US Politics Mega-Blog - Page 154

On January 25 2019 21:21 GreenHorizons wrote:


Remember you're talking to a Black guy in the US. If BLM killed as many people /cops/soldiers as the protesters in Venezuela the FBI would have kicked down my door and dragged me out a long time ago and I'm not even part of BLM.

On January 25 2019 21:26 GoTuNk! wrote:


Making up excuses for the killing of civilians by the army crooks. Lovely.
Guess at least you are honest about it; this is what hardcore socialists actually think. It is ok for the government to murder it's own citizens if it's suits their political side, and because the US something.

On January 25 2019 20:17 GreenHorizons wrote:


Yeah the US sponsored coup attempt against the previously democratically elected leader (Chavez) was actually moderately more successful. The opposition party in Venezuela just got duped by Trump and because Maduro isn't a bloodthirsty dictator like many US allies, he's unlikely to have them all killed for treason.

Oh and Bush wasn't considered a complete dipshit at that point vs Trump who's already floating around 36% approval. Plus after 9/11 it wasn't so ridiculous for people to jump behind Bush vs behind Trump potentially starting a war in Latin America.

People really need to slow down, take a breath, and really let it soak in what it means that they so easily jumped behind (or turned a largely blind eye to) Trump and the CIA orchestrating (in the haphazardly shitty way you have to expect from Trump) the replacement of a democratically elected leader and the media's unquestioning stenography of propaganda.

I hear the UK is having some leadership issues, maybe Trump and the CIA can help name a new leader for you guys too.

On January 25 2019 04:13 IgnE wrote:
yes, his rant about populism and families and how the main conservative emphasis on markets is simply not cutting it

On January 26 2019 05:09 Starlightsun wrote:
Well at least we're no longer actively undermining border security by not paying federal employees. I don't think a deal on border security is a pipe dream. I don't know exactly what the Democrat position is, but the president's "7 billion for wall or nothing" doesn't seem very productive. Guess we'll have to see what happens from here. I think Venezuela deserves more attention now that the government is reopened.

“The vote took place peacefully and without problems… the vote reflects the will of [Venezuelan] citizens,” declared CEELA President Nicanor Moscoso during a press conference Monday morning.

The CEELA delegation was comprised of 1300 international observers, including former Colombian Electoral Court President Guillermo Reyes, ex-president of the Honduran Supreme Electoral Court, Augusto Aguilar, and former Peruvian electoral magistrate Gastón Soto.

According to the body’s report, the vote was held under conditions of “total normality” and the right to a secret ballot was “guaranteed”.

There’s a reason the rightwing opposition boycotted Sunday’s election and calls for street protests – it can’t mount a credible bid for government

There are other reasons not to trust the opposition: it hasn’t backed its claims with impartial evidence, and it had no neutral observers overlooking its own elections. Still, it stands by its claim to have obtained some 37% of the vote against the assembly.

The rightwing opposition can’t rally a majority beyond the middle-upper classes even while many Venezuelans, especially the poorer, suffer from very real shortages and economic hardship. Why? There’s only one sensible answer: the majority of them fear the return of the rightwing to power more than the alleged incompetence of Maduro. They know that if the current opposition leadership comes to power, backed by the likes of Trump and the notorious former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez, the result would be austerity and most likely a civil war as devastating as that of neighbouring Colombia.

On January 26 2019 02:45 IgnE wrote:
What does the rising rate of unsolved murders and incidents of gun violence mean for BLM?

+ Show Spoiler +

Does it matter that murders go unsolved?

How many cops are working on marijuana cases rather than solving violent crimes?

A town of 10,000 and a city of over 100,000 would potentially have the same number of delegates, theoretically providing pro-Maduro rural districts with a decisive advantage.

The opposition then boycotted the National Constituent Assembly elections

“Elliott will be a true asset to our mission to help the Venezuelan people fully restore democracy and prosperity to their country,” Pompeo said in announcing Abrams’ appointment.

He said Abrams would accompany him to the United Nations on Saturday for a Security Council meeting on Venezuela where the U.S. will press other countries to support opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim head of state.

Maduro said he welcomed a debate over Venezuela’s situation and thanked Pompeo for making the UN request, in a jocular response during a Friday news conference.

“I was about to say to the foreign minister ‘ask for a security council debate,’ (but) Mike Pompeo got ahead of me,” Maduro said. “Thanks, Mike ... We’re going to tell the truth about the articles of the constitution, about the coup.”

Earlier, American diplomats left the U.S. embassy in Caracas in a convoy of vehicles with a police escort en route to the airport, according to a Reuters witness. Maduro, in a fiery speech on Wednesday, broke off diplomatic relations with Washington and ordered the U.S. personnel out within 72 hours.

Guaido, who has galvanized Venezuela’s opposition, proclaimed himself interim president on Wednesday during a march of hundreds of thousands in Caracas. He is considering making a request for funds from international institutions including the International Monetary Fund, two people familiar with the talks said on Friday.

However, he still has no control over the Venezuelan state and the military, which has so far remained loyal to Maduro despite a deep economic and political crisis that has sparked mass emigration, with inflation forecast to rise to 10 million percent this year. Guaido has promised future amnesties to military members if they disavow Maduro.

