Yes, and many of those people are the working people whose chains the SWP and
similar groups are fighting to remove. The thinkers among us may say that their
interests are in common with those of fast food workers and farm workers. But
all of those white displaced workers, along with cops and fossil fuel company
employees, will not.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2017 1:06 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: US Has Budgeted $49M For Venezuelan Right-Wing
Since 2009
These bleating protests being mouthed by our self righteous Leaders.
You know, the defenders of democracy? I can no longer listen to these lying,
or if not lying then, these stupid fools. I used to shout at my TV, "don't you
know that nobody believes your pretenses at loving the little children while
your bombs are blowing them into bits of bloody flesh? But then I heard more
and more mindless 200% American boys and girls cheering and praising God
because He is on our side.
After the ugly mumbling of the Brave White Southerners cursing the mayor of New
Orleans for ordering four statues of "Southern Heroes"
removed, without their slightest understanding that these "Heroes"
were a large part of the continuing White War against People of Color.
I said "without their slightest understanding", tongue in cheek.
Anyway, after listening to the hateful shouts against the mayor, elected to
govern a city in these United States of America, preferring to stand tall for
Rebels who would rather turn on the USA so that they could keep their old life
in tact. Especially their Right to own other human beings. They, the White
Grumblers in today's New Orleans want the world to know that they are such good
citizens that they feel no concern over backing a bunch of Losers. Losers!
Jeff Davis(my own great great uncle), Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson...and on
and on.
These men were never heroes. Even had they succeeded in tearing the Union
apart, they were no less wrong in their treatment of humans from Africa. And
when will we wake up and confess that George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson and so many other "Freedom Fighters"
and even more important, winners, still had feet of clay. They did not set up
the sort of government so many people like to believe exists. We live in an
Oligarchy. Pure and simple. And it well might slide into a
dictatorship...controlled by our mighty military. And I just know that there
will be crowds of folk stamping their feet and shouting Hoorays as His Eminence
Lord Donald Trump steps down from his great Air force One, and blows kisses and
blessings to the mob.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/23/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What this means is, the US has budgeted money to interfere with the
working of another government and the article describes what this
actually means which is decidedly not the support of democracy. In
other words, our government is doing in Venezuela, what we are
accusing Russia of doing here.
Miriam
US Has Budgeted $49M For Venezuelan Right-Wing Since 2009
U.S.-funded violent opposition protests continued into their seventh week.
|
Photo: Reuters
Educate! US Foreign Policy, US Imperialism, Venezuela By Staff,
www.telesurtv.net May 22nd, 2017
Above Photo: U.S.-funded violent opposition protests continued into
their seventh week. | Photo: Reuters
The funds have now become a mainstay of the U.S. State Department
congressional budget for foreign operations.
Since at least 2009 the U.S. Department of State has budgeted at least
US$49
million in total to support right-wing opposition forces in Venezuela
who are now in their seventh week of violent protests to oust
democratically-elected President Nicolas Maduro.
According to the 2010 budget justification, which designated US$6
million that year to Venezuela's "Economic Support Fund" the budget
"will support efforts to preserve and expand democratic space through
programs that strengthen and promote civil society, citizen
participation, independent media, human rights organizations, and democratic
political parties."
In a more detailed breakdown of the 2011 US$5 million budgeted for
Venezuelan economic support, the budget indicates that US$1 million
was designated specifically for the support of "political competition
and consensus building."
Throughout its budget justifications for Venezuela, the State
Department repeatedly emphasizes its concern over the "increasingly
authoritarian tendencies" of the governments of the late President
Hugo Chavez, and current President Nicolas Maduro, in spite of
regularly scheduled elections that are internationally recognized.
The 2009 budget reiterated support and continued funding for the
Organization of American States in order to deploy teams of "democracy
practitioners" to Venezuela and Bolivia where they say "democracy is
threatened by the growing presence of alternate concepts such as
'participatory democracy'." The nature of the activities carried out
by these teams is unclear in the budgets.
OAS General-Secretary Luis Almagro has led a campaign to ousted
Venezuela from the regional organization and on April 26, the body
voted to hold a meeting on the situation in the country, which
Venezuela called a violation of its sovereignty, leading President
Nicolas Maduro to announce the nation's formal withdrawal from the group.
In its 2011 budget, the State Department wrote, "The United States has
a major interest in preserving and strengthening Venezuelan democratic
institutions."
Since the beginning of Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, with the
democratic election of former President Hugo Chavez in 1998, the
oil-rich nation has been repeatedly attacked as "undemocratic."
President Maduro has reiterated that elections will be held on
schedule in 2018, but the opposition has demanded his immediate
removal, seeking foreign intervention in its destabilization campaign.
The revolutionary government has significantly eroded the political
and economic hegemony the U.S. had over Venezuelan oil, which holds
one of the largest petroleum reserves in the world. Prior to the
election of Chavez, in spite of its vast resource wealth, Venezuela
was plagued by sharp class inequalities.
According to United Nations sources, poverty rates in Venezuela were
nearing
60 percent before 1998, and by 2015 were halved to less than 30
percent in spite of an economic crisis triggered by falling oil
prices. Under the Bolivarian government, health care has been made
widely available through the Barrio Adentro program, and average life
expectancy has steadily risen.
The U.S. government is silent on the widespread violence of the
right-wing opposition groups that they fund, which in 2014 resulted in
43 deaths, of which the opposition was responsible for more than half.
Currently, violent protests by the right wing calling for Maduro's
ouster continue into their seventh week and have already resulted in
at least 50 deaths and many more injuries, exceeding the causualties
of the opposition violence in 2014. In spite of the government calling
for dialogue and participation in its constituent assembly debates,
the opposition has refused to participate and called on supporters to
continue protests.
Indicating an awareness that their regime change efforts are not
well-received among the mass of the people, the 2008 budget wrote,
"Democracy in Latin America, as it has been promoted by the developed
countries, is being increasingly defined by populist voices as
exploitative and imperialist."
According to a 2007 U.S. strategic document leaked by former
CIA-whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, Venezuela was seen as the
main adversary of the United States in the Western Hemisphere. The
country was listed as one of the top six "enduring targets for the
NSA," along with China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Russia.
