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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| U.S. Military Wary of China’s Foothold in Venezuela |
| 2019-04-15 |
| [FOREIGNPOLICY] As U.S. President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s national security team mulls a military intervention to oust Venezuela’s strongman president, Nicolás Maduro, the Pentagon is watching China’s commercial and financial creep in the crisis-gripped nation with growing alarm. In an interview with Foreign Policy, Adm. Craig Faller, the four-star military officer who heads U.S. Southern Command, pointed to a Chinese disinformation campaign designed to blame the United States for the blackouts that devastated Venezuela in recent weeks. Maduro, whose government is backed by China, Russia, and Cuba, has himself publicly accused the U.S. Defense Department of causing the blackouts. Following the power failures, Beijing offered to help the Venezuelan government restore its grid. "China came out publicly, a state front man, implying the blackouts were attributable to U.S. cyberattacks," Faller said during a recent trip to Washington, D.C. "That is just such a blatant lie. The blackouts are attributed to Maduro’s inept leadership, corruption, inattention to his people, and lack of concern for any humanity." The Pentagon is worried about China in other arenas as well. In the Pacific, China is building up its military capability, intimidating its smaller neighbors, and threatening Taiwan. In Africa, Beijing is using debt diplomacy to gain control of crucial ports and other infrastructure. And in Europe, the Trump administration is pushing NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... to address potential Chinese cyberthreats and commercial threats. "I think the biggest threat to democracy and the way of life around the world is the trend that we see in China," Faller said. He said China was trying to assert economic control in Venezuela by investing in infrastructure and providing hefty loans that Caracas would have difficulty paying back. Much of Beijing’s financial interest in Venezuela is tied to loans-for-oil deals struck between the two countries in 2007. By 2014, the China Development Bank had provided Venezuela with more than $30 billion in loans tied to oil production. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 He gave me one for my very own after we’d been working on our house for a few years. That is so romantic! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-04-15 12:22 |
| #11 Cook, travel, blog, drywall.... is there anything she cannot do ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-04-15 12:02 |
| #10 Damn, why didn't I think of that?? My wife could do that too. for nail pulling I prefer a cat's paw to get a tough one started or the straight claw and another hammer to get started and for the really tough ones, a crow bar. Using the big one to hang strapping on the ceiling was serious exercise. 8^) |
| Posted by: AlanC 2019-04-15 11:59 |
| #9 Now that really is a thinking man, setting his wife up with dry wall tools. I'll bet you're a pretty good hand at tape and mud as well. :-) |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-04-15 11:20 |
| #8 The straight claw framing hammer is a 22 oz That’s the kind Mr, Wife has — for nail bangers who don’t often need to pull out badly hit nails. When hanging drywall, I use the lighter hammer with the recurved claw because of how often I need to pull nails back out again. He gave me one for my very own after we’d been working on our house for a few years. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2019-04-15 11:14 |
| #7 I think a heightened awareness of threats in "our back yard" is a good step in a good direction... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-04-15 09:47 |
| #6 ‘We Talked About Military Options in Venezuela’ |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2019-04-15 08:40 |
| #5 Hey Beso, I've got 3 of those from my days as a nail banger. The straight claw framing hammer is a 22 oz and two 16 oz curved claws for general duty. They are indestructible and great. The youngest one is 20 years old, the oldest is 48 years old. Good stuff. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2019-04-15 07:41 |
| #4 Estwing story. Estwing Manufacturing Company was founded in Rockford, Illinois, in 1923 by Ernest O. Estwing (1884-1982). Estwing was an immigrant from Sweden who settled in Rockford with many other Swedish immigrants. His descendants live in Rockford. Estwing products are constructed of one solid piece of hardened tool steel for strength |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-04-15 06:17 |
| #3 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2019-04-15 06:07 |
| #2 Then quit financing China with $550 billion every year. |
| Posted by: Pearl Brown6709 2019-04-15 06:01 |
| #1 Intelligence community has the means and the motivation to cause all the devastation to Venezuela that they can. That it's happening right when they're trying to engineer a coup? Complete coincidence I'm sure. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy 2019-04-15 05:51 |