On Friday, Guaido repeated his offer to the armed forces around Venezuela, asking soldiers “to put themselves on the side of the constitution.”

Most Latin American nations have joined the United States in supporting Guaido’s claim on the presidency, although Mexico’s new leftist government has said it would not take sides. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday his administration would be willing to mediate.

Guaido said he would reject any negotiations that did not include Maduro’s exit

On January 26 2019 09:52 Danglars wrote:
Elliot is a surprise. I wonder if he personally got Trump’s attention, or if it was Pompeii, or another administration figure, or one of the vocal Senators on the issue.

It feels like only yesterday when a wealthy Venezuelan could turn on the television to Álo Presidente and discover that his family’s assets had just been seized. Such glowing reports too from the American media and far-left figures. Sometime very close to when the money runs out and industry collapses these governments lose their “true socialism” name and yet again prove that real socialism has never been tried. This is no different. Free healthcare, but your best friend died because it’s impossible for the hospital to get common medications. It’s almost an Eastern European communist vibe.

I didn’t hear much of today’s reporting. Earlier in the week, Maduro ordered the expulsion of our diplomats. Trumps administration, not recognizing Maduro, said he did not have the authority to expel our diplomats. If he takes them captive, it’s Carter’s Iran 2.0. Unresolved questions is how much responsibility the US has if the opposition leader is disappeared or killed.

If it wasn’t Trump in the White House, I think the recognition game would enjoy broad support in application of the US’s soft power. They held sham elections (moving hundreds of opposition favored polling stations, clear dominance of Maduro’s people on the electoral council, erasure of the difference between the government and the ruling party in terms of spending government money on a single party’s political campaigns), and this is a good response. Sanctions and more vocal support will hopefully follow to prevent more needless suffering in the once-wealthy nation.

It feels like only yesterday when a wealthy Venezuelan could turn on the television to Álo Presidente and discover that his family’s assets had just been seized.

They held sham elections (moving hundreds of opposition favored polling stations, clear dominance of Maduro’s people on the electoral council, erasure of the difference between the government and the ruling party in terms of spending government money on a single party’s political campaigns)

to prevent more needless suffering

One (Elliot) Abrams specialty was massacre denial. During a Nightline appearance in 1985, he was asked about reports that the US-funded Salvadoran military had slaughtered civilians at two sites the previous summer. Abrams maintained that no such events had occurred. And had the US Embassy and the State Department conducted an investigation? “My memory,” he said, “is that we did, but I don’t want to swear to it, because I’d have to go back and look at the cables.” But there had been no State Department inquiry; Abrams, in his lawyerly fashion, was being disingenuous. Three years earlier, when two American journalists reported that an elite, US-trained military unit had massacred hundreds of villagers in El Mozote, Abrams told Congress that the story was commie propaganda, as he fought for more US aid to El Salvador’s military. The massacre, as has since been confirmed, was real. And in 1993 after a UN truth commission, which examined 22,000 atrocities that occurred during the twelve-year civil war in El Salvador, attributed 85 percent of the abuses to the Reagan-assisted right-wing military and its death-squad allies, Abrams declared, “The Administration’s record on El Salvador is one of fabulous achievement.” Tell that to the survivors of El Mozote.

But it wasn’t his lies about mass murder that got Abrams into trouble. After a contra resupply plane was shot down in 1986, Abrams, one of the coordinators of Reagan’s pro-contra policy (along with the NSC’s Oliver North and the CIA’s Alan Fiers), appeared several times before Congressional committees and withheld information on the Administration’s connection to the secret and private contra-support network. He also hid from Congress the fact that he had flown to London (using the name “Mr. Kenilworth”) to solicit a $10 million contribution for the contras from the Sultan of Brunei. At a subsequent closed-door hearing, Democratic Senator Thomas Eagleton blasted Abrams for having misled legislators, noting that Abrams’s misrepresentations could lead to “slammer time.” Abrams disagreed, saying, “You’ve heard my testimony.” Eagleton cut in: “I’ve heard it, and I want to puke.” On another occasion, Republican Senator Dave Durenberger complained, “I wouldn’t trust Elliott any further than I could throw Ollie North.”

supporting democracy, liberty & the national interest of the United States.

On January 26 2019 21:14 RolleMcKnolle wrote:
GH definitely has a point. It seems like he is going very easy on Maduro, but I somehow have the feeling he is trying to cancel out the complete negativity coming from everyone else. And if there would be a more differentiated discourse about the situation he would be more than willing to be more critical of everyone involved. But since he seems to be the lone defender he feels forced to show another aspect which tends to be positive.

There is so little reporting that tries to show Maduros perspective or even mentions different causes for the situation than missmanagement and ciorruption that people should be asking themselves whether this can be the whole explanation. If people spent a fraction of the time they spent on this whole stupid MAGA-Boy situation on informing themselves about Venezuela they might at least see it's not all about Chavez and Maduro firing the wrong people and being utterly corrupt.

Besides Mr. Weinberger, the President pardoned Robert C. McFarlane, the former national security adviser, and Elliott Abrams, the former assistant Secretary of State for Central America. Both officials had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of withholding information from Congress about support for the contras.