A kick-ass reception in Chile

Literally. This is what Venezuelan right-winger, putschist, no-show governor, and twice-failed presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky saw when he came to Chile today to meet with his local fascist counterparts:

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“Putschist Capriles out! Long live the Bolivarian Revolution!”

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“Out of Chile, Capriles, putschist and killer.”

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“Capriles, fascist pig.”

And then there’s this, which requires no translation:

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Video here, if you want to see more.

I guess it’s cold comfort for Majunche that the so-called president of Chile is a fellow fascist traveller. But not to worry, Piñochetera is no more popular with his fellow Chileans than Majunche is. Ha, ha.

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International prostitution ring busted in Spain

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A human-trafficking victim’s wrist, crudely tattooed with a “bar code” and the “debt” her traffickers claim she “owed” them, used to force her into prostitution. Yes, this happens in Spain.

It’s an all too familiar story of human trafficking: women lured to western Europe with promises of jobs, and not allowed to return home until they’ve paid off their “debts” to the mobsters who brought them there to be prostituted in brothels and “nightclubs”. We’re already familiar with horror stories of women from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe being trafficked. This time, the victims are from South America:

A network dedicated to the sexual exploitation of Brazilian and Venezuelan women in Galicia, Spain, was designed to siphon off profits and send them to Brazil without arousing suspicion, and owned properties worth 3 million euros.

Ten persons have been arrested, six of them in the provinces of Orense and Pontevedra, who were the most responsible in the network, and another four in Brazil, by the Spanish and Brazilian federal police forces. Three of them are now in prison.

The network operated out of nightclubs in Orense and Pontevedra, exploiting women between the ages of 20 and 30, from Brazil and Venezuela. They were offered jobs in Spain where, in order to force them into prostitution, their passports were confiscated, and they were subjected to threats and pressure, not only upon themselves but also their families, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

The nucleus of the group was a family whose head was married to a Brazilian woman. The subject, a native of Orense, was wanted by the judicial authorities for pimping. Brazilian authorities have requested the crime boss’s extradition for pending charges.

The prostitution network was directed by the man, his wife and two sons, and included the woman’s mother.

Translation mine.

The pattern, as we can see, is universal. To keep the women from escaping, their passports were stolen from them. Threats of violence to not only them, but their families back home, ensured their compliance. And since the network had tentacles in two South American countries, it’s quite possible that the thugs could have made good on their threats to the women’s families back home.

And the destruction of the Spanish social safety net no doubt exacerbated the women’s plight, too…even if they could escape their captors, it’s unlikely that they would have found shelter and social welfare adequate to their needs. Most likely, they would have ended up back in prostitution. The demand for prostitutes is so ravenous in western Europe that the few local women who work in the sex trade voluntarily are grossly outnumbered by foreign women…most of them definitely NOT in the trade by choice.

This bust was undoubtedly just a drop in the bucket. And until the demand for prostitutes is brought down, networks like this one will just keep popping back up like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

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Congratulations, you crazy kids.

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Via Aporrea, I found out last night why Cilia Flores was not called the First Lady, but rather the First Combatiente of Venezuela. Turns out, she and Nicolás Maduro were only legally married yesterday! Prior to that, they had what was called a matrimonio civil, which in English we’d call a common-law marriage (not to be confused with civil marriage, which is a legal marriage without “benefit” of clergy). But since they decided to make it official (with a little help from their friend Jorge Rodríguez, the mayor of Caracas), some official congratulations are in order.

Knock yourselves out, you lovebirds!

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Posted in Huguito Chavecito, Law-Law Land | 1 Comment

This is what first-degree murder looks like.

Beyond a reasonable doubt. Beyond an unreasonable doubt. Beyond ANY doubt. Look at this picture and you will know why:

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This is Trayvon Martin’s dead body at the scene of the crime. Do you notice anything about it?

Or rather, do you NOT notice something that is supposed to be there, but isn’t?

What got George Zimmerman off the hook for his murder is the claim that he was defending himself against a taller, stronger adversary who was kneeling astride him, pounding the back of his head, mixed-martial-arts style, into the sidewalk:

But there’s one thing wrong with this whole scenario: IT NEVER HAPPENED.

