If United Conservative Party leaders like Premier Danielle Smith are looking for another fight to pick with the Trudeau Government, they could always complain about Canada’s slavish and continuing support for U.S. efforts to get rid of the Venezuelan government of Nicholas Maduro. Former, and possibly future, U.S. president Donald
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Views from the Beltline: Et tu, AMLO?
I have often despaired at the way in which seemingly progressive leaders in Latin and South America show great initial promise and then drift into an autocracy not unlike their conservative counterparts. I was pondering this the other day when reading about Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known commonly as
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Stop the Canada-US hybrid war against Venezuela!
The lack of any discussion of Canadian foreign policy during this election is shocking and shameful — almost as shameful as Canada’s foreign policy itself. Take the case of Venezuela. For the past two decades the United States has been waging a war of sanctions and other dirty tricks to
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: From Cuba to Myanmar, the military as enemy of democracy
Heavily dependent on tourism, the Cuban economy has been hit hard by the pandemic’s restrictions on travel. The loss of Canadian tourists is a particularly heavy blow as in recent years we have been by far the most common visitors to the country’s sunny shores. And, as pointed out in
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Colombia welcomes the Bolivarian exodus
Not everyone is welcoming refugees these days, particularly in the Americas. That’s why it was encouraging to read about Colombia’s generous treatment of the millions of refugees pouring across the border from Venezuela. It seems the Bolivarian Revolution has turned into the Bolivarian Exodus. According to the United Nations, almost
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The Baby Boosters
According to the Worldometer (the world population clock), at 12:22 p.m. today the planet’s population of Homo sapiens was 7,769,974,138 with a net gain (births over deaths) of 114,862 so far this morning. You might think this was more than enough of us, given that we are multiplying on the
Continue readingDefending the Indefensible Left and Right
People of the left and, one would hope, also many on the right, look on with horror as Republican politicians unconditionally support their degenerate president. Trump once boasted “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” and it appears that
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Winnipeg solidarity with Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela
Photograph: Paul S. Graham Winnipeggers rallied at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in solidarity with the people of Bolivia, Venezuela and Chile who are facing a variety of imperialist pressures. Here is my video report.
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: The US/Canadian attack on Cuba and Venezuela
Winnipeg, Oct. 3, 2019 – Arnold August, speaking at the University of Manitoba about US and Canadian foreign policy regarding Cuba and Venezuela. Photo: Paul S. Graham There is no doubt that Canadian foreign policy has taken a hard turn to the right, especially with regard to Latin America. Arnold
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Why you should care about Venezuela
Most Canadians imagine Canada to be a force for good on the world stage. Polite, reasonable, peace-loving and progressive. At least, that is how we like to imagine ourselves. Winnipeg, July 20, 2019: Dr. Maria Páez Victor at the 14th Forum, World Association of Political Economy. Photo: Paul S. Graham
Continue readingPlease, No Excuses for Maduro
In the early days after the Russian revolution, leftists would visit the country in order to view this experiment in collectivist society. They would be welcomed, given the grand tour of appropriate Potemkin displays, be suitably impressed, and return exclaiming they had seen the future. They had seen a future
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Venezuela – Update
This from Counterpunch shedding some light onto what is happening in South America, without being filtered through the corporate press. “Over the last year reports about Venezuela in the corporate media have been depicting a country undergoing a “humanitarian crisis.” What they described was not consistent with what I know
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Venezuela – Causes of Chaos
The US has a funny notion of what is in its ‘backyard’. It would be really wonderful if the citizens of the US would decry the economic terrorism being carried out on their behalf. “The success of Chávez and Maduro’s governments in reducing poverty and inequality in Venezuela and
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Alberta conservatives blame Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau for Line 3 delays in Minnesota? Of course they will!
Will Alberta’s conservatives find a way to blame Premier Rachel Notley and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the delays in construction Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 Expansion announced yesterday? Why not? Given the credulity demonstrated by Alberta’s mainstream media when it comes to such stories, such an effort should get plenty
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Venezuela and the American Body Politic
American foreign policy seems to be carefully insulated from the majority of the American population. I’m thinking that, outside the respective frenzied political bases, the general populace has little or no taste for international misadventures and the inevitable blowback that accompanies imperial meddling in the affairs of other states. Yet
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Destabilizing Venezuela – John Pilger
It doesn’t really matter who is at the helm in the US, the foreign policy remains the same. Central/South America has been deemed within the sphere of influence of the United States and states resisting vassal status are punished for their crimes. I’m guilty of not looking past the news
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – David Roberts sets out the big picture surrounding the Green New Deal, as essentially nobody other than the activists supporting it has made any effort to deal with the reality of impending climate breakdown: (T)hat’s the context here: a world tipping over into
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Eric Holthaus writes that the Green New Deal which looks to be at the centre of Democratic policy development offers an important opportunity for the U.S. to make amends with a world bearing the brunt of its past pollution. But Rick Salutin discusses
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Has anyone thought about the impact regime change in Venezuela will have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty!
In the stampede by Canadian politicians of all ideological stripes to support Venezuela’s self-declared “interim president,” has anyone given even a nanosecond’s thought to the impact the handover of the troubled South American petrostate’s government to Juan Guaido would have on Alberta’s oilpatch? It won’t be pretty. The federal government’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Josh Mound opines that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ call for a 70 per cent tax rate on ultra-high incomes is just the beginning of a needed conversation about the morality of the extreme concentration of wealth. And Vanessa Williamson writes that beyond raising public
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