My own Australia has of course joined the chorus of US lackeys who are refusing to recognize Venezuela’s only legitimate and elected government, recognizing instead the presidency of some guy named Juan who decided to name himself Venezuela’s president with the blessing of the United States government. A statement from our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, reads as follows:
Australia recognises and supports the President of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, in assuming the position of interim president, in accordance with the Venezuelan constitution and until elections are held. Australia calls for a transition to democracy in Venezuela as soon as possible.
Australia supported the Lima Group’s early call for Nicolas Maduro to refrain from assuming the presidency on 10 January, relayed through our non-resident Ambassador to Venezuela.
We now urge all parties to work constructively towards a peaceful resolution of the situation, including a return to democracy, respect for the rule of law and upholding of human rights of the Venezuelan people.
It was only a matter of time before such a statement was issued. Australia has long served as Washington’s basement gimp, marching to the beat of US foreign policy on all issues no matter how idiotic or dangerous for as far back as I can remember. My country has seamlessly transitioned from British colony to US military/intelligence asset without ever once raising its head toward anything resembling national sovereignty except once briefly in the mid-seventies, which saw a CIA/MI6 coup oust our elected leadership here. This coup was preceded by our then-Prime Minister’s discovery that Australian intelligence officers had been operating as proxies of the CIA to overthrow the Allende government in Chile in yet another sovereignty-violating coup, one which has often been compared to what we’re seeing in Venezuela today.
https://twitter.com/jaraparilla/status/1089676633496158210
The US government and its assorted client states have no business whatsoever issuing orders and ultimatums decreeing that a government of a sovereign nation must restructure itself, but here we are. Sovereignty is such an alien concept in a collective reality tunnel that has been shaped by propaganda to view imperialism, American exceptionalism and nonstop interventionism as perfectly normal that we now have the American establishment simultaneously (A) shrieking about Russian clickbait on Facebook as an unforgivable act of war, and (B) using crushing sanctions, CIA covert ops, and an active campaign to delegitimize a nation’s leadership in order to topple an entire government. This wild discrepancy is justified with the unquestioned assumption that the US has something called “moral authority” in the world, while Russia and Venezuela lack moral authority, despite the US being responsible for innumerable acts of butchery and destruction which are grossly immoral by any metric.
In a recent talk with Fox’s Ann Coulter, sniveling war pundit Bill Maher cited the Monroe Doctrine to argue that the US has every right to tell Venezuela what it’s allowed to do with its own country and its own allies because South America is “our backyard.”
“Today, Venezuela — this is the front page of the New York Times — Venezuela, okay, they have a guy, an opposition leader who finally stood up, and we are backing him,” Maher said. “And Russia warned us to back off because they’re backing the dictator. This was the Monroe Doctrine! This is our backyard! And Russia is now telling us to back off of what goes on in Venezuela, because they know they can? Because they’re so emboldened? That doesn’t bother you?”
This freaky slave owner talk is so normalized for reasons which are inseparable from the reasons why our world is as messed up as it is.
Imagine a world wherein sovereignty was truly understood and honored. What would change?
Well, obviously we’d no longer see the most powerful nations interceding in the affairs of others, bursting in and treating a weaker country like property because it has resources it wants or a style of government it doesn’t. The idea that there are people in the world whose lives you don’t get to control would be seen not as some outlandish, fringe notion to be dismissed as wacky crackpottery, but as a self-evident truth which forms the guiding principles of the way different parts of the world interact with each other.
But it goes so much further than that, if you think about it. With a solid understanding of sovereignty, perhaps the single most important thing that would change is that people would no longer think it’s okay to manipulate the thoughts of other people for their own interests. A political/media class would no longer have the permission nor the desire to keep slipping their rapey fingers into our minds and working to control the ways we think, vote and behave, which would enable us to construct a society based on truth and compassion rather than on power-facilitating belief structures placed in our heads by the plutocratic media and plutocracy-serving politicians.
In such a society we wouldn’t have murder, which is the gravest violation of personal sovereignty, nor would we have rape or assault for the same reason. It’s entirely possible that government as we know it would cease to exist and people could design an entirely new way of functioning, though government could also exist in some form that was fully accountable to the people if it turned out that that’s what we wanted. Nobody would see anyone else as property, or as a resource to be exploited, or as a pawn to be manipulated, or as part of a world that must be fully dominated and controlled, if we could just as a species evolve a mature relationship with the concept of sovereignty.
This AP article shows that this coup attempt in Venezuela has been being planned since Trump entered office.
