Who produces vastly more energy than it needs right now? The United States. So who needs Venezuela’s oil? Basically, nobody. That cold fact, writes Ben Cahill in Barron’s, is enabling the Trump Administration to further squeeze dictator Nicolas Maduro by blockading the nation’s oil exports. For decades, other countries used oil as a weapon against the U.S. Today the tables are turned and, Cahill notes, Venezuela’s decrepit industry is the one crying out for reinvestment.
How the Western News Media Came to “Trust Khomeini”
At Blacklisted, Eve Barlow reminds us of the mainstream media’s long shilling for the wrong side in the great saga of Iran. Consumed by hatred for the Shah, the CIA and the U.S. government, leading outlets like the New York Times promoted a murderous totalitarian – the Ayatollah Khomeini – as a reasonable answer to Iran’s problems. Barlow notes how the media have remained trapped in their moral inversion – to the very moment the mullahcracy finally appears set to topple.
