Politics > Biden's Precipitous Fall from Grace; Russian's Surprising Stand on Democracy and Socialism; AUKUS Mess Still a Mess

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Biden’s approval plummets further as over 70% say

country headed in wrong direction – NBC poll

31 Oct, 2021 16:36

©  REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Bad poll numbers continue to plague President Joe Biden as the latest survey shows a majority, including almost half of Democrats, believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

The NBC News poll, released Sunday and conducted among 1,000 adults in the US, represents only the latest disappointing poll numbers for Biden. His approval has been steadily slipping in most surveys, including those conducted by NBC, with the latest job approval rating standing at 42%, a dip from 49% in August and 53% in April.

More than half of respondents said they disapprove of Biden’s job performance, which is an increase of 6% since August. 

Seven in 10 respondents said they believe the country is also headed in the wrong direction under the Biden administration. Broken down by party, 93% of Republicans say the country is going in the wrong direction, while 70% of Independents agree. While Biden’s polling is typically much better among Democrats, even 48% of their supporters said things are not headed in the right direction.

Only 22% said the country is actually headed in the right direction, according to the polling data. 

Respondents were more split on which political party should control Congress after the 2022 midterms (47% for Democrats, 45% for Republicans), and over half of those surveyed believe the US’ best years are already behind it. 

A recent ABC/Ipsos poll found the president’s overall approval standing at only 45%, with 49% of respondents saying they disapproved. 

Biden’s approval ratings have slipped as his administration has dealt with a number of issues, including record numbers of migrants at the southern border, the Covid-19 pandemic and controversial vaccine mandates, as well as supply chain and staffing issues causing disruptions in multiple industries.

The president has also struggled to push his massive $1.75 trillion spending bill, which includes infrastructure and climate spending, through Congress as Republicans have stood staunchly against the massive price tag, along with key Democrat senators like Kyrsten Sinema. On this specific issue, Biden received more bad news on Sunday, with an ABC poll finding that 7 out of 10 Americans know very little about the spending package, and only 25% think the spending would actually benefit them. 

Biden’s polling unpopularity has given his critics plenty to point to when blasting the president’s agenda, and many signaled the NBC poll and its 70% disapproval as perhaps one of the worst polls for the Democrat yet. 

It would be nice to know specifically what policies are being rejected by the masses.

An excellent analysis of the attitudes of Russian citizens toward democracy, socialism and authoritarianism. It was written by a Turkish scholar who specializes in Russian and Ukrainian history.

Grass isn’t always greener? Russians are increasingly skeptical of

Western-style democracy, and young are turning against the left

31 Oct, 2021 17:11

FILE PHOTO: Russian presidential candidate, acting President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin during

the voting at the Russian presidential elections at a polling station, March 18, 2018. © Sputnik / Kira Novikova

By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian at Koç University in Istanbul working on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory. He tweets at @tarikcyrilamar.

What do the Russians want? It’s a question that many Western commentators find themselves coming up with more and more extreme answers to – a strong leader, to conquer new territory, rebuild the USSR, or start a nuclear war. 

Western-style democracy, however, doesn’t appear to be on the list. A new poll by Moscow’s internationally acknowledged Levada Center (registered as a foreign agent over links to overseas funding) has found that more Russians say they aren’t “a democrat,” or “a person with democratic beliefs,” than those who claim they are. Almost half (47%) of the more than 1,600 people surveyed across the country disagreed with the statement, with those holding democratic convictions at around 44%. 

The ‘non-democratic’ group, it seems, is growing. When the same question was asked in 2018, 41% backed the notion and only 38% rejected it. Non-believers, it seems, are on the rise – and are now in the relative majority.

There’s also something of an age gap. Those aged 18-24 were the most likely to identify as democrats (50%); those between 40-54 were the least (41%). Intriguingly, people over 55 displayed more democratic inclinations (44%) than the middle-aged. The oldest and the youngest held democratic ideals, while few in between did.

Some observers, perhaps especially in the West, will probably be tempted to jump to conclusions, along the lines of: “There you have it! Most Russians are not democrats” or, perhaps, even that “they’re positively against democracy!” And from there, the usual misleading pseudo-explanations will flow. “It’s built into their genetic code from Ivan the Terrible to today – they’re brainwashed and can’t imagine life without autocracy.” And so on, as long as you can stand it.

There are, of course, better observations to be made.

One fascinating result concerns Russian attitudes toward the political left. Asked if they saw themselves as “adherents of left, socialist views,” a large majority, 72%, said no. Only 18% said they did. Moreover, on this question, the young were even more ill-disposed toward the left than the old.

Post-Soviet Russia is a capitalist country with a significant degree of inequality in wealth and income. Its Gini Index, for instance, a measure of income inequality, shows Russia positioned between Germany (which has less inequality) and the US (which has more inequality), according to the most recent data available from the World Bank. Of course, it is hard to properly understand how Russia’s wealth is really distributed, given the number of salaries and transactions paid under the table, as in almost all former Soviet nations. 

You might, however, expect a stronger interest in left-wing politics aiming at more equality, perhaps, especially in a country where the forging of capitalism is within living memory as a story not only of opportunity and entrepreneurship but also of massive insider dealing, inequity, and exploitation. 

Clearly, one reason why an explicit adoption of socialist values is so rare, for now, has to do with the long Soviet experience of authoritarianism and inefficiency. In practice, it has left the word socialism with a bad reputation of stultifying and intolerant state ideology, unaccountable and obstinate rulers, and scarce and shoddy goods. 

Last but not least, in the Soviet case, the system’s highly authoritarian variant of socialism was a result of a revolution; a revolution, moreover, that occurred inside a bloody world war and was followed by a civil war, that – for Russia – was even bloodier. Against these experiences, “socialism” is associated with violent upheaval and that, in turn, with devastation.

We should be careful, however, this may also be one of those cases, where the answer to a poll question depends strongly not on its actual content, but its packaging, the phrasing. How would the respondents have answered if they had been asked about issues of equality and solidarity, but in terms avoiding the trigger words “left” and “socialist”? 