Many of the protests were partially planned outside of Venezuela by the US, other South American rightwing leaders, Trump, and the Lima Group.https://t.co/yzMCagsO1C
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) January 28, 2019
The current US-led coup against Venezuela is a violation not just of the sovereignty of Venezuela, but of the sovereignty of all the nations which have been bullied into and pushed along with it by a much more powerful nation and by the power-serving goons in their own governments. The United States government is the very last organization which should be “helping” a nation topple its government; US interventionism is so consistently disastrous that wanting them to “help” in Venezuela is dumber than wanting Edward Scissorhands to help change diapers at the local daycare center. Everyone knows this on some level, but the servile relationship the world has with the US empire has normalized complicity in absolutely insane agendas all around the world.
One of the most beneficial things anyone can do to help move humanity in a sane direction is to develop a deep, visceral understanding of and respect for the concept of sovereignty. Let this deep understanding inform your life, then let that understanding bleed out into the world. I’ll hold up my end, you hold up yours, and with a small stack of miracles we can help carry this whole thing home.
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61 responses to “If The World Understood Sovereignty, It Could End All Our Problems”
“Imagine a world wherein sovereignty was truly understood and honored. What would change?” Imagine a world wherein sovereignty and democracy were truly honored…
We have arrived (supposing that we left) at a point where the idea of nation States is one that everyone, evildoer and regular citizen – supports the concept of the nation State. One thing that I’m sure of is this: Those who manage States (on behalf of powerful, capitalist special interests) like the idea of the nation State because it’s something that fools people into thinking that elites think they matter. It fools people, who imagine that they have political representation, into thinking that they have democracy. And who looks for something that they haven’t lost? In fact, The people everywhere (with a few exceptions, like Venezuela) have lost democracy. (The world’s foremost democracy is persecuting, viciously, the world’s most famous journalist and whistleblower for their role in telling people what their governments are doing in their name and with their tax dollars! Noam Chomsky wrote a book titled “Deterring Democracy” – about the United States!) The reality is more like John Perkins’s (a faker, but nevertheless he got this right) Corporatocracy, which is why I sigh every time someone (in a discussion thread on some website I’m visiting) warns about a one world government. Corporatocracy ‘is’ world government.
I like the idea of sovereign States, the way that Gandhi (another faker, but set that aside), who responded to someone’s discussion of Western civilization (probably apocryphal) said ‘What a good idea. Let’s have it.’ I like the idea because I believe (with qualification) in democracy. I believe regular people should have a say in matters affecting them. Therefore, people need political representation so that their voices get listened to and heard. Do we actually have that? Direct observation and experience, by regular people who are awake, easily suggests that we don’t. As well, We now have scientific evidence, from researchers like Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page that shows that in politics, elites – whose wants and needs (twisted I would argue) – win.
When will your precious followers get a decent discussion forum platform Caitlin? We don’t rate high enough to be able to make paragraphs for gosh sake! We can’t edit.
Arby – I’d suggest you might want to reconsider your belief in democracy.
Why value democracy? Because of fear of other, better possibilities? So-called ‘threats to democracy’ will continue and increase, because it is a faulty idea that needs to move aside for better ideas.
What’s wrong with democracy? The most glaring flaw is the obvious fact that 49% of voters are forced to accept what 51% want. The 49% will be forced to live with and be forced to pay for something they absolutely abhor. Absolutely nothing noble or righteous about that.
Another is the blatant access and influence of the wealthy and their lobbyists to the few who rule. Democracy becomes a revolving door oligarchy.
The third is the ludicrous situation where a small gang of suits makes decisions for millions of others. There is little if any real ‘representation’ happening. It’s a ruse.
The fourth is the absurd fact that a high school semi-illiterate dropout and a PhD have equal voting power.
The fifth is the pervasive belief that a ‘ruling class’ is required for civilized life to continue. Indeed, a ‘ruling class’ is the main obstacle to progress. Delete it.
The sixth is the belief in ‘government authority.’ People are people. Each person essentially has the same rights, the same basic morality. To ‘elect’ a ‘ruling class’ that now has powers that we normally consider immoral is extremely destructive. So-called ‘govt’ is allowed the immoral ‘authority’ to steal (taxes), murder (war), kidnap and imprison (for ‘breaking’ arbitrary ‘laws/commands’), and so on. Non-politicians (us) are expected to tolerate this; indeed, to love it – aka Stockholm Syndrome writ large.
