The Guardian’s Latest Venezuela Hatchet Job
David William Pear
An intended anti-Venezuela propaganda photo, which makes much more sense when you see the little girl as Venezuela, and the police as the United States. The source is here, calling for a military coup.
The Guardian used to be a superb member of the Fourth Estate. It was the “guardian” for the people from the excesses and abuses of power by the government and the ruling class. The free press is vital to democracy because the governing establishments, corporations and oligarchs cannot be trusted to act in the best interest of the public.
Unfettered power in the dark becomes corrupted. It acts in its own best interests even when those interests are harmful to the public’s well-being. The free press is the guardian for the public by keeping it out of the dark of the goings on and shenanigans of the rich, famous and powerful. Transparency has become an overused word in the past few years by the powerful, for the very reason to fool the public of how opaque the actions of the powerful have become.
When the free press fails in its responsibility, then the powers that be have a free hand in the dark. When the 4th estate becomes conjoined with the powerful, then democracy suffocates in the darkness of what has come to be known as the “deep state”. A better description of the deep state would be the “dark state”. The Guardian is now a full-fledged member of the dark state in the service of power instead of the public.
The Guardian’s December 6th “in depth” article on Venezuela is one more of many examples of how the Guardian has become a propaganda organ for the US Empire and its client states. The UK is at the top of the list of the poodles of empire. Having lost their own empire at the end of World War 2, the defunct British Empire made the conscious choice that it would rather be a lapdog for empire rather than just another archaic has-been degenerate monarchy.
The Guardian has now become a degenerate rag instead of an icon of journalism that it used to be prior to about 2014. Why and to who it sold out to is easy to guess, but we really don’t know because the Guardian’s finances are hidden in the dark of a private foundation. Instead of the icon of journalism it used to be, the Guardian is just a tabloid that has to beg its readers for money, because any serious readers know that its “journalism” is not worth the price of a subscription.
The latest of many insults to the intelligence of the public is “Slow-motion catastrophe / on the road in Venezuela, 20 years after Chavez’s rise”. The Guardian’s story starts by saying that it is going to take its readers on an adventure “across the nation the late Hugo Chávez dreamed of transforming, to understand its collapse”.
Our adventure begins at Simón Bolívar international airport in Caracas, where the toilets are “overflowing with urine”. From there the reader’s adventure is all down-hill. Why bother on this adventure.
Now that the scene has been set with overflowing urine, anyone used to the Guardian in the past few years knows where this story is going. The conclusion is going to be like every other independent-minded country that is out of step with George H.W. Bush’s vision of a post-socialism New World Order of US-led neoliberalism. Under the New World Order there can only be one independent sovereign country and that is the USA. For every other independent country in the world, the US alone has assumed that regardless of international law, it has the right to destabilize it, economically, politically and by military force.
Before our Guardian guide Tom Philips (with additional reporting by Patricia Torres and Clavel Rangel) even leaves the airport, it is obvious to him that the “Bolivarian revolution, like the airport’s immobile escalators, has ground to a halt”. Since Tom already has his story why didn’t he and his “additional reporter” just turn around and go home? We got the picture!
The end of the story is that there needs to be a regime change, privatize all state enterprises, deregulation, IMF loans for development, end the welfare state, austerity and a military dictatorship or fascism. Nicolás Maduro has to go, which means to “terminate with extreme prejudice”, in CIA lingo.
Missing from the article is how the US got caught red handed in a coup d’état against Hugo Chavez in 2002. On April 13, 2002 the New York Times could not wait to report that “a leading businessman replaced President Hugo Chávez today, hours after military officers forced him to resign”. Elections will be held within a year, the New York Times promised. Opps, the New York Times had to correct the story the next day as the Venezuelan people turned out and demanded the return of their president Chavez.
Those were the days when the Guardian was an honest newspaper. On April 21, 2002 the Guardian headline was: “Venezuela coup linked to Bush team, Specialists in the ‘dirty wars’ of the Eighties encouraged the plotters who tried to topple President Chavez”. The story continued:
The failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government, The Observer has established. They have long histories in the ‘dirty wars’ of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.
Washington’s involvement in the turbulent events that briefly removed left-wing leader Hugo Chavez from power last weekend resurrects fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere.”
Let’s jump forward to 2009 and see how the Guardian reported the coup d’état in Honduras: “Does the US back the Honduran coup?” The Guardian still believed in ethical journalism:
The military coup that overthrew Honduras’s elected president, Manuel Zelaya, brought unanimous international condemnation…. Lula da Silva of Brazil and Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, who denounced the coup and called for the re-instatement of Zelaya. The EU issued a similar, less ambiguous and more immediate response.”