Moreover, if you think that a dislike of “socialism” necessarily translates into enthusiasm for the market, Russia will complicate your idea of the world. In the same country that has little time for the left, only 32% of respondents saw themselves as “adherents of market economy transformations,” while a solid majority of 58% did not. 

If we look at the whole – fairly short – poll and not only at the question about democracy, we see a society that does not like market economy reforms very much, seems cool about democracy, and cannot stand “socialism.” 

Yet, as with “socialism,” we should ask what Russians actually associate with the terms “democracy”? There are two good answers to this question, one complex, the other simple. 

The complex answer has to do with the fact that in Russia, as in the rest of the world, the term “democracy” is multifaceted. It takes no “relativism” to note that democracy can take different shapes. It can be, for instance, heavily constrained by elements of oligarchy, such as in the US. Critical observers could plausibly argue that Washington is, actually, run by an oligarchy ever more weakly constrained by democracy. It can be centralized with a strong executive, such as in France, or decentralized with an executive of less power and visibility, such as in Switzerland. Democracy can come with relatively strong redistribution of income and wealth, or not. It can be more “social” or more “market,” or make a special point of trying to reconcile these two tendencies, such as postwar West Germany.

Moreover, democracy is an ideal at least as much as a reality: Arguably, despite herdlike assertions to the contrary, humanity has, unfortunately, not yet produced a genuine democracy. The idea has been around, but not the fact. Every single polity that has called itself democratic up until now has been so in a substantially flawed manner at best, be it because of degrees of social inequality that are not reconcilable with true political equality – and you don’t need Marx to understand this simple fact, Aristotle will do – or the interference of exclusivist ideologies, such as racism or nationalism. 

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the real-existing differences in failing or succeeding (relatively speaking) at democracy matter, a lot: It makes sense to classify some states as democratic (by the standards of our age and as by comparison with other states), while other states won’t qualify. As of now, two of the minimum conditions that being labeled a democracy requires are that incumbent rulers can effectively be removed from office by an equal and fair system of voting. And that all adults under de facto long-term rule can participate in such elections, at the very least passively, that is by voting, if not also actively, that is by standing for office. 

These conditions mean that Israel is no democracy as long as it exerts de facto long-term rule over a large disenfranchised population of Palestinians. The US was, at best, an extremely incomplete democracy before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 at long last addressed the systematic disenfranchisement of black Americans. Despite the existence of political parties and some competition, Russia as well cannot make a convincing case for being labeled a democracy now, given its elections do not credibly expose the incumbent rulers to the risk of loss of office.

Let’s be clear about one thing, however: Not being a democracy is not something that should ever be abused to target a country for outside intervention, because viable, lasting democracy cannot be imposed from outside (except under extremely rare and unusual conditions that are anything but typical). And because once “democracy promotion” is treated as a justification for interference and intervention, the real aim of such activities always ends up being something else, namely geopolitical power advantage. In that process of pretext and misguided “assistance,” democracy is demeaned and its reputation damaged. Western maitre penseurs who lend their names to such ideological cover-ups are naive or detestable.

Against this backdrop of complexity and politicization, we have some evidence on how Russians understand the word “democracy.” Thus, important survey research published 10 years ago by Henry Hale, an American political scientist, revealed three important findings. First, “many of the studies claiming to find evidence of mass authoritarian sentiment in Russia are based at least in part on misinterpreting terms that are assumed to have the same meaning in Russia as elsewhere (such as ‘democracy’ or ‘strong hand’).” Second, the putative Russian mass preference for autocracy (the “tsar” of widespread cliches) is a misleading myth. Third, instead, many Russians show a preference for what political science calls “delegative democracy,” or, in the words of the study worth quoting in full: “a strong leader who is largely unconstrained by other institutions in solving Russia’s immense challenges of transition, but Russians are also quite clear that they simultaneously want and expect to choose that leader through free, fair and competitive elections and to have the right to remove that leader in the same way should things go wrong. Russians are thus strikingly principled in rejecting outright autocracy…” 

Hale is no starry-eyed optimist. He has recently reiterated his sense of disappointment with Russia’s politics. But he has also restated his argument that Russian politics are not shaped by deep cultural predispositions toward autocracy. 

The second, straightforward answer to the question of what Russians think of when you say “democracy” has to do with recent experience, still well within living memory: Whereas “socialism” can’t shake off bad memories produced in the Soviet period, between 1917 and 1991, “democracy” suffers from being associated with the 1990s. 

Perhaps there are still some obdurate Western observers who won’t let go of the illusion that Russians experienced “democracy” in that decade of relentless post-Soviet aftershocks and disruption. But that’s not even a half-truth, it's merely an ideological self-deception. In reality, this was a time not only of insecurity, impoverishment, and humiliation, but also of a political system that can be described as oligarcho-mafiotic, not democratic in any meaningful sense of the term. It was also a moment of massive and, in essence, open Western interference in Russia’s domestic politics, another feature that clashes with any self-respecting definition of democracy.

Yet the tragedy is that this sad, corrupt, low decade was sold under the label of “democracy.” If you had been challenged to find the most efficient way of disabusing Russians of democracy, you could not have found a more devastating approach than applying the term to the 1990s. And that is why it is actually astonishing how many Russians are not giving up on the idea. While the greedy oligarchs, the ruthless “reformers,” the cynical leaders of the 1990s, and their Western sponsors and advisers did their worst to give democracy as bad a reputation as “socialism” in Russia, Russians are far less skeptical of democracy than of “socialism.” There’s hope in that.

Australia’s Morrison contradicts Biden, says US knew Canberra

didn’t warn France about ditching submarine deal in favor of AUKUS

31 Oct, 2021 08:08

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrives for the G20 leaders summit in Rome.

© Reuters / Guglielmo Mangiapane

Canberra had kept Washington updated on its dealings with France, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists, despite US President Joe Biden earlier saying that he thought Paris knew about the AUKUS pact beforehand.

