Democratic Party Debate Sidetracks Issues of U.S. Interventionism

In last night’s Democratic Party debate, the hosts of CNN devoted just minutes to the issue of foreign policy. Just when Elizabeth Warren was explaining why she would renounce the threat of using nuclear weapons for preemptive purposes, one of the CNN moderators insisted on moving on to another issue, leaving her with her words in her mouth. This is part of a well-established pattern. Open the pages of liberal magazines and you will see very little in the way of articles on foreign issues, other than human rights and perhaps issues related to ecology. A few weeks ago, I participated in a discussion in Vermont of friends of Monthly Review who discussed the latest MR issue on the topic of imperialism in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Harry Magdoff’s “The Age of Imperialism: The Economics of U.S. Foreign Policy.” Various writers on the left including (surprisingly) David Harvey has declared imperialism to be a non-issue in the 21^st century age of globalization. Thus writers across the political spectrum play down the topic of  U.S. world-wide domination. As last night’s Democratic Party debate demonstrated, it is much more kosha to talk of universal health, free college tuition and the $15 dollar minimum wage, than to raise issues related to U.S. interventionism and domination and the military-industrial complex. The reason can be reduced to the following: super-profits, the bedrock of imperialism, are essential to the maintenance and survival of the capitalist system.  

https://monthlyreview.org/2019/07/01/mr-071-03-2019-07_0/ 

Mass movement in Puerto Rico calls for the ouster of governor Ricardo Roselló

In Marshfield, Vermont, calling for the resignation of misogynist, anti-gay governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosello. Rosello is an ardent supporter of Puerto Rican statehood. The Chatgate scandal shows the governor's true colors.

https://www.wbal.com/article/400090/127/chatgate-scandal-throws-puerto-ricos-governor-into-crisis

THE MICHELLE BACHELET REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN VENEZUELA IS HARDLY IMPARTIAL

Michelle Bachelet’s report on human rights in Venezuela, which dismisses the nefarious effects of U.S. sanctions, “is fundamentally flawed and disappointing…a missed opportunity,” according to Alfred de Zayas, former secretary of the UN Human Rights Coundil. He adds that a "high commissioner is not independent and is subject to political pressures" The report calls on the Maduro government "to adopt structural economic reforms" (read: neoliberal formulas). 

http://www.coha.org/un-high-commissioner-on-human-rights-bachelets-gift-to-the-us-justifying-regime-change-in-venezuela/