The French Will Elect Their President on Sunday -- Will It Be Le Pen or Macron

On Sunday, French citizens will vote in the second and deciding round of their presidential election. • • • THE DEBATE. On Wednesday evening, the two candidates -- Marine Le Pen of the Front National and Emmanuel Macron of his specially-created En Marche! party -- teed off face-to-face in the only debate of the two finalist who survived the first round of voting on April 23. The debate was 2 1/2 hours of what the French media described as 'knives out" attacks. IT started with the opening statements, with interference from the other candidate, and at one point led to both the two moderators and the two candidates all talking at the same time -- a spectacle I have never before seen. • One of the big issues in this election is who is going to help the small businesses and farmers of France, and who is going to be looking out primarily for big businesses and banks. Since Macron is a banker, having made a lot of money at Rothschild, he is particularly sensitive to the accusation that he favors big business. On the first day of the campaign for the second round, Le Pen caught him out at a Whirlpool factory that is struggling -- she talked to the workers while he was closeted with the management. She has made much of this difference. So, Marine Le Pen began the debate by asking Macron : "Why didn't you help President Hollande with your great ideas -- you were given carte blanche to put your ideas in place under him but the only thing you did was help big business." • Another issue is retirement age. France uses a number-of-years-worked system that has been traditionally set at 40 years, meaning that many French retire at 60. On this issue, Marine Le Pen said she wants to keep the retirement age at 60 after 40 years of paying into the national retirement fund, equivalent to the US Social Security system. Emmanuel Macron responded that this would cost 30 billion Euros (money that France doesn't have), so he proposes a higher retirement age without reference to years worked. This is also a major concern of the French and its powerful labor unions, who are determined to keep their retirement at 60. • The question of France's role in the European Union is a major concern for many French and one of Marine Le Pen's key positions is that she wants a national referendum on whether to stay or leave the EU, and whether to keep the Euro or return to the French Franc. For Le Pen it is a question of national sovereignty, and she sees the future of the EU as a "European alliance of free and sovereign nations." With this vision of Europe, Le Pen sees a better opportunity for France to develop its own industries and small businesses under what she calls "economic patriotism." In this, Le Pen distinguishes Europe from the EU. She says she is "European" but wants to "save Europe from the claws of the European Union." In the debate, she accused Macron of representing a France that is "subservient to the EU." She drove home her point by saying : "France will be governed by a woman, either by me or by Mrs. Merkel." That hit a nerve with Macron because many French feel that France is being dragged along by politicians who favor the German economic 'model' and German hegemony over Europe. Le Pen says that the German economic model does not fit France or many other European countries and its imposition holds them down, as does the Euro, in her opinion, because both are tailored to the German advanced industrial economy and not to the mixed industrial-entrepreneurial-agricultural ecomonies of other European nations. • Another big issue in this election is the sense of most French people that they are not safe in their homes and on the streets. Marine Le Pen is adament that the fundamental reason for the lack of security in France is the country's open door to too many immigrants, some of whom are islamic terrorists. She says she would immediately expel all immigrants who are under police surveillance because of their islamic radicalization. She wants to create 40 000 supplementary prison places for French citizens who are radicalized, and to create bilateral agreements with other countries to repatriate radicalized terrorist immigrants who are now in France. She also wants a unified umbrella French security force that would better coordinate the effort to eradicate islamic terrorism. Macron's answer to these positions is to say he believes that "France is a generous, open country of light and not shut off from the world. In effect, Macron is a globalist European -- he prefers the "ever closer union" vision of the EU elites and thinks life without the Euro currency would be a 'disaster.' To accomplish this, he seems willing to sacrifice the unique culture of France and every other European country for "closer union." • • • WHO WILL WIN? If the polls are even close to being right, Macron will take abot 60% of the vote on Sunday, against about 38% for Le Pen. The BIG unknown is who will vote. The Socialists are urging everone to vote Macron in order to prevent a Le Pen victory that they see as catastrophic. But, the Socialist candidate got only 6.1% of the vote in the first round, largely because Socialist President Hollande has an approval rating of about 5% -- the French see his term as having produced poverty, job destruction, and unending islamic terrorist worries and attacks. That's why Le Pen ties Macron to Hollande, and she is right. It feels a lot like Macron tried out his ideas as Hollande's economic minister; the ideas failed, so he left the party to try again as a 'non-Socialist' Socialist. The extreme leftist Melenchon, who finished 4th in the first round, is telling his supporters to vote Macron, but 40% of them say they will either abstain or vote Le Pen as a protest vote. The Gaullists are the most troubled voter bloc. Les Républicains, their latest party name, have historically bitterly opposed Le Pen -- the father Jean-Marie. Now, his daughter seems to be closest to their positions on most issues, except for leaving the EU, but they are telling their supporters to abstain -- vote neither for Le Pen nor for Macron. Where does that leave us? In a quandary. • • • DEAR READERS, I spent more time on explaining Marine Le Pen's positions because you will recognize a certain "Trumpism" in them. She is clearly in the "populist" camp in Europe -- populist being seen in Europe as a pejorative label that indicates refusal to recognize the "future" of Europe. While most professional politicians and analysts are calling the election for Macron, there are some encouraging signs for Le Pen. For example, while Macron came in first in the first round of voting, there was only about 2% between him and Le Pen. She carried 18,885 communes against 7,775 for Macron. The problem for her is that Macron carried more of the big cities -- Paris and Lyon and Bordeaux -- while she took Marseille and Lille. So, since there is no electoral college in France as in the US, he has a popular vote advantage even though he carried fewer communes. Looking at Departments -- equivalent to states in the US -- Le Pen carried 49 departments vs Macron's 34, but the problem is the same as above. • Looking at voter sentiment, Le Pen got votes from the French she calls the Forgotten French, who aren't "racist" as Macron and others charge -- they simply want to be heard and have their issues addressed -- issues related to joblessness, very high taxes, wage stagnation, immigration that they do not want and cannot afford, and kowtowing to Germany in an EU that they feel is overwhelmingly against them and their way of life. That sounds a lot like Trump supporters. • Marine Le Pen's second round problem is that the parties that lost are telling their followers to vote for Macron or abstain. Le Pen has almost no allies in other parties. BUT, the question remains whether many of the 19% who voted for Melenchon will bolt to Le Pen, because Melenchon is an outsider like her who called for the 'everyday' French to be in charge of the country. Could that translate into a Le Pen victory? The polls say 'no' but at least one poll suggests that if the abstentions are large anough, there could be a near split bewteen Macron and Le Pen at around 28% each. Whoever wins under such a scenario would have no mandate to govern, and France will be in even worse straits than it is now. • I think the real, the only, question is whether Marine Le Pen can overcome her father's image as a racist Nazi sympathizer. She has waged a serious campaign to separate herself from him and his image, but will it be enough? If her name were not Le Pen, she would be ahead of Macron, who is a hollow puppet pumped up with ideas and sent out to sell them without any evidence of real conviction. He is called "Baby Hollande." But, unless there is an enormous silent majorty in France who will vote Le Pen, there is little chance she can win on Sunday. The good news is that Marine Le Pen, who is only 48, has legitimized the Front National. She is already being called the "opposition." And, many French political professionals see her and the FN as winning the presidency in the future, perhaps as early as 2022, after they have been around long enough to solidly prove their good intentions.

