CapitalistImperialistPig

Via Arun , this WaPo story from a Venezuelan Chavez victim: How to let a populist beat you, over and over again. By Andrés Miguel Rondón January 27 Andrés Miguel Rondón is an economist living in Madrid. He is a Venezuelan citizen who was born and raised there. Hugo Chavez was a populist, too. His opponents never figured out how to beat him. (AP Photo/Jorge Santo) Donald Trump is an avowed capitalist; Hugo Chávez was a socialist with communist dreams. One builds skyscrapers, the other expropriated them. But politics is only one-half policy: The other, darker half is rhetoric. Sometimes the rhetoric takes over. Such has been our lot in Venezuela for the past two decades — and such is yours now, Americans. Because in one regard, Trump and Chávez are identical. They are both masters of populism. The recipe for populism is universal. Find a wound common to many, find someone to blame for it, and make up a good story to tell. Mix it all together. Tell the wounded you know how they fee...

The failure to mention Jews, or any other group targeted by the Nazis, was not accidental according to the Administration. Josh Marshall writes: It is true that millions died under the Nazis who were not Jews. They included targeted ethnic groups like Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, left-wing dissidents, people with disabilities, etc. But it has long been a trope of Holocaust deniers and white nationalists to insist that Jews were only incidentally targeted. In any case, there are no word limits in presidential statements. A more logical and worthwhile approach would be to note the various groups who were victimized. This isn't accidental. The new administration is riddled with anti-Semites and those who want to cater to anti-Semites. Marshall blames alt-right godfather Steve Bannon.

While being registered to vote in two states is not illegal, voting in both probably is: Reports: Bannon, Kushner, Tiffany Trump Registered to Vote in Two States

A top Russian FSB agent has been arrested and charged with treason, accused of being a US asset. He was high in the chain of command of those accused of running the hacking operation against the US. Is there anything odd about this happening just after Trump and his top aides, some with deep Russian links, got the classified briefing on the details of how the Russian hacking operation was revealed? Josh Marshall: From the Moscow Times ... A top cybersecurity specialist in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was arrested on Wednesday reportedly on suspicion of leaking information to the U.S. intelligence community — a bombshell accusation that, if true, would mean Washington had a spy in the heart of Russia’s national defense infrastructure. Here's the additional detail ... According to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the FSB believes Sergei Mikhailov tipped off U.S. officials to information about Vladimir Fomenko and his server rental company “King Servers,” w...

Trump has apparently ordered silence from government employees on climate and other matters. George Orwell's 1984 is climbing the best seller lists.

When Trump, speaking to lawmakers, again repeated the falsehood that he had lost the popular vote due to "millions of illegals" voting, the NYT had had enough - it called the lie a lie. However, that suggested a scarier possibility to me. The man is actually, clinically, delusional. He really believes that millions of illegals voted against him, and that the "real" unemployment rate is 42%.

India's experiment in taking cash out of the economy is having the bad effects that some, or perhaps many, predicted. The supposed anti-corruption measure is hurting the poor badly. Much of the damage appears to stem from the failure of the government to prepare by printing enough of the new currency. Geeta Anand and Hari Kumar report in the NYT: NEW DELHI — First, Yashpal Singh Rathore’s marriage was delayed by his future in-laws, who, like most Indians, ran short of cash after Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned the country’s largest currency notes in November. Then the 29-year-old lost his job when the ensuing cash crunch hit demand for motorcycles and scooters sold by the company where he worked, Hero MotoCorp Ltd. After that, the prospective in-laws refused to let the wedding go forward until he found another job. “So I lost my job and I lost my marriage,” he said in an interview at a protest, where he shouted slogans with more than 100 red-flag-waving workers let go by...