The Organization of American States, the Rio Group (most of Latin America) and the UN general assembly have all called for the “immediate and unconditional return” of Zelaya.”
…Clinton was asked whether “restoring the constitutional order” in Honduras meant returning Zelaya himself. She would not say yes.”
Why such reluctance to call openly for the immediate and unconditional return of an elected president, as the rest of the hemisphere and the UN has done? One obvious possibility is that Washington does not share these goals.”
Yes, why was Hillary Clinton so reluctant to call a coup a coup? In her book Hard Choices and leaks from Wikileaks we found out. Hillary wrote in her book Hard Choices:
I spoke with my counterparts around the hemisphere. We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot.”
Wikileaks leaked cable from the U.S. Embassy in Honduras to Hillary. The cable makes it clear that Hillary knew that there had been a military coup. Yet Hillary continued the charade that Zelaya had “fled in the middle of the night to avoid justice for his crimes”. Hillary and Obama illegally continued to provide military and economic foreign aid to the coup-government in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act.
Now that the Guardian has given us a road trip of Venezuela, how about they give us a road trip of Honduras? Actually, that might not be a good idea. In 2017 Human Rights Watch reported that Honduras is the “Murder Capital of the World”, especially for journalists.
Venezuela has been under attack by the US for two decades. There have been coup attempts, crushing economic sanctions, and the US financial backing of opposition and terrorist groups. The US which is the most powerful financial and military power the world has ever seen has been trying to destroy Venezuela because they nationalized their oil and they are a socialist country.
Of course, their economy is a mess. It doesn’t take a dog and pony show by the Guardian to know that, but to blame the victim is sadistic. The last thing Venezuela needs is for the US to bring them “democracy and human rights”.
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David (and Kit two weeks ago) have done us a great service by putting the danger of another US invasion in the spotlight and reminding us how sadly uninformative the Guardian has become. If OffG (David and/or Kit for example) had written the article we would probably have known much more about the background of the Chavez dream to transform Venezuela(extreme level of inequality in this oil rich country and rule by an oligarchy), the causes of the current crisis(two examples given below), and possible solutions.
Causes to highlight:
– The drastic drop in the price of oil in 2012 from $103 to $44 a barrel started an economic decline which has yet to be halted. Chavez wanted to decrease dependence on oil (currently at 95% of exports). Why didn’t this occur?
– The impact of an internal power struggle within the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV in Spanish). One group, which includes Maduro, fervently supports the Chavez vision (derived mainly from the Cuban experience and socialist theory). The other group, which includes Diosdado Cabello, is comprised mainly of military officers and businessmen. Chavez, with his charisma and leadership abilities, was able to control the two groups but Maduro (his choice, over Cabello, to succeed him) is struggling.
Solutions to analyse:
– Role of allies such as Russia and China (with a huge stake in the oil fields).
– Cuba (advice on its latest socialist economic model, for example).
– Increased role for younger chavistas in support of Maduro to implement the Chavez vision and hopefully end up with a real XXI Century socialism (many members of this group have been pushed aside along with leftist non-PSUV allies.
– Most other Latin American governments which are now right-wing can be eliminated from the list (Colombia just became part of NATO, and here in Chile the Jungle Command, trained in Colombia and the US, has just been pressured to withdraw from Mapuche territory making it ready for action elsewhere).
An in-depth look at the situation would hopefully show that socialism is a viable alternative to the capitalist model. The Guardian has failed us by dealing with only the symptoms but OffG offers hope. Is the strategic plan to take offG mainstream ready yet?
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro warned of US plot to overthrow country’s government after his party’s decisive victory in Dec 10 elections, winning 142 of 156 municipalities. 70% is not low turnout – 2016 US presidential election called huge turnout less than 56% voted. Meanwhile, Venezuela stopped accepting dollars for oil, accelerating exports to China – as Russia sends 2 nuclear-capable TU-160 bombers to Venezuela.
http://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news/world-news/3565-maduro-warns-of-us-plot-to-overthrow-venezuela-government
Except that The Guardian became degenerate long before 2014.
I threw in the towel at this point in 2011:
Facts and myths in the WikiLeaks/Guardian saga | Salon.com
The downing of the Lousitania one of the long lists of false flags that occurred circa 100 years ago
Why would William Pear refers to as a paper that used to be decent. I hate to put a damper on ur hamper but the Guardian was never really a decent paper it was always part of the fifth column of infiltrated satraps to disseminate dis-information throughout the masses especially during the turn of the century with the rise of working class discord.
