Cuba's Ambassador to Canada responds to this CBC News

Cuba's Ambassador responds to this CBC News tendentious and manipulative article, "Canada at odds with Cuban 'ally' over Maduro's fate."


Ottawa, March 3, 2019


To the Editor of CBC News

I reject categorically and in the strongest terms the tendentious and manipulative article "Canada at odds with Cuba 'ally' over Maduro's fate", written by journalist Evan Dyer and published today, Sunday, March 3, 2019, by CBC News.


Good journalism does not speculate, it informs objectively.


The assertion that thousands of Cubans would allegedly be inserted into the structures of the armed and security forces of Venezuela, holding the government of (legitimate) President Nicolás Maduro, is a scandalous slander. I demand that CBC News present a proof, which evidently it does not have, since it does not appear in the whole article.


What Cuba has been offering Venezuela for many years is a modest cooperation, in which slightly more than 20,000 Cuban collaborators participate, 94% of them health workers, others in education, as they do in 83 countries around the world.


It is unfortunate that CBC News plays into the hands of the government of the United States, whose President happened to accuse Cuba a few days ago of maintaining a “private army” in Venezuela, a statement that is vile.


It is regrettable that CBC News does not denounce the US government's military aggression plans against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and the fact that it openly declares that its ultimate objective is to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. What else to expect from a sinister character like John Bolton, who in 2002 organized the coup against Venezuela, while accusing Cuba of developing a biological weapons program at a time when the false pretext of the presence of WMD in Iraq was fabricated to launch the war against that country? The latter lie was quickly denied by the US Intelligence Community itself.


Let's hope that CBC News, with its biased coverage, does not support the aggression of the United States against the peoples of our America, and then apologize, as so many media organizations had to do after the war against Iraq. Our peoples will not forget.


As the Cuban Government recently stated, what is at stake today in Venezuela is “the sovereignty and dignity of Latin America and the Caribbean”…, “the survival of the rule of International Law and the UN Charter”… “and whether the legitimacy of a government emanates from the express and sovereign will of its people, or from the recognition of foreign powers”. “History will severely judge a new imperialist military intervention in the region and the complicity of those who might irresponsibly support it”.


Josefina Vidal
Ambassador of Cuba to Canada

"Dictator"... or anti-imperialist working class leader?

CNN and the rest of the media continue to refer to Nicolas Maduro and Kim Jong-un as “dictators” and Donald Trump as “President” even though Trump is nothing but a racist, con man, cheat, grifter, racketeering mobster, moron and all round despicable excuse for a human being who is pushing the country towards fascism and the world towards World War III which will be a nuclear holocaust resulting in a nuclear winter... the ultimate climate change.


Now, I ask:


How do Nicolas Maduro and Kim Jong-un compare to this authoritarian tyrant who is able to claim the Presidency only because the Democrats ran the only candidate they possibly could have who had no chance of winning because she was more disliked by the American people than Trump?

Neither Venezuela nor North Korea are dictatorships by any stretch of anyone’s imagination... in both countries the working people and farmers fully participate in the decision-making process over everything that affects their daily lives at work and in their communities.


What these two countries have in common is that every major capitalist country is trying to bring both of these countries to their knees in order to punish them for having the courage to break free from imperialist domination and build societies based on people’s needs using the wealth of their countries instead of allowing these resources to be stolen.



Keep in mind, there isn’t one single country which has broken free from capitalism, colonialism and imperialism where the leaders of those countries have not been described by those loyal to Wall Street as being “dictators.”


We have a “President;” they have “dictators.”


And what do these same loyal servants of Wall Street call any workers anywhere who rebel against capitalist exploitation?


“Dictators?”


I maintain from my working class view of things that these “dictators,” so described by this corporate media, are merely leaders of working class struggles having freed themselves from capitalist exploitation and pillage... these socialist and Communist leaders deserve our support and solidarity.

Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and Ho Chi Minh... leaders, along with Mao, of the anti-imperialist struggles in Asia... first routing the Japanese, then the U.S. imperialists. The Vietnamese, under the banner of socialism, successfully united their country divided by imperialism... the Koreans will eventually unite their country under the banner of socialism, too.

Stand with Omar!

Stand with Illhan Omar... she has the courage to tell the truth.

No more money for the Israeli killing machine to slaughter Palestinians.

End the AIPAC bribery and corruption.

U.S. Representative

“What if there are new elections and Maduro wins again?”

