Mary Scully Reports

When the Trump regime announced the US is recognizing politician Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela over Nicolas Maduro who was reelected & inaugurated & when US diplomats refuse to leave Venezuela despite being expelled, the US is setting Venezuela up for a military intervention. We should question the democratic character of the Venezuelan elections. We should acknowledge that the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protesting against Maduro’s policies have just cause & are not fascist or rightwing, as Stalinists, libertarians, Assadists claim. But the US is threatening military action only because the Maduro government has switched its economic & political nexus from the US/IMF to Russia & China. That fundamental shift where the US is losing political control to Russia & China is going on all over the world.

Just as Iran, Russia, & the US coalition grabbed the political advantage by militarizing opposition to the Syrian popular uprising against the Assad regime, the US is wresting political victory from the threat presented by the Venezuelan popular uprising against Maduro’s austerity policies (worsened by US sanctions). The mortal threat to all these governments is popular democratic movements. No matter the rhetoric or competing interests, on that they all agree. In the case of Syria, the Assad regime was weakened, Syria was fractured, & most importantly, the Syrian Arab Spring uprising was crushed. The US is not threatening to intervene in Venezuela because Maduro is repressive, even though he is massively so. They have no trouble working with Saudi Mohammed bin Salman, Brazilian Bolsonaro, Filipino Duterte, Israeli Netanyahu, Indian Modi, & other such thugs. They are intervening to force Venezuelan capital to again become dependent on US capital rather than Russia & China. It’s the oil fields, stupid! It’s a pitched battle for political control over all of Latin America.

When we hit the streets around the world–as we must–with placards demanding “US hands off Venezuela,” we are not defending the Maduro regime or its policies. We are defending the Venezuelan people from the barbarisms sure to follow any US military intervention. There are thousands protesting against the Maduro regime because of its repressions & austerity but they do not necessarily support Juan Guaido or want him to replace Maduro. They certainly do not, in their majority (there are always agents provocateurs) support US military intervention. The international antiwar movement cannot make the same unprincipled, treacherous mistakes it is making by supporting the Assad regime against the Syrian revolution. It must take a clear stand with the civilians of Venezuela & let them sort out their differences with Maduro.
US hands off Venezuela!

(Photo is Venezuelan anti-government protester by Natacha Pisarenko/AP)

The Israeli apartheid wall around occupied Palestine being offered by Palestinians to whoever can cart it away before they knock it down & establish a democratic, secular state for Palestinians & Jews to live as equals.

The history of Blacks, Latinos, & Native Americans in the US has been systematically excluded from the curriculum & most American students get through advanced education without knowing a lick about that history. So much of Africa was Muslim, including during the Atlantic slave trade, so of course it makes sense that many of the slaves in the Americas were Muslims. But in my own studies I don’t recall ever reading reference to that important history.

http://www.openculture.com/2019/01/the-only-surviving-text-written-in-arabic-by-an-american-slave-has-been-digitized.html?

There aren’t enough discussions on social media by those outside South Asia about the caste system in India & elsewhere. Partially, that’s because it’s not well-understood in its interactions with class, ethnicity, & religion. This insightful discussion by Bobby Kunhu resonates with the disputes around affirmative action for women, Blacks, Latinos, & Native Americans in the US. There has always been opposition to affirmative action in the US as privileging the oppressed rather than attempting to equalize injustices which are by no means historic. But in the past few decades, there is an avalanche of backsliding among progressives on the issue. (Privilege once again rears its ugly ass.) This article is quite useful for understanding the issue as it pertains to caste oppression.

http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9557%3Athe-ten-percent-

Rohingya women in the Kutupalong refugee Camp at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, protest for the release of Rohingya refugees from detention in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

End the Rohingya genocide.

(Posted by VOR in camps via Saydul360 on Facebook)

What a powerful photo which speaks to the courage of journalists: Kashmiri photojournalist (the man with the camera & the eye patch) Nissar Ul Haq returns to work after sustaining pellet gun injuries while covering an Indian army operation in the Shopian district.
End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo by Kamran Yousuf)

Not to pick a fight or anything, but it’s quite noticeable how some men go all ballistic & abusive when a woman disagrees with them but are entirely collegial with men who have the same disagreement. Is it possible these great thinkers, the avant-garde of progressives everywhere, might be women haters? Cause it sure feels like it. That walks like a duck, talks like a duck thing comes into play.

If ever I win the lottery I will dedicate some of the proceeds (after Palestinians, Rohingyas, Kashmiris, & Bhopal) to overturning the Texas laws requiring quarantine for animals. There are far more humane ways to deal with animals that may be diseased. I went to see my little Annie, a tiny Chihuahua, at the animal control penitentiary. She was in a cold area & the closest I could get was four feet through two layers of fence. They advised me that she could contact other contagious diseases or fleas & ticks by being there. Annie of course was crying her heart out & trying to get to me. I can’t bring any other of the dogs to visit her but that wouldn’t comfort her anyway.

I brought her blankets, toys, & treats. They only give dry food which she doesn’t like but told me I could add a homeopathic remedy for fear & trauma to special food I’ll bring her.

This practice of incarcerating terrified animals (they also do it to birds & cats) is absolutely inhumane & not up to standards of animal welfare. But what am I complaining about? They do even worse to refugee children.

“Violence against journalists is all too common in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir and it must stop,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “The security forces must take greater precautions when journalists are covering protests.”

https://cpj.org/2019/01/four-kashmiri-photojournalists-hit-by-pellet-gun-f.php?

After work in the morning I take seven of my dogs to the dog park & meet with two friends & their dogs. This morning, a park worker came in to talk to us & some of the dogs were barking at him. My Annie-Lucia nipped him on the leg through heavy work pants. We apologized all over the place & continued chatting until we saw three animal control vehicles & a police car drive up. They threatened to impound all our dogs because we didn’t have vaccination papers on us. Who knew it was a city ordinance to carry vax documents? We had to show proof of vaccination in the state of Texas & two of us take our dogs to Mexico where it’s a lot cheaper. Little did we know that Mexican vaxs are not legitimate in Texas.
After prolonged negotiations, they impounded my little Annie for ten days of quarantine & issued me a citation to appear in municipal court to show proof of a rabies shot in Texas. Without a Texas vax I will be subject to a fine. I will be allowed to visit Annie but may not touch her. They wouldn’t allow me to quarantine her at home, wouldn’t accept a Mexican vax, & wouldn’t let me take her to a vet for tests to show she did not have rabies.

Keep in mind that this region has thousands of abandoned dogs & cats. The problem is so critical that animal shelters are always over capacity & there are caravans by several shelters & rescue groups that each take up to forty animals to other states for adoption every month.

I know I am not nearly as bereft as my little Annie who was rescued from animal control, a shivering terrified little girl who was once attacked by a huge Pitt Bull. I had to put that sweet girl in the animal control van so that her sense of abandonment must be overwhelming. All I know is that I will never again use the dog park & put my dogs at such risk.