Excellent video and explanaton of Guaido's situation and who's behind him (e.g. pompeo, bolton, Abrams aka the swamp)
A good video that refutes some of the more commonly repeated statements by the media conglomerates regarding what has happened in VZ. This video is helpful in understanding the powers behind the push for regime change in VZ and why. Also, it helps to make the connection in regard to why Pope Francis is supporting climate change and condemning things such as the US pulling out of the Paris climate accords.
Actually, Richard has posted that photo three times now within in 10 weeks, #26, #355, #385. This past Friday and Saturday he replied to two of my posts with this photo and neither of my posts supported Guaido. In fact, I have never stated that I support Guaido or a coup or anything of that nature. I have only posted in support of the Venezuelan people and in opposition to Maduro and for prayers. So no, it is not insulting or demeaning for me to state that it is nonsense or childish to continually post that photo in reply to my posts which do not promote Guaido. And yes, it is ridiculous that Richard will not admit that Maduro has been bad for the people of Venezuela. In addition, how can anyone possibly think that it is moral to ride motorcycles into a church and teargas people who are worshipping Our Lord. This is not ok and it is ridiculous to think otherwise. Again, I am not in support of the USA intervening militarily in Venezuela but I want to mention to you that in the article that you posted from Pat Buchanan #386 he states, "Let the Venezuelans decide their own destiny, as did we.". Mr. Buchanan appears to have forgotten that France helped the American patriots during the Revolutionary War. I wonder if Mr. Buchanan thinks that the last presidential election that took place in Venezuela was a fair election, I do not. I agree with the European countries which are calling for a new free and fair presidential election to take place in Venezuela, I think that this would be a good start to help the people of Venezuela assuming that the new election was truly free and fair.
Richard only a Freemason would justify communist Maduro and his thugs. Besides the military and police nobody else has guns in Venezuela. How can they defend themselves from a totalitarian government that rigged elections and took away their guns? This is 1984. Regime change is necessary, like it was with the Soviet Union. I am just astounded how much you have changed in this forum. Or is it that I never really knew you. Guaido is an interim President for the one that will be chosen by the people. It does not matter right now if he’s a Mason or not. What’s important is that he’s showing the world the evils of the current government. He is there for the transition. Guaido is being used by those trying to convince the Mason’s that the transition should be peaceful. My point which you seem to overlook is that this is a fight between the anti communist non Mason group in the U.S., and the closet leftist Mason who pretends to be conservative in the Pentagon, etc. And so far the U.S. leftists want no part of a transition. They don’t buy the Mason Guaido carrot. They see Pence and know their dealings and money making in Guantanamo and Havana would be over. We let the Mason Neo Cons use the Cubans once again, as the excuse, to continue business as usual.
US State Department publishes, then deletes sadistic Venezuela hit list boasting of economic ruin The Grayzone has obtained a list of “key outcomes” on Venezuela deleted out of apparent embarrassment by the State Department. It boasts of wrecking the nation’s economy, destabilizing its military, and puppeteering its political opposition. By Anya Parampil On April 24, six days before self-proclaimed Venezuelan “interim president” Juan Guaido’s attempt to violently overthrow Venezuela’s democratically elected government alongside a handful of military defectors, the U.S. State Department published a fact sheet that boasted of Washington’s central role in the ongoing coup attempt. After realizing the incriminating nature of its error, the State Department quickly acted to remove the page. The Grayzone has obtained a full copy of the expunged report. The deleted page puts to bed any claims of Guaido’s independence from Washington, as the State Department emphasizes the fact that he “announced his interim presidency… in January” at the the top of a section dedicated to breaking down “key outcomes” of U.S. efforts with regard to Venezuela. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kimberly Breier recently took to Twitter to claim that “since he became acting president, Juan Guaido has given tangible results to the people of Venezuela.” Her tweet was accompanied with an infographic detailing alleged accomplishments of the powerless coup administration based on data compiled by the legally defunct National Assembly, the only governing body actually controlled by Guaido. But the Venezuela fact sheet posted and then deleted days earlier by the State Department told a dramatically different story. Read the entire expunged fact sheet here [PDF] and at the end of this article. The State Department’s economic hit list Entitled “U.S. Actions on Venezuela,” the document boasted that U.S. policy had effectively prevented the Venezuelan government from participating in the international market and has led to the freezing of its overseas assets. It read like a sadistic celebration of Washington’s retribution against the Venezuelan population as a whole, the kind of collective punishment which is illegal according to Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions. The State Department gloated in the deleted fact sheet that its policy had ensured that the Maduro government “cannot rely