Remember, it was a rainy night. That’s why Trayvon wore his hoodie, with the hood up. He was doing it to keep the rain off; he wasn’t a lurking “thug” up to no good. He was coming back from the corner store with a can of Arizona iced tea and a bag of Skittles candy, remember?

Now, bearing in mind what the weather was like that night, take a good look at the photo. Look at Trayvon’s pants. Specifically, look at them from the knees down.

NOW do you see it?

If you didn’t see anything, you just saw the evidence of first-degree murder. Here’s why:

On a pair of light-beige pants like that, anything — be it grass stains, mud, or just grungy rainwater from a damp sidewalk — would show up as a dark splotch. Trayvon’s knees, if he had been kneeling astride George Zimmerman and pounding his head into the cement of the sidewalk, would have been wet, dark and dirty. But they’re not. His pants are clean, as though he’d just put them on.

This killing was NOT self-defence. George Zimmerman was NOT in danger. He was NOT under attack. He was not on his back, and Trayvon was NOT on top of him. He was NOT “standing his ground” against anything.

This was not second-degree murder. This was not manslaughter. This was Murder One.

George Zimmerman stalked Trayvon Martin. Trayvon’s last phone call, to his friend Rachel Jeantel, makes that more than clear. Trayvon complained to Rachel that a “creepy-ass cracker” was following him, and would not stop. Zimmerman’s infamous 911 call, in which the muttered words “fucking coons” can be heard, and in which he plainly disregards the dispatcher’s instructions not to engage, also make clear that this was a hate crime, one in which Zimmerman was the aggressor, and which he was determined to carry out because, in his own words, “they always get away”. (“They” meaning black kids.)

Oh, and that “ground and pound” bit of mixed martial arts talk? That was Zimmerman’s training. NOT Trayvon Martin’s. Zimmerman took MMA classes for a number of weeks before he shot Trayvon dead, in an effort to boost his fighting capabilities. Why?

Because George Zimmerman was out for blood that night, and all the other nights he took it upon himself to “patrol” that gated neighborhood. That’s why.

This is a clear-cut case of a racist vigilante stalking and murdering an innocent black teenager, for no reason other than that the kid was black. It is first-degree murder, open and shut.

And the prosecution and the all-white jury totally fumbled it.

And even worse: The fumble was, beyond all doubt, deliberate. The state prosecutor, Angela Corey, has a dismal track record when it comes to crimes in which the perpetrator and the victim are of different colors. At a press conference following the verdict, she was seen smiling strangely, instead of appearing downcast, as one would expect of a prosecutor who’d just lost what should have been an open-and-shut case, and lost badly.

At the very least, shouldn’t Trayvon’s clothes have been presented as evidence? Clothes show signs of a struggle, but Trayvon’s don’t show him as the aggressor, the guy on top, or even remotely menacing. One would hope that even a halfway competent prosecutor would enter them to point out that the victim never fought, never stood a chance against his armed assailant.

But Angela Corey didn’t do that, did she? Because if she did, she would have had to point out that there are no marks of any kind on the front of Trayvon’s pants. Nothing that would indicate that he was ever kneeling astride Zimmerman. On the contrary, she would have to have pointed out that it was the back of his clothes that was wet, stained and dirty, consistent with Trayvon being the one on the ground, screaming for help…just as his own father said he did when he’d had a chance to properly review the last 911 recording from that night.

Simple incompetence? Ha, no. This prosecution was incompetent with intent. And the intent was, as ever, RACIST.

It’s not too hard to see why this happened the way it did; it fits the general pattern of George Zimmerman’s life. He got off on three previous criminal charges. His daddy’s a white man, and a judge. Trayvon was black, and his daddy has no powerful connections. These things all add up.

And the system in Florida is profoundly racist; thousands of disenfranchised black and Latino voters can attest to that.

So, what can we see from this picture? That if you’re a black teenager, and you’re out at night wearing a hoodie to protect you from the rain while you go to buy snacks, it doesn’t matter that you’re not doing anything wrong. Any racist prick can legally claim he was defending himself when he chases after you, throws you to the ground, pummels you, and then shoots you dead. Premeditation? Malice aforethought? Don’t worry, black kid. The state will find a way to pin all that on YOU. They won’t fight on your behalf. The murderer will kill you, his defence team will assassinate your character, and the state of Florida will let them all get away with it.

