[Gowans] On the heels of another Washington-backed attempt to engineer a coup d’état in Venezuela, Jacobin, a periodical that bills itself as “a leading voice of the American Left,” has published an assault on the Bolivarian Revolution. Following Oscar Wilde’s quip about enemies stabbing you in the back but friends stabbing you in the front, Jacobin contributor Gabriel Hetland has aimed his dagger thrust squarely from the front, though not before voicing a profusion of friendly bon mots about Leftist solidarity. The University of Albany academic, another agent of imperialism masquerading as a beautiful soul, has done what a long line of Left imperialists has done before him: counselled against supporting those who have organized to overcome their oppression by the Left imperialists’ own governments.
In “Venezuela and the Left,” Hetland draws on a 2016 article he wrote for The Nation, titled “Why Is Venezuela in Crisis?” In that article, the Jacobin contributor points to the near “impossibility of disentangling the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ aspects of the crisis” in Venezuela, noting that “the government has not acted in a vacuum, but in a hostile domestic and international environment.” A reasonable person might agree. The hostile domestic and international environment has structured the viable range of responses available to the Venezuelan government, and we can’t understand or evaluate the government’s actions without taking account of the environment in which it has had to act. One might conclude, then, that Hetland is a reasonable person.
However, no sooner does he acknowledge the near impossibility of disentangling the internal and external aspects of the crisis, than he declares the Gordian knot cut. “To an agonizingly large degree,” he tells us, “Venezuela’s crisis is of the government’s own making.” And thereupon the hostile domestic and international environment vanishes, never again to trouble our thoughts.
Hetland appoints himself as the great docent of the Left, a man with all the answers, able to sort through what he assures us are difficult questions, and to do so in only 1,000 words. He begins his Jacobin article by asking: "How should we respond?" to the crisis in Venezuela (which, let’s remember, was brought about by Washington seeking to topple the Maduro government) after which he proceeds to enumerate a series of "we shoulds," as if he’s a pontiff declaring how the faithful ought to conduct itself. Amusingly, he tells us there are no easy answers, and then quickly furnishes us with some. Easy answer 1. Chavez should have ended Venezuela’s oil dependency. Easy answer 2. Chavez should have ended corruption. Easy answer 3. Chavez should have....And so on. If only Chavez had consulted Hetland, arbiter of difficult questions, the whole crisis could have been averted. Easy answer 4. We should support the angels. Get a bag of popcorn and click through to read the rest.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
05/06/2019 00:00 ||
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As much as one might like to hope that the attempted coup in Venezuela's failure puts an end to that particular strategy, there is useful context in this Global Research piece, to the effect that there was a failed coup against Allende in June 1973 that was actually used, and perhaps designed, to set the table for a more aggressive coup, with more open US involvement, in September.
[GlobalResearch] Comparison with the Failed June 29, 1973 Coup which preceded the September 11, 1973 military coup against Salvador Allende
[MoonOfAlabama] Tuesday's clownish coup attempt in Venezuela failed. The Trump administration got snookered. It will have to either change its tactic or leave the issue alone. National Security Advisor John Bolton is pressing for a war on Venezuela.
While the Pentagon and the countries neighboring Venezuela are against the use of military force, it is Bolton who has President Trump's ear. The planning for a war seems to progress fast.
Venezuela is not an easy target. Colonel (ret.) Larry Wilkerson, the former Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, writes:
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
05/06/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Good old Larry Wlkerson, Colin Powell's liaison to the American Left.
#4
Nahhhhh. Links and Conspiracy theories, applied with the Neo-Con™ epithet, doesn't make him right. We would be foolish to intervene directly. Let Columbia and Brazil do it. We should blockade Cuban relief
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/06/2019 9:46 Comments ||
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#5
I seriously doubt the US was behind the coup. We're either hammering ISIS so we can pull back, or pulling back. A coup isn't really the Trump style. I think starvation is a more likely culprit.
[Washington Examiner] The central theme of Democratic campaigns this year is that American capitalism doesn’t work for the working man, and so we need to replace it, or at least dramatically reshape our economy. These folks should take a look at the economic numbers that have come out in the past few days.
For starters, the headline numbers are amazing. Employers added 263,000 jobs in April, helping bring unemployment down to 3.7%, the lowest number in 50 years. Wages increased by an average of 3.2%.
These great topline numbers are not enough, though, to refute the naysayers and the revolutionaries. Since March 2009 (the bottom of the financial crisis), while the stock market has steadily risen and the economy has steadily grown, not everybody has seen this growth. The working class has mostly seen stagnation. The highest-educated counties have experienced basically all of the growth, leaving most of Middle America in decline.
#1
The demoncrats don't want a functional economy. They want communism with them at the top and everyone dependent on the government. That is how they keep power.
#2
Interesting to imagine this "capitalism doesn't work" game plan being used if Hillary had been elected and we didn't have the Trump economic recovery so obviously refuting it. Lot of younglings are/were ready to lap it up. We really were close to a tipping point.
#3
If we had real reporters nowadays, it would be fun to have these assholes explain exactly how 'capitalism doesn't work'. It works just fine for me, but then again I'm not sitting on my ass looking for welfare checks.
#4
Economy is doing great. Thanks, Obama - thanks for not being President anymore.
As for being at/near a tipping point, it was disturbing to see how many people were giddy over Bernie Sanders in the run-up to the last election. Of course, not one of them knew what Venezuela was. Or would become.
[Rudaw] Washington is considering blacklisting the Moslem Brüderbund as a terrorist organization, but experts warn the move would risk radicalising its members and further destabilising the Arab world.
A grassroots Islamist movement with affiliates in several countries including The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... 's ruling AKP party, and Tunisia's Ennahda, the Brotherhood has holy warrior offshoots but officially renounced violence in the 1970s. Taqqiya Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/06/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
yes blacklisting terrorists will increase the number of blacklisted terrorists.
instead we should give them money for being terrorists. that is what these "experts" recommend.
that will increase terrorism and hence the importance of these experts.
Posted by: Daniel ||
05/06/2019 3:03 Comments ||
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#2
yes, by all means... let's not alienate the terrorists, they might do something rash.
#5
Ratio of 30-to-1 has shown up when studying revolutionary movements: It takes roughly thirty (30) "fellow sympathizers/ part-time members" to support one (1) "full-time cadre / revolutionary".
So you aren't radicalizing them, you are attacking their logistical support. Logistics B Hard™ -- someone has to support these people, which is a fact that tends to be overlooked by newsies.
#8
Ratio of 30-to-1 has shown up when studying revolutionary movements: It takes roughly thirty (30) "fellow sympathizers/ part-time members" to support one (1) "full-time cadre / revolutionary".
#9
Magpie -- the newsies are fully aware, as they are an essential part of the success of terrorists. They're the ones who endlessly argue why terrorists shouldn't be snuffed out, and who carefully explain the "grievances" behind terrorist movements after attacks.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/06/2019 19:29 Comments ||
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#10
The fact that all of the Sri Lanka bombers were from prosperous families shoots this line of BS in the butt
But then the media has done backwards somersaults and cartwheels to avoid that fact
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
