Month: January 2019

The US School That Trains Dictators & Death Squads

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

My notes: The name of the US Army’s School Of Americas was changed in 2000, by Congress, because it was under scrutiny by human rights groups such as SOA Watch. They hadn’t changed anything else, such as their training manuals or actual training. In 2013, it was determined that the school was more transparent and now has a rigorous human rights training program.

It’s interesting that Venezuela’s Minister Of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, attended this school between February and May 1995, for a “Psychological Operations” and “Advanced Officer training” course. During the 2002 coup d’état attempt, he was a colonel in the Simon Bolivar Infantry Battalion, and remained loyal to Hugo Chávez.

Published 12-07-2015

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The U.S. Has Venezuela in Its Crosshairs

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Vijay Prashad, Independent Media Institute, January 17, 2019.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addresses international observers at the presidential palace in Caracas. (AP)

Last Thursday—on January 10—Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for his second term as president of Venezuela. “I tell the people,” Maduro said, “this presidential sash is yours. The power of this sash is yours. It does not belong to the oligarchy or to imperialism. It belongs to the sovereign people of Venezuela.”

These two terms—oligarchy and imperialism—define the problems faced by Maduro’s new government.

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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BACKS SLOW-MOTION RIGHT-WING COUP IN VENEZUELA

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

KEVIN GOSZTOLA, January 17, 2019

Source: Shadowproof

A slow-motion coup by right-wing opposition forces is underway in Venezuela. It has the support of President Donald Trump’s administration, and if successful, President Nicolas Maduro will be undemocratically removed from power though he was re-elected last May.

Juan Guaido of the Popular Will Party in Venezuela was elected to lead the National Assembly, Venezuela’s congress. He said on January 11 that he was ready to replaceMaduro.

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The US boosts military ties with Sri Lanka

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

By Vijith Samarasinghe 
17 January 2019

Recent visits by US Seventh Fleet vessels to Sri Lanka’s eastern port of Trincomalee make clear that the island nation is rapidly being integrated into Washington’s war preparations against China. The Seventh Fleet, which is headquartered in Japan, is an offensive formation geared for war and includes 60–70 ships, 300 aircraft and more than 40,000 combat personnel.

Continue reading, here.

Nuclear winter—the long-suppressed reality of nuclear war

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

An interview with scientist and anti-nuclear activist Steven Starr

By Bryan Dyne, 19 January 2017

For more than three decades, the United States political and media establishment has conducted a coordinated campaign to whitewash the dangers of nuclear war. Using discredited science from the 1980s, US officials have adopted the policy that a nuclear first-strike against Russia could be “successful” and that the environmental dangers posed by multiple atomic or thermonuclear detonations—so-called nuclear winter—have been “disproven.”

Continue reading, here.

Reagan Wannabe Relaunches Reagan’s Star Wars

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

January 18, 2019

On December 12 2001 then President Bush pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Under the 1972 ABM treaty the Soviet Union and the United States had agreed to deploy only one anti-ballistic missile system each. With that limit gone the U.S. started to build a global missile defense system in Alaska and California that was designed to defend against incoming Russian missiles. The Russian president warned about the illusion such a system would create:

Continue reading, here.

As Iron-Fisted Maduro Lets Foe Roam Freely, Some Sense Weakness

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

January 19, 2019 By Andrew Rosati

Juan Guaido speaks to a crowd of opposition supporters Jan. 16. Photographer: Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images

In a country where hundreds of political prisoners are behind bars, it’s not surprising that Juan Guaido was arrested a week after becoming the face of Venezuela’s battered opposition. The surprise was his release just hours later.

Now, as Guaido aggressively pushes the Venezuelan military and foreign governments to recognize him and not the authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro as the legitimate head of state, his freedom underscores just how tense the situation has suddenly become in Caracas.

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Venezuela: Who is Juan Guaidó?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Wednesday, January 16, 2019 19:57

On January 11, the illegal National Assembly of Venezuela decided to ignore the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro and appointed Juan Guaidó, their leader, as the true president of the country. They say that the Constitution grants the nation’s highest legislative body the right to appoint a president in the event of a power “vacuum.” This move has won the support of the Organization of American States (OAS), the fascist president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

Guaidó embraced the appointment and has called on the Venezuelan military and the people to support his claim. Neither have done this. Why?

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