Dorothea Lange Negro woman carrying shoes home from church Mississippi Delta July 1936
The US/CIA has conducted yet another coup in Latin America. Brazil (Lula), Ecuador (Correa) and now Bolivia. More will follow. Good luck trying to find even one US news outlet that’s critical of this one.
I left in this article, issued before he “resigned” with a gun to his head, because it includes the role of the OAS.
Note: In Bolivia, there are two counts: the “quick” count and the “official” count. Because much of the country is rural and/or mountainous, it can take a long time to count the votes. Hence the quick count: so the press have something to report, and there’s some initial idea of the result. A candidate needs either 50% of the vote or a minimum 10% lead from no. 2 to win in round 1. Morales has a lot of support in rural areas. But these are underrepresented in the “quick count”. So it looked like he didn’t have the 10%+ lead from no. 2. When the official count began to show that he did, opponents cried Fraud! The ultimate result was in line with pre-vote polls, but the damage had been done. The OAS has seen its opening and gone for it.
“..the OAS, which is based in Washington, has grown into a bloc focused on adhering to US policies rather than representing South American nations.”
• Bolivian President Morales Calls New ‘General Elections’ (RT)
Bolivian leader Evo Morales promised to hold a new election in order to uphold peace and security across the country after the Organization of American States (OAS) mission failed to confirm his win last month. “I made a decision… to call for a new general election that would allow people to democratically choose the authorities,” Morales announced on Sunday. The plebiscite is set to include a new round of voting for the president, the vice president, and the members of both chambers of Parliament. In his address, Morales also promised to completely replace the members of the nation’s election commission.
Earlier on Sunday, OAS issued a preliminary report, saying it is “statistically unlikely” that Morales secured a 10-percent lead, required to avoid a runoff vote. The auditors claimed to have found security flaws in voting software and traces of “clear manipulation” of the vote-tallying system. Therefore, having been unable to validate the results, the mission recommended holding a new round of elections in the country. Morales requested the audit after doubt was cast on him winning a fourth consecutive term as leader of Bolivia on October 20.
[..] Morales criticized the role of the OAS in South American politics in the past, calling it “the spokesman agency for US interests” and “an overseer of the empire.” He also accused its chief, Luis Almagro, of inciting violence in Venezuela and encouraging a foreign intervention in that country. Argentina’s president-elect, Alberto Fernandez, voiced similar thoughts on former leader of Ecuador Rafael Correa’s show ‘Conversation with Correa’ on RT Spanish. He argued that the OAS, which is based in Washington, has grown into a bloc focused on adhering to US policies rather than representing South American nations.
President @evoespueblo has also openly criticized U.S. imperialism and military action as well as the government's policies on human rights, immigration, climate change, Syria, Israel, and more. #Bolivia pic.twitter.com/idTL7SE5gi
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) November 11, 2019
“I resign so that Mesa and Camacho do not continue to persecute, kidnap and mistreat my ministers, union leaders and their families and so that they do not continue to harm merchants, guilds, independent professionals and transporters who have the right to work.”
• Bolivian President Morales Announces His Resignation (RT)
Bolivian President Evo Morales resigned shortly after the military urged him to do so. Two officials next in line to take over the government also stepped down following weeks of protests. “I resign from my position as president so that (Carlos) Mesa and (Luis Fernando) Camacho do not continue to persecute socialist leaders,” Morales said during a televised address, mentioning the leaders of the opposition. Morales said he decided to step down in hopes that his departure would stop the spate of violent attacks against officials and indigenous people, “so that they [protesters] do not continue burning the houses [of public officials]” and “kidnapping and mistreating” families of indigenous leaders.
“It is my obligation, as the first indigenous president and president of all Bolivians, to seek this pacification,” he said, adding that he hopes the opposition will “understand the message.” Shortly after the announcement, his vice president, Alvaro Marcelo García Linera, also submitted his resignation. The next person in line to take over the government, the president of the Senate, Adriana Salvatierra, resigned soon afterwards. [..] The opposition urged Morales to resign despite his promise to hold a new election. While he briefly resisted the calls, branding them “unconstitutional” and an “attempted coup,” he eventually gave in after the military joined in the chorus.
