Discouraging but true!
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2017 10:57 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Trump's Tough New Sanctions Will Harm The People
Of Venezuela
Miriam,
As I said in my last ramble, I pay little attention to the people who are
repeating that which has been hammered into their brains their entire lives.
It is not words that will change their minds. We can never wrestle the podium
away from the moneyed hands that have held fast to it since the beginning of
this nation. Much of my life I was one of those who repeated what I had "been
taught" to think. What will change Rulers, are the Rulers, themselves. Their
uncaring indifference, their contempt for those who are not members of their
Oligarchy, their ignorance regarding the needs of the people who serve them.
It will all unravel, because Nature will correct Her mistakes.
And Capitalism is definitely a dangerous mistake to Nature's balance.
If we really had Leaders instead of Profiteers guiding our progress, indeed, if
we did have Progress, we might survive. But since we behave like a huge herd
of sheep, following one shepherd after another, simply because they carry a
staff, we will most likely be done and done before the turn of the next
century...which will never be entered into Man's History.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/1/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The working class won't, I'm afraid, figure out anything. My helper,
the one who shops and does errands for me said, the other day, "Well,
next time we'll have better candiddates and things will improve". And
I'm afraid that, that's what most people think, not the people who
write articles or go to demonstrations, but most people. Of course,
I'm living on Long Island which, politically, is sort of like living in the
Midwest.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2017 12:33 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Trump's Tough New Sanctions Will Harm
The People Of Venezuela
You're right, Miriam.
In fact the Founding Fathers must have gotten dizzy spinning in their
graves when a "Black" man ascended to the Oval Throne room. These
wise men of no color, had carefully crafted a document that protected
them, but excluded People of Color...along with Womenfolk, Drifters, young
adults under 21.
The under 21 exclusion was in answer to concerns that people of such
young years could not have had time or experience to understand the
complexities involved in running a government. And of course
womenfolk and non White were, as hard as it is to admit, less
insightful and less stable than were the "regular guys". In those
early days, America was really Great. And Donald Trump and his
Profiteers are committed to making America Great again, just as soon
as they finish conning the American working class into paying for that
all important Wall. Remember that Wall? The one Trump promised
emphatically to force Mexico to pay for? Tough talk, Cowboy Trump, but
aren't you a bit light in the shorts? Watch how these Privateers operate.
You will see an example of Capitalism at work. What is now going on
in the White House is exactly what went on in those "privileged"
meetings I was allowed to attend with my dad.
Heads of company's, back slapping and schmoozing one another, only to
rush back to their posh offices and begin to use the information they
weaseled out of one another, in order to beat the competition. Being
naive, I thought that the next time these men tried to do business
together, they would start swinging at one another. But I was dead
wrong. It was all part of the game of Capitalism. They played by
rules unknown to me. Rough and tough and ruthless. Whoever gained
the top of the heap gained the respect of all the others. Even though
they'd knife him in the back without hesitation. Donald is playing
the game, except he's doing it in the White House instead of his
corporate headquarters. Because the working class play by an even
different set of rules, it will take some time for them to figure out
that they are being "played" for suckers. But woe be to Donald Trump
and his frisky Privateers when the Working Class gets the hang of the game,
and begin roughing up the opposition.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/31/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
I would amend your analysis by pointing out that the US chose to
expand to the south, rather than to the north, because all of the
people who lived south of it were brown skinned and, therefore, not
entitled to live freely in their homes and benefit from the fruits of
their labor. Many of the Spanish actually mixed with the native
populations that they conquered. But the English, to the north, did
mot mix with the native population they found there. So to citizens
of our country, Canada was a respectable country, not to be messed with.
But all of those Indians and mixed breed folks to our south, were
quite another matter.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2017 9:22 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Trump's Tough New Sanctions Will Harm
The People Of Venezuela
As part of the Great Western Expansion, the American Empire came
smack dab up against the Pacific Ocean. What to do. Not spoiling
for another pissing match with Jolly Old England, the Empire shied
away from grabbing chunks of Canada. So the natural thing to do was
to head South. After hacking off chunks of Mexico...probably because
those Mexicans were trying to get into the USA even back then, we
picked a fight with a down at the heels Spain.
We came away with Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines. And then we
headed South to Central America and on into South America. Even as
the Empire plotted on how to grab off exclusive trade rights with
Japan and China, the American Empire plunged headlong into exploiting
all of Latin America.
Through their usual up front techniques of lies, deception, sneaky
back stabbing and pretense, the Empire managed to shove a whole lot
of money into their private accounts before any major protests arose.