France was left stunned and even said it was stabbed in the back after the surprise announcement of the AUKUS deal by the leaders of the US, UK, and Australia in mid-September. The reaction was so harsh because the new plan to arm Canberra with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines resulted in the Australian government unilaterally canceling the $90 billion diesel-electric submarine contract with Paris. France even recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra, though they have both since returned.

When addressed on the trio’s falling out with Paris during the G20 Summit in Rome on Saturday, Morrison told reporters that Canberra “kept the US administration up to date on the status of what the conversations and discussions had been with the French government.”

“We worked closely with the US and the UK. We kept them up-to-date – the administration – as to where we were at in our various discussions with France,” he told the media.

The prime minister again defended the decision to abandon the French contract, saying the Australian government needed to “ensure we had the right submarine capability to deal with our strategic interests.”

“There was never an easy way for us, I think, to get to a point where we had to disappoint a friend and partner – it was a difficult decision, but for Australia, it was the right decision.”

However, Morrison’s comments didn’t line up with the account offered by Biden to French President Emmanuel Macron during their talks in Rome a day earlier.

The US president apologized to Macron, saying he was “under the impression that France had been informed long before that the deal [with Canberra] was not going through.”

“What we did was clumsy,” Biden said of the treatment of Paris regarding AUKUS. “It wasn’t done with a lot of grace.” It’s not clear if the remark was made in reference to his own administration or both the US and the Australian governments.

During the summit in Rome on Saturday, Morrison and Macron got together for the first time since the diplomatic scandal erupted. It was a brief and informal meeting ahead of the official photograph of the G20 leaders.

Don't You Just Love Irony? > China's Communist Government Orders Christians to Pray for Fallen Soldiers

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China orders Christians to pray for dead communist soldiers

or face consequences

By Leah MarieAnn Klett, 

Christian Post Reporter 

Monday, September 06, 2021

Catholics attend a Christmas eve mass at a Catholic church near the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi province,

December 24, 2012. | Reuters/Jason Lee/File Photo

Though Chinese Christians are banned from honoring their own martyrs, they are now required to pray for communist soldiers who died in the war with imperial Japan to “demonstrate the good image of peace-loving Christianity in China.”

According to religious liberty magazine Bitter Winter, the Chinese Communist Party recently issued a new directive requiring state-sponsored churches to pray for soldiers of the Red Army who died during the resistance war against Japanese occupation forces.

The directive was reportedly sent to all churches that are part of the government-controlled Protestant Three-Self Church.

In part, the directive orders churches to “organize peace prayer worship activities to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War around Sept. 3, according to the actual situation.”

It adds: “Local churches and congregations may, according to the actual local situation, carry out relevant peace prayer activities in a small and decentralized form, in line with the local requirements for prevention and control of the new COVID epidemic, to further promote the fine tradition of patriotism and love of religion and to demonstrate the good image of peace-loving Christianity in China.”

Churches are further "required to submit evidence of the relevant activities (text, video and photo materials) to the Media Ministry Department of the China Christian Council by September 10” or face consequences, according to Bitter Winter. 

In August, members of the Theological Seminary in Fujian were also invited to attend a celebration to pay tribute to martyrs of what China dubs “People’s War of Resistance Against the Japanese Aggression.”

Prayers were held seeking the intercession of “Jesus, the King of Peace” for the “peaceful reunification” of China, Bitter Winter reported.

Though the CCP requires churches to pray for deceased communist soldiers, Bitter Winter notes that Christians in China are forbidden to pray for their martyrs, and those killed by the CCP cannot be commemorated.

Religious persecution is worsening across China, as President Xi Jinping’s "sinicization campaign," introduced in 2015, seeks to bring religions under the officially atheist party’s absolute control and into line with Chinese culture.

In May, the CCP ordered churches affiliated with the government to plan celebrations to mark 100 years of its existence.

In addition to asking religious persons to learn the history of the party, go on a “pilgrimage” to visit revolutionary sites, or hold exhibitions at religious venues, churches were required to host events featuring centennial celebrations.

The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association in Jiangbei district of Chongqing city subsequently held a “Grateful and Praise for the CCP Blessing Mass” at one of its worship gatherings.

“The Church should organically unify ‘Love Party, Love Country, and Love Socialism’ and faith; boldly speak about politics, while speaking about faith in accordance with law,” Ding Yang, the priest who officiated the mass, was quoted as saying.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that there are about 97 million Christians in China, a large percentage of whom worship in what China considers to be “illegal” and unregistered underground home churches.

However, house church leaders are under intense pressure to join the government-controlled church. Those who refuse face intense persecution, as the government has installed more than 170 million facial recognition cameras, many in or near churches, to identify those who attend worship services.

Christians are often charged with participating in cults or with other crimes against the CCP, such as “bad business practices” or “intent to undermine the state.” 

The government has also imposed a ban on the online sale of Bibles.

Authorities also pressure Christian parents by refusing their children an education, threatening to send their children to government re-education camps or forcibly remove adopted children from their parents.

The U.S. State Department has labeled China as a “country of particular concern” for “continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

Bolivia Swings Back to the Left Even Without Morales

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Bolivia’s official presidential vote count confirms win by socialist Luis Arce,

ally of ousted leader Morales

23 Oct 2020 15:43

Luis Arce reacts next to vice presidential candidate David Choquehuanca, who wears a protective face mask,

in La Paz, Bolivia, October 19, 2020. © Reuters / Ueslei Marcelino

Socialist Luis Arce has won the presidential election in Bolivia with 55 percent of the vote, the official count confirmed after all ballots were counted on Friday.

Arce’s leading rival, Carlos Mesa, took just under 29 percent of the vote, meaning the socialist’s tally exceeded the required 20 percentage-point lead for an outright win.

The result also marks a return to the left for Bolivia. The present conservative caretaker government stepped in after Evo Morales, who governed for almost 14 years, was ousted last year.

On Monday, Arce’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party had already claimed victory in the election held the previous day, and Mesa conceded. Arce served as economy minister during the Morales era and is said to have been handpicked by the former leader, who resigned under pressure last year. However, the president-elect said on Tuesday he saw “no role” in his government for Morales, who still leads MAS from exile in Argentina.

