Venezuela: two more reads

Tomorrow at crack of d I head for New Orleans so this is my last post for a while on Venezuela.¹  Or anything else cept alligator shots from the bayou, live jazz from Frenchmen Street and dead footage from St Louis Cemetery.

*

Round-up

Since posting my three reads on Venezuela, I’ve linked to a half hour talking heads video in which History Boys Galloway and Garrie conclude – on the not easily contested ground that while Maduro has many friends, the powerful ones are thousands of miles distant – that this won’t end well. Tough to hear, but worth a listen for the duo’s characteristic lucidity.

I also linked yesterday to Caitlin Johnstone, who in her inimitable style echoes a point I made a few posts back to the effect there’s no fence to sit on here. Morality demands the government in Caracas has our unconditional support.

And I linked to the Rob Newman show, History of Oil. In most satire, insight plays second fiddle to laugh count. Not here, and the fact it’s still funny is telling. Factor in a show from 2006, but shedding more light on the crisis than the combined sum of corporate media outpourings since it all kicked off, and you really don’t want to miss this, do you?

*

Two new reads

The first is Rainer Shea’s five minute piece yesterday in Greanville Post. You get the gist from the subtly understated title: Venezuela Coup Attempt Proves that Capitalism is a Cancer that Survives Through Violence and Propaganda.

I couldn’t agree more, and if said title seems a tad ‘extreme’, maybe that’s because market led media have so normalised a world of profit-driven wars on the world’s poorest, racially skewed destitution, environmental insanity and much besides, that we can no longer tell up from down, arse from elbow. On matters political, especially international, our moral compass is shot. Not because we don’t care – allow me one shred of faith in humanity – but because, thanks to those media, most of the time we don’t even know.

My second read, by Garikai Chengu in CounterPunch, is longer but if you follow only one of my links this is the smart option. Why do some insist – do a search – Gaddafi was ousted due to his Gold Dinar project? Why do some insist this latest move on Venezuela is more than your bog standard hydrocarbon grab; more too than Uncle Sam, abetted as ever by the local oligarchy, keeping its backyard in line, Monroe Doctrine style?

(Update. On February 5, Pepe Escobar’s ICH piece on Venezuela and the petrodollar was posted.)

Chengu gives as clear a run down on what sanctions really are, and what petrodollars do for Washington/Wall Street – and to states like Iran, Iraq, Libya and Venezuela – as ever I read. But now I need to pack. WTF did I do with that ‘gator repellent?

* * *

1. It’s also likely to be one of my last ever long haul trips. That saddens me for I’m deep in love with India, and less well placed than forty-five years ago to go overland. It’s not that I think ecocide a matter of lifestyle choice, but that I intend writing more on the environment and it’s bad salesmanship to globe-trot while I do it. For the same reason I’ve cut out red meat and cut down on dairy. Just so you know.