Venezuela's Chavez hosts close ally Ahmadinejad
Source: AFP
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged Friday to stand together to battle "imperialism," with Chavez criticizing tough sanctions on Tehran.
Upon his arrival in Caracas from Brazil, where he attended the UN-sponsored Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, Ahmadinejad said: "We will build our countries, and we will get away from all the pressures of imperialism."
Chavez responded: "We know the effort you must put in to overcome the obstacles imposed on you by imperialism -- blockades, threats, unilateral sanctions." The pair then headed into talks with their key ministers.
Chavez, who has been battling cancer for more than a year and faces a tough re-election contest in October, has expressed "solidarity" with key ally Iran as it faces growing pressure from the West over its suspect nuclear program.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/chavez-hosts-close-ally-ahmadinejad-170835520.html
Birds of a feather...
may3rd
(593 posts)He will not be allowed to win another election unless he pulls off a major a coup... of some sorts
MADem
(135,425 posts)Zorro
(15,691 posts)I think it's only a matter of time before he agrees to host Iran's medium range missiles.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Hugo will be dead soon; I don't see that happening.
Additionally, the Wee Mayor of Teheran is on his way out--the ulema have tired of him. The Russians are leaning on the Iranians about nuke shit. Life is not terribly good in pretty Persia for a particular politician, these days.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)And he is the one calling the shots.
More than likely, the new Iranian president will be even more of a hard-liner.
MADem
(135,425 posts)clang1
(884 posts)Zorro
(15,691 posts)After all, his Miami Consul was videotaped participating in discussions about cyber attacks against US facilities.
Until then Ooooohhhh nnoooooos, like 'Flame'? Any more to pull out of the air? I am also sure Venezuela is quite sophisticated when it comes to cyber warfare. NOT
Who all do some of you think your fooling?
Zorro
(15,691 posts)Since you apparently suffer from either short-term memory loss or a lack of Google skills:
USA kicks out Venezuelan diplomat over cyber attack plot allegations
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/01/10/usa-venezuelan-diplomat-over-cyber-attack-plot-allegations/
Only one of many reports on the incident.
clang1
(884 posts)No you do your own work buddy. You made the statement you provide the link. Very simple. I hope it is worth my reading it as well.
And the thing is that this is still Neocon BS some people are spouting and your links do not change that.
Zorro
(15,691 posts)then perhaps you should read more about the subjects you blather on about.
clang1
(884 posts)How much or how little I read seems to be your problem. Not mine.
Response to clang1 (Reply #61)
Post removed
clang1
(884 posts)and a pretty worthless link at that as at least one link in the document is broken. Due to your hostility and other reasons I am also very vigilant as to where you cite as well.
Meanwhile I see this. Now I could dig further, deeper, but I am not going to. I dont feel that I need to.
Obama Increases Hostility Toward Venezuela: Its an Election Year
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/obama-increases-hostility-toward-venezuela-its-an-election-year
Mark Weisbrot
Folha de São Paulo (Brazil), January 18, 2012
Em Português
It has become common for political commentary in the U.S. to describe the Republican primary election as the silly season, as the candidates pander to the partys far-right base with proposals and rhetoric that will be dropped in the general election. But unfortunately the silly season is not only a climate problem on the Republican side.
As I noted in this space two weeks ago, the Obama Administration has moved us closer to military confrontation with Iran, partly as a result of Republican pressure although the administration has apparently been getting nervous about being dragged into a war by an Israeli military strike.
But there are other areas where cranking up hostilities for electoral purposes is without political risk. Venezuela is one. Florida is a swing state in U.S. presidential elections, so it was not surprising last week to see the administration expel Venezuelas consul in Miami.
The expulsion was based on an alleged conversation by the Venezuelan Consul, Livia Acosta Noguera, as reported by the right-wing TV station Univision, in what looks like a failed attempt by undercover agents to entrap her in a fake cyber-warfare plot. Its not clear that the conversation is real or accurate as reported, but even if it was, theres no evidence that she fell for the trap.
The Obama Administrations policy toward the left governments of Latin America has been containment and roll-back, scarcely distinguishable from that of George W. Bush. The U.S. government has been without an ambassador in Bolivia for more than three years, partly because of its refusal to disclose what the U.S. State Department is doing with the tens of millions of dollars they are spending annually inside that country. Washington is also supporting the opposition in Venezuela: for example, the Orwellian-named National Endowment for Democracy (NED) shows $1.6 million spent there in 2010, almost certainly the tip of a big iceberg. The bulk of NED funding is going to the International Republican Institute the hard core affiliated with the Republican party who publicly applauded the 2002 coup in Venezuela and played a major role in the coup that overthrew Haitis democratically elected government in 2004.
These are the same people who pushed, in 2005, for changes in electoral laws in Brazil that would weaken the Workers Party, as reported in this newspaper.