Hillary Lost the Election and the Progressive Democrats Lost America -- Neither Will Admit It

Let's troll through the Wednesday news for the most worrisome stories. • • • HILLARY SAYS "WASN'T ME." Some news never changes -- for example, Hillary Clinton NEVER admits that she is to balme. Secret unsecured server -- Wasn't Me. Mishandling classified documents -- Wasn't Me. Lying to Congress -- Wasn't Me. Sleeping while Benghazi burned -- Wasn't Me. Selling Libyan weapons to islamic terrorists -- Wasn't Me. Selling her State Department office in Play-for-Play -- Wasn't Me. Insider trading -- Wasn't Me. Vince Foster --Wasn't Me. AND, Losing the election Wasn't Me. • Our Girl Hillary just told CNN's Christiane Amanpour : “I was on the way to winning before Jim Comey’s letter and ‘Russian’ Wikileaks...scared off late voters.” Poor Hillary. She just cannot tell the truth or come to terms with the fact that Americans simply do not trust or like her, and they would never ever have elected her President. So, Hillary -- FBI Director Comey may be an unlikeable individual, and Wikileaks may be leaking US government secrets occasionally -- but that is not why you lost. You lost because Americans saw through your family scam that ran roughshod over every lay that stood in the way of your making money out of your public office. Just say it -- many of your actions were under investigation for potential criminal intent, regardless of how Comey chose to characterize them, and Wikileaks published ‘proof’ of what Americans already knew, that your multiple mis-dealings and relationships made you unfit for the Office of the Presidency. • Actually, the Democrats are on to the practical explanation for why you lost -- you didn't get as many votes as Donald Trump did because your Democrat base didn't turn out while Trump's did. Simple, isn't it? Just say it, Hillary. • • • THE DEMOCRATS ARE SINKING. And, a lot of it has to do with their blind lemming following of Hillary Clinton down to defeat in 2016. The Clinton stranglehold on the ProgDems has been broken, but it took the thumping defeat last November to kill off the Clinton family scam. As Zero Hedge put it : "Ironically, while offering up the most ridiculous explanation possible for the outcome of the 2016 election, undoubtedly in an effort to erase all blame from Hillary herself (it wasn’t Hillary’s fault, her team just didn’t turn out the voters...they failed her), one strategist noted it’s important to “learn the right lesson from 2016” and not just the one “that makes us feel good at night." And as The Washington Post’s most recent poll shows, 67% of Americans think the Democrats are out of touch -- including nearly half of Democrats themselves. Consider that last point -- the Democratic Party is viewed as far more out of touch by Democrats than Trump or the GOP are by Republicans. Even the media Progressive Democrat lapdogs understand the problem. Journalists fired back Tuesday at Hillary Clinton after she blamed the media for not pressing Trump enough on policy details. Clinton made the comments at a Women for Women luncheon in New York City during her discussion with Amanpour. Journalists tweeted their disagreement. Mark Murray tweeted : "Come on -- that was Lester Holt's first question in the very first debate." Glenn Thrush tweeted : "Hillary takeaways 1) Loathes Trump 2) blames Comey/Putin 3) the 'real' Hillary-funny, hard-edged, unguarded 4) blames everyone but self." Chris Cillizza tweeted : "Hillary attacking the media is totally misguided: We asked Trump for specifics on his plans over and over again." • Mrs. Clinotn, here is a piece of advice -- go home, write your book, cry in your beer - oops, champagne, count your ill-gotten millions, and never show you face again in any election, because you will lose. Got it?? • • • AND HILLARY ISN'T THE ONLY PROBLEM DEMOCRATS HAVE. • • • ILLEGAL UNMASKING OF AMERICANS. Newsmax and AP reported Wednesday that an intelligence report issued Tuesday shows that "government officials requested to know the identities of more than 1,900 Americans whose information was swept up in National Security Agency surveillance programs last year." The identities of US citizens and legal permanent residents were found in 3,914 intelligence reports the NSA distributed last year, according to the annual report, whose finding comes just weeks after President Trump accused former President Obama's national security advisor of possibly committing a crime when she asked government analysts to disclose the names of Trump associates documented in intelligence reports. The AP said that most names in such intelligence reports "are masked to protect privacy, but last year government officials requested that 1,934 identities -- not initially revealed in the NSA reports -- be unmasked in order to understand the intelligence being conveyed. In 2015, government officials requested the unmasking of 2,232 identities." • Got that tidbit?? After lying to Congress for years, the Obama White House has finally been called out for illegally sweeping up and unmasking Americans' emails and calls under warrantless government surveillance programs created to collect information on foreign intelligence targets. After former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing extensive government surveillance, Congress passed a law that ended bulk collection. But communications companies collect the data -- the report showed that even under the new law, the NSA still collected more than 151 million records about Americans' phone calls in 2016 -- and the NSA still can access it for national security purposes, which is what the Obama White House did. Obama's national security advisor, Susan Rice, has said neither she nor other Obama officials used secret intelligence reports to spy on Trump associates for political purposes. But, Rice's official role would have given her the ability to request that names be revealed for national security purposes, and, indeed, in interviews, Rice acknowledged that she sometimes asked for the names of Americans referenced in reports. She refused to say whether she saw intelligence related to Trump associates or whether she asked for their identities. Democrat Senator Ron Wyden told Newsmax/AP : "This report provides a small window into the government's surveillance activities, but it leaves vital questions unanswered. At the top of the list is how many Americans' communications are being swept up." • • • PLANNED PARENTHOOD NEGOTIATES HARVESTED BABY PART PRICES. Infowars reported last week, in news the mainstream media ignored, that Center for Medical Progress founder claims Planned Parenthood is guilty of “criminal trafficking and profiteering in fetal body parts.” Here's the Infowars report : "A Planned Parenthood (PP) senior executive, who in 2015 admitted she wanted to make enough money off of harvested fetal parts to buy a “Lamborghini,” has again been caught haggling over baby body part prices. In a new undercover video released Wednesday by The Center for Medical Progress (CMP), Planned Parenthood Federation of America Medical Directors’ Council President Dr. Mary Gatter explicitly discusses pricing for aborted baby body parts. 'I did it in L.A., I’m committed to it, I think it’s a great idea,' Gatter tells undercover operatives posing as buyers. 'What kind of volume do you need and what gestational ages?' Gatter informs the buyers they must 'pay a little money to use the space,' to which the buyer replies that most clinics charge 'per specimen.' Negotiating a per specimen price, Gatter hovers over a $75 figure, asking, 'Per specimen. Like $75 a specimen? $75 a specimen, or $50 a specimen?' Gatter again asks. The buyer responds, 'What we’ve been quoting is $50 per specimen. I think some people are doing more, some slightly less.' Claiming it is 'on the low end,' Gatter asserts the $50 per specimen price 'was like 12 years ago.' The buyer continues stating, 'What we like about per-specimen is that way we’re not paying for [fetal] material that we can’t use, you know?' to which Gatter nods and says, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' The buyer also emphasizes they want intact fetal parts, saying, 'If we can get a liver, a lung, and you know, a brain–' Gatter interrupts, asking 'But you would show up to do this? You would send somebody,' to which the buyer answers they would send a tech. 'Yeah I’d be willing, give me a call,' Gatter ends the conversation. During the exchange Gatter says the Pasadena PP clinic harvests tissue and organs from gestated fetuses up to 16 weeks old, but that other clinics she’d worked at had harvested at 24 weeks and later. While federal law allows reimbursement for costs related to fetal organ or tissue donation, it does not allow the sale and purchase of specific organs and tissues, according to CMP. In congressional testimony last year, Planned Parenthood (PP) claimed it hadn’t kept financial records of federal reimbursements, however contracts and invoices acquired by CMP showed tissue procurement agencies such as Novogenix, StemExpress and Advanced Bioscience Resources 'all made monthly payments to Planned Parenthood based on the number of resalable fetal specimens the wholesalers’ workers could harvest inside the abortion clinics,' CMP notes in a press release. In the case of PP Los Angeles, which carries out some 15k abortions per year, Novogenix was contracted out at $45 'per donated specimen.' PP however did not reveal to congressional investigators the total amount they were awarded under the contract. This case is still being investigated for criminal wrongdoing by Justice Department and FBI officials." • This is the Planned Parenthood and its fetal tissue harvesters that the Progressive Democrats are protecting from federal budget cuts. Disgusting,even for ProgDems. Operation Rescue President Troy Newman has requested US Attorney General Jeff Sessions bring to justice the offending Planned Parenthood locations : “We urge Attorney General Sessions to take immediate action to bring those responsible for breaking the law at Planned Parenthood to justice. We are a nation of laws, and if the laws are not enforced, they become meaningless.” • If we think the ProgDems in power do not protect Planned Parenthood fetal tissue harvesting and sales, consider this -- In 2016, Center for Medical Progress head David Daleiden was indicted by a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, for the felony charge of using a fake ID and a misdemeanor charge for e-mailing an offer to buy fetal tissue. The charges were dropped in 2016. The California Department of Justice raided Daleiden’s home in 2016 to seize his laptop and hard drives, which held information pertaining to CMP’s 30-month investigation into Planned Parenthood. In 2017, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 felony charges against Daleiden and associate Sandra Susan Merritt