By Ted Snider | Consortium News | September 12, 2014 When placed in the proper context, recent events in Ukraine emerge as part of a pattern of “silent coups” typical of the era of President Barack Obama in which “regime change” is disguised as “democracy promotion” but actually overturns democratically elected leaders. The Ukrainian coup unfolded […]
When President Obama requested $3.7 billion from Congress in early July he returned the issue of border security to the forefront where it had faded since the days of large scale Mexican migration a few years ago. The exodus from Mexico stemmed from the signing of NAFTA in 1994 which pitted Mexican corn farms, long a staple of the Mexican economy, against an influx of heavily subsidized corn inputs from the U.S. Over two million Mexicans left agriculture and many headed north, drawn by the Sunbelt building boom.
Critics Argue Drug-War Money is Part of the Problem, Not the Solution
By Bill Conroy
Some 58,000 migrant children, mostly Central Americans, have made the treacherous journey to the U.S. southern border alone over the past 10 months, but actions being considered by U.S. officials to combat the problem with more military and drug-war aid to their countries, critics warn, may worsen the violence that provokes this unprecedented exodus.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, July 8, 2014:
“In my travels as secretary of state, I have seen as never before the thirst for American leadership in the world.”
President Barack Obama, May 28, 2014:
“Here’s my bottom line, America must always lead on the world stage. If we don’t, no one else will.”
Nicholas Burns, former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, May 8, 2014:
“Where is American power and leadership when the world needs it most?”
Mitt Romney, Republican Party candidate for President, September 13, 2012:
President Maduro, slanderous Western media, promoting war and violence for capital gains of the mercilessly amoral, automaton functioning, speculative interest banking industry, has put you in their spotlight to better target you with defamation. This is, then, your opportunity to be heard world-wide. In telling the truth about the USA, you will be protecting all of us, Venezuela included.
Rain forests around the world are rapidly disappearing due to illegal logging, the growth of palm oil and other plantations, and clearance for cattle raising and other forms of commercial agriculture. Now scientists warn of another threat to the rain forests of Central America — especially those in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and some of their neighbors — this according to a news report in Science Daily for January 30, 2014 (“Drug trafficking leads to deforestation in Central America”).