on the U.S. financial system” to conduct business, noting “key outcomes” of U.S. actions include the fact that “roughly $3.2 billion of Venezuela’s overseas are frozen.” It went on to boast that “Venezuela’s oil production fell to 736,000 barrels per day in March… substantially reducing” government revenue. “If I were the State Department I wouldn’t brag about causing a cut in oil production to 763,000 barrels per day — which is a 36 percent drop, in just the two months of February and March this year,” Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director at the Center For Economic and Policy Research, told The Grayzone. “This means even more premature deaths than the tens of thousands that resulted from sanctions last year.” Weisbrot recently co-authored a bracing report which found that 40,000 Venezuelans died between 2017 and 2018 as a direct result of U.S. sanctions. The State Department patted itself on the back for announcing its preparedness “to provide an additional $20 million in initial humanitarian assistance” to Venezuela, however, the CEPR report concluded that Trump Administration sanctions implemented in August 2017 resulted in “a loss of $6 billion in oil revenue over the ensuing year” alone. While the State Department praised the opposition for “providing medical and hygiene attention to over 6,000” Venezuelans, those numbers dwarf in comparison to the 300,000 people CEPR “estimated to be at risk because of lack of access to medicines or treatment… [including] 80,000 people with HIV who have not had antiretroviral treatment since 2017, 16,000 people who need dialysis, 16,000 people with cancer, and 4 million with diabetes and hypertension.” In other words, the supposed “Venezuela Crisis Response Assistance” touted by the State Department is not even a band-aid over the gaping wound that US unilateral coercive measures have inflicted on the country. In Weisbrot’s view, the “policy” and “outcomes” promoted by the State Department in the disappeared document will merely lead to “more cuts in imports of medicine, food, medical equipment, and inputs necessary to maintain water, health, and sanitation infrastructure.” Having denied the Venezuelan government the ability to provide for its own population, the U.S. has essentially promised that thousands more deaths will occur. The State Department did not respond to The Grayzone’s request for a comment on the fact sheet it deleted. “A list of confessions” In a recent interview with The Grayzone, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations Samuel Moncada characterized the deleted State Department fact sheet as “a list of confessions.” “Imagine if any other country says… it’s proud of saying that we are destroying the economy of our neighbor; we are proud that we destroyed the political system of our neighbor; we are proud that they are suffering. They are saying we are waging war against Venezuela,” Moncada emphasized. The ambassador went on to accuse the U.S. of engaging in “bullying” rather than international diplomacy. The State Department’s own fact sheet appears to support this accusation, as it asserts “diplomatic pressure resulted in fewer markets for Venezuelan gold.” The document further highlighted U.S. actions that have supposedly led “more than 1,000 members of the military [to recognize] Juan Guaido as interim President” and defect to Colombia, as well as stranding “an estimated 25 crude oil tankers with 12 million barrels” off Venezuela’s coast. “They [say] it’s our ‘key’ achievements,” Moncada commented. “They are saying that they are causing trouble in our military and inducing a military coup, [which] so far they haven’t achieved, but they are working towards.” “If any other person says that themselves,” the ambassador concluded, “and you take that confession to court, they would be in prison.” The State Department’s fact sheet even frames recent decisions by the Organization of American States, Lima Group, Inter-American Development Bank, and European Union to either recognize or support Guaido’s shadow administration as a U.S. achievement, highlighting Washington’s outsized influence within each of these supposedly international governing bodies. The decision to mention the E.U. and Lima Group is particularly noteworthy considering the United States is not a member of either organization. “They are so far out of any normal parameters of decency, morality, legality, reason, that really they are dangerous,” Moncada said of the Trump administration. “They are a real threat to international peace, and they are a real threat to my people.” https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/06/...venezuela-hit-list-boasting-of-economic-ruin/
Hi Carol, I respect your comments and you provide interesting info. on many topics. However, ad hominem attacks detract from the points you're trying to make. Calling someone 'childish' or an argument 'ridiculous' impugns the character of the person you are having a discussion with. While I have not read Richard's views in depth, I believe he is presenting a non-mainstream alternative viewpoint. Our media, including Fox News, are subject to heavy duty propaganda. Yes, Maduro and Chavez are/were bad, bad guys. However, Guaido and the coup may well be a US creation. Perhaps this situation is similar to the Ukranian coup in 2014 (article below). US neocons meddle all over the world. If you follow the mainstream conservative US political narrative, you'll believe these meddlings are good cuz, you know, the US is the world's good cop and has the duty to meddle wherever it wants. But, if you start questioning that narrative, you too might be red pilled. US Staged a Coup in Ukraine — Brief History and Facts World Affairs Dec 18, 2017 If you can detach yourself from the official narrative