On it goes. The concept of the nation-state has run its course and must die a quick death. Technology will help. The way out and up is the creation of thousands or even millions of of independent economic zones, neighborhood associations, charter cities, and other forms of contractual, property-rights arrangements based on free trade and the global division of labor. (http://www.jakubw.com/2013/12/why-almost-everyone-believes-in.html)
The main reason this is the only way out and up is because human beings are not meant, at all, to live in gargantuan nation-state systems, dictated by some small cadre of power-mongers. We are meant for smallish, close-knit tribes so that everyone in the tribe knows everyone else. In our close-knit communities, cultural norms and rules are set by everyone, and they organically evolve over time. Hierarchies are created and dissolved as needs be to accomplish objectives. Everything gets done, and most everyone is in agreement regarding how that happens. As well, anyone is free to leave anytime they wish.
The Australian Parliment KNEW THE GFC was going to hit Australia, and chose NOT to inform its citizens, while some members of Parliment were selling and moving assets in preparation! Under the law, it appears there there is NO responsiblity to inform!
As an Australian, I urge everyone to ensure the Law gets changed and to make these scum accountable, and responsible, to the Australian Taxpayer, NOT the BANK OF ENGLAND and GLOBAL WHORES! Here is some strong evidence provided by top Australian Economist, John Adams ,& Statistics Specialist Martin North.
https://www.silverdoctors.com/headlines/world-news/australias-establishment-exposed-for-playing-dumb-prior-to-the-2008-global-financial-crisis/
Didn’t Basement Gimp (LOVE that term) Canada arrest Meng Wanzhou and bind her over to US authorities?
Yes, the Anglosphere is being (mis)led from Washington, and more’s the pity for that.
Reading an interesting article regarding U.S. medlling in Venezuela via humanitarian aid type ngo’s:
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/01/28/the-dirty-hand-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy-in-venezuela/
Occurs to me: Maybe this is what makes the government so sensitive to hypothetic meddling in our borders as they realize just how damaging it can be from first hand involvement (Mr Rubio).
Pss! Want to see what zionist pork chop looks like? 🙂
http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/israels-story/
McCARTHYISM AT SYDNEY UNIVERSITY!
THE LIBERAL SCUM BAGS ARE DESTROYING AUSTRALIA ONE STEP AT A TIME! “On 4th December 2018, Sydney University suspended academic Tim Anderson from his position – banning him from university grounds and demanding no contact with staff or students. The suspension is a prelude to having Anderson sacked.”
https://ahtribune.com/world/asia-pacific/2824-mccarthyism-sydney-university.html
Does The Guardian get paid by Zionists? BDS Free Assange
I believe the never-end turmoil to which the world is being subjected is for the benefit of:
– globalism/one world
– MIC running low on orders
Venezuela is just for fun (and profit).
That is why we keep poking Russia and China.
We need an enema.
Sovereignty is a concept deliberately left out of the schools. The big lie is that I have freedom, meaning, I have sovereignty. The Government is the sovereign and if this were understood, then 90% of Government contractors would go out of business and the bribes they pay Congressmen would go away. Gone are the days when the CEO’s believed: “Government is the sovereign. You always cut square corners with the Government”: Lee Atwood – president and CEO of North American Aviation
I think it goes something like:
It’s not that the common people are ‘bad” or “ignorant” per se, it’s just that the poor dears are misinformed.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Looks like you were writing that while I was replying to your earlier message.
Jared, questions arise. Why are the people misinformed? Who misinformed them and how? Why do they remain misinformed? How is “misinformed” measured? How do they get “un-misinformed”? Etc.
Many years ago I met a fellow who was living on a run-down, out-of-commission 80′ tug boat docked on the Sausalito waterfront. He was an iconoclastic outlier with extraordinary human insight. Almost everything he said upset someone’s apple cart–and still does. His name is Stewart Brand. Over the years we’ve had numerous discussions about the seemingly impossible task of building a human social-economic-political construct (functioning society, if you will) based on the concept of personal freedom and self-determination. Stewart argues that no such organization could possibly exist without control imposed from the top. Perhaps he’s right, but it’s been hard for me to abandon the conviction (hope is probably a better word) that such a construct is, in fact, possible. Stewart’s thesis is that our capacity for high-order reasoning, complex problem solving, and creative thought, is a function primarily of genetics, not choice. To a certain extent he’s right, of course. But, even though we each have a different contribution to make, if our hypothetical community shared deeply held common values and was prepared, to a person, to defend our individual life, liberty and labor, I believe it is possible to build such a social construct at human scale absent the central power structure. The only question then becomes what to do when the violent predator arrives at the door and demands our submission–which will inevitably happen? My grandfather was not an educated man, but wise about the things that mattered. He used to tell me that “people do what they want to do”. He was right. History clearly demonstrates that keeping a person in a state of mental or physical bondage is not that difficult, if that’s all the person has ever known. But, when a man has once tasted true freedom, he will die before you can set the chains on him. Most people are misinformed because they choose to be misinformed. The truth is often just too mentally and emotionally painful to process. The overwhelming majority has always chosen to march to the government’s drumbeat–and ultimately, to their own self-destruction.
