[Stardust]

Sorry guys, this post was meant for the Julian Assange Thread, not here, but the system doesn't allow me to remove it now.

[skinster]

[skinster]

[QatzelOk]

the ‘Maduro regime’ is a secret supporter of the Black Lives Matter protests.

The opportunity to blame Maduro for COVID-19 was squandered by scapegoating China instead - a country with no oil and one that could nuke the West if aggressed.

Choose your scapegoats wisely, world-class liars.

[skinster]

[QatzelOk]

In 2011, the U.S. through the National Endowment for Democracy funded “rock groups” in Venezuela to write songs about freedom of expression. It paid a producer, recorded the songs, and distributed them.

The penetration of popular culture by the Deep State Propaganda machine is nicely highlighted here.

It's the same back home in Freedomland Western countries where most of popular culture serves a class-reward function (for the artists) and a normalization-of-Capitalism for the commercial culture consumer (the 99%).

Countries that are only "representational" democracies are also entertained by "representational" cultural figures whose only link to the common people is the role of sheepdog for corporate shepherds.

[JohnRawls]

The penetration of popular culture by the Deep State Propaganda machine is nicely highlighted here.

It's the same back home in Freedomland Western countries where most of popular culture serves a class-reward function (for the artists) and a normalization-of-Capitalism for the commercial culture consumer (the 99%).

Countries that are only "representational" democracies are also entertained by "representational" cultural figures whose only link to the common people is the role of sheepdog for corporate shepherds.

Failures of pure command economy of socialism on full display here.

Relatively recently:

Small recent change:

[QatzelOk]

So the car-addicted of Venezuela will soon have a reason to riot for gasoline?
How did we get to the point of killing ourselves as a species for a toy like the automobile?

Baby you can drive my car - the Beatles

Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

Cars - Gary Numan

Drive - the Cars

(and a million other well-played songs on commercial radio)

[JohnRawls]

So the car-addicted of Venezuela will soon have a reason to riot for gasoline?
How did we get to the point of killing ourselves as a species for a toy like the automobile?

Baby you can drive my car - the Beatles

Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

Cars - Gary Numan

Drive - the Cars

(and a million other well-played songs on commercial radio)

Yeah, cars are so bad QATZ. Those emergency health services should let patients just die, those people without food should not get their food deliveries and starve, that stupid public transport should not exist to make travel to work 2 hours longer and unreachable for most.

There is a reason why transportation is important. It gives opportunities and saves lives. If you take it away then people loose jobs, can't work or die.

[wat0n]

So the car-addicted of Venezuela will soon have a reason to riot for gasoline?
How did we get to the point of killing ourselves as a species for a toy like the automobile?

Baby you can drive my car - the Beatles

Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

Cars - Gary Numan

Drive - the Cars

(and a million other well-played songs on commercial radio)

Well, I don't get it Qatz. Weren't these socialists super environment friendly? Why would they take 21 years to end gasoline subsidies?

[skinster]

Failures of pure command economy of socialism on full display here.

If socialism is a failure, why is the U.S. running around the world destroying it or anything similar whenever it crops up? One would think if it was a failure, the Empire wouldn't need to help it...fail.

[JohnRawls]

https://twitter.com/camilateleSUR/status/1268539932387291148?s=20



If socialism is a failure, why is the U.S. running around the world destroying it or anything similar whenever it crops up? One would think if it was a failure, the Empire wouldn't need to help it...fail. :?:

That is your warped understading of the situation.

[skinster]

^

[QatzelOk]

This tool called the elected leader of Venezuela “murderous” and “brutal,” but can’t say one critical word about Trump

The tool he is referring to - the PM of Canada - announced his election victory by comparing himself to "sunny ways" Wilfrid Laurier, the first francophone PM of Canada (late 1800s).

Thing is, "sunny ways" Laurier lent his pretty face and minority-cred to some pretty ugly politics including the assasination of Canada's most important Métis leader Louis Riel, and the repression of French language rights all across Canada.

In our day, Justin Trudeau was vetted by the same corporate politboros that rejected fake socialist Sanders in favor of fake-leader Biden. So the powers of vetting have given Canada, and will continue to give Canada, two-faced corporate whores.

[skinster]

[skinster]

[skinster]

Venezuela denounces ‘absurd decision’ of UK to retain its gold reserves
British Judge Nigel Teare ruled on Thursday July 2 against the constitutional government of Venezuela led by President Nicolás Maduro and denied access to Venezuela’s Central Bank to their gold reserves held in the Bank of England. The reasoning of the court was that the British government ‘unequivocally’ recognizes far-right opposition deputy Juan Guaidó as ‘interim president’ of the country and not democratically-elected Maduro.