It was created as a western British imperialist tool wrapped in a leftish over coat while deep down it was a tool of the ruling elites and still is(Hardings recent laughable article).
The Guardian during the 1916 false flag basically postponed the inevitable cessation of the first world war that was with in reach and would have happened in 1917 .To Quote Churchill the butcher of India and Iraq .”If the Americans had not entered the conflict and maintained its neutrality the war would have ended and would have not had brought the rise of Mussolini, Franco and Nazism.
The Guardian was one of the biggest propagandist pieces during that incident and was pressing hard to have the US enter the fray .
No word of a lie, when I looked a little while back this article had the most comments on the Guardian homepage:
“I tried the foreskin facial treatment – so you don’t have to”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/07/foreskin-facial-treatment-baby-salon-wrinkles
Seriously!?!
Yup here is a photo of La Whiner and her world wide MSM mates living the dream.
http://thehumancentipede.wikia.com/wiki/File:Martin_centipede.jpg
To borrow a line from Stewart Lee, the souls of those who are involved in the Guardian propaganda operation are caked in sin.
(The people who run it and who write for it can’t be described as ”journalists.” And I realise that it’s a big stretch to assume that they’ve got souls).
People interested in the truth about Venezuela will find an interview posted at “TeleSur English” YouTube channel – “Dossier 12-04 Interview with Freddy Bernal” – extremely revealing and informative. Mr. Bernal, a Ph.D., is highly involved at the top level of Venezuela’s government in prevention of a U.S.-led coup, for which he provides all the reasons/details in the interview. Put it this way … the Guardian will NOT be interviewing Venezuela’s Freddy Bernal – not now, not soon, not ever.
Hi Jerry Alatalo
And here is more you will never read on the MSM.
The spokesperson of the US administration stated that the US will use all its available resources to achieve its political objective of “overthrowing” the government of Venezuela.
The strategy leading to what may become an eventual military intervention is ECONOMIC WARFARE. The US intends to ‘stifle the Venezuelan economy’, push the society towards internal civil conflict and create the conditions for a so-called “humanitarian intervention”, which is the code words for a military coup.
In order to exacerbate an economic crisis, the US has been PREVENTING Venezuela from accessing funding sources and INTERFERED with the country’s international trade, thereby SABOTAGING the purchase of food, medicines and essential goods.
The US has HAMPERED international payment transactions and FROZEN the legitimate financial resources of Venezuela in banks and other financial entities.
In an attempt to leverage alternative sources of funding, Venezuela has managed to secure a $5 billion (R68bn) loan from the Development Bank of China to increase its OIL development. The US has also UNILATERALLY IMPOSED SANCTIONS on Venezuela, TARGETTING Government officials and military staff, as well as individuals and companies identified as politically or economically related to the government.
At the same time as implementing its strategy of economic warfare, the US has FUNDED and supported its ”opposition allies” – TERRORIST CELLS recruited from the discontented, on the ground in their violent strategy of “calle sin retorno”, or continued demonstrations in the streets. The idea was to do exactly as they did in Yugoslavia, Georgia, Egypt, Iraq, Lybia, Syria, Ukraine, Lebanon, Yemen et al, to foment chaos and violence and make the country ungovernable.
The US also tried to provoke a “colour revolution” last year, but its allies were unable to produce the desired regime change. The people are not hungry enough yet???
I was 12yrs old in 68. The year I first heard of French singer/ songwriter called Maxime le Forestier, and fell in love with the idea of freedom and democracy. Forestier had been heavily involved in the student riots in 68’. I did not quite realise back then that peace and decency was a fantasy, millions of deaths in WW2, Europe decimated, ground to a fucking pulp, that it was democracy on loan. The establishment had to pay their bill, they had to pay for the millions of lives lost, had to bide their time until that war generation were dead and gone. History can then be distorted, people become vulnerable again, unthinking, unaware. On top of the frankly appalling dumbing down, history has been forgotten,that generation now dead.
I still admire the French, still listen to Maxime as I work and will go out fighting the scum currently ruling and destroying our planet. I no longer even click on the Guardian. Once a friend in a bleak world , it is now for me a kick in the teeth to see it deteriorate to the level it has.
We are being led to our demise by the worst of us, the French know this, many countries know this however the people of the U.K. and the US need to wake up and realise that we are all at risk now, our very lives are at risk as the dark state completes it long term mission.
To add to the ongoing list… the latest identity politics biggup on their site is about neo-Mosleyite frontman, Hardley-Lennon.
They hook the bait with 600 ‘russian’ twitter followers out of a million – but then go on to load the article with his views and his supporters views from the alt-right crowd in the US and Oz etc. Yeah his your man.