“He will not have any role in our government,” Arce told Reuters. He said that the former leader can return to the country “because he’s Bolivian,” but added that the new president will decide who forms the administration.

The president-elect, who grew up in a middle class La Paz household, oversaw a nationalization program and commodities boom while minister. These policies helped provide funds to lift millions of indigenous Bolivians out of poverty in a period of sustained growth.

However, given the current recession, Arce warned that the government “will have to have austerity measures.”

Speaking on diplomatic ties with the US, which have been severed, Arce said: “If they want to re-establish a relationship with us, the only thing we ask for is that we are respected as equals.”

Prior to Morales' socialist government, right-wing governments sold Bolivia's natural resources to international companies at pathetic prices, impoverishing the people, especially the indigenous peoples. This will be good for Bolivia, if America doesn't punish them for expecting fair prices for their commodities. That's my humble opinion, for what it's worth.

Environmentalism: Evidence Suggests it Was Always and Only About Achieving World Government

WUWT Guest Opinion: Dr. Tim Ball

It is common sense to protect our environment, but what has occurred for 50 years is exploitation of that idea for a socialist agenda. We wasted 50 years believing that humans are not natural, and everything they do is destructive. We wasted and continue to waste trillions of dollars on unnecessary policies and useless technologies, all based on false assumptions, pseudoscience, and emotional bullying.

We now know 50 years later that every single prediction concerning the environmental demise of the Earth and the people made in the original Earth Day Report was wrong. We also know that every additional claim, such as overpopulation, global warming, sea level rise, desertification, deforestation, and sea ice collapse, among many others, were wrong. I challenge anyone to produce empirical evidence that proves anything happening today is outside any long-term record of natural activity.

Convince the people that the entire world is threatened, and you can convince them that no nation can save it. It is then easy to convince them that a world government is the only way to save the planet. The trouble is that none of it is true. The World is in good shape, and people are living longer and healthier lives in every nation.  

Like the majority of people, Elaine Dewar assumed environmentalists were commendable even heroic people. She began research for a book singing their praises. It didn’t take long to learn the basic premise was wrong. Following the traditional and proper methodology, rarely seen these days, Dewar identified the duplicitous characters involved in the Canadian environmental movement and laid them out in her book Cloak of Green. She spent five days at the UN with Canadian Maurice Strong arguably the world architect of official environmentalism. He was praised excessively, as in this article, “The World Mourns One of its Greats: Maurice Strong Dies, His Legacy Lives On.” Another article recognized the evil he personified, “Who is Global Warming Propagandist Maurice Strong?” After the five days, Dewar concluded,

“Strong was using the U.N. as a platform to sell a global environment crisis and the Global Governance Agenda.”

The environmental movement as the basis for a socialist world government was in the minds of people like Strong and fellow members of the Club of Rome in the late 1960s. However, it was launched on the world on April 22, 1970, by a small group centered at Stanford University. The date is critical because it was the first Earth Day. It is also very important to know the choice was deliberate because it is the birthday of Vladimir Lenin. The environmental movement was a deliberate program to impose communism on the world.

The underlying theme of the environmental movement makes the following false assumptions.

That almost all change is a result of human activity. The UN claim, using computer models, that 95%+ of temperature increase since 1950 is due to human-produced CO2. This works because they don’t consider most natural causes.

That humans are unnatural. The 1990 “Greenpeace Report on Global Warming” says CO2 is added to the atmosphere “naturally and unnaturally.”  Yes, that unnatural production is from humans.

That we are not part of nature. Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) comment explains.

“Mankind is a cancer; we’re the biggest blight on the face of the earth.” “If you haven’t given voluntary human extinction much thought before, the idea of a world with no people in it may seem strange. But, if you give it a chance, I think you might agree that the extinction of Homo Sapiens would mean survival for millions if not billions, of Earth-dwelling species. Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental.”

Remarkable insanity - it's astonishing that anyone in the world pays any attention to this lunacy.

That we should be eliminated or dramatically reduced in number. In May 2015, the Pope produced Laudate Si an Encyclical about his view of the state of the Earth. It is a socialist diatribe, but that is not surprising since the main contributor was Hans Schellnhuber, a pantheist. This group believes the world population should be below 1 billion people.

That if the western world reduces levels of CO2 production, the rest of the world will follow. China has 2,363 coal plants and is constructing 1,171 more. The US has 15 and is not constructing any.   

The US can build as many clean-burning coal plants as they want and burn coal pollution free. They don’t have to worry about CO2 because it is not a pollutant and is not causing climate change. No significant environmental problems are threatening the world. All the stories about impending environmental doom are fictions deliberately created to make people surrender control to the government.  It is time to break the emotional stranglehold of those who used the environment to create global socialism.

This is the allegation that Lord Christopher Monkton has been putting forth for years. 

John Stossel Reveals a Certain Lack of Socialism in Sweden

Sweden is often held up as a model of successful socialism

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Stossel looks into it and finds some very unsocialistic attitudes in Sweden made necessary by the drastic failure of real socialist programs

And don't forget Sweden's mind-boggling issue with domestic abuse, called the Nordic Paradox

Failed State Made in the USA: Ex-President of Honduras and Coup Victim Zelaya Tells All

I have complained many times about how US corporations have raped Central Americans and many South Americans of their natural resources. And instead of making them wealthy, they are made poorer. Anyone who attempts to change the situation for the betterment of the people is liable to be removed by any means, often being replaced by autocrats completely devoid of conscience. 

I thought I was referring to well in the past, but, it appears that it is still going on in the 21st century. In fact, we can easily blame much of the current migrant crisis on America's southern border on America's political and financial interference in Central America. 

If the USA is going to be the moral leader of the world, it first has to present itself a moral.

Zelaya at a protest against the US-backed Hernandez government © Reuters / Jorge Cabrera

President Jose Manuel Zelaya of Honduras was deposed from power in a military coup after joining a progressive alliance of Latin American leaders and he has “absolutely no doubts” the US was behind his ouster, he tells RT America.

