We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Obama absurdly declares Venezuela a security threat

Click here to access article by Mark Weisbrot from Al Jazeera.
Yesterday the White House took a new step toward the theater of the absurd by “declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela,” as President Barack Obama put it in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner.

It remains to be seen whether anyone in the White House press corps will have the courage to ask what in the world the nation’s chief executive could mean by that. Is Venezuela financing a coming terrorist attack on U.S. territory? Planning an invasion? Building a nuclear weapon?

Who do they think they are kidding? Some may say that the language is just there because it is necessary under U.S. law in order to impose the latest round of sanctions on Venezuela.
Funny how I didn't see this in corporate news broadcasts--maybe because it wasn't there. I guess because the corporate media managers couldn't come up with a reasonable sounding spin on it to convince even a mostly gullible public.

Obama isn't channeling anybody. To suggest this is hiding the important reality of how the US Empire functions. Empire media already do far too much of that, that is, hiding or reinterpreting reality to make Empire actions acceptable to the American public. Obama is merely following orders from the same shadow Empire directors that Reagan and Bush Jr. did. By declaring Venezuela a security threat, the shadow government is adding another weapon (in addition to the oil price war engaged in by their Saudi partners) with which to economically attack Venezuela in order to cripple their economy in preparation for another coup attempt.