Isn’t it interesting that when these over-paid Democratic Party hacks turned media pundits like CNN’s Jake Tapper question John Bolton and other politicians about Venezuela and this call for new elections...


They never ask them:


“What if there are new elections and Maduro wins again?”

Make no mistake, Maduro just won re-election and now anyone can see that since he has stood up to Trump, Pence, Bolton, Steny Hoyer and this Hitler loving piece of shit, Elliot Abrams... now the bus driver the people brought to power is more popular than ever.


Venezuela is a country of thirty-million people as compared to the United Sates with over three-hundred million people...


Now, I ask: Has anyone ever seen so many people in the streets of this country as the huge throngs of people who are turning out to show their support for Maduro?


Perhaps Trump would like to compare the number of people who turn out for his fascist rallies with the number of people who turn out to support Maduro and oppose U.S. imperialist sanctions and intervention through coup attempts and threats of war.


Now, let me remind you of how the United States ended up in a never-ending war in Afghanistan working in league with a bunch of poppy-growing drug peddlers...


Remember, the people of Afghanistan freely elected a revolutionary socialist to lead their country... a leader the United States summarily described as a “dictator” even though his most major “crime” was to enact legislation giving women the right to vote and go to school.


This “dictator” ended up being chained to a truck and dragged through the streets of Kabul only to end up being beheaded and having his genitals cut off and hung from a pole in the city center... this was the fate of the medical doctor, Dr. Najibullah Ahmadzai, who fulfilled his campaign promises of bringing education and health care to the people of Afghanistan...


Remember this great man, Dr. Najibullah Ahmadzai, and what happened to him at the direction of the CIA... oh, wait... it was Elliot Abrams who suggested Dr. Najibullah Ahmadzai should be beheaded and have his head hung from a pole with his dick shoved in his mouth.


I notice the media has never published a photo of Elliot Abrams’ handiwork in Afghanistan nor does anyone want to talk about this gruesome barbarity.

9Cind

We need a Peace Dividend

Is there a better use for all this money?

businessinsider.com

American Military Dominance In One Staggering Chart

Defense spending accounts for about 20 percent of all U.S. federal spending.

Bernie Sanders and militarism and war and the Peace Dividend we are entitled to

After voting for defense budget after defense budget Bernie Sanders now declares as he announces another bid for the Democratic Party nomination for president:


“Today, we say to the military-industrial-complex that we will not continue to spend $700 billion a year on the military — more than the next 10 nations combined. We're going to invest in affordable housing, we're going to invest in public education, we're going to invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure — not more nuclear weapons and never-ending wars."

I’m wondering if Bernie Sanders is serious or if he is just trying to keep peace voters and activists sucked into voting for Democrats?


After all, Bernie Sanders did vote FOR escalating the nuclear arms race by voting for a defense budget that funded this new round in the escalation of the nuclear arms race and his party, the Democratic Party, repeatedly supports more money for armaments and war while doing nothing to advance an agenda based on the kind of human needs he is calling for.


Bernie Sanders does not even support building a people’s lobby to effectively pressure Congress to pass the kind of legislation that would “beat swords into plowshares.”


I question whether Bernie Sanders has an altruistic motivation or a very hideous motive behind his new found “peace agenda” since he has previously been so adamant in not introducing this kind of idea to the politics of this country.


But, whatever is motivating Bernie Sanders in making this statement we should welcome this declaration and move forward in building some kind of massive people’s lobby for peace and social and economic justice that Bernie Sanders and the warmongering Democrats and Republicans who are bribed by Wall Street’s Military-Industrial Complex to support.


So, whether Bernie Sanders is now sincere or not shouldn’t really matter because his one voice is no more effective than any of our own if we speak on our own... we need a massive people’s lobby independent of the two Wall Street warmongering parties to fight for such an agenda.


I wonder why in the CNN Town Hall Bernie Sanders never mentioned that a Peace Dividend would be used to finance his reforms? Will he continue to repeat this? Hopefully so.

5G

A top executive of Cisco has admitted the world can’t move forward with 5G without the participation of Huawei.

“Left of Liberal” with hosts Alan and Debbie Maki

Coming soon:


“Left of Liberal” with hosts Alan and Debbie Maki... stay tuned.


Our theme song will be:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bjSpO2B6G4s


What topics would you like to have discussed?


Our blog talk program will give voice to working class issues from the perspective of workers.


From time to time we will expand our one hour program to two hours when we have guests.