Washington is also not winning any friends with its decision last September to vote against loans from multilateral institutions (including the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank) to Argentina.
But Venezuela is the main target, not because of anything in particular that President Chávez has done, but because it is sitting on an estimated 500 billion barrels of oil, the largest reserves in the world. Since not only Obama but Chávez is up for re-election this year, we can safely predict more publicity stunts in the months ahead. That has been the pattern in the past, as Washington attempts to influence the election in Venezuela through the international media.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. He is also president of Just Foreign Policy.
Now was Chavez also playing 'cyberwarefare' games in 2004/2005 as well?
And we all know this as well:
Venezuela Passes Saudis to Hold World's Biggest Oil Reserves ...
www.bloomberg.com/.../venezuela-overtakes-saudis-for-largest-oil-r...
Jun 14, 2012 Venezuela surpassed Saudi Arabia to become the world's largest holder of proven oil reserves, a resource that President Hugo Chavez ...
Now I smell a lot of Neocon type bullshit.
Zorro
(15,691 posts)and the incriminating videotape played countless times on their news broadcasts.
Perhaps you should watch the Spanish channels if you want to keep current on affairs in Latin America, instead of depending on indirect reinterpretations of events from lovestruck Chavistas.
Why don't you post a link to it? Does the video also show possible entrapment?
Response to clang1 (Reply #60)
Post removed
clang1
(884 posts)it fuuuunnnyyyyy
Zorro
(15,691 posts)then I hope you'll find my future comments just as humorous.
clang1
(884 posts)Thus far all I see are a bunch of gasbags spouting hot air and not much else. And I think I'm done. Have a nice day.
I see economic warfare as being the issue at hand. And isn't that what we are all trying to stop
Response to Zorro (Reply #3)
clang1 This message was self-deleted by its author.
JI7
(89,177 posts)OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)Since the US is doing its best to take out OPEC countries at Saudi Arabia's behest.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)despite not having made credible threats against the U.S., and frankly, if some other country did target us with missiles, it would only be payback.
Sometimes I think the American military-industrial complex has a death wish. They do everything they can to piss off the rest of the world, interfere in things that are none of their business, and then use the piss-offedness of other countries as the excuse to arm themselves even further. I'm sick of their game, and most Americans would be if our media told the truth occasionally.
That's about how it pretty much works. Keep finding boogey men and people to exploit. Communism is gone so now it's Terrraaaaaa.
naaman fletcher
(7,362 posts)but what aggressive threats has the US made against Venezuela?
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)treating Colombia as some shining example of democracy, and invasions of Colombian troops, most likely as U.S. proxies.
Basically, they're giving Chavez the Salvador Allende treatment.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Still, the US has certainly played poorly with Chavez. Still, Chavez plays with Iran. There are no good guys in this story.
MADem
(135,425 posts)a shining example of efficient worldwide cocaine distribution.
bitchkitty
(7,349 posts)Specialists in the 'dirty wars' of the Eighties encouraged the plotters who tried to topple President Chavez
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.
It also also deepens doubts about policy in the region being made by appointees to the Bush administration, all of whom owe their careers to serving in the dirty wars under President Reagan.
Read more
Judi Lynn
(160,217 posts)He'd get pitched right out from any of our corporate "news" sources, in no time at all!
I was determined to save this one for personal use. Thanks for giving the Democrats here a chance to see it.
bitchkitty
(7,349 posts)I wish our journalists were allowed to tell the truth.
clang1
(884 posts)Last edited Sun Jun 24, 2012, 10:06 AM - Edit history (2)
it is just sabre ratlling bullshit and button pushing. Now it is cyber warfare as well, and where did FLAME come from? It wasn't freaking Iran or Venezuela. So Iran and Venezuela react as any nation would. It is all the same sort of escalations, all the same sort of bullshit that just feeds on itself and it's just more economic warfare and more Neo-con, Neo-liberal BS.
I mean shit people, Chavez says the same thing about NAFTA as people here do!
Opposition to perceived "neoliberal" globalization
[edit] 2005 UN World Summit
At the 2005 UN World Summit, Chávez on 15 September mocked and denounced the what he perceives to be a neoliberal model of globalization, promulgated by the Washington Consensus, as a fundamentally fraudulent and malicious scheme.[10] Referring to such arrangements as Free Trade Area of the Americas, Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, Chávez stated that such
"market-oriented policies, open market policies" were and continue to be ... the fundamental cause of the great evils and the great tragedies currently suffered by the Third World".[10]
Chávez also listed the accomplishments of his social welfare programs:
So which is it people? It's all crackheaded bullshit is what it is. I support globalization myself, but it's being fucked up and I agree with Chavez and a LOT of other people on that. Hell even Ross Perot said the same about NAFTA.
