Just Curious...Is the world blowing up?

[serryjw]

Iraq, Iran, N.Korea, Israel & Lebanon, Pakistan & India..have I missed any one?

[Wickerman]

1. Seems pretty complete, but I read here yesterday that

Castro died, so Cuba might be in for a bit o' trouble. Gotta screw on that :tinfoilhat: pretty tight for that one, of course.

Seriously, are we on the brink of a free-for-all WWIII, or what?

[Virginia Dare]

5. Do you have a link for the news about Castro?...n/t

[MADem]

10. See my post below this one NT

[MADem]

8. No, that wasn't confirmed, it was a RUMOR making the rounds

It started down in South America, and got to the point where it actually affected the stock market a bit. But there's been no confirmation out of Cuba, yet.

Dead or alive, the United States government is making big plans for what will happen in Cuba after Fidel Castro. On Monday, in a meeting led by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rica and Cuban exile Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutiérrez, it was announced that the U.S. could "rehabilitate" a post-Castro Cuba in 18 months, as long as the transition government was willing to faciliate a democratic change. Hmmmm why does this sound so familiar? Oh yeah now I remember it's the same lines that were and continue to be given to defend the occupation of Iraq. But wait, it gets better.

According to El Diario/la Prensa, Gutiérrez said that this transition government:

...debería estar comprometido con “el desmantelamiento de todos los instrumentos de represión del estado e implementación de los derechos humanos internacionalmente respetados y las libertades fundamentales, incluyendo la organización de elecciones libres y justas para un nuevo gobierno cubano democráticamente elegido”
http://vivirlatino.com/2006/07/12/us-makes-postcastro-plans.php

And more from the same site re: the Castro rumor: http://vivirlatino.com/2006/07/11/is-fidel-castro-dead.php

[serryjw]

13. Can I but a cheap condo

in Cuba to retire to? In 1955 my parents where held at La Guardia Airport after returning to the US...Someone the FBI were looking for had the same last name

[Wickerman]

22. Yeah, sorry, I was intending to be tongue in cheek

don't mean to carry on the rumour - thanks for the clarification! :hi:

God, I so hope we have a change in govt before Castro goes to his reward.

[mike923]

2. Washington DC....

I guess they've had 14 plus murders in the city this month alone. Apparently they've declared a crime emergency, whatever that is.

[mom cat]

3. Darfur, Columbia, Liberia, Sri Lanka, East Timor (again), Somalia

:cry:

[jobycom]

6. Venezuela and Mexico aren't so solid, either. nt

[alvarezadams]

12. Not solid...

... but because of what?

For that matter, add the Ukraine into the mix.

What is behind all the fighting and unrest?

- The usual fight between the haves and have-nots.
A few years back and the countries/peoples that had doodley-squat might have turned to Communism. Now that particular -ism is pretty much gone, so what do people have to turn to?

In L. America a type of populist-socialist movement seems to be popping up. And it is sorely needed given the extremes of wealth and poverty and the unrepentent economic colonialism that makes life virtually unliveable in many places. Yet these popularly-elected regimes are being undermined by the West in general and the US in particular.

As for Palestine and the ME... pretty much the same. So much for our "democratic dominoes" rhetoric, eh? When it comes
down to the brass tacks, we fight for corporate interests.

Things are indeed a mess, and I attribute them mostly to the neoliberal strain of laissez faire capitalism that is ruining the 1st, 2nd and 3rd worlds for the sake of a rentier class and artificial entities called corporations.

[jobycom]

18. It's not laissez faire capitalism or corporations

Though both are problems. It's the US government in Latin and South America. Our goal from the time of Monroe has been to prevent the emergence of a strong government anywhere in the region. We have stifled trade, stifled democracy, intervened militarily, stolen resources and land, and enabled corporate exploitation. No stable governments have been allowed to emerge, and without stable, democratic, non-colonial governments there will always be exploitation, even complete exploitation, of the masses by those who can buy power. Only when the masses are empowered economically and politically can a thriving economy that funds all economic stratas emerge.

We keep fighting corporations as though there is something inherent in them that causes this exploitation. The problem isn't the existence of corporations or this red herring of "corporate personhood" (which is quite simply the definition of the corporate fiction since ancient times), the problem is the lack of governments powerful enough to fight these corporations. Left unchecked, they create feudalism. In a nation where the government is more powerful than the people allowed to do business in that nation, corporations can be controlled, and can and are sources of wealth, stability, and prosperity for the whole land.

The problem isn't the structure of corporations, it's the lack of government oversight, control and integrity in these regions.

Actually, I think we pretty much agree on most of this. The US has prevented Latin America from prospering, deliberately, as part of our economic and foreign policy. Exploitive corporate structures and a colonial/racist attitude in the West, especially the US, has made the situation worse. Our whole attitude has to change, or else our economic dominance has to collapse, or the world will continue to suffer so we can drive SUVs and wear cheap clothing and all the rest. How that all needs to change is a whole nuther debate, though.

[Virginia Dare]

4. What say the coinky-dinkers?....n/t

[MADem]

7. Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia....it's all a mess, and getting messier NT

[serryjw]

14. For that matter

Saudi Arabia is a powder keg, that could go off any minute

[MADem]

15. Well, Chavez is pulling his gas out of CITGO stations here in the US

Stock up on blankets, it could be a cold ass winter....

[serryjw]

17. WOW!

I didn't know that...link please

[MADem]

19. Like I'd make that shit up.......

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/160371/

[serryjw]

21. BIG fun..whata send to friends

thanks

[Freedomofspeech]

9. Guess I picked a bad day to cut back on my drinking....

This b.s. is too much to face w/o many glasses of wine or Jim Beam, or both.

[serryjw]

16. SHIT

I was going to stop smoking!

[KansDem]

20. Tell me about it!

Tomorrow's payday and I was looking forward to picking up a bottle of soy vodka and vermouth for a few martinis when I got home (I mentioned a few months ago about how much I like vodka martinis and got lambasted by some DU "libation experts" that martinis can't possibly be made with vodka you gotta use gin yadda yadda), but now it looks like I'll be spending my paycheck on one of those pre-fab fallout shelters you put in your backyard, like back in the 1950s.

click here for information about "Three" soy vodka :9yum!

[Astrad]

11. These crises and worse with regards to the Middle East

have been going on for some time. Most people tuned out. But after September 11th the media found it could get alot of mileage out of hyping this stuff (not explaining the complexity of it or putting it in an historical context mind you, just hyping it.) People are more tuned into terrorism/war/the middle east now and so we get lots more coverage and that makes it appear like something NEW is going on.