This is what first-degree murder looks like in Florida. Not a pretty picture, is it?

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Posted in Isn't That Illegal?, Isn't That Racist?, Law-Law Land, The "Well, DUH!" Files, The United States of Amnesia | 13 Comments

Music for a Sunday: Some songs for Trayvon

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid…

Paranoia strikes deep…

You came out of the gloom, you pulled a trigger…

Blood on the leaves, blood at the root…

Far too many of you dying…

Under this system…in this society…

Blow your harmonica, son…

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Wankers of the Week: Ho Lee Fuk and the Tampons of Terror

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Crappy weekend, everyone! Jeez, my header sounds like a bent Harry Potter novel. Well, how about that great seething pool of insanity to the south of us, kiddies? It really outdid itself this week, spewing up everything from murder trials gone haywire to…well, pieces of cotton on strings. And here’s what else came belching up out of the toilet at me this week, in no particular order:

1. Rick Fucking Perry. This was Crotch’s week for wankin’, and by dang, he up and made the most of it, since he’s now retiring and means to go out with a bang. And who but the biggest dick-wrangler in Texas (with the least impressive dick to wrangle) would come up with a way of trying to spin an insult as a “compliment”? If he thinks Wendy Davis should be proud that her mother didn’t abort her, then I’m gonna go right ahead and say that he should be ashamed that his daddy didn’t whack off in the shower on the night HE was conceived. Compliment, Crotch! PS: And don’t forget to make room for Wendy. Ha, ha. PPS: And fuck your profiteering sister, too.

2. Tucker Fucking Carlson. Riddle me this: How do high student loan interest rates do anything about joblessness? Obvious answer: THEY DON’T. The same bankers who are overcharging for student loans are also making a killing, directly and indirectly, on keeping as many people out of work as possible. And look! There’s that ol’ 47% canard that sunk Mittens and his presidential campaign, too. How much did Bowtie Boy pay for HIS education, again? Whatever it is, it was too much. He’s still dumb as a fucking brick.

3. John Fucking Inverdale. Usually I ignore tennis (as I do most sports, most of the time). But it was kind of hard to ignore this blatant bit of sexist lookism. Since when does a Wimbledon champ have to be model-pretty? She’s not hitting the ball with her face — or this assclown’s boner — is she? And that makes me wonder: Do female sports commentators spend so much time dissecting the looks of the guys? If they do, I’ve never heard it.

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4. Pat Fucking Robertson. So, Patwa thinks Facebook needs a “vomit” button for pictures of gay guys kissing? I think it needs one for stories about him wanking. Like this one, for instance. Or this one.

5. Charles Fucking Saatchi. First he assaults his wife publicly in a restaurant, at one point grabbing her by the throat. Now he’s divorcing her. Why? Because she didn’t stand loyally by and cover for him like she was supposed to, and back up his claim that it was just a “playful tiff”. Sure, and all “playful tiffs” end up with tears and terror in the eyes of those whose throats get oh-so-playfully grabbed, eh? Nigella, you’re well rid of him.

6. Luke Fucking Pruitt. Not only is he a dog-molester, but he nearly became a child molester, as well. Luckily, his girlfriend (the mother of the four-month-old in question) refused to let him do that. Let’s hope he’s denied visitation rights when he gets out of prison…that is, assuming he gets out alive. As one of my friends noted when I posted this to Facebook, he has all the makings of a prison bitch.

7. Kenneth Fucking Webster Fucking Enlow. Why the double Fucking? Because this dude’s a double shithead. In the literal sense, since he was down a toilet peeping at women when they came to use the john (and he was covered in shit when arrested); and in the figurative sense, for thinking anyone would buy the excuse that his girlfriend was really to blame. Oh sure, like she MADE him a filthy, disgusting voyeur by hitting him on the head with a tire iron…which, by the way, didn’t actually happen.

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8. Pat Fucking Buchanan. Hate something a Democrat is doing? Compare it to Soviet Russia. Because that’s where everybody immigrated to before it broke up, right?