“The US warned me: If you sign the Bolivarian Alternative to the Americas (ALBA), you’re going to have problems with the US. I signed it, and six months later, I had problems,” Zelaya told RT America’s Rick Sanchez.

They kicked me out.

Washington “wave[s] their flags of human rights abroad, but they only apply those concepts to those they consider to be adversaries,” Zelaya says, pointing to his record of poverty reduction and economic growth – “I had the best indicators of human development in Honduran history!”

Because of the company he kept – working with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, and other progressive US bogeymen to further Honduras’ economic development – the US “had an allergic reaction” and moved to take him out, he says.

“I didn’t have problems with the US,” Zelaya insists. “They simply didn’t accept the competition, because these transnational companies live off monopoly, they live off concessions. When you give them competition in the free market, they stop being capitalist. They become retrograde, authoritarian, and they play coups, wars, invasions.”

Zelaya was removed from power in 2009, deposed by heavily armed soldiers who came to his home while he was in his pajamas, in a coup Hillary Clinton’s State Department refused to call a coup.

Honduras has been sinking into chaos ever since. His progressive reforms such as building schools, adopting a pension system for the elderly and raising the minimum wage have been rolled back, and homicide rates had soared 50 percent by 2011. Trade unionists, journalists, judges, human rights and environmental activists have been targeted for extrajudicial killings.

His efforts to return to power have also been thwarted, once again by the US, he says. After his party won the 2017 election with nearly three quarters of the votes counted, it was the US ambassador who appeared with 5,000 boxes of ballots to declare another candidate the winner. Even the pro-US Organization of American States called for a new round of elections. Instead, the government suspended the constitution and imposed 10 days of martial law, after which the US recognized the rigged results.

“And with that, they impose a dictatorship in Honduras… that’s what we’re protesting against.”

Zelaya says the US sees Honduras “not as a colony or a province. They see us as an empty landscape where they invest and where they impose their rules.”

He does not blame only the Americans for the suffering of Honduras, however.

The Hondurans are guilty, the ones that bow down and kiss the boots of the US, the US military, or kiss up to the capitalist chiefs of Wall Street.

Spanish Socialist Party Wins Most Seats in Snap Elections

Far-right VOX party wins 24 seats, but conservative influence

in congress significantly reduced

By Daniel Uria

Spanish Prime Minister and Secretary General of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party Pedro Sanchez,

celebrates after the party won the most seats in the country's general elections Sunday.

Photo by JuanJo Martin/EPA

(UPI) -- Spain's ruling Socialist Party was declared the winner of the country's snap election Sunday, a government spokeswoman said.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, or PSOE, won 122 of the 350 seats in Spain's Congress of Deputies, leading all other parties but failing to win an outright majority.

Sunday's results indicate Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will likely enter into negotiations to form a coalition with Pablo Iglesias' Podemos party, which won 42 seats, and will still require support from other parties to form a 176-seat majority.

The far-right Vox Party also won 24 seats in the election, becoming the first far-right party to win more than a single seat since the country returned to democracy in 1975.

The conservative People's Party, or PP, saw its control of Congress weaken, as it won just 66 seats compared to the last election in June 2016 where it won 137.

PP leader Pablo Casado said the election was one of the most decisive in recent years, adding his party's results were "very bad."

Voter turnout reached a record high of 75.8 percent, up from 66.5 percent during the previous elections.

"My feeling is that in Spain there is an ample progressive majority and when there is high participation that becomes very clear," said Iglesias.

Not really, Iglesias, the PP Party's corruption was reflected in the cutting of their support by more than half. These people didn't suddenly become socialists.

Sanchez called for the snap general elections in February, after he failed to pass his 2019 budget deal.

After voting on Sunday, Sanchez said he hoped the election would provide a parliamentary majority to allow him to pass social and political reforms.

"After many years of instability and uncertainty, it's important that today we send a clear, defined message about the Spain we want," Sanchez said. "From there, a broad parliamentary majority must be built that can support a stable government."

If you continue down this socialist, pro-globalization path, you will find your support weaken significantly over the next couple years and your opposition becoming more and more hardened.

SWEDISH EX-PRIME MINISTER REBUKES BERNIE: SOCIALISM ONLY DESTROYS

And don't forget the Nordic Paradox!

By Alice Salles

Socialism never stopped enticing young American minds. But the more Democratic Socialists such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez open their mouths, we learn the movement’s most vocal proponents simply ignore socialism’s incompatibility with democracy, as demonstrated by Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises in A Critique of Interventionism . Sen. Bernie Sanders is one of them.

With the Vermont senator announcing he’s running for president, his past comments defending socialism and socialist countries notorious for their failures become the type of material critics are eager to dissect. Especially because he still calls himself a Democratic Socialist while using Nordic countries as examples of what he defends.

Thankfully, political figures from the very countries the good senator from Vermont calls “socialist” are here to remind him that the ideology is nothing but a trap.

Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994, Carl Bildt, took to Twitter to warn Sanders that socialism is not the key to creating a great society as he and Ocasio-Cortez seem to think.

After old footage showing Sanders and his wife, Jane, praising the Soviet Union for its programs targeting the youth went viral online, Bildt responded by saying “Sanders was lucky to be able to get to the Soviet Union in 1988 and praise all its stunning socialist achievements before the entire system and empire collapsed under the weight of its own spectacular failures.”

To the former prime minister, the damage socialism can cause is still fresh in his memory. After all, he was the first prime minister in 60 years to not subscribe to the ideology. And thanks to him, Sweden’s capital gains taxes were cut to 30 percent and corporate taxes to 28 percent.

Bildt also privatized several state-owned industries, deregulated multiple sectors of the economy, allowed people to invest portions of their pension, and introduced school choice policies, improving the country’s education system.

After Bildt, Sweden, which had completely lost its host of entrepreneurs thanks to business taxes that sometimes exceeded the 100 percent mark, once again flourished. Even as Social Democrat successor Ingvar Carlsson took over.

Seeing the wonderful changes just a few years worth of reform had done, Carlsson kept Bildt’s policies in place. And business start-ups rose nearly 25 percent as a result.