Shortly before Morales announced his resignation, Bolivian TV channels aired footage of what they say was a presidential plane departing from El Alto International Airport. It was reported that the plane took Morales to his political stronghold of Chimoré in the Department of Cochabamba, 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of La Paz, where he launched his re-election bid in May.
Bolivia's democratically elected president was just overthrown in a violent right-wing coup.@AnyaParampil debunks the corporate media myths in 2 minutes: pic.twitter.com/I8JP9k5ndv
— The Grayzone (@GrayzoneProject) November 11, 2019
Will Morales take the offer and leave his people alone?
• Mexico Says It Would Offer Asylum To Bolivia’s Morales If He Sought It (R.)
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Sunday that the country would offer asylum to outgoing Bolivian President Evo Morales if he sought it, in a sign of Mexico’s new prominence among left-leaning governments in Latin America. Led by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the government delivered a strong defense of Morales, who said on Sunday that he would resign after the country was rocked by protests over a disputed election and the military called on him to step down. “We recognize the responsible attitude of the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who preferred to resign rather than to expose his people to violence,” Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter, adding that the Mexican government would explain its views in more detail on Monday.
Mexico was among the first countries to congratulate Morales after his victory in late October, despite questions surrounding the results. Latin American countries have oscillated over the past few decades between left-wing and conservative governments, often with radically different economic and social policies. Since last year, anger at corruption, inequality and poverty have pushed conservatives out of office in Mexico and Argentina, while fueling protests in recent weeks that forced Ecuador and Chile to water down economic policies. Mexico has a long history of giving refuge to left-wing exiles fleeing military rule and repression in the region, a history that Ebrard nodded to on Sunday.
Not surprising in any form. Except perhaps that they thought she would comply. Not a fan of Haley, but her position has always seemed clear.
• Niki Haley: Tillerson, Kelly Tried To Get Me To Undermine Trump (Hill)
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claims two of President Trump’s former senior advisers tried to get her to undermine him to “save the country,” The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing Haley’s upcoming memoir and an interview with her. According to the newspaper, Haley said former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House chief of staff John Kelly would try to get her to work around the president. “Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley wrote, according to the Post.
“It was their decisions, not the president’s, that were in the best interests of America, they said. The president didn’t know what he was doing,” she continued. In one portion of the book, Haley reportedly recalls a disagreement with Tillerson and Kelly during an Oval Office meeting over her suggestion that the United States should withhold funding for a U.N. agency that supports Palestinians. She said she had the backing of Trump’s Mideast envoys, according to the Post. Kelly and Tillerson, however, argued that cutting aid could lead to violence and greater threats to Israel, as well as reduced U.S. influence, Haley reportedly wrote.
Kelly, she added, later responded to Haley in his office: “I have four secretaries of state: you, H.R., Jared, and Rex. I only need one,” she wrote, referring to Jared Kushner and then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster. “I was so shocked I didn’t say anything going home because I just couldn’t get my arms around the fact that here you have two key people in an administration undermining the president,” Haley told the Post. She also wrote that Kelly stalled when Haley requested a meeting with Trump and said the former chief of staff complained when she went around him to do so, according to the Post.
Jonathan Turley has an interesting take, that Pelosi “wants Trump mortally wounded but still alive in 2020..”
• Is Pelosi Saving Trump By Shaping Impeachment To Fail In The Senate? (Turley)
Trump, [..] may have a curious ally in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. When she held a press conference to announce the impeachment inquiry, some of us expressed doubt that she had dropped her opposition to it. Since then, every move she has made strongly supports suspicions that Pelosi is less of a convert than a collaborator in the House impeachment effort. While Trump aides such as Rudy Giuliani have now caused untold damage to the White House position, Pelosi repeatedly has intervened to steer impeachment efforts into either a wall or, more recently, over a cliff. For three years, Pelosi has been widely credited with slowing down the impeachment efforts despite many of her fellow Democrats campaigning on an impeachment pledge in 2018.
Pelosi has struggled to maintain the appearance of wanting to impeach the president while preventing any meaningful steps toward actual impeachment. She wants Trump mortally wounded but still alive in 2020. Moreover, she understood the Russia investigation was not producing clear criminal or impeachable conduct. Indeed, earlier this year, I wrote a column exploring whether the real scandal was not likely Russian but Ukrainian in its origins. I noted that various Trump figures, along with Democrats including Hunter Biden, were involved in suspect dealings in Ukraine. The investigation by former special counsel Robert Mueller found no conspiracy or collusion with the Russians. The Justice Department correctly rejected obstruction. Pelosi moved to put impeachment to bed, saying she would not accept one that was not based on articles with “overwhelming and bipartisan” support.