and be neutral for a few minutes, you’ll find this article interesting. So what happened in late 2013 and early 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine? There was the Euromaidan “revolution” and the Ukrainian President fled the country, right? Not so simple. There is geopolitics and a history of 70 years of meddling in Ukraine by the US. First, objectively speaking, it’s curious that a US Senator (John McCain) and the US Assistant Secretary of State (Victoria Nuland) repeatedly attended political protests in another country. Oh, Nuland is also the wife of a prominent warmongering Neocon, Robert Kagan. Imagine if Russian officials were in Mexico doing this at anti-US rallies! McCain speaking at Euromaidan Asst. Sec. of State Victoria Nuland in Kiev, Ukraine, handing out cookies to protesters Victoria Nuland also admitted during a speech in 2014 that the US had spent $5 BILLION since the 1990s to spread “democracy” in Ukraine. (1-min video below): When you say, George Soros, many people roll their eyes and think Conspiracy Theories. But Soros’ own group — IRF or International Renaissance Foundation — admits in its 2015 annual report that it has spent more than $180 MILLION in Ukraine since 1990. NED or National Endowment of Democracy is a US taxpayer-funded group that specializes in … ahem … regime change. It’s chief, Carl Gershman, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in 2013 (just before the protests) that “Ukraine is the biggest prize.” Michael McFaul — US Ambassador to Russia, 2012–2014 — "); wrote an op-ed in WaPo in 2004 where he asked, “Did Americans meddle in the internal affairs of Ukraine?” Then he answered it, “Yes.” Why did McFaul write the article? Because in 2004, Soros and other NGOs fomented the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Basically, the election was won by a pro-Russia guy. So people protested and demanded a new election. Then, a month later, the pro-US guy won the new election with 52% of the votes. Democracy, America-style. BTW, that guy — Yanukovych — who lost the election in 2004 … ran again in 2010 and won fair and square. That’s why we had Euromaidan. If you go back in history, you will see that the CIA worked with Neo-Nazis(!!) and ultra-nationalists in Ukraine for decades, starting right after World War II. "); Declassified CIA documents talk about Project Aerodynamicin 1950s and ’60s that recruited Ukrainian nationalists — including Nazis and war criminals such as Mykola Lebed who was accused of "); killing tens of thousands of Poles and Jews — to work against the USSR. So, now hopefully you can clearly see the patterns and that Ukraine is really of special importance to the US. But why? Well, have you heard of Brzezinski, the geopolitical expert who influenced US foreign policy for 40 years? He came up with the idea of Mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the USSR, created Al Qaeda, and then repeated the same strategy of using Islamic terrorists in Libya and Syria. Brzezinski explained in his 1997 book, The Grand Chessboard, that “Ukraine is a geopolitical pivot. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.” So, the entire meddling in Ukraine by US is about desire for hegemony over Eurasia, Russia and the world. That’s what it's all about! So what exactly transpired in Euromaidan in Dec 2013-Feb 2014? Soros, NED and other NGO’s riled up the people in Kyiv Neo-Nazi thugs acted as provocateurs and attacked the police with metals, chains, fire-bombs and grenades Snipers, allegedly from Georgia, killed both the police and the protesters. (EU officials were also recorded discussing medical records that showed the same type of bullets killed both the cops and the protesters). US/EU officials used the chaos to drive the democratically elected president out of the country. Then, without an election, new oligarchs — a billionaire and an IMF guy — were handpicked by the West to become the president and the prime minister of Ukraine! Democracy!! So that’s the truth about the coup in Ukraine.
Ave Maria SunnyVeil said: ↑ Hi Carol, I respect your comments and you provide interesting info. on many topics. However, ad hominem attacks detract from the points you're trying to make. Calling someone 'childish' or an argument 'ridiculous' impugns the character of the person you are having a discussion with. -------------------------------------------------- Generally when it is pointed-out to most people that they have offended another person with personal comments against their character (as opposed to that person taking offence to a fact-based argument) - most people will apologise. It is strange when one replies in the above manner, and I quote below, "Well Sunnyveil, we'll just have to disagree on this. [/QUOTE]"
" It does not matter right now if he’s a Mason or not. " Did you really say this in reference to Guaido, Byron... In my opinion - if I'm permitted to offer a different opinion without being insulted, is that the entire Venezuela affair just gets seems to get murkier and murkier. Maybe it's bcoz of all the oil they have?! Any other argument is really just smoke and mirrors. The press push the same old, tried and tested 'we want to help the long suffering ppl of X' (in this instance poor old Venezuela) And the righteous ppl of the "free" West swallow it hook line and sinker. Let me ask you this... why aren't the West and their free and righteous press wailing Haiti, or lamenting injustice in any of the other assailed countries the world over? Perhaps - just PERHAPS - its bcoz of the oil little Venezuela has. Thats just a guess, if you have another reason, please, please... enlighten me
Our Lady of Fatima's feast day is May 13th. Maybe we can all offer up another rosary this week for peace to be obtained in the world.