Unfortunately, politicians like Sanders like to use countries like Sweden as examples of how socialism can work.

The same politician who, in the late 1980s, praised breadlines and celebrated the Soviet Union for forcing its youth to dedicate their whole lives to communism, now tells Americans that the so-called “Nordic model” of socialism can and will work in America. And yet, he seems clueless to the fact that the policies he pushes don’t mirror those adopted by the countries he celebrates.

As explained by Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen in 2015, countries like his Denmark “[are] far from [socialist planned economies].”

“Denmark is a market economy,” he added. And as demonstrated by Mises in Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow , there’s “no western, capitalistic country in which the conditions of the masses have not improved in an unprecedented way.”

In other words, to claim the successes of Nordic countries are due to socialism is nothing but a lie.

As the Acton Institute pointed out, Sanders’ ideology, the same ideology upheld by Ocasio-Cortez and countless others who are now legislating in Washington, D.C., is about putting statism before freedom.

In order to apply the policies they push, we would have to relinquish complete control over our lives, allowing the state to squelch artistic expression, private initiative, and destroy any incentive left compelling people to serve each other better and more efficiently.

Is that the world we want to live in?

These Nordic countries that are the most 'progressive' in the world, the most socialist, the most feminist, have one huge problem that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez don't talk about. The have the highest ratios of spousal abuse in the western world. This is called the Nordic Paradox because socialists can't figure out why it is happening. There is so much socialists don't understand.

Military Intervention in Venezuela ‘On the Table,’ Says OAS Secretary General

Is it time to overthrow another elected government in the name of democracy?

Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro waves to people during his visit to the Colombia-Venezuela border at the Simon Bolivar international bridge in Cucuta, Colombia, September 14, 2018. © Carlos Eduardo Ramirez / Reuters

The head of the Organization of American States (OAS), accused by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of being a “CIA agent,” says military intervention against Caracas should not be ruled out as a response to the ongoing crisis.

OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro has hinted that the bloc may consider taking military action in Venezuela if it runs out of diplomatic options in its bid to alleviate the plight of people in the crisis-stricken country.

“With regards to a military intervention aimed at overthrowing the regime of Nicolas Maduro, I think we should not exclude any option,” Almagro said on Friday.

Venezuelans have been fleeing to neighboring countries in droves due to shortages of food and water, as well as soaring inflation and unemployment at home.

Almagro was wrapping up his three-day trip to Colombia, which has been heavily impacted by the inward movement of refugees from Venezuela. Some 3,000 Venezuelans are estimated to be crossing into the country every day. Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Chile have also been sharing the refugee burden, with Brazil deploying troops to the border to restore order in the borderline state of Roraima after fierce clashes erupted between locals and migrants.

Almagro has frequently traded verbal blows with Maduro. Speaking in the Colombian border city of Cucuta on Friday, the OAS chief called the Venezuelan leader a “dictator” and Cucuta “the city that best exemplifies the lies of Venezuela’s dictatorship.”

The comments come shortly after an explosive report in the New York Times, which claimed that the administration of US President Donald Trump has long conspired with a group of Venezuelan officers to depose Maduro. The clandestine negotiations, which involved US officials engaging with a military commander on their own sanctions list, reportedly kicked off in autumn 2017 and continued throughout last year.

According to the NYT, US officials eventually decided not to endorse the plotters, who had asked their US handlers to provide them with material supplies, including encrypted radios.

When confronted with the report, the White House did not outright deny that it had been engaged in secret talks with mutinous officers. “The United States government hears daily from the concerns of Venezuelans from all walks of life – be they members of the ruling party, the security services, elements of civil society or from among the millions of citizens forced by the regime to flee abroad,” the White House National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement.

Almagro and Maduro have been embroiled in a long-running war of words, exchanging insults and calling each other “traitors.” Back in 2016, Maduro accused Almagro of being a “CIA agent” and of turning the OAS into a US pawn. The OAS chief then fired back, denying that he was with the CIA and accusing Maduro of slander. “And your lie, even if it repeated a thousand times, will never be true,” he wrote at the time.

The US has been pushing for the suspension of Venezuela from the OAS, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging members to kickstart the procedure so it “would send a powerful signal to the [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro regime.”

At the organization’s 48th assembly in June, Washington failed to secure enough votes needed for the proposed suspension, which was celebrated as a victory by Caracas.

Venezuela, however, wants to leave the bloc on its own terms. Back in 2017, it formally started a withdrawal procedure and will cease to be a member by 2019.

Does that mean that the OAS will have to invade Venezuela before they cease membership in the organization? Or do they think they will have the right to afterward?

To Understand Venezuela's Future, Look to the Bond Market, Not Politics and Protests

U.S. and Caribbean courts allow companies owed money by

Venezuela's indebted state to seize oil abroad

Chris Arsenault · CBC News 

A Venezuelan demonstrator stands in front of a fire, following clashes between police and anti-government

demonstrators in Caracas on July 30, 2017. The size and frequency of anti-government protests has

dropped in the past year, but opposition forces remain divided. (Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press)

Despite some of the world's worst inflation and an economic crisis so severe that 2.3 million people have fled the country in the past four years, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro isn't currently facing major street protests and his political opposition remains fractured.

Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves, but shortages of food, medicine and electricity continue to ravage the country. The International Monetary Fund predicts inflation could reach one million per cent by year's end.

These conditions should be ripe for political unrest. 

But the demonstrations, which last year brought hundreds of thousands into the streets, have largely fizzled, and the socialist government's political opposition has weakened in the past year.

Political change over the next 18 months is unlikely as Maduro's United Socialist Party tightens its grip on the economy, the courts and the press, said Raul Gallegos, a Bogota-based associate director with Control Risks, a security analysis firm.

Rather than young activists protesting in public squares, some analysts believe the most likely force to spur serious political change in Venezuela comes from spreadsheet-wielding bond traders and well-heeled sovereign debt lawyers as they move to seize state-owned energy assets to recoup money owed.