9. Sarah Fucking Lacy. Sorry, sweetie, but your beloved libertarian “meritocracy” is BULLSHIT. You’re inconvenienced by a transit strike? That’s funny, because nobody seriously gives a shit whether your much-hyped start-up lives or dies, and won’t be inconvenienced by its sudden death (from lack of market interest!) in the least. Especially not public transit workers, who have been unionized and working hard at it since before your entitled ass was born, and who haven’t a hope in hell of falling into the pots of easy money that silly — oh sorry, “innovative” — start-ups just somehow seem to stumble into all the time, whether they actually MERIT the cash or not.

10. Jeffrey Fucking Kuhner. Is that a whiff of mothballs I smell? Must be. How else to explain the idea that there is a homo-sex-you-all agenda, and that it has something to do with that other phantom of the right-wing anxiety closet, Cultural Marxism…a philosophy which doesn’t exist, by the way, since Marxism is an economic philosophy, and I never read a single word of Marx on how LGBT rights is supposed to figure into THAT. Much less sound the death knell of “human nature”, whatever the hell THAT is supposed to mean.

11. Orson Scott Fucking Card. Shorter: Please tolerate my intolerance while I go right on not tolerating you.

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12. Rick Fucking Scott. Is Teh Stoopid a job requirement for all Repugnican governors, or just those of Florida? Because dang, banning all Internet cafés, computers AND cellphones? That takes a special kind of dumbth to do.

13. Boris Fucking Johnson. So, women go to university to find husbands, eh? Well, Haystack, how do you explain the fact that I went twice, got two degrees…and am still single (mostly by choice) after all this time? Oh dear, could it be that some women really DO go looking for an education, and not an MRS degree? Blimey.

14. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. What’s this? A rare moment of truth from the Pigman? Why yes, it is! He actually told a caller to stop listening to FUX Snooze. Unfortunately, his epiphany did not extend as far as himself, and he’s easily as fucked-up as FUX. So, all in all, it’s a self-awareness FAIL. PS: And he backpedals. Another fail! PPS: Oh lalalalala. The Pigman thinks exercise is a “left-wing conspiracy”. Exhibit A: Michelle Obama. Well, at least he’s not calling her “Moochelle”, like a lot of other right-wing assholes who hate strong black women. Probably because to throw that stone would shatter the walls of his own very fragile glass house.

15. Antonio Fucking Luciano. Kiss your mother with that mouth, Tony? Jayzus.

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16. Glenn Fucking Beck. How the hell does one fake a critical health condition, to the point where even emergency physicians are fooled? I don’t know, but I’m sure Biffy Boo-Hoo-Hoo-I’m-Gonna-Go-Blind does.

17. Robert Fucking Gagnon. He thinks that gays are only half male? I can see he’s only a half-wit. Also, the smell of mothballs is strong with this one.

18. Adam Fucking Pollock. Gee, that George Fucking Zimmerman sure has a way of surrounding himself with fascinatingly awful people. This one’s a mixed martial arts instructor, and yet both he and his prize pupil are, as a martial artist friend pointed out in a convo on Facebook this week, massive fucking wimps. What else can you say about someone who’s supposedly proficient in hand-to-hand combat and self-defence techniques, but ultimately reliant on weapons?

19. Ed Fucking Emery. So, if being gay is “more offensive and dangerous than smoking”, why does it not cause air pollution? Or emphysema? Or, in this dude’s case, Teh Stoopid?

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20. Tom Fucking Corbett. Oh look! Women who use the state healthcare system in Pennsylvania are “moochers”, and so, by extension, are their children. But the governor of the state, whose healthcare is entirely paid for out of the public purse? Oh nooooo, not a moocher at ALL!

21. Justin Fucking Bieber. That long, long, too fucking long slide into obscurity continues apace for Stratford’s least popular native son. Pissing in a restaurant kitchen AND dissing Bill Clinton? I would ask what drugs one has to be on, but I think I already know: Narcissism, with a stupidity chaser.

22. Jodie Fucking Laubenberg. Not only does she not know what the real purpose of a rape kit is (NOT to “clean you right out” and prevent unwanted pregnancy), she also doesn’t understand the meaning of prenatal care. Wrap your heads around that if you can, people: She believes “pre-born babies”, i.e. FETUSES, should be forced to birth no matter what, but she doesn’t believe in giving them, or their mothers (who may or may not be willing) any care. At all. Whatsofuckingever. I have to ask: Was she dropped on her head when she was born? Or is her stupidity down to a lack of prenatal care on her own mother’s part?