The current 'cold war' approach to globalization we have is complete trash and is about nothing more than exploitation of other peoples and their resources.
COLGATE4
(14,732 posts)reasonable that they seek solace with each other.
MADem
(135,425 posts)either.
Funny how a guy who pretends to be all "power to the people" only has friends amongst those who have brutal, repressive regimes? Throwing crumbs to the poor to keep them mollified isn't really democracy, IMO. "Here's a cheap cellphone, vote for me!" All the while, he's trying to get tips from North Korea, Syria, et. al. on how to have his way and consolidate his power without having to hand out too many trinkets.
At the end of the day, though, he's going to die, and probably sooner than later. Unlike Qaddafi, though, it'll likely be in a soft bed surrounded by his family. I'm guessing the family put a "little bit" of the national largess aside so they can live in comfort. They might want to move out of the country and find somewhere a bit less polarizing for them.
Thing is, with all of Hugo's gaming of the laws, the next guy up to bat will be able to play dictator too, if he has a mind. Hugo did a bad, bad thing screwing with the nation's system of laws.
clang1
(884 posts)If your going to spout screed you may as well back it up with facts.
Venezuela: 10 Years After Chavez
www.cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela-2009-02.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
by M Weisbrot - 2009 - Cited by 14 - Related articles
Feb 2, 2009 The Chávez Administration at 10 Years: The Economy and Social ... During the current economic expansion, the poverty rate has been cut by ...
No comment on the remainder of what you wrote.
MADem
(135,425 posts)clang1
(884 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)clang1
(884 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)clang1
(884 posts)HuckleB
(35,773 posts)End of discussion.
may3rd
(593 posts)Things are going south for our oil tap country but at least we are paying less at the pump
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)In SA, not so much.
Try again. Reality is good.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)they had oil then too.
ChangoLoa
(2,010 posts)By the way, notice that the comparison you're given goes from 2003 to 2008. Those dates don't represent Chavez mandate, which started in 1999. The period 2003-2008 was chosen because it represents the super oil shock (biggest in history), from its lowest to its highest moment. Interestingly, Weisbrot has never written a word about the 1999-2003 period, and after 2008, he suddenly stopped updating his analysis. It's been 3-4 years and nothing? How come?
I'll give you an example*
Real GDP per capita growth:
Oil shock period, between 2003 and 2008
1) Real GDP went from 35,652,678,000,000 to 58,525,074,000,000 real bolivares (1997 prices)
2) Population went from 25,674,000 to 27,935,000
Conclusion: real GDP per capita went from 1,388,669 to 2,095,045 real bolivares (1997 prices), between 2003 and 2008
Average annual growth rate during the oil shock = 8,57%
Chavez's mandate, between 1998 and 2011
1) Real GDP went from 42,066,487,000,000 to 58,138,269,000,000 real bolivares (1997 prices)
2) Population went from 23,413,000 to 29,278,000
Conclusion: real GDP per capita went from 1,796,715 to 1,985,732 real bolivares (1997 prices), between 1998 and 2011
Average annual growth rate during Chavez's mandate = 0,77%
Stats can do magic, isn't it?
From these two periods, if asked what I think about Chavez's administration real growth results, I'd certainly pick his mandate over the 2003-2008 oil shock. To pick the oil shock as Weisbrot does is an obvious demonstration of partiality.
A 0,77% yearly growth rate per capita is by no means a good result. Venezuela must actually be one of the worst performers in the Latin American region, which has performed pretty well during that recent period.
*GDP stats come from the Venezuelan Central Bank Database at http://www.bcv.org.ve/c2/indicadores.asp Go to "Agregados Macroeconomicos/ PIB a precios corrientes y constantes. Serie desde 1950 (anual)" and open the .xls file
Demographic stats come from the Venezuelan State Stats Institute (INE) at http://www.ine.gov.ve/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=98&Itemid=51# , click at "Población total, por sexo al 30 de Junio, 1990-2015, (base Censo, 2001)"
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)I can see why it might upset some people:
* GDP has nearly doubled, growing by 94.7 percent in 5.25 years.
* Poverty rate has been cut nearly in half from 54 percent of households in 2003 to 26 percent at the end of 2008.
* Extreme poverty has fallen by 72 percent.
* Infant mortality has fallen by more than one-third.
* The number of primary care physicians in the public sector has increased 12-fold.
* Total public debt has fallen from 30.7 percent of GDP to 14.3 percent.
(Information taken from the PDF that clang1 linked to)
clang1
(884 posts)Those people that are upset are not people I would want on my side with all this anyway.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)I have a great deal of respect for Mark Weisbrot and for Ha-Joon Chang in particular. Their credentials are unimpeachable. Hence the need for ad hominems.
clang1
(884 posts)Thanks. He has a book that looks like would be a good read.
