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February 25th, 2019</time></p>

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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 64px; line-height: 50px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 6px; font-family: Times, serif, Georgia;" class="">W</span>ASHINGTON

 — </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">As socialists rally in the United States over their country’s backing of a right wing coup in Venezuela, the supposedly socialist members of Congress – Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) and Representative Alexandria

 Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) – are hitting talking points that worry critics like Roger Waters and activists in the streets alike.</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The Pink Floyd bassist and composer took billionaire Sir Richard Branson to task last week as he organized a benefit concert for the

 Venezuelan opposition in neighboring Colombia, </span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/roger-waters-slams-richard-branson-fronting-us-trojan-horse-aid-venezuela/255460/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><em style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">MintPress

 News</em> reported</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">. Now, Waters, who </span><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/roger-waters-on-the-wall-socialism-and-his-next-concept-album-53352/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">says</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> that

 “socialism is a good thing” and in 2015 </span><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/roger-waters-loves-bernie-sanders-fears-hillary-clinton-64435/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">backed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> Sanders,

 is wondering if he’s “f-ing kidding” us. Sanders announced his candidacy for 2020 last week.</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Waters’ expression of shock was made in reply to the Senator’s tweet on Saturday, which demanded that Venezuelan President Nicolas

 Maduro “allow humanitarian aid into the country.” Waters pulled no punches, questioning whether Sanders is really “the perfect stooge for the one percent.”</span></p>

<span id="add-5c744baf0ad7e" class="ad" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/fighting-social-media-censorship" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><img src="https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Fundraiser-Icon-400x2.jpg" align="center" data-lazy-loaded="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: -15px;" class=""></a></span>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The Venezuelan government has rejected U.S. aid as a pretext for further intervention and an affront to their border sovereignty.

 Elliott Abrams, who was recently named United States Special Representative for Venezuela, was previously involved in a plot to send $27 million in weapons disguised as humanitarian aid to right wing contras. Meanwhile, an airliner with </span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/watch-a-visit-to-21-air-the-firm-accused-of-arming-right-wing-insurgency-in-venezuela/255392/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">links</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> to

 the CIA has flown weapons into the country and the agency responsible for delivering it, USAID, has a history of torturing leftists in South America.</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Poignantly, Waters warned Sanders not to “collude” with the architects of the U.S.’s coup policies: neoconservative warmongers Elliott

 Abrams and John Bolton, and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a champion of the wealthy right wing pink wave emigre scene in Miami.</span></p>

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 · <a class="u-url permalink customisable-highlight u-linkBlend" data-scribe="element:mini_timestamp" href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1099380342018912257" style="background-color: transparent; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; outline: 0px;">Feb

 23, 2019</a></div>

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The people of Venezuela are enduring a serious humanitarian crisis. The Maduro government must put the needs of its people first, allow humanitarian aid into the country, and refrain from violence against protesters.</p>

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Bernie, are you f-ing kidding me! if you buy the Trump, Bolton, Abrams, Rubio line, “humanitarian intervention” and collude in the destruction of Venezuela, you cannot be credible candidate for President of the USA. Or, maybe you can, maybe you’re the perfect

 stooge for the 1 %.</p>

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<span class="TweetInfo-heartStat" data-scribe="element:heart_count" style="margin-left: 3px;">11K</span></a></div>

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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Ben Becker an organizer with the </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Party for Socialism and Liberation</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">,

 was protesting in New York City on Saturday against the coup as Sanders called on Maduro to comply with Washington’s demands. He told <em style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">MintPress</em>:</span></p>

<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; margin: 40px;" class="">

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">There were actions in hundreds of cities worldwide this past weekend, endorsed by a large spectrum of progressive and anti-war organizations.

 I attended a protest of many hundreds at the Trump building on Wall Street, which an important target given the role of U.S. corporations and banks in </span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-truth-about-us-sanctions-on-venezuela-and-whys-the-media-gets-it-wrong/254625/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">strangling</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> Venezuela’s

 economy. They are </span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-backs-coup-oil-rich-venezuela-right-wing-opposition-plans-mass-privatization-hyper-capitalism/254194/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">salivating</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> about

 the oil profits in particular they would gain from regime change, a goal that the Trump administration speaks openly about.”</span></p>

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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Sanders’ Foreign Policy Advisor Matt Duss took the attacks on the Maduro government further, tweeting a headline from the pages of

 the Daily Beast verbatim: “Socialists Should Take a Stand on Venezuela: No Trump, No Maduro, No War.”</span></p>

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The people of Venezuela are enduring a serious humanitarian crisis. The Maduro government must put the needs of its people first, allow humanitarian aid into the country, and refrain from violence against protesters.</p>

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you know better than to endorse a stunt led by war criminals who have snuck weapons in aid shipments in the past. This stance will not make democrats like you more and will only lose you support from socialists</p>

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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The article, written by journalist and notorious </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2017/08/online-trolls-syria-alt-left/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">troller</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> of