It's a record of such horror and murder, that it would take far more
time and space than we share here. But if some of you recall a book
back in the 50's titled , The Ugly American, then you have a pretty
good picture of how the Proud Americans were seen in the eyes of not
only Latin America, but by the entire international community. Sure,
it's true that being the Town Bully is lonely, but it's worth a huge
fortune.
And now we've put a real estate profiteer turned Emperor, darting and
jabbing and cursing anything that moves. These next 3 plus years are
going to be one wild ride.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/31/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Trump's Tough New Sanctions Will Harm The People Of Venezuela
C Getty Images
By Mark Weisbrot, www.thehill.com
August 29th, 2017
Abvoe Photo: C Getty Images
Note: The new US sanctions against Venezuela are part of a US
campaign for regime change since Hugo Chavez was elected in 1999.
The US-Venezuela Oligarchs undermining of the economy is a tool the
US has used in other regime change operations. The economy of
Venezuela was handling the US-oligarch attack until the tremendous
drop in the price of oil from $150 a barrel to under $50 a barrel.
But, do not think these sanctions are anything other than economic
warfare with the goal of changing the government of Venezuela to one
that is friendly to the United States and its corporate interests.
KZ
The Trump administration announced new, unprecedented
sanctionsagainst Venezuela on Friday that are designed to cut off
financing to Venezuela.
The
Trump team pretends that the sanctions are only directed at the
government.
But as any economist knows, this is clearly false. By starving the
economy of foreign exchange, this action will harm the private
sector, most Venezuelans, the poor and the vulnerable.
These sanctions will deepen the severe depression that Venezuela's
economy has been in for more than three and a half years, which has
already shrunk income per person by more than a third. They will
worsen the shortages of food and essential medicines. They will
exacerbate the country's balance of payments crisis, and therefore
feed the spiral of inflation (600 percent over the past year) and
depreciation of the currency (on the black market) that has been
accelerating since late 2012.
And they will further polarize an already divided country.
Opposition leaders who support the sanctions, or are associated with
them because of their longstanding ties to the United States, will
be seen as treasonous - much as Republicans in the Trump
administration, including Trump himself, are portrayed by those who
believe they collaborated with the Russian government to win the 2016
election.
Trump's sanctions are also illegal under both U.S. and international
law.
They violate the charter of the Organization of American States
(Chapter 4, Article 19) and other international treaties that the U.S.
has signed. To comply with U.S. law, the president also has to lie
and say that Americans are suffering from a "national emergency" due
to an "unusual and extraordinary threat to national security" posed
by Venezuela. This is obviously ridiculous.
The sanctions do their damage primarily by prohibiting Venezuela
from borrowing or selling assets in the U.S. financial system. They
also prohibit CITGO, the U.S.-based fuel industry company that is
owned by the Venezuelan government, from sending dividends or
profits back to Venezuela. In addition, if Venezuela wanted to do a
debt restructuring, so as to reduce debt service during the current
crisis, it would be unable to do this because it wouldn't be able to
issue new bonds.
Basically, Trump's executive order will cut off most sources of
potential financing, other than from Russia or China. This would
cause imports, which have already fallen by more than 75 percent
over the past five years, to fall further. This means more shortages
and further economic decline, since much of Venezuela's domestic
production is dependent on imports. The executive order carries an
exemption for oil imports from Venezuela.
Why would Trump do something that even his right-wing allies in
Latin America, and most of the Venezuelan opposition, did not
support when Trump threatened to do this last month? As with many
apparently irrational decisions by this president, it's not that
easy to know for sure. But it seems that the strategy is to further
destroy the economy to the point where people will rise up and
overthrow the government, or perhaps to provoke a military coup.
In the last few weeks, the violent street protests have died down.
Most of the opposition leaders have agreed to participate in the
long-delayed October regional elections. This is a positive
development for those who would like to see a peaceful resolution of
the conflict. But for regime-change extremists like Marco Rubio,
whom Trump seems to be listening to on Venezuela, peace is bad news,
especially for the media strategy of "if it bleeds, it leads." They
may see exacerbating the economic crisis and suffering to their
advantage, hoping to bring people back into the streets and away
from the negotiations that will be necessary to settle the conflict.
Finally, we cannot discount the possibility that Trump has also
issued this order as yet another distraction from his bad political
fortunes at home.
Distraction has been his modus operandi since his presidential
campaign last year. In this case it is particularly dangerous
because he has also threatened military action against Venezuela, and U.S.
sanctions of this magnitude have often been followed by military
attacks.
As Trump's presidency continues to putrefy, the urge to rescue it
with war will certainly grow. Venezuela is not the best target for
public relations purposes because the "security threat" is a tough
sell. But Trump and his advisers may see it as less risky than some
of the alternatives, such as North Korea, Iran or Syria.