CB, I also think that such a free society is possible but I am also certain that it is not possible for the majority of people. A free society requires trust and trust requires a level of intelligence, temperament, self control, a sacredness for Truth and an actual desire to live free. Obviously this does not describe many people or peoples.
So true. Even if such a thing is possible, the invisible chains of the power structure must first be removed. The solution can only be virtual–and something never before conceived.
CB, I am working on a unique (I think) economic theory in a novel I will start as soon as I finish my other projects. Do not want to give it away but if it is ever implemented it would make all current economic and government systems, left or right, obsolete.
If you’re are not familiar with his work, the book: ‘Human Scale Revisited’ by Kirkpatrick Sale is a very good read. At 80+ years old he still has much to offer on the issue of socio-economic theory. Good luck with your projects.
https://www.amazon.com/Human-Scale-Revisited-Classic-Decentralist/dp/1603587128/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1548882116&sr=8-1&keywords=kirkpatrick+sale+human+scale+revisited
Somehow some people can simultaneous beat their chest about the superiority of democracy while decrying the influence of populism. Democracy + Putin = Putinism.
Caitlin
You speak as if the sovereigns are persons – having conscience.
They are machines/systems.
I would say they are functioning badly, some would disagree.
I would say there is a flaw in the system – democracy as currently/loosely implemented does not work.
We are trapped on a toboggan ride to hell and Venezuela in in our path.
But there is no right or wrong in practice – at least not in minds of likes of The Walrus.
Additionally, we know our government has gone out of control and is corrupt as hell.
They’ve moved passed us, to global interests – there will be no escape.
“I would say there is a flaw in the system – democracy as currently/loosely implemented does not work.”
.
“loosely” is generously accurate. Democracy may be an ideal worth striving for, but it has never been realized. The ancient Greeks were closer because there were fewer of them, but even then, republicanism is as close as was practical.
.
Today, due to technological developments, the ideal is feasible for the first time in history. But as you perceive, there is a fly in the ointment. In fact, there are at least couple glaring flaws. First, while technology has made true democracy possible, the tech is vulnerable to manipulation. Nobody has figured out how to overcome that yet. It may not be possible.
.
Second, and maybe most importantly at this point in time, a truly democratic process requires an informed populace. That means a populace that is not propagandized to vote against their own interests, individually or in the aggregate. The tech is actually enabling that but many forces are fighting it as democracy threatens their position and/or wealth in the current system. This is where we are now.
Bureaucracy is inherently evil.
Be it of the republic or socialist flavor.
And separately, there are not idealogically separate forms of government – it is a continuum. None of them immune to corruption.
But it is handy to keep the us v them mentality.
Hubert, must reply.
To say the U.S. is ‘the Empire’ is to let the real Empire get away with murder, literally. The U.S. is used as the ‘benevolent’ hegemon by the real Empire, as the the ‘friendly face of democracy’ to make Empire more palatable when it kicks in your door, tears up your house, kills your kids and steals your stuff; to pretend to people elsewhere that when the U.S. is crossing your borders and bombing your towns, it MUST be for a ‘righteous’ reason. Yes, the US knows what it’s doing and is a full fledged member, but it’s not only us, the British are top strategists, equal partners behind the scenes, as well as banking, corporations, families, schools of thought, and age old philosophies (the land is the value, the people are beasts vs the ideals of Christianity, the Golden Renaissance, Plato’s Republic, etc, that humankind is the real value, for their minds and what they use them to do-create things and solve problems). Empires hate people, which is why they hate the real values of the Constitution and sovereign individuals and nations, why they’ve been attacking religions, dumbing down (the trend was once a high education) schools, attacking the core beliefs & bedrock values of commonwealth, republics & democracy, justice & higher than man law, pushing the Constitution as ‘dead white males jargon’- read that yesterday in an article about free speech by the CIA’s The Atlantic) and on & on.
