US Leaves Kansas.

18 comments on “US Leaves Kansas. ”

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1. garibaldi 1

   31 July 2017 at 4:45 pm

   Spot on Bill. We are continually fed lies from the USA/West/Israel and we continually suck it up as if there is no other way. Never bother to seek the truth do we?
   It’s past time the World told the USA to get stuffed.
   • RedLogix 1.1

     31 July 2017 at 5:33 pm

     And then if you have the temerity to quote RT or Aljazeera for a bit of balance you get told they’re just propaganda.

     It’s reached the point where you really cannot trust any single source any more. There remains a few old hands like Fisk and Pilger who’re usually not too far wrong, but they can’t be over everything.

     As for the rest you just have to wade through them all, discarding the spin, bullshit and lies as best you can, then attempt to correlate them down to a plausible common thread, you might get some half-arsed useful sense of what actually happened,

     And Bill … we are definitely not on our own. It would be a silly conceit to think we are.
     • Bill 1.1.1

       31 July 2017 at 5:36 pm

       I think there are far, far more of us ugly fuckers than the pretties in governments and media would care to let on about 😉
2. Sabine 2

   31 July 2017 at 5:35 pm

   you forgot to add the madman duerte going around killing people left right n centre.

   they are all gigantic asswipes. put them in a room, arm them, close the fucking door and walk away.

   to pretend that anyone of them might be better then the other is just a gigantic load of fuckwittery.

   seriously this planet and the people not named trump, putin have other problems then these gigantic arses and their fucking power plays.
   • Bill 2.1

     31 July 2017 at 5:49 pm

     And you seem to have forgotten or overlooked the fact that everything we’re told about Duterte (or who-ever else) is coming through the same sewage pipe that carries news of the west’s glorious munificence and altruism.

     So unless you believe reports on ‘our’ leader’s essential goodness, then reports on ‘their’ leader’s inherent badness should surely be treated with the same level of skepticism that’s applied to reports about ‘our’ leaders, no?

     (But yes. I agree that all leaders are arse wipes in the final analysis)
     • Sabine 2.1.1

       31 July 2017 at 6:51 pm

       yeah, all the dead people are actually undead cause the media.

       fucking oath, seriously the media reports embellishes and what nots and you should be able to ascertain some sort of truth.

       so the last report of duerte and his goons is that a mayor his wife and some others been killed by police and before being killed were named by duerte as involved in Drugs! Drugs! Hear me I say Drugs! and that is good enough to kill many many people.

       but hey, maybe they don’t die, and all the news (fake of course) are fake and they are all alive hiding in the sewers or migrating to NZ.

       seriously. pathetic.
       • Bill 2.1.1.1

         31 July 2017 at 7:43 pm

         Well, no “dead people are actually undead cause” – of any reason. But an appropriate opening assertion for a wide ranging, ranting comment that ends with the charge “seriously. pathetic”.
3. Ad 3

   31 July 2017 at 5:57 pm

   Why is it Morales of Bolivia is a far more successful revutionary socialist than the Venezuelan one?
   • adam 3.1

     31 July 2017 at 6:17 pm

     Venezuela is doing OK. Not wonderful, but they getting there. The forces of reaction in Venezuela have been emboldened by the USA, and regularly use political violence – much of what I’m seeing of that violence, has racist tones as well.

     But never forget Oil.
     • Ad 3.1.1

       31 July 2017 at 7:56 pm

       At US$40 a barrel, the United States and its closest ally Canada has more oil than it will ever need. Oil is never going away, but its petro-political global dominance is already over. OPEC itself is fucked.

       Lithium is a higher prize, and yet Bolivia as global king of Lithium is doing just fine.
       Hence the question I put.

       At some point the President of Venezuela has to take responsibility for his own leadership and stop blaming everything and everyone else.
       • happynz 3.1.1.1

         31 July 2017 at 8:50 pm

         I was just in Bolivia this month. I saw a lovely plaque in the central plaza in Sucre which reads “No solos enimigos de los ricos, pero somos más amigos de los pobres.” (We are not the enemy of the rich, but we are more friends with the poor).
         • UncookedSelachimorpha 3.1.1.1.1

           1 August 2017 at 5:04 am

           Now THAT would be a great slogan for Labour! Would finally signal a departure from neoliberal TINA.