for posing as employees of a medical research company and secretly recording confidential conversations, and these charges still stand. • How much longer can the ProgDems protect fetal tissue harvesting by PP??? • • • Another unreported news tidbit is provided by Free Beacon, which published an article saying that the private internet company hired by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to maintain her private email server has been obstructing a congressional investigation into its actions for more than a year, prompting a leading lawmakers to refer the case to the Trump administration Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. Representative Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, has asked the DOJ to prosecute Platte River Networks CEO Treve Suazo for obstructing a congressional investigation into his company’s role in providing security for Clinton’s home brewed email server, which became the subject of widespread debate following revelations that it had multiple security vulnerabilities. Smith, whose committee has jurisdiction over the investigation, said the Congress would not tolerate Platte River's failure to comply with the investigation : "The Committee is referring Mr. Treve Suazo, CEO of Platte River Networks, to the Department of Justice for prosecution under federal laws pertaining to failing to produce subpoenaed documents, making false statements to Congress regarding possession of documents, and obstructing Congress. Platte River Networks, a company hired by former Secretary Hillary Clinton, has deliberately withheld requested materials from the Committee and refused to comply with lawfully issued subpoenas. With a new administration in place, I am hopeful that the Department of Justice will appropriately respond to the referral. We cannot allow companies with valuable information to stonewall us in our oversight efforts. "Free Beacon sqys that senior congressional aides said their investigation shows there is mounting evidence there were "pretty serious cyber security concerns" with Clinton’s server. At least two subpoenas and letters from the congressional investigation team were unanswered by Platte River, prompting Smith to refer the case to the DOJ for criminal prosecution. Congressional investigators allege that the company is guilty of failing to produce key documents, making false statements to Congress, and of obstructing the investigation into Clinton’s server. Two other companies that were subpoenaed and investigated by the committee complied with requests for information. According to a committee staff member : "This is atypical. There were absolutely zero negotiations, there was no willingness on their part to discuss whether any information they would provide would satisfy the committee's request. It was just the company, with council, refusing to discuss" the matter. • Hillary Clinton’s secret unsecured server had many security vulnerabilities and was subjected to multiple hack attacks, according to committee staff. There were "serious concerns about the vulnerability of information stored on the server because that information was not encrypted," one aide told Free Beacon, adding "Those security alerts detailed numerous attempts to hack Clinton’s server" from North Korea, Germany, the United States, and elsewhere. • But, Hillary would have us believe, "Wasn't Me." • • • OBAMA'S WALL STREET SPEAKING FEE. It seems the ProgDems simply cannot keep their leaders from consorting with "the enemy"...especially when gigantic speaking fees are involved. bama remains enormously popular with Progressives, but he has come under considerable fire from ProgDems who are angered by his decision to accept $400,000 from financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald for a speech at a healthcare conference in September. The issue has renewed tensions between leftist Progressives and mainstream Democrats that emerged during the bitter 2016 primary contest between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, who campaigned hard against the influence of money in politics. Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren have both registered their disappointment with Obama, proving that not even the most revered Democrat can escape the wrath of the Sanders wing of the party. Mainstream Democrats are frustrated by the criticism, arguing that Obama is now a private citizen who should be free to pursue new opportunities. They say the left is increasingly holding liberal politicians to an unreasonable standard that divides the party and distracts from the work of opposing President Trump’s agenda. Progressives say that Democrats are again missing the lessons they should have learned in 2016. • The speaking fee has even called into question Obama's "legacy" -- Nina Turner, a former Sanders surrogate, said that it’s time Democrats wrestle with Obama’s legacy, which includes Wall Street executives in top advisory roles and a sharp rise in income inequality. Turner said that money in politics will be a bellwether issue for candidates in 2018 and beyond as emboldened Progressives hope to build on Sanders’s 2016 campaign successes. Turner said : “President Obama may not be in politics anymore, but he’s very much a symbol of what Democrats stand for, and so people are disappointed by this. It’s not the right synergy for the former Democratic president to be taking money from the enemy. Americans believe that the more money you have, the more access you get, and now our beloved president is proving them right. Progressives want something to be done about this, about Citizens United, and we will absolutely judge our candidates on these issues.” • The criticism apparently bothered Obama, whose office put out a lengthy statement last week noting that the speech is at a healthcare forum and that his insights are particularly valuable as someone who signed a historic healthcare reform law. Senior advisor Eric Schultz said Obama raised more money from Wall Street than any candidate in history, but “still went on to successfully pass and implement the toughest reforms on Wall Street since [President Franklin D. Roosevelt].” Obama defenders say that Clinton -- who together with husband Bill Clinton was paid tens of millions of dollars for private speeches -- should have known better because she was preparing to run for the White House. Obama, they say, has no such responsibility. Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons said Progressives are wasting energy holding liberals to purity tests when they should be uniting against the shared enemy in the White House : “The outrage aimed at Obama is going in the wrong direction,” Simmons said. “It’s a purity test, and sometimes our friends on the left hold people to a purity test that’s too strict for our own good. Figuring out how best to oppose Donald Trump and coming up with a positive Democratic message should be enough of a to-do list for Progressives. We don’t need to worry about what former politicians are doing.” That argument is not going down well. Obama has been pilloried in the liberal press, with media outlet Vox’s Matthew Yglesias declaring that the payday “will undermine everything he believes in” and should be rejected as part of the fight against “populist demagogues” such as Trump. Others say that the last thing Democrats need right now is to be viewed as the party of Wall Street, or to lose credibility on an issue that would open the door for Republicans to brand them as faux-populists. Progressive activist Jonathan Tasini said : “This is not a purity test, this is what the country is in rebellion against. It’s not about Obama’s personal probity or ethics, it’s about the influence-peddling that the nation is rebelling against, and Democrats are utterly tone deaf if they can’t see that.” Winnie Wong, a grassroots organizer for Sanders, said : “[Obama] is showing his stripes and, in my opinion, exercising extremely bad political judgment. Accepting 400K from the very same corporate healthcare lobbyists who wrote the [Affordable Care Act] during a time when a plurality of American voters are in favor of Medicare for all is about as stupid as it gets.” • Stupid -- doesn't really need a comment, does it??? • • • DEAR READERS, we who are faithful to Lincoln and his constitutional principles are often labeled "the Party of the rich." Whenever a Democrat cannot find any other way to sell his or her bag of tricks, they always fall back on that fake "trusim." Yet, even today, 7 of the 10 richest members of Congress are Democrats. But, the Grand Old Party ignores that, refusing to call Democrats "the Party of the rich." • What does it mean -- to be the Party of the rich? Does it mean selling your office to foreign interests to benefit yourself personally. Does it mean using insider trading as a ruse to escape a charge of gubernatorial bribery. Does it mean entering Congress as a 30-something foot soldier of the Democrat elite to amass a fortune by making a career out of politics and its ever-present money-for-influence marketplace. Does it mean buying two houses at Chappaqua and building a 10-foot wall around them to avoid the distasteful gaze of ordinary people -- or doing the same thing with one house in Washington DC. Does it mean taking outrageous speaking fees that can only be justified by the payor as indirect bribery to get something from Congress that could not be gotten honestly. • We know the answers to those questions, and we know that the party that routinely approves or tolerates such behavior is not the Republican Party, but the Democrat Party and its pious elite enforcers who squeeze America for every dollar available. Treating America as a private kingdom is a characteristic of the Third World. It is the reason Third World countries don't advance. Their wealth, resources -- and foreign aid dollars -- are drained off by their political leadership, aided eventually by a crony military. If Hillary-ism and Obama-ism ever become the customary standard for American public servants, America will be destroyed. • Last August, in the midst of the presidential campaign, American Thinker published an article titled "To Die for Chappaqua" by Frank Johnson. Here is the cite -- it should be required reading, every month, for every American < http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/08/to_die_for_chappaqua.html > Johnson ends his essay with these words : "For soldiers, belief in the mission is critical. If it should become standard practice for the leadership in Washington to sell our policy for payoffs, then belief in the mission will collapse. A soldier commanded to take the hill will wonder whether that mission is for the nation or for Chappaqua. This is why third-world militaries are so weak. Should belief in the mission ever be lost, it will be virtually impossible to get it back. This danger -- wiping out the Republic -- is what Hillary's actions mean....Nobody in Washington seems upset by the Clintons' selling out the country to foreigners to create their personal fortune....What about us, the public? If we let ourselves be sold out, we are going to get more of it. It is going to become chronic, ubiquitous. The United States is a great nation. There is much here to sell. What is each piece, each policy worth? Markets are so complex these days that one cannot be precise. But each amount, each transaction ultimately turns out to be equal to thirty pieces of silver." • And in Johnson's bone-chilling summary is the modern twin of Thomas Jefferson's immortal reminder that we would forget at our peril : "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Trump's Full Foreign Affairs Plate -- the Palestinians, Turkey, the Kurds, Venezuela and South America

