Venezuela: It's About Democracy. No, Wait, It's Something Else

“It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.”

---U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, 1/28/19, on Trish Regan Prime Time, Fox Business Report 

Bulletins From The Garlic!. Stolen From Major Media Mind Molesters!

Homer Simpson To Join Democratic Candidate List For 2020.

“OMG! We have a reality TV president and now it’s time for a cartoon TV president,” said campaign coordinator Hilary D. Plorable.

“OMG! Homer can help bring white working class voters back to the party and family photos of The Simpsons along with their gay, black, Indian and other supporting cartoon characters from the cast will charm the millions who still love the show. OMG! It’s  going to take lots of money, even with the family’s great name recognition, so can you donate ten, twenty or thirty dollars now, with more to come later? OMG! Are you as excited as we are? OMG!

Trump Charged With Treason: This Time It’s China!

Observers claim the president was seen in close conversation with a waiter at a Chinese restaurant in Georgetown and the Washington Police, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and Girl Scouts of America were all immediately notified of this possible act of treachery if any part of their conversation was about computer electronics and not the Dumpling Special at Danny's Dim Sum Diner.

Trump Farts in Central Park: Times/CNN/MSNBC Charge Lethal Gas Attack: NY Jews Fear Second Holocaust!

Trump spokesperson claims he is the greatest most brilliant friend Israel and Zionist American Jews have ever had and fart was innocent result of eating too much Chinese Food.

Southern Poverty Law Center charges anti-Asian bigotry and threatens multi-billion dollar lawsuit. ACLU offers to defend Trump, immediately suffers loss of most donors and files for bankruptcy. Russian and Chinese billionaires offer help. Liberals call for impeachment. Conservatives call for lunch at Chinese Restaurants. Moderates order pastrami from delis in support of Jews suffering anti-Semitic Trump attacks.

In an unrelated culinary identity group ploy, People of Color Inc. join with Gay Inc. and Gender Fluidity Inc. to demand Taco-Pizza-Burger stands owned by Muslims on Wall Street and in front of all banks.

As the only people without color in the human race, Albinos demand equal rights, claim corn dog, hot dog and running dog wagons should be dispensing free food to all people of no color.

All global humans of color (99.9% of race) protest exclusion of Albinos, chant “me too” and join forces to rid the planet of liberal, progressive, populist, conservative, right wing, no wing, brain dead and upper class college graduate Americans.

OMG! Stay Tuned! OMG!

Venezuela - Capitalist Success, Not Socialist Failure

A "democratic" U.S. government legally elected by a minority of the vote is now calling for democracy in Venezuela by attempting to overthrow its government,  which was recently elected by a more than two-thirds vote after a highly-fragmented political opposition abstained from participation (on U.S. instructions) because it lacked popular support and felt that it was unlikely to win. The point man for the regime change operation is Elliott Abrams, whose biography tells us everything we need to know to evaluate the alleged democratic intentions of the Trump administration.

A fire-breathing fanatic for imperial Israel who championed the invasion and destruction of Iraq, Abrams was formerly Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights for the Reagan administration, and famously called U.S./Salvadorean death-squad operations that produced tens of thousands of mutilated civilian corpses (1979-1994) a "fabulous achievement." He also claimed that the Nicaraguan contras, famous for torture, rape, and murder in a campaign to overthrow the socialist government of Nicaragua, would one day  be fondly remembered as "folk heroes." Today he is a member of the board of directors of the National Endowment for Democracy, which was created to be a continuation of CIA skullduggery by other means, and currently finances Washington's destabilization efforts not only in Venezuela, but also in Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Cuba. Convicted of lying to Congress about Iran-Contra, Abrams called his prosecutors "filthy bastards," dismissed the proceedings as "Kafkaesque," and denounced the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee as "pious clowns." After hearing Abrams' testimony, then Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton expressed a common reaction: "I want to puke." 

So much for Washington seeking democracy, as though we didn't already know. For the plain fact is that there is more democracy in Venezuela now, where members of the vast poor majority can be routinely found in animated political discussion of the events that shape their lives, than there has ever been in the United States, where the poor are deliberately excluded from representation or even consideration, and have therefore long since dismissed politics as a sensible concern.

But if not democracy, what then is the U.S.'s motivation in Venezuela? Well, Venezuela has large gold and nickel reserves, along with the largest oil supply in the world. Gaining control of such resources is an attractive prospect for any U.S. president, but especially for one under siege from multiple investigations and constant media questioning of his legitimacy. Making America great again by plundering Venezuela oil supplies would be an imperial achievement that the entire U.S. political class would admire. Witness Nancy Pelosi reaching across the aisle to tweet support for the coup right off the bat, to wit: "America stands by the people of #Venezuela as they rise up against authoritarian rule and demand respect for human rights and democracy." Who says Trump and the Democrats can't get along?