This video provides a little idea of what some Venezuelans are going through right now in order to stay alive.
From poverty under Chavez To misery under Maduro. Hospitals don't even have running water. In the blame game it is easy and lazy to point at outside interference -- the reality is so different as it is clear poor leadership and incompetent decision making on a grand scale reduced the country to poverty. The local people know who to blame -- above is the defaced picture of Chavez. Neither Chavez nor Maduro could ever have run a pub -- they would drink it dry --- they squandered the oil money and run the country into the ground. They made false promises and failed to deliver as do all Statist governments. Let's put the blame where it is fully deserved. God preserve us all from leaders like Chavez & Maduro.
Empty malls show an economic decline. Sad how one can joke about a crisis. Socialism always hits the poor first, then the wealthy.
One of the basic principles of Bolivar, whom so many South American dictators have wished, and still wish to associate themselves with, was that no man should have power for more than one term because it is addictive and corrupting in the long term. They all seem to have missed this part of his political philosophy (strange that!). I don't believe for a moment that Chavez or Maduro was/is a convinced socialist. The pretence at socialism is usually a cover to create and entrench dictatorship by nationalising as much as possible, including food provision. Once the government controls the food, power supplies, education and health provision, they can punish individuals and communities that show less than whole-hearted enthusiasm for the 'leader' and teach the young that they blessed to have him lead them and can rob the coffers of the nationalised bodies to reward members of the inner circle. This is what happened in e.g. Cuba, North Korea and China, and is happening in Bolivia and South Africa (watch what is about to happen there!). South Africa is an interestingly similar situation with one or two 'twists'. After 25 years of majority, one party, socialist rule: the water is now unsafe to drink with sewage contamination occurring because of a failure to maintain infrastructure, funds for which were allocated but apparently went 'elsewhere'; their similarly corrupt electricity supply company, have failed to maintain infrastructure, and now cannot meet demand and there have been widespread and regular interruptions in supply and supplies may cease for weeks in the short term (they are currently using diesel during the run-up to the election to prevent interruptions, which is unsustainably expensive in the long term); they have an opposition party (the EFF) led by a man who openly threatens violence against the white and Asian minorities; the government has decided to change the constitution to enable the seizure of white owned farmland without compensation and to leave the farmers with responsibility for any mortgages on their land; their national airline was regarded as one of the best in the world in 1994 and one of the most profitable is now a financial 'basket case'. Any failure in electricity for more than a few days will seriously disrupt food distribution because almost all petrol pumps are reliant on the grid and the farmlands are mostly very distant from the cities, any long term interruption will cause some areas to suffer famine. Black economists and bankers are warning their government that leaving white farmers with debt but without the assets to fund them will cause the agricultural banks to fail which will rapidly infect the rest of the banking system. Agricultural educational establishments have warned that strenuous and long-term attempts to recruit black students have failed and that there is little relevant expertise among the black population. The stats for inequality have worsened since majority rule and the literacy rate has fallen. The rand was worth around one US dollar at 'liberation' and is now worth 7 cents. If, as seems likely, South Africa implodes into chaos, it will come as no surprise to western governments who are aware of the seriousness of the situation but are too fearful of being called 'colonialist apologists' to even mention the looming catastrophe. (Trump alone has declared the land seizures as immoral and unwise). If there is famine, financial chaos, fighting in the streets and white farming families are being slaughtered in thousands, rather than the current dozens per month, should the international community intervene or leave the politicians and army leaders behind their fences and the poor to their fate? (A rhetorical question in reality because a sovereign, independent, majority black government will have the pretended morally based backing of China, Russia, Cuba and all the other 'usual suspects' who will intend, as in Venezuela, to use the chaos for their own political and financial ends and no other nation will have the guts or will to do anything but sigh and send relief.)
Empty retail spaces are a pretty poor indicator of economic anything due to the internet. It's the same thing here. Malls are relics of the past. All these video's prove one thing for sure; people are certainly well fed there.
I hope that we can return to diplomatic relations with VZ and stop with the threats of violent overthrow and intimidation.
I recently discovered that I have cousins living in South Africa. I was unaware of this mess. Will look into it. Thank you.
Most of the people in the mall state that they support Guaido even though Max Blumenthal is trying to encourage them to state that everything is great under Madruo. Btw, Max Blumenthal/GrayZone is working for Russia. Asking for prayers is so more effective than trying to convince people that Maduro is good for Venezuela. The following video is one of many which show numerous examples of the suffering that is occurring in Venezuela. February 20, 2017 Study: Venezuelans lost 19 lbs. on average over past year due to lack of food https://www.foxnews.com/world/study...on-average-over-past-year-due-to-lack-of-food