23. Larry Fucking Klayman. The military coup in Egypt seems to have left Crazy Larry with a boner for illegal régime change. Not in Egypt, mind you, but at home. This is the same freak, BTW, who thought that Chavecito should also be deposed because he led a failed military uprising in 1992. Inconsistent much?

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24 and 25. Kevin Fucking Swanson and Dave Fucking Buehner, AGAIN. If Colorado is really such a fucking hellhole now, why don’t they just move to Iran? There, they’d have all the puritanical theocracy they could possibly want and then some.

26. Dennis Fucking Root. George Fucking Zimmerman is in worse shape than the kid he killed? Somehow, I find that awfully hard to believe. Because, y’know, being dead is about the worst shape a person CAN be in.

27. Sebastián Fucking Piñera. An 11-year-old girl was raped for two years, and is now pregnant. And what does Piñochetera think of that? It’s great! She wants to keep the baby! Rah rah pro-life! Never mind that giving birth could fucking kill her. Never mind that the pregnancy is the product of rape by her common-law stepfather. No, the important thing is that a child who isn’t done playing with dolls yet now gets a living “doll” to play with. She knows nothing about bearing or caring for children, but hey! None of that matters to Piñochetera. And why should it, since Augusto Pinochet’s ideological son will never have to bear responsibility for that child — or HER child — in any way.

28. David Fucking Barton. Hey, let it never be said that the Religious Reich will never progress. This one has progressed to not even needing his religion or its scriptures as an excuse to lie and make shit up. Which is great, because Jesus hates liars and hypocrites anyway.

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29. Matt Fucking Barber. Satan doesn’t exist. How the fucking hell can he be pro-choice? Simple. The same way he exists: only in the feverish imaginations of idiots and assholes.

30. Sandy Fucking Rios. “Promiscuous” men may have indirectly benefited from the abortion rights movement (in that they can get away with sleeping around and not have to stare down a former girlfriend’s daddy’s loaded shotgun anymore), but trust me, honey, they are NOT behind it. A lot of them couldn’t care less whether a woman has an abortion or not, as long as she doesn’t come to them asking for money. You want to know who’s really behind abortion rights? WOMEN…and most of them are also mothers (or will be, someday).

31. Penny Fucking Nance. Blah blah blah ABORTION blah blah blah blah WORSE THAN THE HOLOCAUST blah blah blah yarglebargle flippity flarp.

32. Peter Fucking Ratcliff. Being gay is like smoking? Yeah, right, Mary. Now go outside and let the wind blow that stench of mothballs off you.

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33. Edward Fucking Burkhardt. He just found out the hard way that cost-cutting is no way to go through life (or a little town like Lac-Mégantic). But has he learned anything? Oh HELL no! He hasn’t even learned how to fake compassion convincingly. Meanwhile, the fruits of his cost-cutting, privatize-the-railroads agenda could not be more obvious: 24 people known dead, and as many as 50 dead in all. No tears for them; only lame, lame excuses and endless self-justifications. See what you get for rewarding corporate psychopathy, society?

34. Geraldo Fucking Rivera. Shut up, you fucking racist. Don’t you have a mobster’s vault to break into, or something?

35. Jason Fucking Kenney. Y’know, if you guys are gonna go around bad-mouthing North Korea, the least you could do is open the door for refugees from there. But since you don’t, well, guess what that makes you? PS: This doesn’t help you either. Dissing David Suzuki? You really are an asswipe.

36. Virginia Fucking Heffernan. Ever wonder why I don’t take the phrase “conservative intellectual” as anything but an oxymoron? Wonder no more; just behold the elaborate stoopid in action as she tries to justify creationism, and fails.

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37 and 38. James Fucking Knight and the Fucking Iowa State Supreme Court. She’s too sexy for that job? Too sexy for that job? Goodbye, sexist slob.

39. Steve Fucking Doocy. Forcing Wal-Mart to pay workers a living wage is the “death of free enterprise”? Well, good. Bring it, bitch. Also, Costco is eating War-Mart’s lunch…by NOT forcing their workers to rely on food stamps. How do you like THEM apples?