Now that we are past the First 100 Days game, we can focus on key issues facing President Trump as he begins the rest of his presidency. • • • WHEN HAMAS AND FATAH ARE AT WAR, THEIR COVERING TACTIC IS TO ATTACK ISRAEL. The Guardian reported on Monday that Hamas has presented new charter accepting a Palestine based on 1967 borders that aims to heal divisions within Palestinian movement and ease the Pallestinina- Israel peace process. But, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu says : "Hamas is attempting to fool the world." • Hamas says its new charter could be the last chance "to put Gaza on a sensible path," a diplomatic source told the Guardian. Hamas's new political program allegedly "softens its stance on Israel by accepting the idea of a Palestinian state in territories occupied by Israel in the six-day war of 1967," according to the Guardian. But, to be clear, while Hamas says the new document states that hee Hamas islamist movement it is not seeking war with the Jewish people -- only with Zionism that pushes the occupation of Palestine, and while the new document also insists that Hamas is a not a revolutionary force that seeks to intervene in other countries, and while the new charter also abandons past references claiming Hamas is part of a pan-national Moslem Brotherhood, to which it was closely linked when formed -- a position that could improve the currently difficult relations with the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief overthrew his islamist Moslem Brotherhood predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013 and has since led a bloody crackdown on the Brotherhood; while all this may be true -- time will tell -- there are fundamental Hamas positions in the document that are unchanged and that make Israel a non-entity. The policy platform was announced by the head of Hamas’s political bureau, Khaled Meshal, at a press conference in Doha, Qatar. Meshal said : “Hamas advocates the liberation of all of Palestine but is ready to support the state on 1967 borders without recognising Israel or ceding any rights." So, no recognition of Israel's right to exist, and further, although the new document states that Hamas “considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state," it states that "Jerusalem will be its capital along the lines of 4 June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.” Thus, no recognition of Israel, Jerusalme ceded to Hamas, the "return" of all Palestinians to Israel, and nothing agreed about the future boundaries of any future Palestinian state. • We can understand why Netanyahu was not thrilled with the new Hamas charter. A spokesman for the Prime Minister Netanyahu, said : “Hamas is attempting to fool the world, but it will not succeed....“Hamas’s document is a smokescreen. We see Hamas continuing to invest all of its resources not just in preparing for war with Israel, but also in educating the children of Gaza to want to destroy Israel. The day Hamas stops digging tunnels and diverts its resources to civilian infrastructure and stop educating children to hate Israelis, that would be real change.” • Ed Royce, the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said : “Until Hamas recognises Israel’s right to exist, its words are meaningless. I will see to it that Hamas remains designated a terrorist organisation as long as it continues to launch rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, remains an Iranian proxy, and engages in other acts that threaten the US and Israel.” That will be the correct Israel position for as long as Hamas -- as it does in this latest document -- rejects the Oslo accords, and asserts that resistance for the liberation of Palestine will remain “a legitimate right, a duty and an honor”, adding “armed resistance is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and rights of the Palesinian people.” • • • ABBAS GOES TO WASHINGTON. This week, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and US President Donald Trump will sit down together to talk. This is the first such meeting since the US presidential election, and it comes at a time when, in addition ot the newly proposed Hamas charter, the Palestinian scene is showing mounting internal tensions, fighting and divisiveness. The Gatestone Institute published an article on Monday that states : "The disarray among the Palestinians, where everyone seems to be fighting everyone else, casts serious doubt on Abbas's ability to lead the Palestinians towards a better future. The chaos also raises the question whether Abbas has the authority to speak on behalf of a majority of Palestinians, let alone sign a peace agreement with Israel that would be acceptable to enough of his people. Abbas, however, seems rather oblivious to the state of bedlam among the Palestinians, and appears determined to forge ahead despite the radical instability he is facing. He is travelling to Washington to tell Trump that he and his PA leadership seek a 'just and comprehensive' peace with Israel through the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem." Undoubtedly, Abbas will continue to accuse Israel of 'sabotaging' any prospect for peace with the Palestinians. But, he is not likely to mention the mayhem that the PA leadership is facing at home. Nor is the fact that the Palestinians are as far as ever from achieving their goal of statehood likely to be a preeminent subject. The Gatestone Institute asks; "Why bother discussing inconvenient truths, such as the deep divisions among the Palestinians and failure to hold presidential and parliamentary elections, when you can point the finger of blame at Israel?" • Since 2007, according to the Gatestone, the reality on the ground is that the Palestinians already have two small states: one in the Gaza Strip and another in the West Bank. These two states have since been at war with each other : "The joke among Palestinians is that were it not for Israel is sitting smack in the middle, the two warring Palestinian states would be dispatching rockets and suicide bombers at each other." Abbas has cut the salaries of PA workers in Gaza by 30% and has told Israel he will no longer pay for electricity for Gaza, leaving Gazans without power for up to 20 hours per day. A top Hamas official, Mahmoud Zahar, says that Abbas has long lost his legitimacy and is no longer the president of the Palestinians. He accuses Abbas and his senior aides of laying their hands on Arab and Western funds and using them for their personal interests : "Abbas is committing crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. Abbas cut off the electricity to the Gaza Strip and salaries to the (PA) employees. He is involved in a conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian cause." There are almost daily Hamas threats to kill him. But, Abbas's senior aides are not silent in the face of the Hamas threats. One of his top advisors, Mahmoud Habbash, last week called on Palestinians to revolt against Hamas. Habbash also stated that it would be fine to destroy and burn the Gaza Strip in order to get rid of Hamas. The Gatestone Institute says that Abbas "is well aware the Palestinian house is on fire. Instead of working to extinguish the blaze, however, Abbas spends his time spreading the lie that peace in our time is possible, if only Israel would succumb to his demands. The story of Gaza -- which went straight to Hamas after Israel handed it to Abbas -- is not a tale Abbas likes to tell. The same scenario is likely to be repeated in the West Bank if Israel makes a similar move." What remains to beseen this week is whether President Trump and his new administration are aware of the anarchy swirling around the Palestinians and whether they are willing act accordingly. • • • VENEZUELA REVISITED. The Guardian, AP and Reuters reported on Tuesday that Venezuelan President Maduro has called for a new constitution amid the ongoing and more violent clashes in the streets of Caracas. Maduro told a MAy Day rally that a new constitution will restore peace, adding : "I don’t want a civil war." After hundreds of thousands took to the streets again to call for his removal, President Maduro announced that he was calling for a citizens assembly and a new constitution. He said the move was needed to restore peace and stop his political opponents from trying to carry out a coup. Maduro has already triggered an article of the constitution that allows for the reformation of all public powers, as his predecessor Hugo Chávez did in 1999 soon after winning office : “I convoke the original constituent power to achieve the peace needed by the republic, defeat the fascist coup, and let the sovereign people impose peace, harmony and true national dialogue." • Opposition leaders immediately objected, charging that Maduro was seeking to further erode Venezuela’s constitutional order. They said the controversial move was another attempt to sideline the current opposition-led National Assembly and keep the unpopular Maduro in office amid a chaotic recession and unrest that has led to 29 deaths in the last month. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said : “Faced with the dictator’s announcement of the constitutional fraud of the constituent assembly, people should go to the street and disobey such craziness.” Earlier on May Day, anti-Maduro protesters tried to march on government buildings in downtown Caracas, but police blocked their way -- just as authorities have done more than a dozen times in four weeks of near-daily protests. Officers launched teargas and chased people away from main thoroughfares as the peaceful march turned into chaos. The Guardian reports that people of all ages and class backgrounds are participating in the protests against widespread shortages of food and other basic goods, daily violence, and triple-digit inflation. Maduro accuses his opponents of conspiring to overthrow him and undermine the country’s struggling economy. Protesters, say s the Guardian, "have begun showing up for demonstrations with medical masks and bandanas to protect themselves from the clouds of teargas that police often deploy without warning. Gas masks are hard to find, and the government is limiting people bringing them in from abroad. • • • TURKISH BOMBING OF KURDISH ALLIES. Last week, the New York Times published an article about YPG fighters and Kurdish troops being bombed by Turkish airstrikes near Derik, Syria, a northeastern Kurdish town. The intense Turkish operation presents a new complication for the United States’ military campaign against the Islamic State. The Turkish military’s targets included Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia that is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces that has played an important role in the American-backed operations in Syria against ISIS. According to Kurdish officials, one Turkish airstrike also mistakenly struck Kurdish Peshmerga troops on Mount Sinjar in northwestern Iraq, killing at least five and wounding more, some critically. The Peshmerga in Iraq’s autonomous region carried out the opening attacks in the offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS, and they have been a key American ally in operations against the militants. • American officials said Turkey had informed the United States less than an hour in advance that it intended to carry out the bombing raids in the crowded airspace over northern Syria and Iraq. American officials said they had asked Turkey not to proceed without proper coordination, but that the request was ignored. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States was “deeply concerned” about the Turkish airstrikes, which were “not approved” by the US-led coalition that is fighting ISIS. • Masrour Barzani, a top Kurdish security official in the Iraqi autonomous region, told the NYT : “It was a surprise. This was the first time they have been bombing there. They had been mostly bombing border areas. We asked for some clarification but have not received any answers yet. I hope on the Turkish side it was a mistake.” • Iraq’s Foreign Ministry denounced the attacks in the Sinjar area as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. • The Turkish strikes highlight the continuing deep tensions between the United States and Turkey over how to carry out the campaign against ISIS. The US and Turkey disagree about the YPG militia. American military officials regard the YPG as an essential partner in the operation to isolate and retake Raqqa, Syria, ISIS’s self-proclaimed capital, and they want to arm its fighters for that mission. Lieutenant General Stephen J. Townsend, who commands the American-led task force fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria, told reporters during a February trip to Syria that Turkey had no reason to fear the YPG, which is a crucial part of the Syrian Democratic Forces : “The Turkish government is not really crazy that we are operating with the Syrian Democratic Forces, mostly because of their Kurdish and YPG components. But the Kurdish fighters tell us they are not a threat to Turkey, and I believe that.” • The Turkish government, however, insists that the YPG is closely linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group known as the PKK, listed by Turkey, the United States and Europe as a terrorist organization, that has waged an insurgency since 1984 inside Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead. American officials hoped that Turkey would soften its stance after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a referendum in April that greatly increased his executive powers, a victory that brought a congratulatory phone call from President Trump. But, the NYT says that "any hope that Mr. Erdogan’s position might reflect posturing before the vote appeared to vanish with the airstrikes." • A statement issued by Ridor Kahlil, a spokesman for the YPG, said 20 fighters were killed in the Turkish airstrikes -- the death toll was later raised to 25. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based monitoring group, said the targets included a radio station east of Hasaka owned by the YPG. The Turkish airstrikes on Mount Sinjar began around 2 a.m. and lasted about an hour, Captain Falah Abu Zeid, an officer with the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, said in an NYT telephone interview. The bombing, he added, struck four YPG and PKK headquarters in the area. Zeid said : “If there were any fighters in those headquarters, it would have been impossible for them to survive because of the force of the shelling.” But one of the missiles, he added, struck communications towers near a Peshmerga headquarters, killing and wounding Peshmerga fighters. • The NYT says : "[The] Kurdish autonomous government in Iraq has long had a poor relationship with the YPG and PKK, which, like Turkey, it regards as the same entity. The Peshmerga offensive to retake Sinjar from ISIS in 2015 was delayed by tensions between the Peshmerga and the PKK, who competed to take the lead in the battle. And it was noteworthy that Mr. Barzani, the Kurdish security official, did not call on Turkey to cease its airstrikes in Iraq but instead pointed the finger of blame at the PKK : 'The PKK is the reason for all of these problems. They are the reason the Turks are bombing. It is not a matter of whether we like it or not. The PKK is dragging the Turks in.' ” • • • THE US REACTS. American military vehicles and Kurdish fighters from the YPG began last weekend to patrol along the Turkey-Syria border for the first time, after the Turkish airstrikes in the area that killed allied Kurdish fighters. The UK Telegraph reported on Monday that : "The raid, which left at least 25 fighters dead, earned the wrath of Nato ally Washington as it sees the YPG as the strongest ground force to lead the impending battle for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-held Syrian city of Raqqa." There are currently more than 500 American special forces and advisers to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group led by the YPG. The patrols of US armoured vehicles along the tense Turkey-Syria border is an unusual move Washington hopes will discourage Turkey from further strikes. The US-led joint command said : "The patrols' purpose is to discourage escalation and violence between two of our most trusted (counter-ISIS) partners and reinforce the US commitment to both Turkey and the SDF in their fight against ISIS." • But, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heightened tensions on Sunday night when he threatened a repeat : "We can come unexpectedly in the night. We are not going to tip off the terror groups and the Turkish Armed Forces could come at any moment." Erdogan said the sight of American flags in the convoy alongside YPG insignia had "seriously saddened" Turkey. Erdogan said he would bring up the issue with President Trump during his planned visit to Washington on May 16 -- and called for the coordination between the US and YPG to : "come to an end. This needs to be stopped right now. Otherwise it will continue to be a bother in the region and for us. It will also bother us as two NATO countries and strategic partners." • The International Crisis Group (ICG) that follows the Syrian civil war said in its latest report on the Syria crisis that the US had "a singular dilemma" on the future of its relationship with the YPG. The ICG said the YPG "is indispensable" to defeat ISIS but there is also "no avoiding the fact" that the US is backing a force "led by PKK-trained cadres in Syria while the PKK itself continues an insurgency against a NATO ally." The ICG added that Turkey had pressed ahead with the air strikes despite US objections and this "should serve as a warning for what could lie in store." • • • DEAR READERS, President Trump is very engaged in the North Korean nuclear problem, and he should be. He has support -- a new Fox News poll shows that a majority of American voters believe that military action may be necessary to put an end to Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons program. The national poll found that 51% of voters believe that US military action will likely be needed if we want to prevent North Korea from further nuclear weapons development, while 53% support using military force. The survey also asked voters to rate the top threat against the US : 38% said North Korea, 25% said ISIS, 18% said Russia, 5% said China, and 4% picked Iran. • But, while the public is focused in North Korea, President Trump and his administration are also dealing with Syria and its related problem areas -- Russia and Turkey. The use of US patrols on the Trukey-Syria border sends the message that Trump and his military are watching Turkey, but the patrols won't stop Turkey from flying sorties into Syria to hit the Kurdish US allies. That topic will need to be addressed when Trump meets Turkish President Erdogan later this month because this is one of those issues for which, even in time of war, negotiation is the only feasible solution. And, Trump could fit Russia's role in Syria and the larger Middle East into the Erdogan talks as well. Supporting Turkey against Russia's continued military presence in Syria, something that occurred while President Obama was leading from behind, could go some way to ending the Turkish airstrikes against Syrian Democratic Forces and Peshmerga. And, the US Turkey-Syria border patrols could also help keep the PKK terrorists from crossing the border into Turkey, in exchange for Erdogan agreeing to restore a semblance of free speech and personal liberty to Turkish citizens. • As for Venezuela, it needs major and immediate American attention -- as does all of South America. Obama's indifference has permitted the entrenchment of socialist regimes in Bolivia and Equador, as well as in Venezuela, and left Colombia to fight its drug war with little official US support. Trump could make huge strides in South America if he gave someone with clout the portfolio. This also needs to be done now, because China and Russia are quietly creeping northward into Central America -- and America's frontiers -- another leftover from Progressive Democrat Obama and his national security team who were too busy eavesdropping on innocent Trump team members to deal with the burgeoning problems in South America. • The Hamas-Fatah issue will surely be on the table when Palestinian Authority president Abbas meets President Trump in Washington. Here, Trump has a built-in and action-ready partner in Israel, and unlike Obama, Trump appears ready to work with Israel in the effort to find solutions to the seemingly endless Palestinian problem, not by attacking Netanyahu as Obama did, but by using reak politik negotiations to drive home to Hamas and Fatah -- and their sponsor Iran -- that America stands firmly with Israel and that any solution must recognize Israel's right to exist and its 3,000-year historical attachment to Jerusalem.