Not only a faux Mark Antony liturgy of not coming to praise him but to bury him, before stuffing the full caesar down the readers optic nerves – Our Tommy! Our Robin hoods son! With photos of whiteboys in camoflage.
His name is Stephen you Groaniad fuckwits – use it!
(Everytime they refer to him by his nomme de guerre, is them playing their part in his escalation). I don’t see any comments there criticising Viner for her policy on that.
He is not the messiah, he really is a very naughty boy and he may not even realise how he has been groomed by the pathocracy because they like his type of psychopath to appeal to the masses.
The major MSM here in the U.S. quite closely mirror the Guardian’s descent into madness. Here the NYT’s, Washington Post, and all the TV networks spout an evidence-free brand of crazy totally disconnected from events in the actual physical world. Luke Harding may write books of inane deep state propaganda, but these U.S. media treat him like a hero, gladly repeating the nonsense narratives as they align nicely with U.S. propaganda goals.
Overall, the Western establishment media around the globe have collectively mirrored a sort of psychic hysteria over the last several years. The Guardian is hardly alone in this regard. The MSM shift from at least occasional more or less accurate reporting on at least some significant events, to the current fact-free non-stop propaganda suggests something very important I think. It suggests that the oligarchs and their minions are afraid – they are very afraid.
The actions of our brothers and sisters in the French streets will I dare say will do nothing to calm those fears and will in fact fuel the fears of the oligarchy rather dramatically I would imagine. After all Macron was quite optimistically put in power by the oligarchy to in effect – (“Obama” the French) – quietly into complete submission to the neoliberal agenda, i.e. to destroy the last vestiges of the social programs like a functioning national health care system, etc.
The question I cannot escape asking myself is whether the actions of common French citizens we are witnessing is the last gasp of Western humanity in the face of the global neoliberal machine, or is it in reality finally the beginning of a more global resistance that might offer hope in what too often feels a hopeless situation. I dare say that if we expect it to be the later it is up to all of us look in the mirror, and to consider and act in terms of whichever forms of resistance are available to us and to encourage others to do the same.
Its the beginning. The end is over.
I hope you are right. I think without a global fuck you, by all members of society including the police, that we are screwed. If Corbyn manages to become PM it would go a long way to screwing up those plans.
One is, of course, convinced by now that “anything which would screw up the plans” would never be allowed.
The offspring of many generations of the rabidly greedy won’t just volunteer to disappear and let actual human beings try to govern themselves. That kind of change is only won through an outright confrontation, and the enemy has all the weapons and ammunition.
Who ever heard of a fabulously wealthy president or monarch declaring to his people, “Well, our country has been so industrious during recent years that we now have an incredible surplus of wealth. So I hereby announce that this wealth shall be immediately distributed throughout the land in order to provide housing, employment and food for all but the terminally lazy, until further notice.”
It doesn’t happen.
Instead, the wealth is wasted upon the arms trade, in the hope of starting another war – somewhere at a safe distance, which will make the fabulously wealthy even more fabulous. And just you try screwing up that plan.
.
Agreed, WD.
However, pessimism carries a risk of facilitating psychopaths. imho.
Be strong.
.
Well, I don’t know if I have mentioned this before but it is interesting to look at the editorial board of the Graun and its financial and legal status. Anyway here goesThe Guardian Executive Board
Neil Berkitt – a former banker (Lloyds, St George Bank) who then helped vulture capitalist Richard Branson with Virgin Media.
David Pemsel – Former head of marketing at ITV.
Nick Backhouse – On the board of the bank of Queensland, formerly with Barings Bank.
Ronan Dunne – On the Telefónica Europe plc board, Chairman of Tesco Mobile. He has also worked at Banque Nationale de Paris plc.
Judy Gibbons – Judy is currently a non-executive director of retail property kings Hammerson, previously with O2, Microsoft, Accel Partners (venture capital), Apple and Hewlett Packard.
Jennifer Duvalier – Previously in management consultancy and banking.
Brent Hoberman – Old Etonian with fingers in various venture capital pies including car rental firm EasyCar.
Nigel Morris – chairman of network digital marketing giants Aegis Media.
John Paton – CEO of Digital First Media – a very large media conglomerate which was sued successfully in the U.S. for rigging advertising rates.
Katherine Viner – Startlingly not a banker, in marketing or venture capital. She is I gather (gulp) a journalist.
Darren Singer – formerly with BSkyB, the BBC and Price Waterhouse Coopers.
the only remaining guy is the secretary Philip Tranter – but don’t worry, he is a proper sort from some posh law firms in London.
