Are Claims the US is Sabotaging Venezuela’s Economy Far Fetched?

As US-backed opposition groups take to the streets of Venezuela, following previously failed US-backed uprisings to effect regime change in the South American nation, Western analysts are particularly optimistic about the chances of success now considering the teetering state of Venezuela’s economy. The UK Independent in an article titled, “Venezuela accuses US of plotting coup as Washington warns of ‘imminent …

Progressive Commentary Hour – 06.14.16

Abby Martin has rapidly become a leading international voice among young American journalists and television hosts. She currently hosts the weekly investigative news program The Empire Files on the pan-Latin American network Telesur TV English out of Caracas Venezuela. The program features hard hitting investigative history and insights into subjects ignored by mainstream corporate media. Earlier she was the host of Breaking the Set on the Russia Today network, better known as RT. Abby is a founder of the organization Media Roots that supports citizen journalism, and serves on the board of the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored, which airs on the PRN network; and she also co-directed the film “99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaboration.” The Empire Files series can be viewed at TheEmpireFiles.tv, past Breaking the Set shows can be seen on Youtube, and her personal website as an accomplished visual artist is AbbyMartin.org

These Are the World’s Most Miserable Economies

Thanks to off-the-charts inflation, Venezuela will probably retain the dubious honor of being the most miserable economy for a second year. Galloping inflation at an annual average of 98.3 percent last year alongside 6.8 percent unemployment earned the South American country the runaway top spot on the 2015 misery index. With no end in sight for Venezuela’s economic woes — estimates in Bloomberg surveys predict consumer price growth of …

Obama on the TPP: Beckoning Us to the Graveyard – JOHN V. WALSH

“We have to make sure America writes the rules of the global economy and we should do it today while our economy is in a position of global strength. If we don’t write the rules for trade around the world, guess what, China will. And they’ll write those rules in a way that gives Chinese workers and Chinese businesses the …

The American Empire is a Threat to Every Nation’s Security

President Obama just declared Venezuela a threat to US national security, which is code word for any smaller, less powerful nation possessing balls enough to thumb its nose at the Empire bully America. The lie of accusing another sovereign nation as a threat to US national security like clockwork is the first step toward levying economic sanctions. Cuba, Iran, Syria and …

MAYBE OBAMA’S SANCTIONS ON VENEZUELA ARE NOT REALLY ABOUT HIS “DEEP CONCERN” OVER SUPPRESSION OF POLITICAL RIGHTS

The White House on Monday announced the imposition of new sanctions on various Venezuelan officials, pronouncing itself “deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government’s efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents”: deeply concerned. President Obama also, reportedly with a straight face, officially declared that Venezuela poses “an extraordinary threat to the national security” of the U.S. — a declaration necessary to legally justify the sanctions. Today, one of the Obama administration’s …