions that are inflicting suffering on innocent families, making it harder for them to access food and medicines, and deepening the economic crisis. We should support dialogue, not a coup!

However, the comments tend to completely negate this statement. We don’t know who the commenters are, nor do we know what axe they have to grind. However, it does seem a little disingenuous to refer to his comment as “the strongest statement” without acknowledging that there is vehement dissent to that comment.

January 29, 2019

Here is a video recommended to me. It clarifies and confuses. Catastrophic Consequences What’s Really Happening in Venezuela.

New Economic Perspectives has the article Understanding Modern Money – Video.

Randall Wray presents in English the German version of his book “Understanding Modern Money”. The intro is in German, Randy’s presentation is in English.

No matter how much I think I understand about Modern Money Theory(MMT), I always gain additional insight by listening to the founders of MMT.

Now I understand what Wray means when he says that when government issues money, it is a debt on the government’s books. What the government owes you when you give it back its money is the cancellation of any debt you owe the government. Most of the debt you will owe the government is in the form of taxes, fees, or fines (or perhaps something you buy from the government, like a government published book). If you don’t have any debts to the government like these, then there is nothing the government owes you if you give it back some of its money.

This is one of the books that Wray mentions in the video: Margaret Atwood – Payback: Debt and The Shadow Side of Wealth.

The Real News Network has the discussion Defusing the Crisis: A Way Forward for Venezuela.

Venezuelan Sociologist Edgardo Lander and TRNN’s Greg Wilpert discuss how Venezuela got into its current international, economic, and political crisis and what it might take to get out of it.

Here is a somewhat more reasoned discussion of the issues facing Venezuela. It is certainly not up to the USA to decide anything for Venezuela. We can’t even have a reasoned discussion in the USA about our own politics. It would be silly to imagine that we can impose on Venezuela what we cannot even achieve in the USA.