If any of the members of the Guardian Media Group get bored they can surely get a slot with the BBC Trust which is also stuffed full of bankers and establishment big wigs.
Herewith some more …
The Guardian is owned by GMG Hazel Acquisition 1 Limited, which is based in the Cayman Islands.
That in turn is owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which is chaired by investment bankers and other ultra-rich individuals. In 2008, GMG Hazel paid no capital gains tax at all on a £307 million in profit
The Scott Trust Limited: 2008–present
In October 2008 it was announced that the trust was being wound up and its assets transferred to a new limited company named The Scott Trust Limited. The core purpose of the Trust was enshrined in the constitution of the Limited company and “cannot be altered or amended.” The new company is barred from paying dividends, and “its constitution has been carefully drafted to ensure that no individual can ever personally benefit from the arrangements.”
In February 2010, the company announced the sale of its GMG Regional Media arm and its regional print titles to the Trinity Mirror Group. The regional titles comprised the Manchester Evening News and 31 others in the North West and South of England. The sale was finalised on 28 March 2010 and ended the Scott Trust’s association with regional newspapers.
Guardian News and Media, a subsidiary of the Scott Trust Limited, reported a loss of £30.9 million for the year to the end of April 2013.
The company via the Guardian Media Group (GMG, a subsidiary company) completed the sale for £619 million of its 50.1% stake in Auto Trader on 4 March 2014. Apax Partners, a venture capital firm, increased its share to become the sole shareholder in the business. The £619 million earned from the sale of Auto Trader adds to the £253.7 million of cash and investments which GMG published in its 2013 annual report. This leaves an investment fund which is likely to be in excess of £850 million to underwrite Guardian losses.[5]
In December 2014, it was announced that Alan Rusbridger, then Guardian editor-in-chief, would succeed Forgan as the Chairman of the company in 2016 but he unexpectedly announced on 13 May 2014 his resignation as a director.]
As of January 2016 the company’s funds were £740m, down from £838.3m in July 2015.
Thanks Francis, all the answer we need. As motley a crew of financial sector predators and parasites as could be found on the board of even the most reactionary rightwing media company.
Thanks for all the background on the finances of The Guardian.
There was a shakeup at the Guardian around 2014, which fits with your data. This was also right after the Snowden articles written by Glenn Greenwald and the UK crackdown on the Guardian. The Guardian was even forced to destroy their computers containing more Snowden leaks, as I remember it.
The Guardian was in deep financial trouble in 2014 and needed a white knight. They announced a new partnership with NGO funded propagandist groups operating in Russia, Ukraine, East Europe, the Caucasus. Obvious propagandists for right wing regime change organizers:
“From Soviet Union to New East: welcome to our new network”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/09/post-soviet-states-new-east-network-guardian-welcome
Well, just look at who their partners are. One for instance is Eurasianet. Who are they. Click on the link…click about us…there is the list of officers. At the time of the announcement Justin Burke was listed as the head guy, and the eamil address went straight to @ Open Society, which is George Soros Foundation.
Talk about regime changes…there was a color revolution at The Guardian and it was taken over by right wing oligarchs.
As for Venezuela here is an article that I published previously:
“Venezuela Regime Change Project Revealed”
https://off-guardian.org/2017/08/06/venezuela-regime-change-project-revealed/
Indeed, regime change – how else does one account for the kind of selective blindness that permeates so much of their output,?
And not just with regard to Venezuela but virtually every other geopolitical upheaval demanding serious analysis, be it the Ukraine, Syria, or the Yemen, the Guardian fails us at every turn.
I have not been able to find a better account of the their modus operandi than one expertly spelt out by Jonathan Cook.
There are so many things to commend in it, not least Cook’s damning conclusion saying;
“The Guardian, like other mainstream media, is heavily invested – both financially and ideologically – in supporting the current global order. It was once able to exclude and now, in the internet age, must vilify those elements of the left whose ideas risk questioning a system of corporate power and control of which the Guardian is a key institution. The paper’s role, like that of its rightwing cousins, is to limit the imaginative horizons of readers. While there is just enough leftwing debate to make readers believe their paper is pluralistic, the kind of radical perspectives needed to question the very foundations on which the system of Western dominance rests is either unavailable or is ridiculed.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/28/the-dangerous-cult-of-the-guardian/
From other links on this thread I see the Guardian has developed a curious interest in ‘foreskin facial treatment’ – perhaps that is only to be expected now ‘bankers’ are calling the shots?
“In December 2014, it was announced that Alan Rusbridger, then Guardian editor-in-chief, would succeed Forgan as the Chairman of the company in 2016 but he unexpectedly announced on 13 May 2014 his resignation as a director.]” Is there a timeline error here Francis?
