alanjjohnstone
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The USA now includes Cuba in it sights
“…Bolton said the United States was targeting Cuba’s military and intelligence services, including a military-owned airline, for additional sanctions and was tightening travel and trade restrictions against the island.
Bolton’s speech followed the State Department’s announcement on Wednesday that it was lifting a long-standing ban against U.S. citizens filing lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties seized by Cuba’s Communist government since Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
President Donald Trump’s decision, which the State Department said could unleash hundreds of thousands of legal claims worth tens of billions of dollars, drew swift criticism from European and Canadian allies, whose companies have significant interests in Cuba.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking at the State Department, confirmed that the US will allow lawsuits against foreign companies operating on properties that were seized from Americans during the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Pompeo said, “Any person or company doing business in Cuba should heed this announcement.”
The Cuban government, which could be hindered in attracting new foreign investment, denounced it as “an attack on international law.” Cuba has said it would reimburse the owners of nationalized properties, but only if it were reimbursed for billions of dollars in damages cause by a six-decade US trade embargo.
The European Union, which is Cuba’s largest trading partner, has warned it could challenge the US at the World Trade Organization if it tries to interfere in business ties between sovereign states. The EU told DW it was ready to defend European interests in the matter. “The European Union reiterates its strong opposition to the extraterritorial application of unilateral restrictive measures which it considers contrary to international law,” a spokesperson for the EU said. “The EU is ready to protect European interests — including European investments and the economic activities of EU individuals and entities in their relations with Cuba, if these were to be affected.”
William LeoGrande, a professor at American University in Washington DC, who specializes in Latin America, said hard-line interventionists in the Trump administration have adopted a policy of regime change towards Venezuela and Cuba. “They hope that by toppling the Venezuelan government and cutting off oil exports to Cuba, they can bring about an economic crisis in Cuba that causes political collapse there as well.” The Trump administration’s policy is designed “to scare away foreign contractors and investors, leaving Cuba short of the capital it needs to grow its economy, and aggravating the economic crisis,” LeoGrande said. Europe has lobbied Washington not to end waivers to the Act exposing foreign firms to lawsuits after the Trump administration signaled earlier it would upend previous policy. “Now it appears that the concerns of the EU are going to be ignored, despite the EU’s efforts to be helpful solving the crisis in Venezuela,” LeoGrande said. “It is yet another example of the Trump administration’s unilateralism and contempt for traditional allies.”
While accusing Cuba of propping up Maduro with thousands of security force members in the country, Bolton also warned “all external actors, including Russia,” against deploying military assets to support the Venezuelan leader.
“The United States will consider such provocative actions a threat to international peace and security in the region,” Bolton said.Bolton’s announcements included further measures to roll back parts of the historic opening to Cuba under his predecessor, Barack Obama. The Obama administration’s approach, he said, “provided the Cuban regime with the necessary political cover to expand its malign influence.” Bolton brought in Mauricio Claver-Carone, known as staunchly anti-Castro and an outspoken critic of Obama’s rapprochement with Havana, as his top Latin America adviser.
Among the Cuba measures announced by Bolton was reinstatement of limits on U.S. citizens sending remittances to Cuba at $1,000 (£767) per person per quarter. Remittances have surged since Obama started easing restrictions, becoming an important part of the economy and fuelling growth of the private sector. Bolton said the United States would also further restrict “non-family” travel to Cuba.
Ben Rhodes, a former Obama adviser who negotiated the 2014 diplomatic breakthrough with Havana commented, “This is a shameful and mean-spirited policy.”
Bolton also announced sanctions on Nicaragua’s Bancorp, which he called a “slush fund,” and on Laureano Ortega, a son of President Daniel Ortega for what he described as “vast corruption.”
https://www.dw.com/en/new-us-policy-on-seized-property-in-cuba-threatens-eu-ties/a-48364287
More capitalist warnings
“…The global financial system faces an existential threat from climate change and must take urgent steps to reform, the governors of the Bank of England and France’s central bank have warned, writing in the Guardian.
In an article published in the Guardian on Wednesday aimed at the international financial community, Mark Carney, the Bank’s governor, and Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Banque de France, said financial regulators, banks and insurers around the world had to “raise the bar” to avoid catastrophe.
They said: “As financial policymakers and prudential supervisors we cannot ignore the obvious physical risks before our eyes. Climate change is a global problem, which requires global solutions, in which the whole financial sector has a central role to play…”MediaLens on Assange and the smears
Part 2 to come
Even small amounts of red and processed meat – such as a rasher of bacon a day – can increase the risk of bowel cancer, according to research. The latest study led by Oxford University and funded by Cancer Research UK, adds to evidence, including from the World Health Organization, that eating red meat can be harmful. Cancer Research UK says 5,400 of the 41,804 cases of bowel cancer seen each year in the UK could be prevented if people did not eat processed meat at all.
Researchers analysed data from almost half a million people involved in the UK Biobank study.
Over the six years of their study they found 2,609 people developed bowel cancer.
