JOINING UP THE DOTS: the uncomfortable truths behind Venezuela and that Nissan ‘deal’

by  John Ward

The last few days have seen yet more worrying demonstrations of media narratives peddled by the Unelected States, cynically peddled by the suppliant old media, and unthinkingly accepted by social media victims across the Globe. Let’s interrogate two of them for starters.

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1. Venezuela  

Yes, I too find the Labour Corbynistas’ attitude to Nicolás Maduro a classic of its kind: the hypocrisy of double standards driven by ideology. Eventually, the brainless rigidity and inbuilt corruption of collectivist thought will lead to economic mismanagement and undemocratic governance. That’s the thing with intolerant socialism: it sticks to the script, and that leads to widespread political repression and social deprivation. Chavez had his ‘Bolivarian’ vision, and that vision remains cyclopian under Maduro…..with the support of the army. Not entirely democratic, we note.

Foreign power military intervention is already happening: hundreds of thousands of Cuban and Russian security forces are providing an élite guard. And now there is enthusiasm from Trump for his own military intervention…..under extreme pressure from the Pentagon and its allies.

The Venezuelan hero of the hour is Juan Guaidó, a self-proclaimed ‘centrist’ (where’ve we heard that before?) and a regional MP in the National Assembly. His claim to be the interim President is shaky at best (he is not the Opposition Party’s leader) but he has very obviously been detained – and his family intimidated – by Maduro’s goons. The main reason Guaidó’s claim is being taken seriously by the Western NATO interest bloc is because, um, they’re all (with the exception of Italy) saying he should be the ‘interim President’. Which is sort of self-fulfilling.

Some other things you should know about the NATO candidate: his further education took place in the US. He is already inviting in energy and mining conglomerates from the West to bid for contracts. In December 2018, he was hastily sworn in as President of the Assembly, thus allowing him to become interim President under the Venezuelan constitution “because the office of the Presidency had become vacant”. I think you’ll find that Maduro disputes that – he being anything but absent, and still largely in control of government departments and most of the Army.

 

We are back to the cui bono? question. The answer chiefly is the US. The man who is everywhere working 24/7 to create an American global hegemony, is centrally involved…and as always, central involvement means Central Intelligence Agency. That man is John Bolton – the Alt State POTUS running all foreign business.

Bolton and the MIC as a whole are in possession of surveys carried out covertly by US prospectors and engineers under George W Bush. These show that Venezuela is fabulously rich in natural and new earth minerals and resources generally – most notably diamonds, bauxite, gold, iron ore, natural gas and oil. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves – bar none. Just fancy that.

The country is hugely indebted, and effectively defaulted during 2017…although it is still paying off some of the debt to ensure at least some flow of US Dollars into the country – allegedly with Russian help. Most of the debt is owned by Wall Street. Until September last year, analysts believed the most likely force to spur serious political change in Venezuela would come come from US bond traders and sovereign debt lawyers moving to seize state-owned energy assets and thus recoup money owed.

However, the Law is an ass and moves exceeding slow. Some time between September 18th and the start of December, Guaidó became the Chosen One of the CIA. And as an additional precautionary measure to ensure certain bankruptcy, Bolton two weeks ago pressured the Bank of England to confiscate the Venezuelan gold stored there. Our friend Mr Carney duly acquiesced, he being an alumni of Goldman Sachs….just like Mario Draghi, who runs the European Central Bank.

In a nutshell, what’s happening here is that a hopelessly misrun nation with leaders who are clueless as to the way the world works is being hurried along to its eventual doom. The motive is blindingly obvious – US MIC power – and the growing hegemony of Washington in global affairs is demonstrated by the ease with which NATO allies have been persuaded to jump on the bandwagon.

I do return to this observation time and again, but Venezuela is yet another episode of neocon foreign policy that proves my point: the choice is between a fascist clown and MIC régime change. I think the world deserves a better one.

2. Nissan and Brexit

As the UK Government enthusiastically wastes every minute it can between now and March 29th, another Blame it on the Brexit media storm continues.