40. Mark Fucking O’Mara. Still going with the “thug” bullshit angle in the Trayvon Martin murder trial, I see. He’s really relying on fear of tall skinny black boys here, isn’t he?

41. Tom Fucking Barry. I’m shocked that the Irish parliament has an open bar on the premises. And that working drunk as a skunk and pulling female colleagues down for an impromptu lap-dance during a debate on abortion is somehow normal there, apparently.

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42. Ted Fucking Nugent. Not only is he “mulling” a run for president (no doubt from the safety of his own poop-stained pants), he’s also a racist who thinks brown people are “feral hogs” in need of “gunning down”. A taste of his own medicine would be nothing less than fitting at this point.

43. George Fucking Simpson. No, the Lincoln Tunnel is NOT a good place to whack off in full sight of a busload of passengers. Didn’t all the sounds of disgust from behind your ass tell you as much?

44. Karen Fucking Straughan. Well, well…what have we here? Rape apologia, “cleverly” disguised as a “Men’s Rights” campaign that crudely parodies a very effective anti-rape campaign. And they even put a woman out front, to make it look like this is somehow all about “fairness”! (Note all the quotes; there for a reason.) Hey, girl…how does it feel to be the skirt that a bunch of cowardly guys are hiding behind so that no one can confront them and challenge their rapey shit? How does it feel to know you’re wasting valuable energy defending violent criminals? Well, don’t worry, dear…it’s just a matter of time before they turn on you like they did on Kristina Hansen. They don’t like women, and that means they don’t like YOU.

45 and 46. Paul Fucking Elam and John Fucking Hembling. Same link as their minion, #44. Don’t believe for one minute that we don’t know who (or WHAT) is really behind this widdle “awareness” campaign of yours, fellas. And I do hope you enjoy being sued by SAVE for copyright infringement, and SOON.

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47. Erick Fucking Erickson. Well, at least this dim fuckbulb is just bright enough to acknowledge that the criminalization of abortion will lead to criminal use of wire coathangers. Perhaps he’ll get lucky and someone will do a bit of amateur proctology on him using one, so he knows just what THAT feels like. (Or, as one of my friends suggested: amateur urology. I’ll leave the details of THAT to your imagination, dear reader.)

48 and 49. The two fucking Popes. In stereo, they inform us that same-sex marriage is immoral. And in stereo, we straight and queer folk together are singing this lovely little ditty, just for them.

50. Rick Fucking Santorum. Some say love, it is a river. Some say love, it is a razor. Icky Ricky says love, it is a movement. Of his buttsploodge-filled bowels? You fucking betcha.

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And finally, to the Fucking Texas Legislature. With, of course, the notable exceptions of Wendy Davis, Leticia Van De Putte, and all the women Democrats, who did their best to stop the anti-choice insanity. It got so bad that women couldn’t even bring menstrual supplies into the state capitol for “fear” that the dimwits down on the floor would be pelted with pads and ‘pons from the Peanut Gallery. Come to think of it…I wish they were! What a bunch of wusses, scared of some soft padded things that usually only see the nether regions of a lady, and which, in any event, can’t kill…unlike, oh, say, guns and ammo, both of which ARE allowed on the premises. Prepare to dine in hell, fellas, the women are coming for your asses. The only thing left for you to do now is ban women. (Don’t take that as a suggestion, it will NOT go well for you.)

Good night, and get fucked!

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Festive Left Friday Blogging: Maduro heads Mercosur!

Give that man a gavel. Chavecito would be smiling if he could see this:

During a pause in the Mercosur summit, Uruguayan president Pepe Mujica said: “It’s time for the gavel”, and thereupon he rose with the symbolic tool to hand the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur to Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

Thus, the Venezuelan president received the presidency of the Common Market of the South this afternoon. “I commit to continuing to follow the path of fortifying Mercosur and expanding its work capacity,” Maduro said.

“With the left hand of Chávez and the spirit of Bolívar,” said Maduro, upon taking the symbolic gavel in his hand, which marks him as president of the international organism.

“We wish to thank President Mujica for conducting this double workday which we have had today, and from this moment, the presidency of Venezuela in Mercosur begins, which is a historic occasion thanks to the work of Comandante Hugo Chávez and his Bolivarian, Latin American, historic vision,” Maduro said.