I’m pretty sure the Empire is a cabal of people who think the same-rule/reduce the people, control the resources.
You wrote about the American people. Many know little to nothing about things like today’s Empires, etc., many world wide know nothing, as well. But MANY do, and many are educated about the history & philosophies which led to the Revolution & the Constitution (everyone world wide should read the Bill of Rights). Many here and world wide love the while world, it’s people, it’s colors, it’s differences, and believe with ALL THEIR HEART, every nation should have classically educated citizens (a much higher education than the job training edu of today) so they can decide their own fate, and hopefully live in peace with their neighbors, and we would respect their choices. We in the US aren’t brutal, we’re aware of and fighting against what’s being done by a multi national Empire. Just like you.
And all people are exceptional.
Yes, I tweaked the first post under Hubert.
Oddly, when you post, Captcha sometimes says it didn’t work/post. So you hit post again, & now there are two. I know half of you will think even one is too much, cuz I mentioned Christianity. I always say, since there ARE narratives, there kind of have to be & you couldn’t really have billions of people get along without some cohesion, most of actual sentiments/beliefs of Jesus himself (do unto others, brothers keeper, etc), are a narrative that few could have a problem with.
Miss Magaret, thanks for the effort and thought put into your posts. Your comments resonate with truth about America, and what its people once achieved and lost. The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, et. al, express the essence of personal freedom and self-determination, of compassion and kindness, of community and protection of the most vulnerable, of fierce independence–the highest achievements of the American tradition. Yes, the founders failed to immediately extend the blessings of liberty to all, not because of a malignant rejection of the natural rights of African slaves, but because they had inherited and were trapped in a long standing, highly complex, and pernicious human condition that most of them could not reconcile with their sense of human justice, but nevertheless accepted. The great tragedy is that those brilliant and honorable, yet flawed and imperfect men, could not find the moral courage to correct the error without bloodshed. That single mistake led to the destruction of a magnificent experiment in human freedom. In 1865, America was transformed into a rapacious empire that has since advanced at the expense of everything the country’s founders held sacred. Beneath all the advanced technology, tall buildings, over-extended military projection, and insipid political pomp and ceremony, America has become an unrecognizable and decaying caricature of its once humble, courageous and noble self. I often think of the words of Samuel Adam: “If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” America has so many significant and escalating problems at home, but the exceptional nation must correct the problems of every other country first. What is wrong with that picture?
Oh, my. Just popped in to see if there were replies. I wrote Bill of Rights, but meant Declaration of Independence-?! I was very tired when I posted, it must have just been stuck in my brain and didn’t think. I do know the difference. Some American. Hope you all didn’t go off & read the BoR. I shall never post again (on this essay, anyway ; )
Miss Margaret, most of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence would not have supported the Constitution absent the Bill of Rights. I think you are doing just fine with your American history. Again, your initial post was excellent. CB
To begin with, I am wondering who is Miss Margaret? I seem to have upset or at least annoyed her. My sincere Apologies.
So far as America is concerned, I am not condemning the People, which are doubtless just as well-meaning, good and decent as most other People of the World but there is no denying the Fact that it is and was their adopted Philosophy that “more is better” or Capitalism, which created this Shadow Empire that has revealed itself as the unelected Ruler of the World.
I am deeply ashamed of the action (or inaction) of the Australian Government, with regard to the Venezuelan Affair. So much so, that I am contemplating to revoke my Citizenship and return to Austria, where I originated.
To be seen by the World as boot licking Lackeys of Americas Expansionism and Brutality, is almost too much to bear.
There is one Question which I need to have answered, and that is, has America and the American People always been like that or what was it that transformed them into the bloodthirsty Bastards they are now?
I know the old saying, Power corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely. But for this to be so, it still needs People to do the corrupting. Somehow, the World has to find a way to put a lid on this inhuman behaviour and bring this Government and its people to see some sense and teach them the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong. And to teach them, if they have not realized it yet, that this World belongs to all of us, not just to America.
Greetings to all the Good People out there.
Hubert, seriously disgusted, sad and disappointed.
Hubert, must reply.