           Maybe next election….
   • francesca 3.2

     1 August 2017 at 9:59 am

     For one thing, Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world.US companies would like not just a piece of the action, but control, with favourable pricing
     For another, the media in Venezuela is owned by a handful of the wealthy(non indigenous) US leaning families who stand to gain from the sacking of the socialist govt
     Maduro has been less pragmatic than Morales, and Venezuela has been up against the US and covert CIA actions(see recent Pompeo admissions)since at least Chavez

     Bolivia has much less energy resources, and has a much stronger indigenous culture,in fact Morales is now the first indigenous president
     Bolivia, while not having oil reserves of any substance has mineral resources and used them to pay down debt and build up foreign reserve currency
     They also managed to uplift huge numbers of indigenous people in to the middle class, which makes Bolivia less susceptible to bribes and collusion with foreign powers
     Maduro has made plenty of mistakes under pressure, but the alternative is far more damaging
     Dialogue and negotiation is whats needed, not interference by the US and sanctions, which are just another name for economic war to provoke regime change
     US butt out
     • D'Esterre 3.2.1

       1 August 2017 at 3:26 pm

       Francesca: “Dialogue and negotiation is whats needed, not interference by the US and sanctions, which are just another name for economic war to provoke regime change
       US butt out”

       Hear hear, Francesca!

       Many innocents have died in South America alone (never mind elsewhere in the world), on account of US meddling in their countries’ internal affairs; almost always in that part of the world, such meddling has been to further US business interests.

       The US needs to take lessons in Westphalianism from Putin: if your polity is asked for help by another polity, then you have a mandate, if not an obligation, to help. Until that happens, butt out.
4. Draco T Bastard 4

   31 July 2017 at 6:11 pm

   Meanwhile, Venezuela is holding elections for a Constitutional Assembly that will be tasked with rewriting the constitution. According to the White House, which yes, already has sanctions in place, that’s dictatorial.

   They’d be upset that they’re not the ones writing it and will have no say in doing so.

   Oh. Did I mention the Israel Anti-Boycott Act? I’ll throw it in now. “A minor updating of a venerable statute” according to the Washington Post.

   And thus proving the maxim of the ruling US oligarchy: you’re free as long as you do as you’re told.

   And so it goes on. I wouldn’t expect the sum total of a county’s numerous foreign policies to present as an entirely credible or coherent picture. But hell, with the US, what we wind up with isn’t even merely chaotic so much as an aimless scribble.

   And yet it works and keeps rich people in power around the world.
5. Philj 5

   31 July 2017 at 7:26 pm

   Entertaining and informative. Comedian Jimmy Dore on YouTube is gaining a lot of support. https://youtu.be/lCARLn-X0wY
   Also Lee Camp is worth a look. https://youtu.be/9tkxZlZp0v0
   • ropata 5.1

     31 July 2017 at 11:03 pm

     Another good piece by Jimmy Dore. I can only watch in small doses because he lays on the sarcasm so thick. The incident in the Arabian Gulf really brings home what loose cannons the US military are.

     Was talking to an ex soldier last night, apparently the US army was here doing exercises recently in Waiouru. For a live fire exercise the forward observation post called in some artillery and the effing cowboys blew up 12 of their own men. They mixed up the target with the FOP position. This story was hushed up… and that’s why the NZ army doesn’t do live fire exercises with the rough as guts Yanks
6. D'Esterre 6

   31 July 2017 at 11:44 pm

   Bill: “But back to my point. I can’t be the only one who’s sick and tired of the media treadmill churning out specious nonsense that we’re meant to accept as news and worthwhile information – am I?”

   You’re definitely not the only one. It’s long years since I took at face value anything (beyond natural disasters) reported by the msm, most especially the US variety.

   I’ve pleaded with RNZ to take a more sceptical line with reportage from overseas; its journalists simply act as reporters. These people failed to see coming a) Trump’s election, b) the UK vote to leave the EU, and c) the outcome of the most recent UK election. They uncritically broadcast reportage from South America on events in Brazil and Venezuela, without noticing that unrest of this sort comes right out of the CIA playbook; and apparently without being aware of the fact that the CIA has been meddling in Central and South American – and Caribbean – polities since its establishment (it’s near as dammit the same age as I am!). And of course the US was sticking its nose in there for many years before that.

   I scarcely need to say that, rather than news, RNZ uncritically reports the propaganda coming out of US, UK and elsewhere on the Middle East, the Ukraine before that. And the gulf wars, the Bosnia conflict, the Kosovo conflict and the breakup of Yugoslavia before that. And so on, going right back to Cuba and earlier. We’ve been comprehensively propagandised, over many, many years.

   We actually have no idea what’s happening in Washington, because the msm can no more be trusted to report accurately on the White House , or to analyse events there, than they can on other world events.

   I’ve largely given up expecting anything by way of actual analysis from RNZ. And there’s no other news outlet here doing it either. Michael Field excepted, we have no journalists specialising in international affairs. And it shows.

   Sabine: “you forgot to add the madman duerte going around killing people left right n centre.”

   Duterte, actually. If you’re getting your news on the Philippines from the msm, you’ll have no better idea than the rest of us what’s happening there. Don’t take any of that at face value.

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