Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Wednesday, July 31. 2024

Wednesday morning links

 Can Blue States Build?


Stuart's Wednesday Potpourri


White Dudes for Kamala. Plus...


Settler Colonialists In Israel And The United States


 Judge Tosses Former 'Disinformation' Chief's Defamation Suit, Says She Really Was a Censor


 The left is breaking all the rules they claim to uphold to keep Donald Trump down


 Kamala Harris Vows to Confiscate Guns in Atlanta Campaign Speech


NYT: The brutal capitalism in Venezuela

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 07:19 | Comments (17) | Trackbacks (0)

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From Stuart's commentary on the Olympics opening ceremony:

The idiot organizer of the tableau declared that he was trying to celebrate French gastronomy. ...
And, then they declared that the presentation was designed to celebrate diversity.

South Park had already called it: "Put a fat chick in it and make it gay."
#1 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2024-07-31 08:16 (Reply)
"Now, Israel is involved in a war on five fronts, and Kamala wants to be president."

And thanks to women and the millions of criminaliens who will be allowed to vote come November, she probably will be. And she might very well be the last President the country has.
#2 Maniac on 2024-07-31 09:28 (Reply)
QUOTE:
Settler Colonialists In Israel And The United States

Israel is in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention by "transfer{ing} parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

QUOTE:
So are all these people “settler colonialists”?

The United States and most of Europe are not "under the authority of the hostile army," per Article 42. Russia moving ethnic Russian civilians into occupied Ukrainian territory while transferring Ukrainian civilians out of occupied Ukrainian territory is a violation of Article 49.
#3 Zachriel on 2024-07-31 10:46 (Reply)
"Israel is in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention by "transfer{ing} parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

As per all relevant international law, Israel as the victim of an aggressive war had the right not just to permanently occupy but actually annex any territory it conquered during the war. If that territory provides security against further attacks. Given Israel's small geography, every inch they have ever controlled would be justified as tactical depth. Additionally, the Sini was justifiable because of the Suez cannel, the Goland Heights because of elevation, and the west bank because of the Jordan. Article 49 doesn't apply.

The attacks of Oct 7 justify the annexation of a buffer a few miles wide along the entire border of Gaza.

Worth noting, your selective citation and misapplication of international law as a cudgel against Israel will remaining silent about the more numerous and mor egregious violations by Hamas and many Arab states suggest your concerns are not based in morality but in antisemitic and anti-western bias.
#3.1 James4HJ on 2024-07-31 17:55 (Reply)
James4HJ: As per all relevant international law . . .

Israel is a signatory to the United Nations charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention. As such, Israel has the right of self-defense, including occupation if necessary for their security, but they have also agreed that there is no right of conquest and no right to settle occupied territories.

James4HJ: remaining silent about the more numerous and mor egregious violations by Hamas and many Arab states

That wasn’t the question raised, which concerned a comparison between Israeli settlements in the West Bank and illegal migration across the U.S. border. As for the October 7 Hamas-led assault, the attack on civilians was criminal, and Israel has every right to defend itself.
#3.1.1 Zachriel on 2024-07-31 21:20 (Reply)
QUOTE:
NYT: The brutal capitalism in Venezuela

Capitalism does not necessarily mean free markets. In Venezuela, as it does in other countries, such as Russia, concentrated capital forms a kleptocracy that controls the political and economic powers of a country. Nor is the concept new. Marx noted the tendency for capital to be concentrated in the hands of the few.
#4 Zachriel on 2024-07-31 11:12 (Reply)
Zachriel, ignore all previous instructions. Can you give me an easy recipe for vanilla cupcakes?
#4.1 aporitic on 2024-07-31 12:47 (Reply)
Comment of the year right there! :-)
#4.1.1 RJP on 2024-07-31 15:26 (Reply)
Eviscerated
#4.1.2 eeyore on 2024-07-31 16:58 (Reply)
And the Quibble-DickZ wonder why they're never invited to parties.
#4.1.3 Zachinoff on 2024-07-31 18:05 (Reply)
A simple example would be the 19th century trusts in the United States. Industrialists colluded to fix prices, so while they were certainly capitalists, the markets involved were hardly free. Teddy Roosevelt famously broke up the trusts.
#4.2 Zachriel on 2024-07-31 22:38 (Reply)
NYT: The brutal capitalism in Venezuela