The decision was denounced by Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry as “unbelievable and absurd” and an attempt to “dispossess Venezuela of its gold,” while taking away the country’s right to use the resources that belong to it and its people. In the communique released on Thursday they also highlighted that the decision is grounded on the “hallucinating self-proclamation of a Venezuelan deputy as interim president of Venezuela,” who is seeking to take control of the resources of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela “in complicity with the government of the United States.”

On May 14, the Venezuelan government had presented a request to the Bank of England to demand that the bank transfer 1 billion dollars in gold reserves that Venezuela’s Central Bank stored there. Access to their gold reserves had previously been denied by the Bank of England, but Venezuela filed the request in May in order to help in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The government argued that due to the brutal blockade of the country imposed by the U.S. government, their capacity to respond properly to contain the spread of the virus has been inhibited. Venezuela even reached a deal with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for the direct transfer of their gold assets to the UNDP to purchase food and medicine for Venezuela. Even so, Venezuela’s request for the release of any of its gold assets was rejected by Britain’s high court today Thursday July 2.

Venezuela has already suffered a lack of access to funds due to asset seizure or freezing by international banks due to the regime of sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the U.S. government and adhered to by dozens of countries under threat of penalty. In August 2017, the Trump administration issued an order which prohibits Venezuela from borrowing in U.S. financial markets. The order has had serious secondary impacts such as inability to restructure foreign debt, and Venezuela’s oil production which makes up for the largest part of their GDP has fallen to levels unseen for years. In the year following this order, the decline in production translated to a loss of 6 billion dollars of oil revenue.

Following the self-proclamation of Juan Guaidó as ‘interim president’ in January 2019 and the recognition of Guaidó by the U.S. and its allies, the regime of sanctions tightened. On January 29, the U.S. announced that it would block 7 billion dollars in assets of the Venezuelan state oil company, Petroleos De Venezuela SA (PDVSA), and 11 billion dollars of their export revenue. They also announced that they would freeze the assets of PDVSA’s U.S.-based subsidiary Citgo.

In April 2019, the sanctions announced targeted the Central Bank of Venezuela by cutting off its access to U.S. currency and further limiting its ability to conduct international financial transactions. Following this round, several international banks announced that they would freeze or retain the assets of the Venezuelan government held abroad in accounts, a move supported, and often encouraged, by Guaidó. Banks such as Citibank, Clearstream, North Capital, Novo Banco, Sumitomo and of course the Bank of England currently have retained over 4.5 billion dollars in assets of the Venezuelan government.

The impact of the sanctions and consequential retention of assets has first and foremost been on Venezuela’s people. The decrease of national revenue and the lack of access to funds has affected the Venezuelan government’s ability to run social programs, buy crucial food and medicine (not only because of lack of funds but due to blocks on transactions), and maintain public infrastructure and projects.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, this has become an even more pressing concern. Back in March, Venezuela had requested an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help fight the virus but they were rejected under pressure from the U.S. The justification was that the IMF does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as president.

In the statement released by the Foreign Ministry they deem the UK’s decision as “an act of piracy that is an assault on the right to health and life of the Venezuelan people, by taking away the necessary gold to combat one of the worst pandemics that has hit humanity, working for the extermination of the Venezuelan population.”

The rejection of aid by the IMF in March and the ruling by the Bank of England today were decisions celebrated by far-right leader Juan Guaidó, which raises serious questions about his interests. If he does care about the people of Venezuela as he claims to, should he not push for the mobilization of all possible resources to protect and support the people and strengthen public health infrastructure, instead of depriving the people and the government of key funds?

The Bolivarian government has vowed that they will appeal the decision issued by Britain’s high court and the government will denounce the attack on the integrity of the Venezuelan people in all international spaces.
https://mronline.org/2020/07/06/venezue ... -reserves/

[JohnRawls]

Venezuela's poverty rate surged in 2019 to levels unmatched elsewhere in Latin America as the once-prosperous oil producing nation's hyperinflationary economic collapse continued for a sixth-straight year, according to a new study.

The 2019-20 National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI), conducted by researchers at Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB) and published on Tuesday, found that 64.8 percent of Venezuelan households experienced "multidimensional poverty" in 2019, a measure that takes into account income as well as access to education and public services, among other factors.

[skinster]

I'm sure the sanctions and war in general on the country had nowt to do with any of that, bootlicker.

[JohnRawls]

I'm sure the sanctions and war in general on the country had nowt to do with any of that, bootlicker.

It is always somebody elses fault, isn't it?