To say the U.S. is ‘the Empire’ is to let the real Empire get away with murder, literally. The U.S. is used as the ‘benevolent’ hegemon, the ‘friendly face of democracy’ to make Empire more palatable when it kicks in your door, tears up your house, kills your kids and steals your stuff, by the real Empire; to confuse people elsewhere that when the U.S. is crossing your borders and bombing your towns, it MUST be for a good reason. Yes, the US knows what it’s doing and is a full fledged member, but it’s not only us, the British are top strategists, equal partners behind the scenes, as well as banking, corporations, families, schools of thought, and age old philosophies (the land is the value, the people are beasts vs the ideals of Christianity, the Golden Renaissance, Plato’s Republic, etc, that humankind is the real value, for their minds and what they use them to do-create things and solve problems). Empires hate people, which is why they hate the real values of the Constitution and sovereign individuals and nations, why they’ve been attacking religions, dumbing down (the trend was once a high education) schools, destroying the bedrocks of healthy societies, pushing the Constitution as ‘dead white males jargon’- read that yesterday in an article about free speech by the CIA’s The Atlantic) and on & on.
I think the Empire is a cabal of people who think the same-rule the people, control the resources.
You wrote about the American people. Many know little to nothing about things like Empires, etc. many world wide know nothing, as well. But MANY do, and many are educated about the history & philosophies which led to the Revolution & the Constitution (everyone world wide should read the Bill of Rights), they love the world, it’s people, it’s colors, it’s differences, and believe with ALL THEIR HEART, every nation should have classically educated citizens (a much higher education than the job training edu of today) so they can decide their own fate, and hopefully live in peace with their neighbors, and we would respect their choices. We aren’t brutal. And all people are exceptional.
“There is one Question which I need to have answered, and that is, has America and the American People always been like that or what was it that transformed them into the bloodthirsty Bastards they are now?”
.
Loaded question. Have you stopped beating your wife?
.
BTW, by assigning individual attributes to the aggregate, you already put yourself in a logically untenable position. So, your “one Question” is disingenuous. All you’re really doing is mouthing off and name-calling. Am I right or am I right?
Caitlin, I laughed out loud. If a picture paints a thousand words then your comparison of the Australian Govt. to Washingtons basement Gimp says it all. Sadly for Australia both major parties are controlled by the global elite. The Liberals are on the back foot and Labor is readying itself to put everything right. A look at Australian politics over the last ten years teaches us that nothing of consequence will change and Australia will continue to be a sock puppet and flunky for the US. Every country gets the politicians it deserves and the sleepwalking Australian public are no different from the US in this respect. Keep up the good work!
My support goes to Russia or China in the staging of a Coup of the Australian Government of sloth & criminality! The Australian Government is a SACK OF SHIT!
the most striking about the elitist rich is to take all , the crude vulgarity of their way of life.
Johnstone:”This freaky slave owner talk is so normalized for reasons which are inseparable from the reasons why our world is as messed up as it is.”
The American imperial mentality is just a continuation of the colonial mentality of past empires. Rudyard Kipling waxed poetically about this mentality in “White Man’s Burden”. Within the U.S. it is taught as “Manifest Destiny and Monroe Doctrine”. It just boils down to a mentality of genocide and enslavement of others deemed lesser than yourself especially those who phenotypically are different from yourself. The folks who have this mentality live in fear of others because they believe everyone thinks like them thus the need to ‘get them before they get us’ nonsense. Therefore negotiating with these people is a lost cause(see all the broken treaties the Anglo-Zionist empire has committed with the native populations of the world).
The scary part is that these people would rather die( go to war) than ever allow any system to evolve where actual democracy was the driving basis of society.
For the US, “money” is not ever going to be a problem because the Fed can print a hundred trillion trillion “dollars” if it desires. Powell will just hold down his computer’s zero key for a few more seconds and, voila, there the “money” will be. But those dollars have to be accepted by nations and peoples who have products or services or resources that the US wants, so the US military is vitally necessary to force others to accept those dollars. In short, the USD is on the “drone standard”.
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When, not if, the US soon runs out of oil, “Venezuela’s” light crude will fill the need. Bolton just said as much to the world. The US needs something and, by Jesus, it’s going to take it. “America First”, and fuck the rest of the world.
..
Of course, Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi and Mr. Rouhani see the pattern. How are they going to respond to the US’s increasingly dangerous, irresponsible last grasp for Full Spectrum Dominance? We’ll soon find out.
Excellent post
Bank of England is up to something with sovereign Venezuela gold. Months ago, Maduro asked for its gold from Bank of England. They came up with bs excuses. Do they plan to steal it and are telling stories to gullible leaders? Or is something worse coming, a la Libya. Russia & China are pissed, we know that.
https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/bank-of-englands-refusal-to-return-venezuelas-gold-sets-a-worrying-precedent/
Old politics joke:
Q: Why has the United States never had a coup?
A: Because it has no U.S. embassy.