 Syria anti-interventionists Charlie Davis, distanced itself from the Trump-style regime change wherein Elliott Abrams, who is associated with “death squads,” is leading the charge.</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">But while Davis portrays Abrams as the “bad cop,” leftwing thought leaders like himself serve as the “good cops” of empire. Yes, Trump

 does not “give a half a goddam about democracy,” but he is also “not necessarily wrong,” Davis argues before rambling in denunciation of Maduro’s supposed authoritarianism.</span></p>

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 · <a class="u-url permalink customisable-highlight u-linkBlend" data-scribe="element:mini_timestamp" href="https://twitter.com/OLAASM/status/1025883905910554625" style="background-color: transparent; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; outline: 0px;">Aug

 4, 2018</a></div>

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Pretty wild that Charles Davis, a liberal-at-best from the empire itself, is deploying these commonplace & widespread memorandums to try to delegitimize & erase the leftism of actual fucking warriors who personally fought the US operations directly...<br class="">

<br class="">

But here we are.</p>

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I really want to see Davis come tell guerrilla veterans in the FMLN that – because their party is coerced into cooperation memorandums with the empire to protect their people being deported by the US – that they have lost their left credentials in his Yankee

 estimation.</p>

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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Davis also painted Ecuador’s rightward drifting government, which has placed Julian Assange in de-facto solitary confinement and issued

 an arrest warrant against its socialist ex-president Rafael Correa, as a “social democracy.”</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Despite all this, Duss promoted the shoutout Davis gave his boss, tweeted the passage:</span></p>

<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; margin: 40px;" class="">

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">In the US, this position has been echoed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, who issued a statement stressing opposition to any foreign-imposed

 regime change in Venezuela—while noting Venezuelans should be provided the opportunity to change their regime on their own, if they so choose.”</span></p>

</blockquote>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">While Senator Sanders seems to support a supposedly “democratic” kind of regime change in Venezuela, journalist Ben Norton, who has

 spent the past two weeks in Venezuela amid the flailing coup attempt, says it is the opposition that is un-democratic. On Twitter, Norton </span><a href="https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1100076858702512128" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">accused</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> the

 Venezuelan opposition of dropping “all pretense of wanting democracy and demand[ing] a coup and war.” He told <em style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">MintPress</em>:</span></p>

<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; margin: 40px;" class="">

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The corporate media and the US government it so obediently echoes frequently claims that Venezuela is a “dictatorship,” but my past

 few weeks here in Caracas have shown precisely the opposite: Venezuela remains an impressively democratic country — despite non-stop foreign intervention, internal sabotage and violence from the opposition, and threats of war from the US and right-wing US-allied

 governments in Latin America.”</span></p>

</blockquote>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Becker argued a similar position, telling <em style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">MintPress</em>:</span></p>

<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; margin: 40px;" class="">

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The opposition has an unelected ‘president’ who proclaimed himself such at a protest, and has now exiled himself to Colombia to beg

 foreign governments to invade. They pressued all opposition candidates to not run in the last elections and demanded international observers to not come and observe them. Meanwhile, the Chavista government has conducted 24 elections in the last 20 years.”</span></p>

</blockquote>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Becker further laid into what he characterized as a cynical stunt to provoke regime change:</span></p>

<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; margin: 40px;" class="">

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">As both the UN and Red Cross affirmed, ‘humanitarian aid’ by definition has to be apolitical, neutral and requested by the receiving

 country. This wasn’t humanitarian aid — it was a stunt designed to provide the imagery for intervention. Venezuela accepted just this week ten times more actual aid from Russia, Cuba, China and the Pan American Health Organization. The Maduro government’s

 stance on this is completely logical: it won’t accept phony “aid” from the countries that are simultaneously stealing the government’s assets, sanctioning their industries and seizing their bank accounts — all of which makes it harder to import food and medicine.

 “</span></p>

</blockquote>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">He added that Sanders had received backlash from fellow Democrats merely for refusing to recognize Juan Guaido as President of Venezuela.</span></p>

<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; margin: 40px;" class="">

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Sanders’ tactic for years has been to run to the right on foreign policy issues so as to protect his New Deal-style domestic program.

 He’s always distanced himself from actual socialist projects that have been targeted and demonized by the U.S. Empire to assure the corporate-owned media that his vision is closer to Denmark or Sweden. Now that Sanders is a main target of Trump’s anti-socialist

 rhetoric and that he’s a potential front-runner for the nomination, I expect we’ll see more of that from him.”</span></p>

</blockquote>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </p>

<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; font-size: 30px;" class="">