This is how the story goes: Nissan is going to pull production of existing and future vehicles from the UK, because a No-Deal Brexit would dramatically reduce its access to the EU single market.

Not only is the full story infinitely more complicated, it illustrates appalling bad faith when it comes to promises made, assurances given, and lies told to Parliament….on all sides – Westminster, Brussels and Tokyo.

The EU has just completed a trade deal with Japan, with two primary objectives. The first was to gain hugely increased access to the Nipponese car market for BMW. And the second was to give Tokyo a quid pro quo of EU access for Nissan….a major earner of export monies and employment for the UK.

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You would have to be the recent victim of an unfortunate fall from the Christmas tree not to see how that would reduce British Brexit bargaining power. A no deal Brexit (along with falling real UK pdi’s) would deliver a crushing blow to the upper end of the German car industry….and the departure of Nissan from Britain would be a tough start to the post-Brexit economy. It’s a neat (and typically perfidious) pincer movement from the EU’s trade commission: the UK can’t close trade deals while waiting to leave, but the EU can do what it likes….and it has been doing that: in India, in New Zealand and Japan.

To pile on some more pressure, as I reported last week, the Japanese ambassador to the EU told Sky viewers last week that Brexit was a very bad idea and would not be viewed happily by his masters.

The gentleman failed to disclose, however, that filthy lucre was involved in the process of persuading Nissan to guarantee future output from the UK over two years ago. The filthy lucre amounted to a whopping £60 million (Nissan wanted 80 million). The company is now welching on that deal, and to compound the crime, the CEO in Britain went on BBCNews two days ago to say the problem was all down to Brexit uncertainty. Brussels machinations and Japanese word-breaking didn’t come up in the conversation.

Now the May Government is “considering” asking for the money back. Considering? Asking? But hey – 40 billion for the EU and 60 million for perfidious Nissan – I mean, who’s counting? Who cares? Certainly not the British media.

And was Parliament told of this bribe in the first place? Er, no. It wasn’t. Sky collared Nicky Morgan on that aspect of things, and this was her response:

“Yes, it is less than satisfactory – I do accept that” 

She’s a diamond our Nicky, i’n’t she?

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I don’t think 2019 could ever be complete without the Slog holding an Intelligent Idiot of the Year contest at some point, and inviting all those who venture here to vote. The front runners at the moment are Victoria AtkinsBaron Adonis and Owen Jones – although as the Nissan remark above shows, we shouldn’t forget the recent comeback of long-runner Nicky Morgan. The rest of that Sky interview with Adam Boulton represented the obese in pursuit of the oblivious.

At one point in a coma-inducing chat on alternative Irish border arrangements and Teams A & B in the Malthouse Brexit farce, Piggy Boulton said to Ms Morgan, “Well of course, this is leaving out Brussels in the mix isn’t it?”

“That’s right,” she responded, in a tone that suggested Adamant the village smithy had forged a major insight hitherto hidden from her.

She really is desperately thick, but the standards for Intelligent Idiot of the Year(like all things Slog) are abnormally high: those in public life don’t even get onto the long list unless the combination of proven high IQ is coupled with obvious problems in the field of lotech brain functions such as remembering to breathe out or evading mouse traps. And the problem with the Slog’s longlist at the moment is that it is – as Claude Rains memorably observed in the movie Casablanca – a case of “rounding up the usual suspects”.

Two women, a gay man and a follically challenged half-Cypriot do not represent what I’d call a representative cross-section of global nuisance. Trump and Verhofstadt fail on the IQ dimensions, while Tony Blair, Dominic Grieve, Boris Johnson, Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron and Alastair Campbell are anything but gullible.

No, the SIIOTY award (pronounced See-oh-tee) is only open to those among the famous who have still to grasp the obvious truth of IABATO – It’s All Bollocks And That’s Official.

Voting will begin on Tuesday 1st October 2019, and close on Tuesday 31st December 2019.

In the meantime, please do pile in with those celebrities in news, entertainment, politics, bureaucracy, banking, business, diplomacy and sport whom (you feel) are worthy of inclusion in the Longlist Poll.

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