Venezuela's government maintains it will pay all of its debts and is working to reform its economy by cutting fuel subsidies and changing how its currency is managed — all aimed at fighting what it calls an "economic war" being waged against the country by the U.S., neighbouring Colombia and domestic business owners. 

Uniquely vulnerable to asset seizures

Analysts, however, don't believe the government's economic measures will work and foresee creditors launching additional court action over outstanding debt.

"We are going to see the dam break," said Duke University law professor Mitu Gulati, who specializes in international arbitration and bankruptcy. "It's astounding how bad things are for a country that is so rich … this has to crash soon."

Venezuela owes about $65 billion US in outstanding bonds, according to Caracas Capital, a financial advisory firm based in the country's capital. That's in addition to other debts owed by the government and state companies — an estimated total of about $150 billion US.

Holders of that debt include some of the biggest names in U.S. finance, such as BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Northern Trust and the U.K.-based Ashmore Group, Reuters reported in April. Venezuela also owes tens of billions of dollars to Russia and China, after borrowing heavily from the two countries in recent years, largely through oil-for-loan deals. 

Omar Mujica, a car mechanic, and other Venezuelans walk toward Lima, along the shoulder of the

Pan-American Highway, after crossing the border from Ecuador into Peru in August. The UN

estimates 2.3 million Venezuelans — about seven percent of the country's population — have fled

since 2014 as the country plummets into an economic crisis worse than the Great Depression.

(Martin Mejia/Associated Press)

With oil accounting for about 98 per cent of Venezuela's export earnings, the country is uniquely vulnerable to a debt default, Gulati said. That would allow creditors to seize oil shipments or refining infrastructure in the U.S. and the Caribbean, where much of Venezuela's oil is stored and refined before being sold on international markets.

These seizures are already starting to happen and are expected to intensify through September, Gulati added.

Court showdowns 

In August, a judge in the U.S. state of Delaware authorized the seizure of assets owned by Citgo, an affiliate of Venezuela's state oil company, to satisfy debts owed by Venezuela to Canadian mining company Crystallex.

Venezuelan-linked assets in the U.S. could be worth as much as $10 billion US, Gulati​ said.

The U.S. court action followed a similar move in Curacao, a small Dutch Caribbean island, where more than 15 per cent of Venezuela's crude exports were stored and refined before being sold to international customers.

Venezuelan oil production has crashed to a 50-year low, depriving the government of cash to pay its

debts and to import food, medicine and other necessities. (Fernando Llano/Associated Press)

In May, ConocoPhillips, a U.S. oil producer whose assets were expropriated by Venezuela's government in 2007, won an international arbitration action against Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA. This allowed Conoco to start seizing Venezuelan oil in Curacao and other Dutch Caribbean islands in a bid to recoup $2 billion US.

"These oil seizures are a fundamental challenge to the government … it's a huge deal for them," said David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, who specializes in Venezuela.

"If [Venezuela's] defaults and different economic commitments get to a point where their facilities abroad get confiscated, that will make oil sales difficult."

Even in default, Venezuela should still be able to sell some oil by loading it directly onto customer-owned ships at domestic ports to avoid seizures, Smilde added, although this would significantly reduce the government's already sputtering revenue stream.

China is the largest holder of Venezuelan government debt; the world's most populous country has lent the oil producer about $62 billion US over the past decade, according to the Washington-based think-tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

With Venezuela unable to pony up the cash to pay, China has been receiving interest payments in the form of oil. This arrangement didn't stop at least one major Chinese oil company, Sinopec, from launching a lawsuit against Venezuela's PDVSA in a U.S. court last December for not fulfilling a contract. (It has since been settled.)

U.S. legal leverage

Following the May arbitration decision that led to asset seizures in the Caribbean, Venezuela agreed to pay Conoco $2 billion US over 4½ years in a settlement, and Conoco has suspended its confiscation campaign. 

The case, however, has made other companies owed money by Venezuela take notice, Gulati said. Lawyers across the U.S. are busy preparing claims against Venezuela on behalf of creditors, he said, fearing they will end up at the back of the line for getting paid if they don't move quickly.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have blamed the U.S., Colombia

and domestic business owners for sabotaging Venezuela's economy. Maduro recently announced

what he says is a plan to tame hyperinflation, which included cutting five zeros from the country's

currency. (Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press)

Despite frosty relations between Washington and Caracas, the U.S. remains the largest buyer of Venezuelan crude, purchasing more than 30 per cent of its total exports, according to recent data from Bloomberg. This gives U.S. companies and other creditors significant leverage to sue Venezuela in domestic courts.

"Once litigation starts, it's going to make it infinitely harder for the [Venezuelan] government to do anything," Gulati said.

Domestic production decline

These moves to seize the country's assets are intensifying as Venezuela's oil production — the lifeblood of its economy and government treasury — hits a 50-year low, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. 

Mismanagement of oil facilities and an exodus of skilled workers have been blamed for the collapse in production.

Venezuela has long been dependent on imports. But inflation, a lack of foreign currency, chronic insecurity

and other problems have virtually destroyed the country's industrial base. (Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press)

Long dependent on imports for food, medicine and industrial equipment, reduced oil production and mismanagement of the country's currency, means the state — which sets prices for basic goods and controls most of the economy — has cut back on buying necessities for domestic consumers.

In essence, Smilde said, bond investors in New York or Moscow are profiting from Venezuela's oil wealth that should be spent on food and medicine for average people.

Government blames 'economic war'

The government, for its part, contends Venezuela's problems are the result of sanctions imposed by the U.S., Canada, and the European Union and an "economic war" waged by domestic business elites. The country's economic problems have been compounded by speculation, the hoarding of basic products and sabotage targeting oil facilities, the government has said.

It has offered new measures, including pegging the country's inflation-ravaged currency, the bolivar, to a new cryptocurrency, the petro, which is allegedly backed by the country's untapped oil reserves.  

"We are moving from speculative capitalism — chaotic and criminal — toward an equilibrium economy," Maduro tweeted recently. "We will recover the course of sustained and sustainable growth, to give our people supreme happiness."