They estimate:
Eating three rashers of bacon a day rather than just one could increase the risk of bowel cancer by 20%
For every 10,000 people in the study who ate 21g a day of red and processed meat 40 were diagnosed with bowel cancer
The comparable figure for those who ate 76g a day was 48
According to the NHS, 76g of cooked red meat is equivalent to about half an 8oz sirloin steak. A slice of ham or rasher of bacon is about 23g of processed meat.“The results confirm previous findings that both, red and processed meat consumption, increase the risk of colorectal cancer. The increase in risk of approximately 20% per 50g increase of red and processed meat intake is in line with what has been reported previously, and confirms these findings. The study also shows that dietary fibre reduces the risk of colorectal cancer. An increased consumption of fibre, as shown by this study, would be of considerably more benefit.”
NHS guidance says there are some benefits of red meat – for example iron and protein content – that must be balanced against potential risks. People can still eat meat and be healthy.
Greta Thunberg explains the priorities of the EU
Brexit v. Global warming
“Our house is falling apart and our leaders need to start acting accordingly because at the moment they are not. If our house was falling apart our leaders wouldn’t go on like we do today,” she said. “If our house was falling apart, you wouldn’t hold three emergency Brexit summits and no emergency summit regarding the breakdown of the climate and the environment.”
Even more bad news
A new study shows that emissions of a potent greenhouse gas from thawing permafrost in the planet’s northernmost region may be 12 times higher than previously thought. Nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times more potent than CO2, stays in the atmosphere for an average of 114 years
N2O “has conventionally been assumed to have minimal emissions in permafrost regions,” But the new study’s findings challenge that assumption.
Planetary warming isn’t the only threat posed by rising N2O emissions.
“Nitrous oxide poses a second, special threat,” the statement said. “Up in the stratosphere, sunlight and oxygen team up to convert the gas into nitrogen oxides, which eat at the ozone.”So predictable. The centrist, moderate, right-wing Democrats maneuver against Bernie Sanders. We may not consider his policies as a threat to capitalism but there are some who view him as a threat to their interests and indeed fear his victory
The New York Times reported the launching of “an anti-Sanders campaign”
a SO-CALLED relic of the crown of thorns a SUPPOSED god’s ALLEGED son wore at his CLAIMED crucifixion 😉
“The proletarian movement is the self-conscious independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.” – The Communist Manifesto
But how is this determined.
The Party and Engels has said the vote is the thermometer to gauge support and adherence to socialist ideas.
But I have pointed out that when we endorsed our Declaration of Principles, the electorate did not include the majority. All women and I think 20% of working-class men were excluded from the franchise. Polling figures were assumed to reflect the will of those unable to vote.
Should the abstentions count as votes for socialism? Robbo says the minority will “For the most part even they will fall in line with the will of majority, grudgingly or otherwise”
Can it also be a case of the opposite as this Erica Chenoweth says it actually is?
In places without a democratic process, it will be necessary to judge support from those who vote with their feet whether its Tahrir Sq or Tiananmen Sq. or Gezi Park.
Are we to assume where the democratic mandate exists, we will wait for the parliamentary constitutional procedures to take their course and then have some Privy Councillor use the Royal Prerogative to over-rule Parliament and the Law as happened with the Chagos Islanders.
The growth of political socialists will be mirrored by the same increased number of socialists in the industrial arena so just what happens when employers are faced with mounting militancy of workers that now has the confidence of a new society being seen on the horizon?
As an aside, I have witnessed that it is a core minority of strikers on the picket line which determines success or failure. Most strikers use a strike as a convenient holiday to have the time to paint and wall-paper their houses.
I think with any increase of involvement in Parliamentary politics through the conduit of socialist parties there will also be the manifestations of workers councils, community committees, cultural clubs and whatever touched on when LBird said “There won’t be any ‘specialists’ who supposedly have a non-democratic ‘method’ which allows them, and them alone, to dictate to the ‘majority’ “…i.e. politicians being entrusted to carry out the peoples’ will. A SOCIAL REVOLUTION, encompasses the whole of society and will express itself in a wide variety of ways.
We have the luxury of speculation because I doubt any of us on the forum will be required to make a judgement call on when a near majority or even 3.5% has been reached. But imagine the WSPUS – 3.5% – A 11 million strong membership of a socialist movement.
Could it be divine judgement on Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, who was given a six-month suspended prison sentence in March for failing to report to the authorities accusations made against a priest abusing boy scouts and that the Pope declined the Cardinal’s offer of resignation.
My question would be …Is Quasimodo okay?
China’s ambassador to Chile, Xu Bu, “Mr Pompeo has lost his mind”
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, pilloried Beijing for continuing to back Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro. “China’s bankrolling of the Maduro regime helped precipitate and prolong the crisis in that country. I think there’s a lesson … to be learned for all of us: China and others are being hypocritical calling for non-intervention in Venezuela’s affairs. Their own financial interventions have helped destroy that country,” Pompeo added, claiming Chinese money had been used to pay off Maduro’s cronies, crush pro-democracy activists and fund ineffective social programs.”
The foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, slammed Pompeo’s “groundless allegations” and “attempts to slander China and sow discord between China and Latin American countries”.
“A lie will remain a lie, even if repeated a thousand times,” Lu told reporters.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/15/china-mike-pompeo-venezuela-maduro
Worth a read
After Israeli Election, We Need to Think Beyond Two-State Solution
“…Do we reflexively oppose thinking that is outside the current two-state consensus, or do we work to end the inequality of occupation and apartheid that Palestinians live under as second-class citizens…”
I recall one member long ago posting that the Palestinians should transform their nationalist campaign into a civil rights one, demanding full and equal citizenship of Israel, when the prevailing opinion was the Two-State Option.