“We intend to follow the way of political, economic, commercial, diplomatic and social integration, growing stronger and more united every time,” he added.

[…]

After six years of waiting, Venezuela was accepted as a full member of Mercosur in 2012, at the summit in the Argentine city of Mendoza, and today, for the first time, assumes the presidency of the bloc, which is composed of Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay, the last suspended until August 15, when its new government takes office.

Translation mine.

So, the worst fears of Washington, Wall St. and the IMF and World Bank are coming true: Venezuela now heads Mercosur for a year. And the president of the bloc is Chavecito’s successor. The only thing that could make more of their heads explode is if it were the big handsome Comandante himself.

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For Charles Koch, freedom is slavery

Really. What else can one conclude, after seeing this?

So, let’s break it down here: If you’re making barely enough to survive in the United States of Amnesia, and you’re in debt up to your eyeballs, and in constant danger of losing it all to the whims of some coked-up banker or Wall St. broker — Charles Fucking Koch thinks you should count yourself lucky to be a global 1%er. Be thankful you’re not a slave laborer in Rana Plaza, Bangladesh, in other words. Be thankful you’re not one of eleven hundred workers killed when an illegally built sweatshop complex collapsed on their heads, eclipsing the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that basically sparked the entire workplace-safety movement in the US. Be thankful that you’re not living on the street, fighting off rats at night and bathing in raw sewage. Be thankful, in other words, that you’re not the poor soul who’s sewing those cheap, shoddy clothes you bought at Wal-Mart, or the Gap, or Old Navy, or wherever the hell you bought them. And where you will go on buying them because they are so poorly made that they look old and crappy after less than one year’s wear. And because quality costs, and you can’t really afford it, can you? Gee, for such a rich global 1%er, you sure are poor.

And Charles Fucking Koch, a billionaire 43 times over, wants you to forget all about that, and vote for politicians he can easily buy outright, so as to do away with the pesky, “job-killing” minimum wage and send even more of your hard-earned dollars flying into his own already overstuffed pockets, and to send you (and your children) into sweatshops right in your own neighborhood. Isn’t that lovely of him?

In fact, he spent $200,000 on this ad campaign alone. That’s nearly six times the “average” yearly income that he would have you believe puts you in the global 1%. And, to him, that amount is obviously chickenfeed.

Feel rich yet, serfs? Feel free yet, slaves?

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Posted in Economics for Dummies, Filthy Stinking Rich, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, The United States of Amnesia | 1 Comment

Why Evo?

evo-morales-indio

Further to my post from the other day, it seems that I’m not the only one who’s picked up on the not-so-subtle racism of the European countries who denied Evo’s plane the right to pass through their airspace. Venezuelan TV journalist Miguel Angel Pérez Pirela has also noticed it. Here are his thoughts on the matter:

Colonialism has long arms. It has been able to perpetuate itself for centuries.

I have to believe that 200 years ago, the Europeans did not accept the colossal defeats which the Haitians handed to the French, or the Bolivians and Venezuelans to the Spanish.

No doubt about it, gringo pressure played a fundamental role in the humiliation which they tried to foist on Evo Morales. But the Europeans would never have thought of this, had it not been about the first indigenous president from our continent.

That Evo Morales governs Bolivia is a slap in the face to the “good morale” of the north.

So we find ourselves confronted with an act of unprecedented racism. Racism which also contravenes international laws which those same Europeans use as an excuse to bomb villages.

Placing a South American president in danger of death in such a grotesque and shameless fashion evokes for us the massacres, violations and humiliations of every kind that European colonialism has subjected us to in our Latin America.

So, what should we do?

Right now, recognize the importance of the processes of our Latin American union and don’t forget that the only possibility we blacks, Indians, mulattos and whites of the southern world have for not returning to colonial times is to unite in the face of the Europeans who “think well” and act badly.

The UNASUR emergency meeting served to make Europe understand that if its integration via the European Union is economic, ours is ethical and political. Without any desire to be chauvinistic, but to affirm, without any room for doubt, that now, in South America, whoever messes with one of us, messes with us all.