Kicking Away the Ladder:
How the Economic and Intellectual Histories of Capitalism Have Been Re-Written to Justify Neo-Liberal Capitalism
Ha-Joon Chang (Cambridge University, UK)
--
Another book by Ha-Joon Chang that looks like it would make fun reading
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang
Ha-Joon Chang offers a masterful debunking of some of the myths of capitalism, writes John Gray
Amongst many issues, he controversially claims that "the washing machine has changed society more than the Internet"
Heh heh I can sort of see why he thinks this...
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)It's a fun, fascinating read. I've also read some of his earlier book, Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (had to return it to the library before I had a chance to finish it.)
ChangoLoa
(2,010 posts)He's never even published a single article in a scientific journal.
You must be kidding...
MADem
(135,425 posts)RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)... which reads like a veritable rogues gallery
clang1
(884 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)And I know John Abizaid, he is no rogue. Nor is Madeleine Albright.
It looks like what it claims to be, a non-partisan entity. They cover the waterfront from left to right. Each crew endeavors to keep the other honest.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)Including a lot of CEOs.
Yep, I know where they're coming from.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Fight the power, and whatever.
clang1
(884 posts)You don't get it. Is calling people 'commies' next? We have things to do and you are not a part of the solution.
MADem
(135,425 posts)There's no privacy on this board and if your "we" actually do have things to do, get off your butt and go do them, instead of griping at me like a two year old.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)I used to trust the Establishment--until I did graduate work at two Ivy League schools and learned what sociopathic creeps a lot of the future "movers and shakers" were.
MADem
(135,425 posts)exists to wipe their asses. They're the ELITES, better than the establishment, better than you or me...so they think. They think wrong, but they have a high view of themselves.
I think Ivy League schools are a massive waste of money. The only kids who come out of them with any talent are the scholarship kids! The legacies and the "Let me buy a building so you'll take my kid" students are morons who don't have essential social skills, never mind a real education--they probably hire someone else to take their tests for them!
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)After ten years, nothing changes around here.
ChangoLoa
(2,010 posts)During Chavez mandate, the annual average growth rate of per capita real GDP has only been of 0,77% (1998-2011). It must be one of the slowest growth rates in Latin America (detailed analysis in post # 74).
Why does Weisbrot start his comparison in 2003? Why does he stop in 2008? Chavez period goes from 1999 to 2011 (even if we must logically take 1998 as the initial year, because it shows the situation that Chavez received when he was elected)
In French, it's called a parti pris, a partial analysis.
clang1
(884 posts)Last edited Sat Jun 23, 2012, 04:01 PM - Edit history (4)
So far as all that poverty in Venezuela there is a more equal income distribution there than that in the United States.
U.S. Income Distribution: Just How Unequal?
http://inequality.org/unequal-americas-income-distribution/
United States 37.0 (OECD) or 46.9 US Census Bureau 2010
http://globaledge.msu.edu/Countries/Venezuela/statistics
Venezuela 39 2011
Venezuela is also the least unequal country in Latin America.
Of the OECD countries we (USA) are at the bottom of the list in income inequality.
Australia 32.4
Austria 26.1
Belgium 25.6
Canada 32.8
Denmark 24.3
Finland 25.8
France 29.2
Germany 30.0
Italy 33.4
Luxembourg 29.2
Netherlands 29.7
Norway 25.6
Poland 31.0
Portugal 31.0
Spain 31.3
Sweden 25.9
United Kingdom 34.5
United States 37.0
Based on all the Human Rights information and other data that I have seen, what with all of the conflicts and all the contradictions depending upon who is has created the report, it is difficult for me to come to my own opinion on the Human rights situation in Venezuela as I have not lived there, I can certainly say Venezuela has no Guantanamo or ever had a worldwide system of torture sites like the United States has/does. So you tell me. I am also sure that, unlike the United States, Venezuela does not have 0.7% of adults in it's population in prisons either. Nor 1 out of 32 people in it's population under some form of correctional supervision as is the case in the United States.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Hmm.
may3rd
(593 posts)best step off the rails and take in the scrolling curiosities
clang1
(884 posts)But what it does have to do with is the truth. That's what. There are at least 4 of you in this thread that seem to have a problem with truth. Nah...'riding the rails' as you say, is fine, I like facts, I detest snakes.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)That doesn't help you or anyone else.
clang1
(884 posts)I have a feeling you and I have very different ideas of what truth is. You backup what your idea of truth is. I am not here to play philosophy games with you either.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)joshcryer
(62,265 posts)...it damn sure won't with the same people in charge in the next 12 years.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)joshcryer
(62,265 posts)Ahmadinejad is just a figurehead and defers to the supreme leader. Nothing will change much with his ouster.
So the bogeymen will remain as they are, pretty much.