Actually I lifted this article form ‘Sodium Haze’ an independent medium which publishes a number of truthful and insteresting articles. The article I quoted was entitled ”The Guardian has Morphed into the Daily Mail” 26 July 2015. Some of the Guran’s Executive Board may have changed, but it is likely that they have been replaced by similar neo-liberal dummies.
Well researched Francis: and here is the actual psychology behind it….
>>>To understand the function of PR we must revert to its modern origins – an exercise of Elite Power used by corporations to secure their business interests (Miller and Dinan, 2008).
Public relations was originally known as PROPAGANDA during the early 1900s; “a systematic scheme created by groups in an effort to persuade people on insufficient grounds to believe what it wants them to believe” Therefore, hemispheric communications (spin) is at the heart of the profession, especially when used by the elite class to shape public opinion.
Modern PR first gained prominence in the US, through the ground-breaking work of Edward Bernays during the nineteenth century. Recognised by many as the man who fathered the science of spin and devised and developed numerous techniques for influencing public opinion.<<<
This radical change in public opinion was achieved by harnessing every available medium (newsprint, posters, radio, films) to bombard the American public with a disinformation campaign and appeal to patriotism. Haunting stories 'supplied by the British Intelligence services', whose stated aim was “to control the thoughts of the world”, helped fuel hatred towards all things German. . Blatant lies such as German soldiers killing babies and hoisting them up with their bayonets were disseminated across America, preaching a “gospel of hate” (Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of incubators/Gadhafi giving his soldiers Viagra to enable them to rape women/Bashar Assad gassing his own people the day before WMD inspectors were due to inspect… the list is endless)
Evidently, state propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a dramatic effect
Stunned by the success of the campaign, Bernays wondered whether the propaganda model could be used during peacetime.. He drew upon Sigmund Freud’s work on psychoanalysis to determine ways in which he could manipulate the masses, to further BUSINESS SUCCESS and prevent others from getting there first.(Gold/Oil/Minerals/Cocaine/Pipelines/Silk Roads)
By physically creating a terrorist threat that could only be defeated by giving the Government complete control of all our lives.. thoughts and actions.
.
FL —
Yes, all troughers/bottom feeders. Aspiring to become the 0.1% on the backs of starving children.
Perfectly simple. They imagine most humans too shafted by fake democracy greed to have time to pause and call out sociopathic behaviour.
¡No pasarán!
.
Ha ha ha. well the Groan doubling up today with their long-read, or should that be ‘wrong-lead’ on China and it’s international news media expansion.
Apparently what they do is propaganda and what ours do is independent journalism!
I mean even on the Ebola in Africa they insist on mentioning what Chinese medical staff are doing there – ‘it’s shameless’!
They are recruiting and training local journalists across the world, bastards!
They are even paying the Torygraph and Fail and even midwest US newspapers to run Chinese supplements – Infamy!
Fucking hell- the Chinese are definitely running much better than our lot in letting the ‘foreign work for us’ they are ‘renting our boats’ in this ‘war’ – shriek!
Having failed to destroy Russian media and perception through the endless flak of this years very sucessful World Cup – no racism, hooliganism, terrorism, everyone happy – the media guns are turning on China.
Why now? Is it because they are going to put a few of their battleships in the Venezuelan ports? Is it because after decades of the environmental rape of Nigerai and CAR/Congo – they are going for vertical integration with these regions and peoples?
I wrote a few days ago about a chat with a retiring english teacher from China, who educated me on the Chinese and their success in removing poverty and ignorance from that land of nearly 2 Billion! About how they have transmutted from an agrarian village based world to a all-mod cons city living. Where the opportunity for entrepreneurship is more real than in the home of the ‘American Dream’. Where Health and utilities and education are available to all!
But what of the environment I asked, the terrible smog and damage and pressures of industrialisation? The answer is that yes that happens there as in every industrial country – europe has cities full of smog, US is turning into another dust bowl, BUT, all of the Chinese agriculture, industry, cities and peoples occupy in TOTAL just 10 percent of it’s landmass! It has many pristine environments still.
Shocked, by such a rosy picture, i asked but what about Xi! Don’t they see him as just another corrupt party member on the take? No! He is well respected. He is an actual scientist, an agronomist no less whose work improved their food output! His wife is well liked too. So no old style party stooge then.
Well i didn’t know any of that before a chat in a pub with a stranger – and the first time the Groan writes about them is to shout ‘wolf’ at their insistance of not allowing the western media hagemony on the world, not a word of what i learned in less than half an hour.