The Edward Scissorhands analogy was entertaining, thanks. I get the impression, perhaps incorrectly, that you somehow believe that a different form of government in Venezuela would result in a more favorable outcome for the people of that country. That certainly seems to the thesis of most political commentators and ideologues on the right and left. But, precisely what form of government might that be? What exactly would it look like, in practice? Is there a present example that we can study? From some of the comments in this post I wonder if you grasp the essence of sovereignty. Per force, sovereignty must reside exclusively with the individual. The transposition of sovereignty to a national power structure always proves to be a destructive fool’s errand, regardless of the type of fraudulent national power structure that claims it. The very existence of a nation-state at significant scale is morally repugnant to the concept of personal freedom and individual self-determination. From all the dead soldiers left in the road by “sovereign” governments, you would think that we could recognize the pattern by now. You would also think that we could have figured out by now that hindsight is better than foresight–if for no reason other than we at least have hard evidence of our past stupidity. Foresight without the benefit of hindsight is worthless. It’s like trying to achieve wisdom without knowledge. As long as people can be easily duped and ruled by political carny barkers who convince them to submit to some form of divinely inspired central authority, democratically ordained power structure, or some fraudulent utopian collective bona fides, we will just keep killing each other all the way to the promised land. Somewhere in the world, people who want only to be left alone and to live in peace and freedom must find a place to survive and thrive. Sadly, we have not demonstrated that ability. Perhaps the darker angels of our nature will inevitably surface and prevail in any society at significant scale. One thing is certain, the power structures that have evolved in every society at significant scale have failed to demonstrate much humanitarian hindsight. And, the persistent rejection of individual sovereignty in every political ideology speaks volumes about our prospects for the future. Our only hope is a free community at human scale–but, only if we can defend what rightly belongs to us–our individual sovereignty.
Read the Venezuelan constitution.
Not inclined. The U.S. can give them ours–it’s not being used.
BDS & Inspect Israeli Nukes. Free Palestine.
Caity, in different words, perhaps, but I’ve been making the same comments and conclusions for years that you have here. We all know that the U.S. values country leaders as allies when they can serve our purpose and as enemies when they cannot. A brief look at the Venezuelan presidency of Hugo Chavez is a perfect example.
Chavez was the U.S.’ ally, but his country was in financial constraints. The world Bank (consisting mainly of U.S. businessmen and corporations) offered to lend money to Venezuela (as it had done to many other countries nearing bankruptcy). In return, it wanted all state employees, contracts, etc. cancelled and/or privatized, so that they could sweep in and buy up everything at pennies on the dollar). Chavez had seen the destruction caused in other countries, by such agreements, and where most countries had gone bankrupt anyway, as a result of being unable to repay the World Bank’s loans.
The entire scope of the intent of the World Bank is too lengthy to go into. Chavez turned down the loans, declaring that he would do it on his own. Subsequently, he was able to do that when it was discovered that Venezuela has the world’s largest in-ground deposit of fossil fuel. Many suspect that the U.S. and World Bank knew of the oil long before Venezuela did.
That refusal turned Chavez from ally to enemy over night and led to several CIA-led attempts to assassinate him (or so it is assumed that the CIA was behind the attempts). What is interesting to note is that while our enemy, through Citgo (the Venezuela owned fuel company) Chavez annually distributed (with the aid of Joe Kennedy) millions of gallons of heating oil to poor people in the U.S – and that not one U.S. based fuel company donated a single drop.
That pretty much tells us all we need to know about the U.S. view of sovereignty.
Caitlin, I absolutely love your commentary but wish your approach to national sovereignty applied at the individual level as well. This is where your logic goes astray in your economic commentary on “capitalism.”
That argument works if you consider capitalism, money and property to be inherent principles engraved upon the fabric of reality and not simply mental constructs invented by humans which humans can change whenever they want. People absolutely have the right and the ability to change the way those conceptual structures work if they want to. Saying it’s a plutocrat’s sovereign right to violate the personal sovereignty of millions by hoarding billions of dollars for use in media and political influence is a warped understanding of what sovereignty is based on a cultish fetishism of the concepts of money and its ownership.
CJ, the problem with plutocrats is not their wealth, it is their power.
Diffuse the power and their wealth is irrelevant. The only way to diffuse power is to eliminate it down to the very least needed amount, and have that power spread thin as can be i.e. societies based on a human scale. Wealth is not the issue. Power is. Individual liberty is the solution to power; not giving more power to fewer and fewer psychos – who else seeks power over others but psychos?