Though the current coup in Venezuela has roots going back to 2002 (when President Chavez was kidnapped and nearly killed by the U.S. backed "opposition"), long before any economic crisis was even on the horizon, giddy triumphalists of American Empire stridently declare that the Venezuelan crisis proves nothing more than the "failure of socialism." Ignoring the deliberate U.S. policy of sowing economic chaos, they denounce the Bolivarian Revolution as  a sham on the grounds that its supposed beneficiaries are now allegedly suffering mass starvation due to lunatic Marxist policies run amok. 

Except that there is no mass starvation, the mass Chavista base remains intact, and the Venezuelan economy is overwhelmingly in private hands.

In other words, the entire thesis of "socialism has failed" is a propaganda offensive, not a news story. And those who try to make Venezuela a news story by getting out the real facts on the ground are regularly threatened with being burned alive by the U.S.-led political opposition now claiming it wants to re-establish democracy in Venezuela. In recent years it has attacked and killed dozens of poor black Chavistas in the streets (often torched), attempting to provoke police responses that can subsequently be denounced as socialist "authoritarianism." Imagine the reaction in the United States if a foreign power were sowing arson and murder in the U.S. in an effort to force Trump out of office for having lost the popular vote in 2016. We'd launch a nuclear war.

There are, of course, real economic issues, such as hyper-inflation and food shortages. However, the shortages are often of staple items produced by a handful of companies that withhold them from the market as a form of class warfare. In any case, the crippling sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in 2015 on the ludicrous pretext that Venezuela represents a national security threat to the United States have made the situation worse, not better (as intended). 

With the Trump administration now extending the sanctions to the energy sector, a solution could become outright impossible. About one-third of Venezuelan exports are to the United States, and Venezuela meets about 40% of its economic needs through the foreign exchange it earns by exporting. If it can't export to the U.S. it suffers a huge loss of income that previously went for purchasing imports. This is the heart of Washington's longstanding "make the economy scream" strategy previously successfully employed in Chile (1973) to overthrow a socialist government and install a dictator (Augusto Pinochet), who promptly initiated a bloodbath.  

To make a long story short, the current crisis has been meticulously planned, nurtured, and yearned for for years by U.S. imperial strategists, who are now perfectly delighted, not appalled, by the crisis. For them to call the situation a failure of socialism is like the Boston strangler pronouncing his strangled female corpses a failure of feminism.

There is nothing to discuss with the Venezuelan opposition, which is obviously only interested in the complete eradication of the Bolivarian Revolution, the detested policy of meeting the needs of Venezuela's poor black and Indian majority with Venezuelan oil revenue. It would be nothing less than treason to collaborate with these right-wing demagogues. At the same time, however, it would be suicidal to pretend that the U.S. is not exploiting real popular disenchantment with Chavez and Maduro's economic policies, especially Maduro's exchange controls.

But let's let Venezuelans solve their problems for themselves, not force them to submit to imperial ultimatums.

Postscript: With John Bolton talking about privatizing Venezuelan oil, it is clear that more is at stake than just overturning the entire Bolivarian revolution. Venezuelan oil was nationalized in 1976, so Bolton's plans are to reverse the last 43 years of history.



Sources for this article:

Terry J. Allen, "Public Serpent: Iran Contra Villain Elliott Abrams Is Back," In These Times, August 2001

Abby Martin, Greg Wilpert, and  Paul Jay,"Attempted Coup in Venezuela" Real News Network, January 25, 2019 

William Blum, "Trojan Horse: The National Endowment For Democracy," www.williamblum.org

William Blum,"Killing Hope: U.S. Military And CIA Interventions Since World War II,"  Common Courage Press, 1995

Brendan O'Brien, "Venezuela's opposition is not so innocent," The Guardian, August 18, 2017

Interview with Maduro, Ignacio Ramonet and President Nicolas Maduro, The Greanville Post, January 24, 2019, reprinted by The Axis of Logic

"Venezuela Propaganda Debunked - People Are Against Coup," Jimmy Dore Show, January 27, 2019 

Aram Aharonian, "In Spite of Its Failures, The United States Continues International Offensive Against Venezuela," January 28, 2019, www.rebelion.org (Spanish)

Argumentum Ad Venezuelum, BadMouseProductions, You Tube, August 30, 2017

For more on Venezuela, see:

"Imperial Demon Watch:  Hugo Chavez", Legalienate, August 4, 2007

"Hugo Chavez, Lion of the Left," Legalienate, March 8, 2013

We Don’t Need A New Deal: We Need A Whole New Deck

We Don’t Need A New Deal: We Need A Whole New Deck

The gap between the earth’s wardens of wealth and the nearly eight billion humans under their control has grown wider and more dangerous but is beginning to be understood by some as a systemic problem and not simply a matter of evil leaders and villainous followers. When people see and feel their futures ranging from problematic at best to non-existent at worst, we get the resultant turmoil and changes taking place in nations moving in many directions at once but all of them against established power over things as they are.