According to Venezuelan authorities, U.S. sanctions — long imposed in response to human rights violations and corruption — make it more difficult for the government to negotiate its debt load or restructure its payments to creditors.

'When the money runs out…'

Meanwhile, the exodus of Venezuelans continues as many see no hope of living a decent life in their home country. The UN's migration agency has warned that the human flood is building toward a "crisis moment" comparable to the migrant-crossings in the Mediterranean Sea.

Anti-government protesters work together to aim a giant slingshot at security forces in the capital of Caracas

in this May 2017 file photo. (Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press)

As the country's debts mount, oil production falls and pressure builds, analysts expect a bare-knuckle legal brawl through the end of 2018 between creditors over who gets what's left of Venezuela's once-prized assets. Venezuelan government debt is trading at less than 30 cents on the U.S. dollar, meaning investors believe a full-blown default is likely.

"We are going to see an active and conflictive disorderly default as it advances," said Gallegos, the risk consultant. "Bondholders can [then] seize assets owned by the Venezuelan government or any product owned by the Venezuelan government sitting in storage overseas.

"When money runs out, the government threatens people within its folds — including bureaucrats and the military."

'A Crisis Moment': Tracing the Origins of Venezuela's Spiraling Economy and its Human Toll

Here's how the country with the world's largest oil reserves

ended up in the midst of a refugee crisis

CBC News

A little girl lies on the ground at a camp in Cucuta, Colombia, near the border with Venezuela. Many of the Venezuelan children whose families have fled their home land are suffering from malnutrition or parasites. (Fernando Vergara/Associated Press)

Since 2014, the UN's International Organization for Migration estimates that 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled their country, desperate to escape economic and political turmoil, hunger and violence.

Here's a look at how the crisis has unfolded:

A Venezuelan migrant breastfeeds her baby at a centre on Peru's border with Ecuador on August 24, 2018. (Douglas Juarez/Reuters)

Venezuela was once one of the richest countries in Latin America, taking in thousands of refugees in the latter half of the 20th century. But there was economic inequality. The country was run by the wealthy, and the poor suffered.

Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998 on a pledge to change that. At the time, Venezuela's greatest commodity, oil, was selling for about $10 US a barrel. By the time he died in 2013, it was $100 US. The government provided better housing, healthcare, and education for the working classes — but it also fixed prices for some food products and other goods and set-up a complex system of currency controls. 

Chavez's socialism left the government in deep debt. And in 2014, the price of oil started to drop, eventually going as low as $26 US a barrel. Today, it hovers around $70 US, but the uptick in oil prices hasn't been enough to save the country from further economic turmoil.

Then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, left, attends a ceremony for his re-election in 2012, with the man he would name as his vice president and eventual successor, Nicolas Maduro. (Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press)

Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, has been accused of mismanaging the oil sector. Oil production has fallen and the country has been unable to pay its debts. The economy has gone into free fall, leaving the government unable to pay for imports like food and medicine. 

Hospitals are overcrowded and short on supplies.

American sanctions contribute to these woes, but socialism is the main contributing factor, and possibly corruption and incompetence, as well.

The crisis has lead to a 30 per cent increase in child mortality, according to the most recent official sources. (Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images)

Supermarket shelves are almost bare. Domestic farm production has dropped and the government can't afford to import enough food for its people. 

People shop at a near-empty supermarket in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Because of complex currency and price controls, the available food is often sold on the black market at prices average people cannot afford. 

In some cases, spoiled meat is being sold to consumers. But some Venezuelans buy it because it is all they can afford. 

A customer smells a piece of spoiled meat at a market in Maracaibo, Venezuela. It makes some sick, but at bargain prices, it's the only way many people can afford beef. (Fernando Llano/Associated Press)

In an attempt to deal with shortages and other economic problems, the government has continued to print money, causing hyperinflation which destroys purchasing power for many Venezuelans. According to a recent study by the opposition-controlled National Assembly, the annual inflation rate reached 83,000 per cent in July.

The International Monetary Fund says inflation could hit one million per cent by the end of the year.

A kilogram of tomatoes is pictured next to 5,000,000 bolivars, its price and the equivalent of about $1,

at a mini-market this month in Caracas. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Neighbouring countries, Colombia and Brazil, have seen thousands of Venezuelans pour over their borders seeking respite from the conditions at home. According to Colombia's immigration agency, that country alone has received nearly 900,000 asylum seekers in the past 18 months. Between 700 and 800 Venezuelans are arriving in Brazil every day. 

Nurses shout anti-government slogans during an August protest demanding higher wages amid spiralling inflation.

(Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press)

Those with greater resources are escaping to Spain, the United States, and Canada. According to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, there has been a spike in refugee protection claims from Venezuela in the past five years, from 31 applications in 2013 to 1,240 in 2017. There have been 588 applications so far this year.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have crossed into Cucuta, Colombia across the Simon Bolivar International Bridge. Some work in Colombia illegally, while others come daily to buy food and return to Venezuela. (Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images)

Peru, Chile, Argentina, Panama, and Ecuador are also popular destinations for Venezuelan migrants. 

With Ecuador and Peru tightening their entry requirements, officials in Bogota worry that Venezuelans fleeing

the economic and political crisis could become stranded in Colombia. (Schneyder Mendoz/AFP/Getty Images)

Maduro's government blames the problems on an "economic war" waged by business owners, Colombia and the U.S. It blames "hoarding" by speculators for food shortages and has urged the population to rally to the defence of the state.

In mid-August, Maduro announced measures aimed at combating hyperinflation, including a plan to chop five zeros off the country's currency. The government is also raising the monthly minimum wage by more than 3,500 per cent. 

But part of what fuelled the economic crisis in the first place was inflation due to a heavily indebted government printing money ad nauseam. Critics worry the new measures will not be enough to fix the economy and some say the changes could actually exacerbate the economic crisis. 

On foot, by bus, or on the backs of trucks, migrant families slog for days along the Pan-American highway

through Colombia and Ecuador, in this case with the goal of reaching Peru. (Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images)

Two Venezuelan men wait to get food and shelter in front of the Migration Center in Cucuta, Colombia.

(Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images)