Category: Mexico

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales Calls For a Global Campaign to Eliminate NATO

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

In interview with a British journalist, Morales says the U.S. uses NATO to provoke wars and sell weapons. U.S./UK-backed coup against him in 2019 was undertaken for lithium and because his government advanced an alternative economic model to the neoliberal “Washington Consensus”

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales Calls For a Global Campaign to Eliminate NATO

NATO, the Left, and the Path to Peace

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Posted on the United National Antiwar Coalition July 13, 2022 by Alan Freeman, published on The Valdai Discussion Club, July 4, 2022

If anyone tries to justify a monstrous and unnecessary human sacrifice on the grounds that it’s for the best, then they are measuring ‘good’ in dollars instead of bodies, and they’re not part of the left, because the left stands for humans, not property, Valdai Club expert Alan Freeman writes.

NATO, the Left, and the Path to Peace

Bannon Found Guilty of Obstructing Jan. 6 Probe

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Bannon Found Guilty of Obstructing Jan. 6 Probe (archived)

Related:

D.C. Jury Swiftly Convicts Steve Bannon for His Defiance of Jan. 6 Committee Subpoena

Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner, now a partner at Rottenberg Lipman Rich PC, predicted Bannon would have little room to mount an appeal before having to serve his sentence fully.

“Bannon never put up a legal defense, only an attack on the legitimacy of the process,” Epner noted. “He is now facing a mandatory minimum of 30 days in jail. It will take 3 months to get to sentencing. The question is whether Judge Nichols will grant bail pending appeal. Absent bail, Bannon will have served his time long before an appeal could be briefed, let alone decided.”

Sentencing has been slated for Oct. 21, 2022.

‘I think the law is with us’: Bannon plans appeal of conviction

Spanish lawmaker: NATO subordinates Europe to US, pushes war on China, enriches weapons companies

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Spain’s leftist member of parliament Gerardo Pisarello said the NATO summit was organized to “enrichen the weapons trade” and “reinforce the geostrategic priorities of the United States … above all to weaken China.” He condemned US “vassalage,” calling for a new “autonomous” European security model based on respect for the Global South.

Spanish lawmaker: NATO subordinates Europe to US, pushes war on China, enriches weapons companies

Petro Reiterates Willingness to Normalize Relations with Venezuela

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The president-elect of the Republic of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, reiterated his desire to normalize relations with Venezuela in order to ameliorate the economic development of the region.

Petro Reiterates Willingness to Normalize Relations with Venezuela

Related:

Petro Upends Colombia Diplomacy by Reaching out to Venezuela:

During the election campaign, Petro – a former member of the M-19 guerilla group – tried to distance himself from Venezuela and Cuba, which he had previously defended, and focus more on Chile and Brazil. His goal is to normalize relations with Venezuela after years of diplomatic conflict, and adopt a position similar to that of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – Mexico’s foreign policy has traditionally been based on the policy of non-intervention. But Petro acknowledged that it is a “long process.” “Normalizing relations is not something that happens overnight,” he said to the press after announcing the reopening of the border. And he sent a clear message about his priorities on election night: after his victory was confirmed he made sure to call US President Joe Biden and the leaders of many other Latin American nations, before he spoke with Maduro.

Biden moves fast to open dialogue with Colombia’s incoming leftist president Petro:

A day earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had already called Petro with a similar message “to reiterate the United States’ steadfast commitment to the bilateral relationship,” according to a summary of the call released by the State Department.

Interesting, two days before calling Maduro, Petro talked to Blinken. 🤔💭

Trump swindles the deplorables

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

As much as I’m enjoying the January 6th committee’s careful assembly of evidence proving former President Trump is a [douchebag]. I wasn’t seeing much in the way of a criminal offense until this week’s underreported story about how Trump used his “STOP THE STEAL” fundraising appeals to grift his supporters out of $250 million, none of which was, in fact, used to fight election fraud.

Ann Coulter: Trump swindles the deplorables

Related:

Trump’s $250 million grift: Calling Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to enforce Deceptive Trade Practices Act:

But there was also this, from the New York Times account, which bears closer scrutiny:

Investigators went further on Monday, detailing how the Trump campaign and its Republican allies used claims of a rigged election that they knew were false to mislead small donors and raise as much as $250 million for an entity they called the Official Election Defense Fund, which top campaign aides testified never existed.

“Not only was there the big lie,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who played a key role in the hearing, “there was the big rip-off.”

Money ostensibly raised to “stop the steal” instead went to Mr. Trump and his allies, including, the investigation found, $1 million for a charitable foundation run by Mark Meadows, his chief of staff; $1 million to a political group run by several of his former staff members, including Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda; more than $200,000 to Trump hotels; and $5 million to Event Strategies Inc., which ran the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol riot.

Aides said Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., was paid $60,000 to speak at that event, a speech that lasted less than three minutes.

“It is clear that he intentionally misled his donors, asked them to donate to a fund that didn’t exist and used the money raised for something other than what he said,” Ms. Lofgren said of Mr. Trump.