Venezuela : The Latest Case of the Failure of Socialism

It takes a lot of Progressive guts for the Washington Post to ask President Trump to "correct" anything the WP's beloved President Obama did. • • • VENEZUELA COLLAPSES. But that is exactly what the Washington Post did in an Opinion piece by its Editorial Board on March 17. The headline was "Trump Has a Chance to Correct Obama’s Mistake on Venezuela." The Post Editorial Board wrote that as Venezuela "has plunged deeper and deeper into a economic, political and humanitarian crisis, its regional neighbors and the United States have stood back, refusing to adopt meaningful collective measures to pressure the authoritarian regime of Nicolas Maduro and instead hiding behind appeals for 'dialogue' with the democratic opposition. Now the region’s leaders are being bluntly called out by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who says the strategy has been a feckless failure and that collective action is imperative to restore Venezuelan democracy. The Obama adminisration ignored Mr. Almagro when he made a similar appeal last year. The Trump administration should listen to him." • You heard it right. The Washington Post thinks Obama actually made a mistake by not listening to the Secretary General of the OAS. Almagro, a lawyer and former Uruguayan foreign minister, is not the right-wing fascist that Maduro’s propaganda describes. He is, rather, a leftist liberal democrat who has committed himself to defending the Inter-American Democratic Charter, a treaty adopted by the 34 OAS nations in 2001 that provides for action -- including the suspension of OAS membership -- when states breach democratic norms such as free elections, freedom of assembly and free speech. The Venezuelan regime, says a 73-page report issued Tuesday by Almagro, “is in violation of every article of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.” As he put it, his report is “brimming with abuses, rights violations, curtailment of civil, political and electoral freedoms, poverty, hunger, deprivation of liberty, torture, censorship, and the whole catalogue of violations of political, social and personal dignity.” The WP Editorial Board stated : "Even the most servile apologists for the regime founded by Hugo Chávez acknowledge this descent into chaos, which Mr. Almagro says has produced a 'humanitarian crisis...at a scale unheard of in the Western Hemisphere.' For the past year, debate has centered on what to do about it. The Obama administration, along with several Latin American governments, strongly backed a mediation mission led by three left-leaning statesmen and later joined by the Vatican. Opposition leaders, who had been pressing for a recall referendum to remove Mr. Maduro from office, came under heavy pressure from Washington to negotiate with the regime. As Mr. Almagro vividly describes it, the initiative was an abject failure. The government fulfilled none of its promises and instead increased repression; the opposition was left divided and discredited. Concludes Mr. Almagro: 'We cannot allow the premise of a false dialogue to continue to be used as a smokescreen to perpetuate and legitimize...what has become a dictatorial regime.' ” • Now, Secretary General Almagro is calling on the OAS permanent council to suspend Venezuela’s membership unless the regime agrees within 30 days to hold general elections, release political prisoners and establish a channel for international humanitarian assistance, among other measures. While recognizing the limits of such multilateral measures to arrest the country’s slide, he says “peer condemnation is the strongest tool we have.” Suspension would require a two-thirds majority on the OAS council, and Venezuela has leverage over a number of small states that it supplies with oil at a discounted price. But a strong stand by the Trump administration could make a difference. Mr. Trump should align himself with the OAS chief -- and with the cause of democracy in Latin America." • • • ALMAGRO REFUSED ENTRY INTO CUBA. The Miami Herald wrote an article in February about OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro denouncing the Cuban government’s refusal to issue him a visa for entry to the island to receive a democracy award named in honor of the late government opponent Oswaldo Payá. The award was to be issued by the Latin America organization Jóvenes por la Democracia (Youth for Democracy), which is headed by Payá’s daughter and renowned activist Rosa María Payá. Almagro said : “My trip to Cuba was no different than others I have made to attend similar events in Latin America organized by civil society,” adding that the reason he could not receive the Oswaldo Payá award in Cuba was because his visa request was denied. Almagro wrote a letter to Rosa María Payá, saying that the Cuban consulate in Washington informed him that he would not be granted a visa to enter Cuba as secretary of the OAS, nor would he be allowed to enter with his Uruguayan passport because the reason for his visit constituted “an unacceptable provocation.” In his letter, Almagro said “it would be quite ridiculous that after 67 years of revolution, both the well-being of the Cuban people and bilateral relations with the United States depended on this ceremony.” Those were the reasons given for denying Almagro entry. Barck Obama was still President and did nothing to encourage Cuba to give Almagro a visa. The Miami Herald said : "If the intention of the Cuban government was to avoid a conflict by restricting attendance to the event, the denial of entry to Almagro, former Chilean Minister Mariana Aylwin and former Mexican President Felipe Calderón, generated an outcry across the region. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray stated that Calderón's presence in Cuba does not affect the Cuban people or government. 'We lament the decision,' he posted on Twitter. Former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda characterized Havana’s action as 'highly hostile against Mexico' in statements to Televisa. The Mexican government maintains close relations with Cuba and its President Enrique Peña Nieto was even invited to give an eulogy at the funeral of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Former Chilean President Sebastián Piñera posted a video condemning the Cuban government for its decision to prevent the entry of visiting politicians and activists : “This demonstrates not only that the Cuban government has no respect for freedom, democracy and human rights, but also signifies an affront to all Chileans.” The Cuban Embassy in Chile, meanwhile, issued its own declaration calling the event, “A serious international provocation against the Cuban government...perpetrated by an illegal anti-Cuban group that acts against the constitutional order and that provokes the repudiation of the population, with the collusion and financing of politicians and foreign institutions, in order to generate internal instability and, at the same time, affect our diplomatic relations with other countries.” In Miami, Ophelia Acevedo, Oswaldo Payá’s widow and mother of Rosa María, said she feared for the life of her daughter and the other event organizers who are promoting the CubaDecide campaign in and outside of the island. Acevedo lives in Miami with her daughter, who traveled to Havana specifically for the award ceremony. Acevezdo said : "We know what the Cuban government is capable of doing,” referring to the accident that killed her husband in 2012 suspected of being orchestrated by the government, “We have seen their level of intolerance, arrogance and contempt for others. They feel attacked because other personalities in the world recognize not only the Oswaldo Payá award, but also because in Cuba there are people who think differently and have different alternatives.” • • • VENEZUELA QUITS OAS. Venezuela, after a month of threats, announced it is quitting the Organization of American States, accusing the regional body of meddling in its internal affairs over weeks of political unrest. The step was taken last Wednesday just hours after violent clashes in Caracas between security forces and protesters during yet another march against the Socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro. Fox News reported : "Nearly four weeks of anti-government demonstrations have been blamed for 29 deaths, and the opposition is showing no inclination to pull back. Leaders called a march for Thursday to honor a college student who died during the latest violence after being hit by a tear gas canister fired by security forces. Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez announced the decision to withdraw from the OAS after a brief but contentious meeting at the group's Washington headquarters in which its permanent council voted in favor of holding a special session to evaluate Venezuela's crisis. International pressure has been mounting for Maduro to schedule delayed elections and free detained political activists. Rodriguez accused the OAS of seeking to 'intervene and take custody of our country, something that fortunately will never happen.' Maduro sent out a tweet Tuesday night calling for support against outside meddling in Venezuela's affairs. 