alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/05/talking-points-combating-israels-manipulation-of-the-media/
An article worth a read as it says as talking points
Perhaps for the inclusion to the 2nd edition of the Sylvia Pankhurst pamphlet?
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2019/02/what-is-behind-label-plea-for-clearness.html
Media Lens on the biased reporting
Part 1
“…corporate media, in fact, do not care about free elections in Venezuela…”
Russian Defense Secretary Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday a land-based version of the navy’s Kalibr cruise missile and a new land-based hypersonic missile must be built in 2019 or 2020.
France’s Yellow Vest protest movement on Tuesday joined ranks with a major union in a day of nationwide protests over taxes and buying power, a first for both. The Communist-backed CGT union marched from Paris City Hall to the Place de la Concorde side-by-side with protesters from the Yellow Vest movement
By coincidence, Patrick Cockburn, making a similar point to my last post.
A Plague of Rats: How Years of Austerity Prompted Many Britons to Vote for Brexit
https://www.dw.com/en/un-rejects-call-to-join-venezuela-mediation-efforts/a-47358766
“UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that the global body would not join any initiatives to resolve the political crisis in Venezuela in order to remain neutral.”
And there was me thinking that facilitating peaceful resolutions was the purpose of the UN.
Some critics of Maduro from the left/Trotskyist
https://countervortex.org/node/15621
https://countervortex.org/node/15625
Which will provide further links, many in Spanish
The inaccuracy of polls against actual votes is that many say what they think they should say and be PC about their responses. But actually make their choices differently.
I agree with Matt and when it came to who effected their happiness and sadness was for many Brexiteers it was and still is the presence of foreigners – the scapegoats.
Yes, it was also austerity.
I recall watching a news report after the result in one of the most economically devastated regions which overwhelmingly voted leave, the presenter taking a young unemployed guy who blamed migrants for no jobs around his town, looking at the new community centre, looking at the sites of new factories, looking at the new infrastructure…and pointing to all the accompanying signs where it was written in small letters, “funding by the EU”. The TV presenter then took the guy to the one of the very few Eastern European in the town (migrants usually go where there are jobs) and asked…is it his fault, are you blaming him for your unemployment?
The Remainers simply failed to show the reality to the myth that the UK was subsidizing the EU and not the other way around and that the Brussels was assisting the deprived regions much more than central government in London.
Maduro appeals to the Pope to help kickstart talks.
https://apnews.com/ebeb499562f4443197b4e6b79888e1fe
Guaido refused to rule out backing a possible US military intervention in the country
Maduro’s government announced it would sell 15 tonnes of its gold reserves to Abu Dhabi investment firm Noor Capital in the United Arab Emirates.
Even more bad news…does it never end
“This is the climate crisis you haven’t heard of,”
“…At least a third of the huge ice fields in Asia’s towering mountain chain are doomed to melt due to climate change, according to a landmark new report, with serious consequences for almost 2 billion people.
Even if carbon emissions are dramatically and rapidly cut and succeed in limiting global warming to 1.5C, 36% of the glaciers along in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya range will have gone by 2100. If emissions are not cut, the loss soars to two-thirds, the report found. The glaciers are a critical water store for the 250 million people who live in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region, and 1.65 billion people rely on the great rivers that flow from the peaks into India, Pakistan, China and other nations…”Yet again talks that could lead to a peaceful resolution are being rebuffed
Trump said he had rejected talks with Maduro “because so many really horrible things have been happening in Venezuela”. Asked if military action was possible, he replied: “Well I don’t want to say that. But certainly it’s something that’s on the – it’s an option.”
He will talk to North Korea and to Putin but refuses to seek dialogue with Maduro. Yet the media story leads with Maduro bellicose speech of self-defence.
The hypocrisy
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47109380
The US may not have been the primary cause of the shortages but it contributed by not permitting credit access.
However apparently what will happen is that Gaido will do a Gaza aid stunt…convoys will be sent to the border where the authorities will refuse to allow it in. While America supported Israel denying Palestinians aid-shipments, I am sure their compliant media will highlight Maduro turning it away as the actions of a cruel tyrant. As usual when the American public see the TV images, they will have the knee jerk reaction that is expected. It will provide the hawks with any “humanitarian” motive required for a more forceful intervention that they might think necessary, perhaps an American military escort for the trucks.
Once again USAID is shown for the partisan puppet it is with no political independence. The US media will not explain why other aid/charity NGOs will not touch such an action with a barge-pole.
I also notice a number of discrepancies in the BBC graphic – Mexico, Uruguay, New Zealand, expressing wish for negotiations
The ex-pats in Spain
“… I am dependent on UK healthcare and a pension. Could these be withheld from foreigners in a post-Brexit future? We are all scared and paranoid now.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/03/fear-anger-stalk-britons-costa-del-sol-brexit
“It’s project fear. I don’t believe any of it. For people like us, I don’t think anything is going to change at all. If Spain expels all the British expats, the economy will tank.”
“What will be, will be,”
Spain does not generally allow dual nationality. So, to become Spanish, people have to give up their British passports.
Cash please
Equity investors in Europe are hanging on to unusually big cash piles, signalling growing unease over the market’s prospects.
They prefer keeping large sums of money parked until the protectionist war between Washington and Beijing clears up or Britain agrees on a Brexit deal, or data gives them some comfort that the global economy is not so in bad shape.
“There’s no reason to be 100 percent invested,” said Gilles Guibout, head of European equities at AXA Investment Managers, which manages a total of 759 billion euros ($872 billion) in various assets. “The bounce we’ve seen has no real foundations. We remain sceptical on any strong market recovery because many uncertainties have still no answer.”
JPMorgan, BlackRock, Allianz, Goldman Sachs and Schroder had also significantly increased their cash buffers to above average levels over the last few months.