“Saying it’s a plutocrat’s sovereign right to violate the personal sovereignty of millions…”
Please clarify for future reference: As you define “personal sovereignty,” does it equate to “individual freedom?”
The “gimp in the basement” analogy, hilarious! I need to bone up on Australia’s history a bit. However interfering in Venezuela’s political process just inflames the nuclear armed states of Russia and China. Do any of these armchair pundits ever go to Venezuela and interview real citizens? What do they want? Just like here in the US average working citizens are never asked what they actually want. I’ve seen a few reports on RT that interviewed citizens of Venezuela and they mostly support Maduro’s government. And just like here in the US there are quite a few that don’t like the government. I don’t see China or Russia pushing someone else as US’s leader. Just the corporate democrats.
Sorry, you’re 100% off base on this one. Venezuela had a legitimately elected petrosocialist government under Chavez. Like the other regional Socialismo Del Siglo XXI governments, it violated property rights by confiscating oilfield and refining assets when the price of oil was at 50-year highs, spent all the windfall profits, then ate into the capital reserves, leaving no resources for operating expenses when the price made its inevitable descent. Since then production has fallen to less than a third of what it was with no way to recover now that the price is slowly rising.
The last election in Venezuela which re-elected Maduro by a ”landslide” and rubber-stamped his hand-picked Constituent Assembly was so transparently fraudulent even beforehand that 50% of the populace boycotted it. Guiaó is the highest-ranking elected official in the National Assembly who was elected in a free and fair election.
The only sovereignty in Venezuela’s government has been Maduro’s fiat, enforced by the military who are the 1% who get enough to eat now.
Maduro made this crisis himself. The filthy US Intelligence Community scarcely needed to blow on it to topple it.
Of course, this is all predicated on the false notion of national sovereignty under democracy. Anarchists recognize that the only true sovereignty is individual sovereignty and one’s rights do not cease to exist because one is outnumbered.
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https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13801?fbclid=IwAR2MCq9AfoRRY9I4Xqz36y8TqRB_MqYxk3FbkiH6nEdm1wi42LkqO9fZgSM
The CIA financed ‘opposition’ did not want to be on a ballot, did not want people voting for those on the ballot because …. they knew an ass beating was coming. Period.
The voice of the indigenous and the poor in multiple countries of South America have already been suppressed. Venezuela is just the next. Consider Honduras where labor and environmental activists are being gunned down in the streets while the US MSM says nothing about the vile regime installed by the US while it willingly runs propaganda for US elites plowing and plundering the region.
The next wave of revolutionary action in South America is being prepared by what the US is now doing to its peoples. While the US now thinks it is triumphant the stirrings of the revolution to come are forming in South America and in Europe.
The question is will the American people rise up against the two party faced regime of tyranny? Will the remnants of Occupy, Tea Party, the Deplorables, and Progressives start to move or is the US regime of false flags, false narratives, and fear and demonization of foreign entities enough to keep the people distracted forever?
“In such a society we wouldn’t have murder, which is the gravest violation of personal sovereignty, nor would we have rape or assault for the same reason.”
Yeah because no one did these things until the US/MIC showed up. Utterly ridicules nonsense.
You are close Caitlin but what is needed more so is for the world to recognize the sovereignty of each individual human being. But the busy bodies will never go for that.
Slobs like Bill Maher don’t worry about making sense or being consistent. They have no integrity, just big mouths and unfortunately, a platform on which to spew their crap. Such an injustice, as many people actually think he knows what he’s talking about. Typical media blowhard.
You are being too kind in calling Maher a slob. He is a grade-A piece of shit. Why liberals look to him for wisdom is as big a puzzle as why they look to Thomas Friedman for the same thing. Both men are not very bright, and they sit on the wrong side of history.
“US interventionism is so consistently disastrous that wanting them to ‘help’ in Venezuela is dumber than wanting Edward Scissorhands to help change diapers at the local daycare center.”
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Good one!
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Maher: “This is our backyard! And Russia is now telling us to back off of what goes on in Venezuela, because they know they can?”
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I can’t believe I used to like this guy, until he apologized for saying something once. Can’t remember what it was, but it showed him for the sniveling worm he is. He’d make a good govt bureaucrat. Re this quote, consider the irony: Ukraine, for recent instance. The list is long.
Slobs like Bill Maher don’t worry about making sense or being consistent. They have no integrity, just big mouths and unfortunately, a platform on which to spew their crap. Such an injustice, as many people actually think he knows what he’s talking about. Typical media blowhard.
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