'Enough of interventionist abuses and violation of legality,' he said. 'Venezuela is the cradle of the Liberators and we will respect it.' Rodriguez said the pressure being brought by the US on some members like Haiti to punish Venezuela had been considerable. Tension has been steadily rising between Venezuela and a group of OAS members that includes the United States since OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro issued a 75-page report in March accusing Maduro's government of systematically violating human rights and standards of democracy. Almagro unsuccessfully urged OAS members to suspend Venezuela.' " • The withdrawal announcement drew quick rebuke from Venezuelan opposition leaders. Former congresswoman Maria Corina Macahdo said Maduro's exit from the OAS "formalized Venezuela's outlaw status." • • • THE STARVING VENEZUELAN PEOPLE ARE IN REVOLT. Fox News showed a 2016 photo of men picking up tomatoes from the trash area of the Coche public market in Caracas, Venezuela. At Coche, even once middle class Venezuelans made desperate by the country's economic collapse have taken to sifting through the trash to resell or feed themselves on discarded fruits and vegetables. Fox said photos show that "unemployed people converge every dusk at a trash heap on a downtown Caracas sidewalk to pick through rotten fruit and vegetables tossed out by nearby shops." • Earlier Wednesday, thousands of protesters marched on Caracas' main highway seeking to deliver a message to the national ombudsman, whose job is to stand up for citizens' rights but who the opposition calls the "defender of the dictator." They were met with plumes of tear gas that sent demonstrators running. Luis Florido told Fox : "The repression is very strong." Opposition leaders said Juan Pablo Pernalete Llover, a 20-year-old college student, was killed during the Wednesday protests. He was a student in political accounting at Metropolitan University, which issued a statement saying the institution mourned the "early and unjust departure of this talented young Venezuelan, who gave his life in exchange for the highest values of democracy." Ramon Muchacho, a Caracas-area mayor, told Fox at least 22 others were injured, including 14 with serious injuries. Elsewhere, children were evacuated from a school after being exposed to tear gas. In the evening, government officials reported two national guardsmen were wounded by gunshots in the same part of Caracas where Pernalete Llover was killed earlier. In all, 29 people have been killed, more than 400 injured and nearly 1,300 detained in the monthlong unrest roiling the nation. The swell of protests is the most violent seen in Venezuela since two months of anti-government demonstrations in 2014 that resulted in dozens of deaths. Maduro has repeatedly called for renewed talks between the two sides, but opposition leaders have discarded that as an option after earlier talks collapsed in December. • • • AMERICAN PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT ELITES AND CELEBRITIES SUPPORT MADURA. The American Thinker published an article on April 23 by Monica Showalter. She wrote : "What holds Venezuela together these days? According to the New York Times, this state is held together only by an encircling ring of death-squad gangs, who serve as its enforcers. These are the community organizers known as 'colectivos' who ride and circle around menacingly on motorcycles, and shoot randomly into crowds to generate terror. I saw them myself in Caracas in late 2005, and they were scary. Now, they are engorged with drug cash and legitimized by the state. Who could have imagined that this tontons macoute situation would be the logical conclusion of Chavista Socialism? Not Venezuela's celebrity endorsers from the Hollywood elites, that's for sure." Whowalter cited mant examples of these celebrity Useful Idiots, who spent years using their capacity for drawing media attention to browbeat the West into believing that Chavista Socialism was the wave of the future, like the political and celebrity pilgrims who endorsed the Soviet Union in its early days while the Ukraine starved from the communists' man-made famine. Sean Penn declared that anyone in the West who called the late Hugo Chavez a dictator should be imprisoned : (Chávez) is a fascinating guy. He’s done...incredible things for the 80% of the people that are very poor there." Film producer Michael Moore tweeted on Chavez's 2013 death that : "Hugo Chavez declared the oil belonged 2 the ppl. He used the oil $ 2 eliminate 75% of extreme poverty, provide free health & education 4 all." Celebrity linguist and leftwing activist Noam Chomsky described the suggestion that Chávez had suppressed press freedom as “a bit of a joke,” adding : "There’s a strong opposition press bitterly attacking him all the time. There’s much more of an opposition press than there is in most of Latin America...There is some repression of the press, but it’s mostly, you know, verbal intimidation." • • • REALITY TODAY IN VENEZUELA. A PanAm Post gives a glimpse into the reality of the Socialist regime these numbskulls were defending : “They attack your neighbors when they are in food lines and are identified as opposition members, they attack store owners by making them pay extortions, they attack bakers by taking away part of their production which they later sell on the black market. They are not true collectives, or political actors -- they are criminals.” • The New York Times stated : "Colectivos control vast territory across Venezuela, financed in some cases by extortion, black-market food and parts of the drug trade as the government turns a blind eye in exchange for loyalty. Now they appear to be playing a key role in repressing dissent." Or this recount by Showalter: "A woman whose butcher's shop was ransacked in violence overnight in Venezuela says the attack was like 'a war.' Liliana Altuna says looters armed with guns and knives attacked about 30 businesses in the community of El Valle over the course of five hours. An officer tried to help but Altuna says police were unable to stop looters from breaking the windows of her business and violently grabbing refrigerators, lamps, security cameras and anything else they could seize." • Suddenly, says Showalter, the Hollywood crowd has gone silent -- "Only Jamie Foxx and 1-800 Dial Joe-4-Oil Joe Kennedy are known to have paid visits in the last year to the palace of Venezuela's now-reigning gang dictator, Nicolas Maduro, who was hand-picked by Chavez to succeed him. Some leftists have attempted to blame the hellhole on 'populism' instead of Socialism, as their way of delecting criticism to the perfectly blameless Donald Trump. It's been done in a Times op-ed, and Rachel Maddow was ripped by Fox News' Tucker Carlson when she tried it. Anything but put the finger where the culpability belongs -- on Socialism. Anything but blame their own vile enabling of an indefensible gang regime." • • • MAY DAY IN VENEZUELA. The opposition and government are both planning massive marches across the country on Monday, with many Venezuelans fearing further violence.The Times of India reported on May Day that anti-governmznt marchers were out in force to protest the MAdura regime. Sonia Lopez, a 34-year-old social security worker and mother-of-three at an anti-government rally in the poorer western side of Caracas, told the Times of India : "Who can stand this? So much hunger, misery, crime...The prices are going up far more than the salary rises. There are days my kids eat, and days they don't." The Madura government used hundreds of buses for its backers to get inot Caracas for the pro-governùent protest but it closed subway stations in the capital and set up roadblocks, impeding opposition mobilization. Henrique Capriles, who narrowly lost to Madura in the 2013 presidential election, said : "No matter the obstacles today, even cats will mobilize against this corrupt, drug-trafficking top brass and its leader." Government opponents are demanding elections, autonomy for the legislature where they have a majority, a humanitarian aid channel from abroad and freedom for more than 100 jailed activists. Maduro answers that they are violent protesters seeking a coup to allow a Washington-backed right-wing government get its hands on Venezuela's oil wealth. Police and National Guard troops, whom the opposition accuses of using excessive force in near-daily clashes, were out in force across the capital, Caracas, many behind riot shields with armored vehicles waiting in side streets. Some government workers acknowledged they had been coerced into attending. "We're here because they tell us to. If not, there are problems," a 34 year-old worker with a state aluminum company, just off a bus after an all-night journey from southern Ciudad Bolivar, told a journalist until a supervisor cut off the conversation. • • • MADURA ANSWERS PROTESTERS. Reuters reports : "Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday he expected delayed state polls to be held this year, although opponents have demanded a broader general election to replace him in protests that have sparked 29 deaths. The postponed vote for governors of Venezuela's 23 states -- originally slated for 2016 -- is one of a litany of opposition grievances against Maduro whom foes accuse of becoming a dictator and wrecking the economy. During his weekly TV program, Sundays With Maduro, the 54-year-old Socialist leader said gubernatorial elections would happen later this year although the opposition's real agenda was to topple him with a US-backed coup. Madura told supporters : "I am anxious for an electoral process to be called. Then the CNE will fix the pending governor elections, for this year....Venezuela's problem is not that there won't be elections this year. Venezuela's problem is that an empire in extremists' hands wants to take our oil and carry out a coup." • The government party controls 20 states, but polls indicate the opposition would now win a majority of the states, given voter anger over the OPEC nation's brutal recession -- the opposition took control of the national assembly in a landslide election in December 2015. The next presidential election is due for late 2018, but the opposition wants that brought forward to this year and bundled with legislative, state and mayoral elections. In a special program to celebrate the construction of 1.6 million housing units under a six-year state project begun by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez (many funded by the Chinese), the president lambasted his opponents for violence occurring around protests. Madura also criticized foreign media, saying they ignored social achievements such as Venezuela's 6.6% unemployment rate or the Housing Mission, to focus obsessively on the unrest. • In his lengthy Sunday program, Madura also announced a 60% increase in the minimum salary to 60,000 bolivars to take effect from Labor Day on Monday. With increased food tickets worth 135,000 bolivars, workers would receive 200,000 monthly, he said. That amount is worth about $50 at the black market rate for dollars. USA TODAY reported that the pay raise was "the third pay increase the Socialist leader has ordered this year and the 15th since he became president in 2013. It is small solace to workers who seen the buying power of their earnings eroded by a sinking currency and the world's highest inflation -- forecast to accelerate to 2,000% next year, according to the International Monetary Fund. But, Madura says : "We're here to take care of the workers, those who are most humble, and not the privileges of the oligarchs," while announcing that in addition to the pay hike, there will be a special "economic war" bonus to retirees to make up for what he says are attempts by the opposition to sabotage the economy. • • • DEAR READERS, the poor and starving of Venezuela, the very people Socialists claim to champion, are leading Venezuela's march against Socialism. Both the Washington Post and Reuters see it as a turning point. This is the same Socialism that has justified lost freedoms, expropriation of property, redistribution of income and tolerance of a government elite -- because it is "helping" the poor. The left defends Socialism because of Socialism's supposed good intention to help the poor. Today, the poor are banging pots and throwing eggs at the hated regime. The Washington Post notes in its article on developments in Venezuela, citing the man who brought Venezuela to its knees, the late Hugo Chavez : "Chávez, a master showman who promised his country a Socialist “revolution,” loved to wade through crowds of poor Venezuelans, blowing kisses and dispensing hugs. But when his successor has ventured out in public in recent months, he’s been pelted with eggs and chased by angry mobs." • We know that Socialism has never been about helping the poor. Capitalism is what helps the poor, any Cato study can show this. Or consider Chile, which transitioned from Socialism to Capitalism successfully. Look at China -- since its economic reforms began in 1976, the reality is that the Chinese people live better lives, even under the Chinese Communist regime that tightly controls political and religious expression while letting Capitalism work to save its elite from the econonic collapse inevitable under Socialism and the eaually inevitable popular protests, such as those we are now witnessing in Venezuela. American Thinker's Showalter points out : "Socialism is about empowering an elite and taking over every single facet of the lives of the poor and powerless, all in the name of 'helping them.' The poor often vote for Socialists in the name of "free" stuff. But it leads to the destruction of any chance of climbing out of poverty. Chavez brought Socialism to Venezuela, and he left the poor worse off than ever. At the same time, his own surviving family members remain billionaires (Chavez's daughter Maria Gabriela is Venezuela's richest woman), and his Castro patrons in Cuba remain grotesque tyrants." • As for the poor, under Socialism, finally all they have left is protest. The Washington Post reports : "Venezuelans from longtime chavista strongholds are starting to join them, at considerable risk. Residents of Castillo’s neighborhood protested openly against Maduro for the first time last week. Pro-government block captains in neighborhoods like El Guarataro have responded by threatening to deny food rations to those who march with the opposition or fail to join pro-Maduro rallies." The WP notes that those were the ones still strong enough to protest, or the ones not to preoccupied looking for food. • And, the Progressives still trying to sell Socialism by defending what is happening in Venezuela as "populism" are either blind or brainless -- probably both. On April 1, the New York Times wrote an article titled "How Does Populism Turn Authoritarian? Venezuela Is a Case in Point" by Max Fisher and Amanda Taub. It wasn't an April Fool's Day joke. They were actually serious, stating as dogma : "Venezuela’s fate stands as a warning: Populism is a path that, at its outset, can look and feel democratic. But, followed to its logical conclusion, it can lead to democratic backsliding or even outright authoritarianism. Populism does not always end in authoritarianism. Venezuela’s collapse has been aided by other factors, including plummeting oil prices, and democratic institutions can check populism’s darker tendencies. The country is feeling the fundamental tensions between populism and democracy that are playing out worldwide....But although countries must choose which system to follow, the choice is rarely made consciously, and its consequences may not be clear until it is too late." • If you detect a hidden NYT agenda in that, you re right. It is part of the Progressive assault on President Trump, despite the fact that modern "populism" was created by President Andrew Jackson, the founder of the modern Democrat Party, as a freewheeling form of Capitalism that made American financial risk-takers rich at the expense of Native Americans whose lands Jackson stole. The NYT and its Progressive allies confuse populism and elitist tyranny. Venezuela's Chavez told his supporters that their problems were caused by unresponsive, undemocratic elites and institutions. A strong leader, he argued, was necessary to break through those shadowy forces and impose the will of the people. That message was popular, as were his initial steps. BUT, it was not "populist." It was totalitarianism and soviet gulag despotism in the making. It had nothing to do with populism -- it had everything to do with the anti-democratic tendencies of Socialism that tend always toward elitist regimes uncontrolled by popular will expressed through free speech and voting. • And, that leaves citizens with one of two choices -- either submit and be enslaved, or protest. Venezuelans have chosen to protest. It will lead to the collapse of Madura and Chavism, or it will lead to civil war, as protesters fight back. Serious violations of human rights and human decency -- the kind that recently got Syria an American air strike -- are occurring now in Venezuela but they are still hidden from view. Chavistas tear-gassing a maternity ward in a hospital -- it happened, prompting the evacuation of more than 50 babies. There are also the barricades, the burning garbage, the tossed Molotov cocktails -- the work of the protesters. • The New York Times got one thing right. It is now President Trump's problem to solve. But the Times is all wrong about Obama -- he never meant to intervene or stop the march of Socialism in Venezuela, just as Pope Francis did not, even though he now calls for "talks." Talks were Obama's weapon of choice to avoid undercutting the Chavista Socialists. The Pope has taken up Obama's support for the Chavistas. But the level of violence signals a civil war, because the Chavistas will never reform or retire and the people will not submit. • The only question left now is how bloody the civil war will be and how long it will be allowed to go on.