A new truthism has emerged when the Groan lets one out you know to get upwind fast!
I agree with the perspective of the Guardian’s decline promulgated by D.W. Pear. I wish to cite another example.
Facing a true European colour revolution in France with the Gilets Jaunes [yellow jackets] which have risen up spontaneously – as a reaction of poor families to the Neo-Liberal austerity programme of Macron – the Guardian seems not to know how to react.
I say a true colour revolution because unlike the ones in Ukraine and Georgia there has been no subversion from external players such as the US, EU et.al.
“For Europe’s sake, Emmanuel Macron needs help” Opines Natalie Nougayrède in abject panic, as Macron’s ratings plunge to 18%. This is the same Natalie Nougayrède who welcomed and has staunchly supported the Ukraine Maidan which swept from power totally unconstitutionally, President Yanukovych whose rating the Graun thought were deplorable at 25% and that he didn’t have popular support in the country.
She goes on:
“Extreme forces across Europe are busily rejoicing over Macron’s gilets jaunes predicament.”
Yes, Natalie Nougayrède some of us can remember when you and the rest of the Guardian crew were busy doing the same as a fascist government illegally were swept to power [with a little $5 billion help from the US] in Ukraine in what was Yanukovych’s Maidan predicament.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/04/emmanuel-macron-crisis-france-europe-far-right
What worries Natalie Nougayrède is:
“Scenes in France these past two weeks may seem, to some, like a revival of the May 1968 uprising, but a more pertinent parallel may be 6 February 1934. That day, gangs of far-right nationalists marched on the French capital and clashed with the police in violence that left 15 dead.”
Yes I had the same worries as did the Russian’s about the Ukraine when you and the Guardian were shilling for the fascists there. Something that you still do!
Yes the Guardian and the like of Nougayrède are responsible for the rise of fascism in Europe, but they don’t get it do they? Or maybe they do.
Naatalie Nougat was on the list that was hacked recently of journalists used for western propaganda purposes along with Aaronavich etc. She is appalling. I also love the Guardian’s opinion that Macron is centre-left.
Macron himself has gone into deep hiding in France. All the statements from the government come from the Prime Minister mainly.
“Before our Guardian guide Tom Philips…”
Ah. Tom Philips.Funny that. It was only last year that he came back from five years or so as the Guardian’s China correspondent, dutifully penning two articles a week explaining to his readers how everything in China is shit.
It’s great that in the space of only a few months he’s become one of the world’s leading experts on how everything in Venezuela is shit.
Clearly a Dark State scribe as are Harding, Friedman and the rest of them.
China has been under a similar attack for 70 years, but it’s bigger, more homogeneous and smarter.
Godfree, does that include the homogeneous , smart Cultural Revolution ?
One small point I would take very slight issue with in David’s excellent article – I do not think the ‘Deep State’ is a ‘Dark State’ inasmuch as they publish their intentions. CFR, Brookings, Cato, Rand, WEF. Valdai, etc. There are reams of documents about the intentions, though it is not possible to predict the exact policy …I can discern I am already anti all of it!
I prefer another term that has been used in conjunction with the Deep State and that is the Permanent State which describes the co-joined military industrial state and the oligarchical families and bought politicians who run the USA and through it the greater part of the world. This loose grouping that also contains invited foreigners like members of the Atlantic Council and major Bankers and militarists from Europe and UK. They are the people who govern hidden behind the facade of an elected democratic government. Trump is not so much changing his mind and position on a daily basis but is being pushed into making the change required by the permanent state. e.g wanting to be a friend to Russia but forced to do a 180 degree turn the next day.
I can go with that: ‘permanent state’ it is. And by extension, ‘permantising state’ or ‘perpetual state’. Personally, I think we can give up on any idealism that posits that the state’s function is to inclusively further the Common Good. In modern state-making terms: the Social Contract is so much 18th century toilet paper. The teleology of the state is the greater state. The modern iterations of Sir Humphrey Appleby (Yes, Minister) would never allow a mere elected representative to get in the way.
https://youtu.be/nZBkP6drCqE?t=346
I was just using a little poetic license about the ‘dark state’.
The Guardian’s precipitous decline is matched BTL in my opinion with especially high levels of ignorance whenever the geopolitics of Latin America come up.
It is almost impossible to discuss Venezuela rationally because of dreary and seemingly endless references to Jeremy Corbyn, or hyperbolic warnings about the dangers of ‘socialism’ both apparently worse for Empire apologists than right-wing death squads, or economic sanctions used to intimidate weaker states that refuse to submit to US demands.