<span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The Anti-Maduro Millennial</span></h2>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">During an Instagram Live, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacked the Maduro government. “What people don’t understand is

 that this is really kind of an issue of authoritarianism versus democracy in many different ways,” she said. “This is really an issue of a failure of democracy.”</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Because Instagram Live videos are automatically deleted after 24 hours, <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1099863181193764864" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class="">the

 clip</a> in which Cortez spoke on Venezuela was brought to light by a right wing account which attacked her for live streaming herself cooking while giving “cooking lessons, dating tips and even interior design advice.”</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Cortez said she wanted to “empower and center the people of Venezuela and the will of the public.”</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span id="cch_f268c3b7902d144" class="_mh6 _wsc" style="box-sizing: border-box;">“What I believe in above all else is a true democracy; is democracy as a form of government; democracy

 in the workplace; democracy in our economy,” Cortez said. But Norton has seen just that as he has “traveled through barrios interviewing average working-class Venezuelans.” He says he has been “blown away by the democratic and revolutionary spirit that still

 pervades the community, despite the economic difficulties that do indeed exist — in no small part because of years of crippling US sanctions, economic warfare, and a de facto embargo, along with well-documented speculation and hoarding by capitalists inside

 the country.”</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span id="cch_f268c3b7902d144" class="_mh6 _wsc" style="box-sizing: border-box;">“The Chavista movement has encouraged democracy at many levels, from thriving communes and local

 councils to feminist organizations and the community-organized CLAP [Local Food Production and Provision Committees] food program,” Norton added.</span></p>

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<a class="u-linkBlend" data-scribe="element:in_reply_to_user_link" href="https://twitter.com/_/status/1100076858702512128" style="background-color: transparent; color: inherit; text-decoration: inherit; outline: 0px;">Replying to @BenjaminNorton</a></div>

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<p class="e-entry-title Tweet-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; border: none; white-space: pre-wrap; cursor: text; overflow-wrap: break-word; direction: ltr;">

The conflict in Venezuela *is* precisely about ideology, <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC" class="customisable h-card PrettyLink profile" dir="ltr" data-mentioned-user-id="138203134" data-scribe="element:mention" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(43, 123, 185); text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">

<span class="PrettyLink-prefix">@</span><span class="PrettyLink-value">AOC</span></a>. The violent right-wing US-backed opposition wants nothing less than the total eradication of Chavismo. The opposition is exterminationist<br class="">

<br class="">

As a US-backed opposition politician admitted, they want "the Pinochet option"</p>

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Far-right billionaire-in-chief Trump and neocon war hawks John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Elliott Abrams, and Marco Rubio have spent all their energy trying to overthrow Venezuela's elected government, but "socialist"

<a href="https://twitter.com/AOC" class="customisable h-card PrettyLink profile" dir="ltr" data-mentioned-user-id="138203134" data-scribe="element:mention" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(43, 123, 185); text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">

<span class="PrettyLink-prefix">@</span><span class="PrettyLink-value">AOC</span></a> instead blames Venezuela, while it is under brutal attack.</p>

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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">“Instead of accepting all the propaganda against Venezuela,” Becker argues, “people who consider themselves democratic socialists

 should really study it for themselves.” </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">He continued:</span></p>

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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Venezuela’s socialists have held and won many elections and used the electoral process to carry out major wealth redistributions in

 favor of the poor and working class, with missions for housing, health care and education. But it provoked a massive backlash of course from the oligarchy, and the world’s major financial and corporate powers. The ‘billionaire class’ doesn’t just give up their

 power without a fight and has a lot of tools at their disposal — that’s true in Venezuela and the United States.”</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The initial tweets from her colleague Ilhan Omar were </span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/ilhan-omar-wont-stop-denouncing-the-us-backed-coup-in-venezuela/254355/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">far

 clearer</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">, based in a principled anti-war position and even provided context about the roots of Venezuela’s economic crisis. By contrast, Ocasio-Cortes is following the same strategy as Sen. Sanders,

 which falsely believes you can advance a progressive agenda (and your own career) at home by saying as little as possible about foreign policy and conceding to the rhetoric of anti-communism.”</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">There are certain things that the U.S. ruling class can tolerate debate over in terms of domestic policy, but on the bottom line issue

 of the U.S. Empire, they all unite when it’s time to attack. The corporate-owned media makes sure no one gets out of line and you are cast out as a pariah. “</span></p>

</blockquote>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Importantly, Cortez also slammed Elliott Abrams from the left, saying that he “pled guilty to crimes” in relation to the Iran-Contra

 scandal. She added that Abrams is a “legit criminal. Plead guilty.”</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">While the is no question that Abrams the other gangsters running U.S. regime change projects throughout the Cold War to today are

 not innocent, Cortez repeated a tired trope of criminal justice hawks: that people are “legit criminals” so long as they “plead guilty.” Studies </span><a href="https://www.innocenceproject.org/guilty-pleas-on-the-rise-criminal-trials-on-the-decline/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; -webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(240, 185, 32); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial initial;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">show</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> that

 97 percent of federal defendants resolve their cases through plea bargaining.</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">“If anything, reporting here at the grassroots in Venezuela has further clarified to me how authoritarian my own country is: The United

 States, the world’s biggest incarceration nation, could stand to learn a lesson about democracy from Venezuelans,” Norton told <em style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">MintPress News</em>.</span></p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class="">Top Photo | Roger Waters performs during his “Us + Them” tour stop at Staples Center on, June 20, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)</p>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px;" class=""><em style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;" class="">Alexander Rubinstein</span> is a staff writer for MintPress News based

 in Washington, DC. He reports on police, prisons </em>and<em style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""> protests in the United States and the United States’ policing of the world. He previously reported for RT and Sputnik News.</em></p>

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