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New Wingnut Meme: Leno Was Let Go For Making Too Many Obama Jokes

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CuriousLurker2/19/2014 5:40:45 pm PST

re: #237 Charles Johnson

Because as far as I know the US hasn’t actually done anything, except to call on the Venezuelan government to respond to protests peacefully with negotiation. Did I miss something else?

According to the Guardian article Stone links to it’s just concern trolling:

US support for regime change in Venezuela is a mistake
The US push to topple the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro once again pits Washington against South America

When is it considered legitimate to try and overthrow a democratically-elected government? In Washington, the answer has always been simple: when the US government says it is. Not surprisingly, that’s not the way Latin American governments generally see it. […]

The Obama administration was a bit more subtle, but also made it clear where it stood. When Secretary of State John Kerry states that “We are particularly alarmed by reports that the Venezuelan government has arrested or detained scores of anti-government protestors,” he is taking a political position. Because there were many protestors who committed crimes: they attacked and injured police with chunks of concrete and Molotov cocktails; they burned cars, trashed and sometimes set fire to government buildings; and committed other acts of violence and vandalism.

An anonymous State Department spokesman was even clearer last week, when he responded to the protests by expressing concern about the government’s “weakening of democratic institutions in Venezuela”, and said that there was an obligation for “government institutions [to] respond effectively to the legitimate economic and social needs of its citizens”. He was joining the opposition’s efforts to de-legitimize the government, a vital part of any “regime change” strategy.

Of course we all know who the US government supports in Venezuela. They don’t really try to hide it: there’s $5m in the 2014 US federal budget for funding opposition activities inside Venezuela, and this is almost certainly the tip of the iceberg - adding to the hundreds of millions of dollars of overt support over the past 15 years. […]

theguardian.com

Gawd, do the Guardian reporters all like GG these days? *gag*