Month: October 2020

Times Editorial Lets Slip Joe Biden’s Latin America Policy: More Obama-Style Coups

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)2 Comments

Times Editorial Lets Slip Joe Biden’s Latin America Policy: More Obama-Style Coups

What the authors are referring to is a continent-wide campaign to unseat progressive leaders that ended in the jailing of Brazilian president Lula da Silva, the impeachment of his successor Dilma Rousseff, and the rise of the far-right authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro. The so-called Operation Car Wash (“Lava Jato” in Portuguese) was ostensibly an attempt to root out corruption at all levels of society. Yet leaked documents and recordings have shown that, from the beginning, it was a naked powerplay attempt by Brazil’s rich elite to retake control of society from the progressive Workers’ Party administrations through legal means.

NYT: Biden’s Plans for Latin America: End ‘Bully Dictating Policy’

Mr. Biden’s advisers say they would seek to revive the anti-corruption campaign that set off political earthquakes across the Americas starting in 2014, but largely stalled in recent years.

Related:

How the United States killed Brazil’s Democracy. Again.

Venezuelan Hard Right Opposition Leader Leopoldo Lopez Flees to Spain

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Venezuelan Hard Right Opposition Leader Leopoldo Lopez Flees to Spain

Long seen as one of the most prominent anti-Chavista figures, Lopez had been in the Spanish Ambassador’s residence for 18 months. He was freed from house arrest by rogue intelligence officers during the failed military putsch on April 30, 2019 and sought refuge in the embassy after the coup attempt fizzled out.

The founder of the far right Popular Will party was a key actor in the 2002 failed coup attempt against then President Hugo Chavez and later played a leading role in the 2014 violent “guarimba” street protests which left 43 people dead. He was found guilty of public incitement to violence and association to commit crimes and convicted to a 13 years and nine months prison sentence in 2015, which was commuted to house arrest two years later.

Related:

Leopoldo López Speaks About His Escape From Venezuelan Justice

Spanish Prime Minister and Leopoldo López Meet (PSOE)

Venezuela Condemns Spain for “Facilitating the Escape of Terrorist Leopoldo López”

SDNY Prosecutors Dismiss Kris Kobach’s Attempt to ‘Inject’ Himself into Steve Bannon Fraud Case; More People May Be Implicated

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

SDNY Prosecutors Dismiss Kris Kobach’s Attempt to ‘Inject’ Himself into Steve Bannon Fraud Case; More People May Be Implicated

The feds said that the disclosure of that information could “seriously jeopardize” the ongoing investigation. One reason why is that the application and affidavit contains “identities of individuals and entities that may be implicated in the investigation aside from the four charged defendants” and contains “details about the evidence collected in the investigation.”

We Build the Wall memo of law by Law&Crime on Scribd

China Is “Not Interested in War, but in Trade and Development, Both Internal and with Foreign Partners.”

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China Is “Not Interested in War, but in Trade and Development, Both Internal and with Foreign Partners.”

Steven Sahiounie (SS): US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has said former US President Richard Nixon created a monster by establishing relations with The Peoples Republic of China decades ago. Pompeo and others in the Trump administration are warning that the Chinese Communist Party is actively trying to export their political ideology beyond their borders. These ‘China-Hawks’ are trying to instill fear among western democracies while pinning a label on China as the ‘bogey-man’. Should the US be dictating what other nations choose for their political system?

Pepe Escobar (PE): Nixon in China was a clever Kissinger move to further split China from the USSR and in the long term create an additional, immense market for US capitalism. Deng Xiaoping clearly saw the opening – and after Mao’s death masterfully exploited it for China’s benefit. Pompeo is no strategist – just a lowly spy, with a Christian Zionist apocalyptic mindset. The crude, primitive ideology underneath the massive propaganda attack on the CCP comes from opportunist Steve Bannon. Himself and assorted China hawks completely ignore China’s history, the Confucianist mindset, and the fact this is a civilization-state not interested in war, but in trade and development, internal and with foreign partners. That is captured by the official mantra “community with a shared future for mankind.” Increasingly, governments and public opinion across the Global South are beginning to understand what’s really at stake.

Adelsons got a lot from Trump for $75 million — but media won’t tell you what

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Adelsons got a lot from Trump for $75 million — but media won’t tell you what

As Trump himself said last month, his foreign policy has been “good for Israel.”

I withdrew from the last administration’s disastrous Iran nuclear deal. So good for Israel. So good that we did that.

His list of pro-Israel actions includes moving the embassy to Jerusalem, defunding the UN refugee agency serving Palestinians, closing down the Palestinian mission in Washington, recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, giving legal validity to Israel’s colonization of the West Bank, lately harsh sanctions and belligerent language aimed at Iran, and on and on. It’s obvious that all these actions are what Adelson wants. He helped found the organization One Jerusalem to stop a Palestinian state, says Palestinians are not a people but are actually “southern Syrians”, and called on the last president to nuke Iran. He has been in attendance at major Trump policy announcements on the issue.