Everything was going according to plan, until Trump called the Ukrainian president. The danger of pretending that you want to impeach Trump is that you may accidentally stumble over a potentially impeachable offense. Moreover, with a whistleblower complaint, Pelosi lost all her control. The Democratic base was simply not going to accept another bait and switch. So Pelosi was forced to hold her bizarre press conference to announce that an impeachment inquiry would begin in the House, despite other Democrats declaring for weeks that they already were conducting such an inquiry. Despite her recent pledge, she pushed through an impeachment vote with no support from Republicans, and the country divided right down the middle on the issue.
As I said the other day with regards to John Solomon, the Hill appears to have made a move away from Trump. They do still let Turley and Dershowitz talk.
• Alan Dershowitz: Congress Is Trying To ‘Create Crimes Out Of Nothing’ (Hill)
Attorney Alan Dershowitz warned that Americans should be “frightened” of the House’s impeachment investigation, accusing Democrats of trying to “create crimes out of nothing.” “Whether you’re from New York or the middle of the country, you should be frightened by efforts to try to create crimes out of nothing,” Dershowitz said Sunday on John Catsimatidis’ radio show. “Well, I spent the afternoon yesterday searching the federal criminal statutes from beginning to end. I couldn’t find the crime.” The House’s impeachment inquiry was launched in September amid Democratic concerns that Trump leveraged $400 million in military aid to pressure Zelensky to publicly open an investigation on unfounded corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden, a top political rival.
The White House has repeatedly blasted the House investigation as a “witch hunt” and decrying Democrats’ efforts as “unhinged” last week after they voted to formalize the inquiry. “First they made up collusion… I searched the statute books. There’s no crime of collusion… with a foreign country. After that, they said obstruction of Congress,” Dershowitz said. “In a desperate effort to try to find crimes [committed by] President Trump, they’re just making it up. And that means we are all in danger.”
Hong Kong police have started shooting protesters with live ammo, so let’s talk stocks. So people know we have our priorities straight.
• Asian Shares A Sea Of Red As Hong Kong Chaos Hits Sentiment (R.)
Asian shares a sea of red as Hong Kong chaos hits sentiment. Asian shares sank on Monday, the safe haven yen rose and gold jumped following a fresh escalation of violence in Hong Kong while uncertainty still remained over whether the United States and China could end their damaging trade war. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index .HSI led the losses in Asia, down 2.4%, after police fired live rounds at protestors on the eastern side of Hong Kong island. Cable TV and other Hong Kong media reported at least one protester being wounded. Video footage showed a protester lying in a pool of blood.
[..] “The China-U.S. trade war and the Hong Kong protest are combining to cast a negative pall on Asian markets today,” said James McGlew, analyst at stockbroking firm Argonaut. “Hong Kong protests have been dragging on for a while and the view from the financial world is that it’s really starting to bite now. The further this drags on it’s certainly going to be very negative.”
“When Britain needed to invest, they chose corporate tax cuts. And when Britain needed to rebuild, they chose more austerity.”
• UK One Of Worst-Performing Economies In World Since 2017 (Ind.)
The UK is one of the worst-performing developed economies in the world since the last general election in 2017, new analysis has shown. Annual growth has come in at just 1.3 per cent – less than half the average of 2.7 per cent among members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of wealthy nations. That put the UK 31st out of 35 OECD nations in the period since Theresa May unexpectedly lost the Conservatives’ parliamentary majority. Almost every OECD nation has outperformed the UK on exports and levels of investment, which have slowed markedly as a result of uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC), which compiled the figures, said a decade of austerity, Brexit mismanagement and a fragile global economy had caused a slump in business confidence. Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said: “The UK economy has fallen into the relegation zone – and you have to blame the manager. The current government is leaving the economy in a dismal state. “When Britain needed to invest, they chose corporate tax cuts. And when Britain needed to rebuild, they chose more austerity.”
The UK has an Editors Code of Practice.
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Home › Forums › Debt Rattle November 11 2019