Whether votes are cast in elections labeled democratic though still under minority control, or issues are subject to mob rule of one extreme or another, they are producing governments at least rhetorically dedicated to change even if often dangerously confused or in merely cosmetic form. Nevertheless, those demanding change beyond simply continuing the rule of market forces under minority control are starting to move up and into more commanding roles in governments. Unfortunately, and especially in America, many still operate as though political change amounts to the candidates skin tone, religion or sex, neglecting the philosophy between their ears by concentrating more on the genitals between their thighs.

Thus we have working people going to the polls and electing representatives of wealth operating against their interest but rhetorically speaking of change, which may mean reverting to earlier forms of capital private profit which still leave the public good in poor condition, or worse, sinking into megalomaniacal rule under populists (?) promising to dump even more wrath on those at or near the bottom. Meanwhile, more social democratic forms of capital rule which see the need for avoiding revolution by sharing a little more with the multitudes beginning to loudly complain, are also moving into positions of governmental power. This lesser evil of earlier stages, once called a “new deal” at capitalism’s last sign of collapse, is now dubbed a “green” new deal, in the face of   massive environmental threats only denied by the brain dead among private profiteers, as in the old days when realistic capital supported social democracy even while the troglodytes of capital insisted it was dreadful socialism.

This dichotomy still exists between those who would save the system that most benefits a minority rather than transform it into truly expressing the desires and needs of the majority. Neo-liberal-conservative elements panic at the thought of real democracy enabling all people to survive without having personal trust funds, family inheritance, or earning the salary rewards of work performed on behalf of those with personal trust funds and family inheritance. Rhetorical rule has managed minds into believing in ideals of democracy while materially accepting imitations that don’t even come close.

While national uprisings against despotic tyranny are important parts of past history, the present situation in which a global consciousness is growing that humanity and not just one or another national or identity group must move in the direction of taking control is a new experience for the race. It is being opposed more strongly by the beneficiaries of market forces under the control of creatures akin to gods by comparison to ordinary mortals as the dangers grow more serious. Among the brighter signs are progress towards ending the empire of the west but weaponry beyond imagination controlled by warriors beyond belief threatens humanity as never before.

The reactions coming from global GHQ of international capital are indicative of hysteria bordering on dementia tending towards stark raving insanity. And this from both sides of the ruling coin, with conservatives blathering about socialism and genocidal democracy resulting from wimpy policies merely asking how so few can be so rich while so many are so poor, and what passes for a liberal left more concerned for scandalizing a president and whining about an alleged Russian menace while debt approaches 22 trillion and Israel all but owns the white house and congress. Almost daily screeching about the alleged treachery of the present occupant at the white house, intrigue emanating from the Kremlin endangering all of humanity, and other stories captivating to prisoners of consciousness control threaten to create lynch mobs out of decent people and mass murderers out of frightened crowds.

The solutions offered by many in the face of environmental degradation are all to often connected to the political economics that have created that condition, hoping to somehow clean up filth by covering it with nicer dirt. Thus we have solutions to carbon pollution proposed that charge a price for creating it to somehow limit its production, which is like combating rape by charging a fee for its performance. When we need to totally transform the environment from one dependent on fossil fuel to one running on natural forces like air, wind, water and the sun, too often private profit is expected to do the job when that fanatic focus is already threatening the public good more than at any time in the past.

Back in the 19^th century, many social critics warned of what might happen to the earth and its people if the social system of industrial capital continued. Karl Marx was foremost among them and his analysis went beyond anyone else’s and still holds true. They all understood that minority rule based on inherited power and the wealth it controlled was a menace but its newest form, not yet labeled capitalism, was the most malevolent yet. We live in the age in which it has become more obvious to hundreds of millions whose everyday lives are filled with misery and deprivation while a tiny group absorbs most of society’s wealth and shares a bit of it with a class of well paid servants who play the role of pacifying the populace from taking any political action or destroying it in wars when it does.

Whether at Vegas, on the Riviera, or at card tables run by religious groups, when the house seems to be winning even more than usual, one of the gamblers will call for a new deal. This simply means re-shuffling the deck so that cards appear in a slightly different order. At extremes, someone will demand a new deck, but even this only means new cards will be used, but with all of the same suits and numerations as the old. This is the problem with allegedly trying to call for “new” proposed solutions but without moving from a private profit first system to one that demands the public good as primary. Society needs to demand a new deck with different cards, removing the old ones like poverty, war, and racism and replacing them with peace, humanity and the common good. Continuing to reshuffle the old or even replacing it only with new forms that change immaterial labels but maintain material substance will only work to appease some until the next breakdown.

The one coming may be worse than any before, and global action needs to be taken with humanity connected as never before. It is not only possible but necessary, which is why the owners of the Casino are working hard to see to it that all dealers remain under their employ, in governments all over the world, and why citizens and nations must ultimately cross boundaries not simply to escape poverty and war in one place by hiding in another, but to live together in another kind of world which will only arrive if we create it. The next period will hopefully show that we are capable.