Venezuela Bids Farewell to President Chávez

Cuban President Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (1931- ) at the state funeral in Caracas. THIS is what CNN (and the US government) didn’t want you to see…

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The official funeral for late Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías began at the Academia Militar del Ejército Bolivariano in Caracas at midday local time on Friday. Vice President Nicolás Maduro Moro and other senior Venezuelan government officials, as well as leaders from Colombia, Cuba, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, Peru, and several other states attended the ceremony, which was delayed by about an hour. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elías José Jaua Milano greeted foreign guests during a ceremonial procession. The Russian delegation was headed by the RF Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko; also attending were Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, and President Putin’s special representative, Rosneft Executive Chairman Igor Sechin, along with Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov and Rostechnadzor head Sergei Chemezov (former KGB intelligence officer; neighbour of Putin in Dresden). Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko also attended the funeral. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón broke with official protocol by greeting the crowd of Chávez’s supporters gathered outside the academy. Local observers say this was a positive gesture in the context of the often tense relationship between the two neighbours during Chávez’s tenure as president.

Temporarily, Ordinary Venezuelans couldn’t pay their respects to Chávez during the official ceremony, but will be allowed to continue to do so during the week. Thousands of people have gathered near the Academy, shouting slogans in support of the late president and welcoming foreign guests. Activists handed out copies of the Venezuelan Constitution and booklets containing Chávez’s speeches on nearby streets, whilst loudspeakers played Venezuelan national music. Chávez died on Thursday following a prolonged battle with cancer. The populist president, who was 58, ruled Venezuela for 14 years. Best known for his often flamboyant style and defiant outbursts against the USA, Chávez was a close ally of Russia, and trade links between the two nations have grown stronger in the last decade.

8 March 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/world/20130308/179895914/Venezuela-Bids-Farewell-to-President-Chavez.html

Editor’s Note:

At my workplace, they have CNN blatting away in the breakroom. Well… they had NO mention of Chávez’s funeral (at least, not when I was in the room). It was more important for them to note a sickness outbreak on a cruise ship (it involved diarrhoea and vomiting, poor babies) and to cheerlead for Republipuke neoliberalism. That’s why so many Americans are ignorant and don’t know squat about the outside world. Their news media is full of propaganda and “junk food news”. That’s why oca.org is dishonest and mendacious (as the American Suburban Consumerist ethos is rotten to the core, and the upper-reaches of our Church here believes in that ethos (not Christianity), does that surprise you?). They changed the date on a by-line to make it look like they reported Mother Theordora’s death on the day of her death, not a week later, as actually happened… caveat lector, kids… Jillions and Lil Mizz Ginny Nieuwsma aren’t only incompetent; they’re liars to boot. They’re just as deceitful as the corporate media is (after all, Lyonyo is a member of the CFR and Potapov’s a bought n’ paid-for US government flack… the upper-reaches of our Church in the USA oppose the Orthosphere). That’s the way it is in early-21st century America. Managed news, corporate oligarchy, Gestapo-like security, ever-shrinking pay-cheques for ordinary folks (and ever-increasing boodle bags for the rich), and warmongering in foreign parts… it’s a far cry from the New Deal… none dare call it the Raw Deal…

BMD

Correa Celebrates Presidential Victory in Ecuador… Left Whips Banksters GOOD

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Ecuadorean President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado celebrated his election to a third term, singing and dancing at a meeting with his supporters. Appearing at a stage in central Quito, where thousands of his supporters gathered, Correa sang his campaign song along with the crowd and danced. Correa said that he’d dedicated his victory to his friend, Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, who’s undergoing cancer treatment in Cuba. He wished “Commander Hugo Chávez” the swiftest recovery, calling him “a great leader who’d changed Venezuela”. Correa already received congratulations on his election victory from the governments of Cuba and Venezuela. Correa enjoys an approval rating of nearly 85 percent, mostly due to his social and economic policies. According to the National Electoral Council, Correa won 57 percent of the vote with almost 50 percent of ballots counted. His main election rival, former banker Guillermo Alberto Santiago Lasso Mendoza, trailed in second place with 24 percent, he’s already conceded that he’d lost the election. 11.6 million eligible voters cast their ballots in Sunday’s vote.

18 February 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20130218/179536259.html

Editor’s Note:

Every election so far worldwide is a turn leftwards. That’s because people are getting hip to the Right’s lies and obfuscations. They’re nothing but thieves who want to steal from people of modest means to enrich the fat-cat oligarchs. That is, “steal from the poor to give to the rich”. That’s why I detest and reject the so-called “Pro-Life” movement. It’s nothing but a stalking horse for the Far Right… with a support of war, promiscuous imprisonment, and wholesale use of the death penalty, all that on top of an anti-life agenda that makes it impossible for people of modest means to live lives of dignity and respectability. That’s what the Right wants… that’s why they’re losing elections.

BMD

20 November 2012. RIA-Novosti Infographics. Leading Oil-Exporting Countries in Africa and the Middle East

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On 14 November, Israel opened large-scale military operations against militants in the Gaza Strip. The subsequent worsening of the situation led to a rise in world oil prices. Which countries in the Middle East are the largest players in the market for “black gold?” In order to stabilise the price of oil, in 1960, major oil-exporting countries established an international intergovernmental organisation, OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries). It has 12 members:

• Iran
• Iraq
• Kuwait
• Saudi Arabia
• Venezuela
• Qatar
• Libya
• United Arab Emirates
• Algeria
• Nigeria
• Ecuador
• Angola

The purpose of OPEC is to coordinate and develop a common policy on oil production among its member-countries, maintaining stable oil prices, to ensure a stable supply of oil to consumers, and to control investment in the oil sector. The member-countries control about two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves. They control 40 percent of global oil production, which accounts for half of the world’s exports of the product.