The program will air live on Monday evenings at 7pm Central Time but the archived programs will be available for listening to at your convenience.


We will have a Facebook page and a blog to go along with the program.


One of our primary objectives will be to build the Socialist Connection Action Network of activists while providing a working class view of current events as we bring forward suggested solutions to our many pressing problems.


https://m.facebook.com/groups/1996545117030933?ref=share


We will have in depth book reviews.

U.S. household wealth posts record loss in fourth-quarter amid stock rout

Business News

March 7, 2019 / 11:14 AM / a day ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. household wealth fell by a record $3.8 trillion, or 3.5 percent, at the end of 2018, and corporate bond issuance plummeted as a global market rout threatened to weaken a near-decade old recovery, the Federal Reserve reported on Thursday.

In percentage terms, it was the worst quarterly blow to U.S. household finances since late 2008, when the U.S. was in the midst of a deep global recession and household net worth fell roughly 5.9 percent in one three-month span.



But in terms of the wealth lost on a dollar basis, at least on paper, it exceeded the $3.6 trillion decline in the fourth quarter of 2008 for the biggest loss on record.


Corporate bond issuance for the year also reflected crisis-era conditions, with the worst full-year performance since 2008 as well. Overall corporate borrowing did rise as credit flowed from other sources.


Still, those results from the Fed’s quarterly Flow of Funds report shed light on the financial sector tremors that prompted Fed policymakers to put further rate hikes on hold as they assessed the damage.


Amid widespread fears about the impact of a global trade war, slowing growth, rising central bank interest rates, and other risks, Fed officials also worried that declining household wealth would translate into less spending and slower economic growth.



Those fears appear at least partially warranted as retail sales and business investment weakened at year’s end.

Weak U.S. hiring adds to global slowdown fears

The report said household net worth fell from around $108 trillion to $104.3 trillion over the final months of the year, a drop that included a roughly 14 percent fall in the value of stocks and mutual funds. The value of household real estate rose slightly.


Stock prices, however, have significantly pared the losses from the fourth quarter, with the S&P index up about 9 percent this year.


About $300 billion disappeared from the cash and liquid holdings of nonfinancial corporations in the fourth quarter amid the equity slump and tightening credit conditions.

Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea Ricci

Tell House Democrats: Defend our democracy. Impeach Trump.

Were any of you on the CREDO impeach Trump call?


https://act.credoaction.com/sign/house_impeach_trump


What did you think?


I thought this group is moving in the right direction though I thought they missed a couple reasons, they stated eleven reasons for impeaching Trump but left these off...

* Trump’s daily litany of lie after lie about everything.


* Trump’s lies about why the Summit with North Korea ended without resolution.


* Trump’s threats and actions, including hiring a convicted liar and mass murdering monster and organizer of death squads- Elliot Abrams, to try to bring down the legitimate governments, people’s democracies, of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.


* The frame-up and arrest of Meng Wanzhou in an attempt to thwart China’s participation in building an international 5G Network.


* Imposing sanctions on Venezuela, Cuba, Iran in violation of all international norms and human rights.


* Pulling out of the nuclear agreement with Russia.


* Drone attacks killing civilians and then ordering that civilian deaths do not have to be accounted for. Trump has already carried out more drone attacks than Obama during his entire time in Office.
I appreciated the emphasis on mass action in the streets brought about by talking to people about why Trump should be impeached...


and they set March 19 as the first day of action to insist Congress open hearings to find out if there are grounds for impeachment with the specific suggestion people call and visit their members of Congress.


To this I would suggest a massive campaign of writing Letters to the Editor pushing for Trump’s impeachment and removal from office.


I especially liked that they stressed the urgency of impeaching Trump not just for what he has done but in order to stop him before he can do more harm.


I also liked that it was stated this was not a “party issue;” it is a Constitutional issue that we can’t, and shouldn’t, wait for the 2020 Election because elections aren’t about impeachment... you impeach, not wait to defeat, for the crimes involved.

Canada’s Huawei arrest lending support to rogue U.S. behaviour

By Linda McQuaigColumnist

Wed., Dec. 19, 2018

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

The phrase “rule of law” has a nice, lofty ring to it, so it’s not surprising that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is invoking it to defend Canada’s detention of a Chinese business executive.
But while one can imagine many reasons why Canada decided to co-operate with the U.S. request to extradite Meng Wanzhou, it’s doubtful that the desire to uphold the “rule of law” was one of them.

Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, right, is escorted by a member of her private security detail while arriving at a parole office, in Vancouver, on Dec. 12.  (DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/12/19/canadas-huawei-arrest-lending-support-to-rogue-us-behaviour.html?fbclid=IwAR3EjFz8QEe8zND8kE9ZgY_pA2q9IU1kTWywz3HrRMkS2qAwYNM269o3Cdw



In fact, what Canada is really doing is lending support to rogue and reckless behaviour by the Trump administration.


The U.S. extradition case is based on allegations that Meng, a senior executive with China’s technology giant Huawei, committed fraud as part of a scheme to violate U.S. trade sanctions against Iran.


But Washington’s efforts to punish Huawei for trading with Iran are of dubious legality.

The UN Security Council (in Resolution 2231) called on all countries to drop sanctions against Iran as part of the 2015 treaty aimed at limiting Iran from developing nuclear weapons — a treaty that was welcomed around the world as a chance to reduce the risk of nuclear war.

That treaty, negotiated by the Obama administration, quickly became a target of U.S. Republicans, who were more interested in destroying Iran than in making the world a less perilous place. The treaty was particularly annoying to the wildly insecure Donald Trump who, as president, was keen to take a baseball bat to anything that could be seen as an accomplishment of his predecessor.


In addition to withdrawing from this important nuclear treaty — which had been endorsed by the UN Security Council as well as Germany and the EU — the Trump administration decided it has the right to unilaterally punish foreign countries, companies and individuals doing business with Iran (even though the UN treaty permits them to do so).

Washington’s actions amount to a kind of international thuggery. U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs argues they pose a threat to the international rule of law. “The U.S. would certainly not tolerate China or any other country telling American companies with whom they can or cannot trade,” he maintains.


Another apparent motive behind the Meng extradition request was Washington’s interest in heating up its economic war against China by blocking Huawei from making further inroads into Western markets, where it already threatens the dominance of U.S. technology giants.


Given the questionable lawfulness and suspect motives of the U.S. extradition request, the appropriate Canadian response might have been to simply avoid making the arrest, by resorting to some “creative incompetence,” as former Foreign Affairs minister John Manley has suggested.
For that matter, we are not obliged to extradite Meng.


Robert J. Currie, a professor at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law, writes that under Canada’s Extradition Act, the decision whether to extradite in a case like this “is made not by the courts, but by the federal Minister of Justice.” In other words, it’s not strictly a legal matter but ultimately a political decision to be made by the Trudeau government.


Currie also points out that Canada has a long history of co-operating with U.S. extradition requests “because such neighbourliness makes for smooth relations.”


Now we’re getting to the nub of the matter. Trudeau’s keenness to co-operate is likely rooted in his desire to try to restore some semblance of neighbourly relations, after the petulant U.S. president went out of his way last June to pick a fight with us.


There’s nothing wrong with trying to restore neighbourly feelings — except that in this case there are a lot of extremely negative consequences, such as China’s retaliatory detention of three innocent Canadians, and the major tensions that have now needlessly developed between China and Canada.


At least, Trudeau should drop the pretense that his compliance with the U.S. extradition request springs from a deep commitment to the “rule of law.”


If he really cared about that principle he’d be speaking up in defence of the UN treaty, not knuckling under to an administration that recently showed its concept of the “rule of law” by flashing a wink and a nod at the Saudi crown prince after he silenced an outspoken journalist with a bone-saw.



Linda McQuaig is an author and journalist whose column appears monthly. You can follow her on twitter @LindaMcQuaig.

Who are the real victims of crime?

Trump talks about all the crooks coming across the southern border; but, if the real truth was being told these new immigrants to our country are far more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators of crimes.

Democrats' Minimum Wage election gimmick

In five years fifteen dollars will be less than $7.25 in actual purchasing power.


Let these politicians live on the miserly Minimum Wage they expect us to live on.


These Democrats are real brave, though, knowing this will never pass.

It’s all part of the election gimmickry...


https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/bill-to-raise-minimum-wage-to-15-an-hour-by-2024-passes-house-committee/291-3189f9c6-30ba-41af-8f3a-d81740c16891?fbclid=IwAR22xXcPYuULCb2jLXECxFHxzD8tsl8nJd_89I2wIicV5YXE1Yb_OoCNjAg

The Minimum Wage should be legislatively tied to the actual cost-of-living and re-calculated quarterly.