If Evo Morales is the pebble in the shoe of European colonialism, then let us go on throwing stones at the “illuminated” and hypocritical windows of the north. As Mario Benedetti said: The South also exists. So let them pick up their broken glass panes.

Translation mine.

It’s a funny thing, is it not? Nicolás Maduro was in Russia at the same time as Evo, and at the same conference of gas-exporting countries. He has made clear his intention to shelter Edward Snowden if the latter should happen to request asylum in Venezuela (and he has). If anyone’s plane should have been stopped with demands for a search, it would have been Maduro’s. Yet four European countries denied Evo the right to pass overhead, and one — Austria — forced him to land, at the behest of the US ambassador to that country.

Since I keep hearing that Evo’s life was in danger, I gather that a shoot-down threat was uttered at some point, forcing a landing that would otherwise not have taken place. There was no search of the plane; that would have required a judge’s permission, and since the US is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, it had no right even to request the landing of Evo’s plane! So this incident is a pretty flagrant violation of international law, and Evo has that much on his side should he decide to sue. (I hope he does.)

So why, then, this brazen international crime? Why Evo and not Maduro?

It’s as obvious as the color of their respective skins. Maduro is white; Evo, brown. Maduro is of Spanish-Jewish extraction; Evo, Aymara. The one has roots in Europe; the other, the Bolivian Altiplano. This incident is, as Pérez Pirela makes clear, profoundly racist. Just as is the ongoing punishment, 200 years later, of Haiti’s successful slave revolts.

Of course, nowadays, no one in Europe or the US has the temerity to suggest that these little countries of Latin America and the Caribbean be re-enslaved outright, or their indigenous populations massacred without pity. That would never go over with any of their respective populaces, who have fought hard to expunge the stain of racism from their own hands. So now, it has to be done in an “enlightened” manner, with “aid to developing countries” that magically blossoms into unsustainable debts to the IMF and the World Bank, or a permanent foreign military presence that does nothing to make peace in that “ungovernable” land (which has been deliberately rendered so through coups against elected, popular leaders), never mind keep it. Or, if that avenue has been rejected (as is the case in Venezuela, and even more emphatically so in Bolivia), the knives come out in other, sneakier, quasi-legalistic ways. Like forcing a diplomatic incident over “confirmed information” that is nothing of the sort, say. Something shocking, distressing, humiliating — a direct affront to no less than the president of the land. Something that says, implicitly: You might be a popular, elected leader among your own people, but to us, you’re just a shitty Injun. And we will bat your plane around between our paws like a catnip mouse toy.

That such an incident — a diplomatic reiteration of the Shock Doctrine — will have unpleasant, unexpected repercussions for the “enlightened” racists who perpetrated it, may have been unthinkable to the perpetrators just a decade ago, but it’s inevitable now. Because now, the countries of South America are pulling together, as a political bloc. An injustice to one president is, as we have seen from the indignant responses of Rafael Correa, Cristina Fernández and others, an affront to them all. And the backlash, when it comes, will be dramatic. The US is about to find out, in the hardest possible way, that the region is out of its control, and that any efforts to reassert control will meet with more pushback than they can handle. Because when a region has 500 years of colonialist indignity behind it, the force of all that pent-up rage is greater than any neocolonialist could ever imagine.

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Posted in All About Evo, Don't Cry For Argentina, Ecuadorable As Can Be, EuroPeons, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Isn't That Racist?, Karma 1, Dogma 0, Spooks, Teh Injunz, The "Well, DUH!" Files, The United States of Amnesia | 1 Comment

Compare and Contrast: Dissident vs. “dissident”

snowden-vs-yoani

“Both denounced their country. Guess which one can go home?

“Edward Snowden: Forced to seek exile in various countries for denouncing crimes of espionage committed by the US (his country).

“Yoani Sánchez: Travels all over the world ‘denouncing’ Cuba. Comes and goes as she pleases.

” ‘When we have eliminated the Communist threat, the normal order of things will return.’ — Adolf Hitler”

I should also add that this picture is spy vs. spy…or rather, former spy vs. current one. Yoani Sánchez works for the CIA.

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Posted in Compare and Contrast, Confessions of a Bad German, Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), Spooks, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off on Compare and Contrast: Dissident vs. “dissident”