20 November 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20121120/176556281.html

UK: Terrorists and Sluts are Better than Whistleblowers

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As reported by Agence France-Presse, US State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland completely rejected charges that the USA was intent on persecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. At the same time, she declined to comment on the decision taken by Ecuador to grant him political asylum. Whilst the diplomatic row surrounding Mr Assange is flaring up, apparently, the USA is trying to keep a low profile. In the best tradition of the present administration, it’s trying to shift the burden of unpopular decisions and actions onto other actors’ shoulders. In this case, the dummies who are taking the greatest accountability (but obviously acting at the behest of and in the best American interests) are Sweden with its farfetched accusations of rape and harassment, and the UK, with a stubbornness and determination to carry the prosecution through, even if it requires violating international law and the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

As for the USA, in fact, Ms Nuland’s rejection of the supposition that it’s intent on persecuting Julian Assange may be true. If we remember recent history, the USA has seldom been too keen on persecuting its foes through legal instruments, instead, it resorts to torture, detention without trial, and extrajudicial killings. On the other hand, a close associate of Julian Assange, and the source of many classified leaks published by his website, Private First Class Bradley Manning, is in gaol, the legal process against him continues, and he faces up to death penalty, or, at least, life imprisonment. Manning’s fate is hardly encouraging for Julian Assange, but it definitely reveals what the US has in store for him if he is extradited to Sweden… and, perhaps, further on to the USA.

However, since the diplomatic stalemate could last indefinitely, the USA may eventually be tempted to speed things up. Now, it might seem too cockeyed to suppose that an American SEAL team is ready for a raid like the one they undertook in Abbotabad in Pakistan in May 2011, and that they’ll soon storm the Ecuadorian embassy. Even so, one should remember that everyone always regarded Pakistan has as one of the closest allies of the USA… almost as close as the UK… and this didn’t prevent the USA from violating its sovereignty.

“Heavy artillery” preparation for such an action… either by UK police or by US commandos… has already begun. In fact, the British and American media see little difference between the man whose only fault was telling the truth about Western diplomats’ covert activities, and the most notorious figures of the recent past. London‘s Daily Telegraph even dubbed Julian Assange “the internet age‘s Carlos the Jackal“. One author in the same paper asks, “When will we finally be shot of Julian Assange?” I may not be proficient enough in the English language to see the real meaning of the idiom, but words “shot” and “Julian Assange” put together produce an impression that the above supposition that some kind of a raid being possible on the premises of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London isn’t too farfetched.

Clearly, as for the UK authorities, the Assange case demonstrates, firstly, their utmost servility to their Transatlantic Big Brother, and secondly, once again, shows their adherence to the notorious principle of double standards, and “our SOB”. Today’s total neglect of the Vienna Convention forces one to remember the not-so-distant cases of Chechen terrorist Akhmed Zakayev and Boris Berezovsky, who was one of the main sponsors of the above-mentioned terrorism, who were granted political asylum despite numerous extradition requests addressed to the British authorities by the Prokuratura.

On the other hand, look at the hypocrisy surrounding the case of three Russian sluts who instantly became front-page celebrities throughout the Western world. The only question that’ll definitely be left unanswered is, “Why is the Western media so keen to demand the right for free speech for them and deny the same right for Julian Assange?” Indeed, Tell me with whom thou goest, and I’ll tell thee what thou doest. Indubitably, terrorists and sluts are much dearer to the hearts of so-called “free society” than people who dare speak the truth.

17 August 2012

Boris Volkhonsky

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_08_17/UK-terrorists-and-sluts-are-better-than-whistleblowers/

Editor’s Note:

I’m GLAD to have put the Pussy Riot “story” to bed. I’m a journalist… its news… ergo, I covered it; furthermore, I covered it to the best of my ability. In return, you guys gave me my best day ever. Nevertheless, I found the whole story sordid, blown up out of all proportion, and incredibly banal and juvenile. It gives one an indication of the level of the mind of the Western élite (both “liberal” and “conservative”)… and of their hangers-on. Not very pretty, is it? Indeed, there were more Western journalists and technical staff milling about the courtroom than there was protesters.

At most, there were less than a thousand protesters… many reports indicate less than 500. At the end, there were only 100 hardheads left, and it was an easy matter for the OMONtsy to clear the area (without undue violence or force). In fact, there were probably more “Chiefs” than “Indians”… it was the usual cast of dreary suspects angling for a moment of Western media adulation. It was hard to confirm the number of the crowd, because most of my Russian contacts simply didn’t give a shit about it. One wrote, “I’m at the dacha digging potatoes… that’s useful. My wife will fry some up with mushrooms for lunch” (that was at midnight EDT, which is 08.00 MSK, which means that he got to me the first thing in the morning his time, obviously, after working in the garden in the early-day cool). Another wrote, “Nobody gives a flying fuck, only foreigners. Vova will pardon the bitches in six months, after the foreigners shut up, just you wait and see”.

I think that my friends at the Centre are right. This was much sound and fury, signifying nothing at all. It was meant to distract the Western audience from the fact that the oligarchs continue to rape them, and that the deck is (blatantly) stacked against them. Did it work? YOU answer that one…

BMD