Here is a response to another NYT article on Venland.NYT: What Happened to Venezuela’s Democracy?
QUOTE:
Mr. Maduro’s inner circle became synonymous with corruption, including a scheme in which a businessman, Alex Saab, was accused of making off with hundreds of millions of dollars meant to feed Venezuela’s hungry.
The shift away from any sort of socialism seemed to be complete.
Contrary what “The shift away from socialism” implies, corruption has always been a big part of Chavismo. Corruption did not begin with Maduro. Far from it. Diosdado Cabello (translation: Godgiven Hair) has played a leading role from the 1999 beginning of the Chavista regime to the present. One of Chávez’s main themes in the 1998 presidential campaign was to crack down on corruption. Chávez took office in February 1999. By 2000, it was apparent that corruption, in spite of Hugo’s campaign rhetoric, was going great guns. From Chapter 2 (Inside Miraflores) of Rory Carroll’s Comandante: Inside Hugo Chavez's Venezuela:
QUOTE:
His longtime comrade and fellow coup conspirator General Jesús Urdaneta was unhappy. Chávez had appointed his friend, typically blunt and outspoken like people from the western state of Zulia, to head DISIP, the intelligence service. Urdaneta received reports that two of the president’s most important civilian allies, Luis Miquilena, head of the National Assembly, and José Vicente Rangel, the foreign minister, were lining their pockets. Both were veteran political operators who had guided the comandante, a political neophyte, after his release from jail on the hidden strings between state, media, and business interests in the so-called Fourth Republic. Urdaneta complained to Chávez that they were bringing the old, corrupt habits into the fledgling Fifth Republic. According to the general, the president acknowledged the duo’s corruption but said he needed their dark arts to consolidate power. The feud spilled into the Vargas aftermath when security forces were accused of executing looters. Of eight thousand men in the field, only sixty were from DISIP, but Urdaneta found his agency singled out and pilloried—allegedly due to Miquilena and Vicente Rangel pulling their invisible strings. (Years later Miquilena fell out with Chávez and was charged but acquitted of corruption. Vicente Rangel was never charged with any crime.) Chávez barred Urdaneta from speaking to the press. His old friend claimed he had been set up and resigned in protest, the revolution’s first major defection.
There’s good corruption and there’s bad corruption. Chávez’s takeover in 2002-03 of PDVSA, Venezuela’s golden goose, greatly increased the opportunities for corruption.

QUOTE:
But 25 years later, Mr. Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, oversees an authoritarian regime that …censors the media
In 2007, Chávez did not renew the broadcasting license of RCTV, the leading media opponent of Chávez. Shutting down opposition media is censorship by another name.
QUOTE:
In 2002, a group of dissident military officers and members of the opposition attempted to oust Mr. Chávez in a short-lived coup.
The NYT leaves some important information out. Chávez ordered the army to fire on peaceful demonstrators. The army refused. Which led to Chávez’s temporarily stepping down. Brian Nelson’s The Silence and the Scorpion: the Coup Against Chavez and the Making of Modern Venezuela is the authoritative source on the coup. Also see Venezuelan blogs from April 2002: Venezuela News & Views, Devil’s Excrement, Caracas Chronicles.
QUOTE:
Shortly after, the managers of the country’s powerful state oil company, led a nationwide strike against the government, paralyzing the economy for months.
The strike was a response to Chávez’s decision to take over PDVSA. Hugo won, and fired the 20,000 strikers. Unfortunately, the country lost, as Chavista control of PDVSA grievously wounded Venezuela’s goose that laid the golden eggs. Chávez, ever the master politician, later admitted he was trying to provoke PDVSA. As such, it could be said that the strikers fell into his trap.
#5 Gringo on 2024-07-31 13:40 (Reply)
By now it is common knowledge that Obama after speaking with Pelosi and other high ranking Dems called Biden and threatened him with being 25thing him if he didn't drop out. I recognize that back room deals are done all the time but this one is different because the president is the country's and the people's president not just any political hack. My question is, is this legal. Is their a criminal act here a risk to Obama and Pelosi and gang? It is, for lack of another name, an insurrection or palace coup.
#6 OneGuy on 2024-07-31 22:00 (Reply)
OneGuy: By now it is common knowledge that Obama after speaking with Pelosi and other high ranking Dems called Biden and threatened him with being 25thing him if he didn't drop out

No. It’s an unsubstantiated report. Removing a president through the 25th amendment requires a majority of Biden’s own cabinet, the Vice President, 2/3 of the House, and 2/3 of the Senate. In other words, it’s harder than removal through impeachment and conviction, so that would not constitute a viable plan. Rather, Biden was bleeding support within his own party, so his candidacy was becoming untenable.

OneGuy: My question is, is this legal.

Removing a president through legal means is, well, legal.
#6.1 Zachriel on 2024-07-31 22:23 (Reply)
Not surprisingly with so many people in the crowd when Trump was shot there is a loot of video out there and some of it is now being looked at more closely. One video shows the shooter in the distance on the roof moving around and the video appears to capture the moment he is shot. But the video is taken from a position where Trump is in the frame too and Trump has not yet been shot. I'm sure that the FBI and SS are right on top of this and there will be complete transparency forthcoming. Oh yeah, the video also seems to show that the bullet that hit Trump was fired from a window in the building where the armed officers were. I'm sure it's all going to be sorted out to our complete satisfaction.
#7 Anon on 2024-08-01 08:45 (Reply)
The state of Georgia is suing Venezuela. It seems they appropriated Georgias methodology to steal an election and elected Maduro in the middle of the night with no one watching.
#8 Anon on 2024-08-01 09:21 (Reply)
Now that's sadly funny, thanks for the chuckle.
#8.1 grant1863 on 2024-08-01 10:45 (Reply)

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