Of course the irony of gangsters like Obama or Trump sanctioning Venezuela for ‘human rights abuses’ is completely lost on them, this despite Guitmo, the long term persecution of Julian Assange or the ransacking of country after country across the Middle East and Noth Africa.
Too many Guardian readers are like goldfish with an inability to either understand or remember the long list of crimes committed by the US or vast edifice of fake news sustaining them.
To mentionan of this BTL invites the Guardian’s own form of sanctioning which is to memory-hole any comments that strays too far from approved, pro-neocon narratives.
BTL comments are surely being managed, to fit the narrative, it’s allegedly the role of GCHQ. It’s been done elsewhere, i need to dig out the links.
Pay no attention to BTL comments on the Graun – I seriously doubt whether many more than 10% of them nowadays are from genuinely independent individual readers, unconnected to the social media departments of the various UK and international political or economic lobby groups, political parties, so-called think tanks, and, of late, intelligence services and alphabet agencies.
It has simply become a battleground for propaganda and counter-propaganda, like opening a door onto a fully fledged and never ending bar-room brawl. The level of debate is woeful, often consisting of little more than drive-by trolling and insult – yet the Graun itself is very happy indeed to count the clicks, as it gleefully sits back and declares: “Let’s you and him fight!”
Maybe the action has become concentrated and heightened as fewer and fewer articles are now open for comment, but I don’t want to channel the old restaurant food joke: Not only is it awful, but there isn’t enough of it!”
Stuff the Guardian!
It wouldn’t surprise me if half of the tasks that interns perform at the Guardian is writing BTL.
I completely agree. The funny thing is, Venezuela isn’t even a Socialist country, most of it’s economy is market based and dominated by the private sector. The problem isn’t about Socialism, it’s about poor judgement and ensuing corruption. Venezuela never tried to copy Cuba’s model of a centrally planned Socialist economy. Chavez called his version 21st Century Socialism, it led to a massive gap between the official and black-market exchange rates and cross border smuggling. Try and explain that to Guardian readers is like speaking in a foreign language they refuse to learn.
Lucky for Ven. that Russ. and C. are now investing in Gold mining, (taking gold to Turkey to refine), oill exploration and production, joint defense contracts.. etc making it difficult for the Mad Murikans and all-lies to do more than huff and puff and try to squeeze with illegal sanctions.
C.?
I think it’s OK to write Cunt in full here.
Russ“.” instead of Russia?
.
Really?!
What’s wrong with you?!
Yes, it was very similar to a piece about plucky Ukrainians in Mariepol on the Sea of Azov, fearful of imminent Russian invasion and blockade of the port. No context at all. Just when you think The Guardian could not stoop lower, down to swoops even further.
Indeed, it is happening on a daily basis now.
But I would not recommend turning this into a drinking game – getting drunk before 9AM is not much fun, imo.
Don’t you just love these stories from the Guardian and mainstream propaganda that “socialism never works”? Every socialist country is being crushed by US sanctions, threats, regime change projects and subversion: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, Iran and North Korea. China and Russia are out of step with the US, so they need punishing too. Did I miss anybody?
Pear, I think you missed socialist Libya, Syria and Iran.
And they developed their technique in the Congo with the assassination of democratically elected Lumumba in 1961 and the installation of Mobutu who bled the nation for 3 decades; and left the place a US/Western pillage zone ever since. DR Congo one of the poorest most resource-rich nations on the planet.
Good point especially about Libya and Syria. Nor did I go back into the history of regime changes and elections frauds pulled off by the US since WW2. Greece, Italy, etc.
The US and its lackey states like Australia are now accusing China of “debt loans” to poor countries, and trying to make them submit to China’s wishes and interests by joining in the BRI. Australian media are really beating up this idea at the moment, as well as constantly running stories about Chinese influence and spying.
But of course it’s the US and its allies who’ve been raping and plundering Africa and Latin America for decades, keeping them poor and in debt while filling their own coffers with cash and cheap resources. The hypocrisy is gut-wrenching.
I remember there was quite a lot of good will in Australia towards China when Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister. Normal folk are indeed attracted to China because of its history and, if you have ever been there, it’s a great country with intelligent people. Now the general public are being swayed by the idea that China is taking over our intelligence services and government by, of course, the media (including the ABC) and think tanks like the IPA. How this narrative would even be possible given that Australia is just a spy base for the US and well under their control, is all too hard to fathom for them.
Maybe you should move to China, where you’ll have a more comfortable life and more freedom to speak your will?
Yes, one more, little, independent, democratic Switzerland is currently being bullied into submission by the neoliberals in the EU commission. The FT have two good pieces, surprisingly.
The UK.