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Bustelo was never a Gaddaffi supporter. I was an opponent of the
intervention.
As for Assad, I have no idea what is going on in Syria, I don't follow
it. From what little I hear, mostly on NPR and Democracy Now, it sounds
like a complete clusterfuck.
But I've been a war correspondent and for that reason I know so much of
what is reported under those circumstances is bullshit, and not just
intentional propaganda but just because shit happens in war, and it is
really hard to untangle in real time what happened, and often you
can't. That means it would be a huge drain of time and effort to try to
follow what is going on there, because you'd have to be checking and
cross checking, and for someone who has never been within two thousand
miles of the place, doesn't speak the language, doesn't know the
culture, has only the vaguest notions of the history, and is not at all
current on what the different states in the region or otherwise involved
are doing or why, it seems like a fool's errand.
Also, I have no idea what anti-imperialist analysis I'm supposed to have
that I got from the Cuban and Venezuelan press. I don't follow either,
and in fact, I couldn't even tell you the name of a pro-government
newspaper in Venezuela. I'll take your word for it that the Venezuelan
government's people present an anti-imperialist analysis, because
--honestly-- I would not have automatically assumed that to be the case.
It may seem strange that I would not follow Cuba or Venezuela or Syria
or much else, but try to understand what I do: I produce and co-host a
daily, live two-hour news, analysis and call-in radio show in Spanish on
what is now an internet-only station, radio información. And then I do
an hour show of political music on Fridays.
Our audience is overwhelmingly immigrants from Latin America who came
here as adults, the big majority of them undocumented although a number
have managed to get legal status. The majority is Mexican; there are
also large numbers from Central American countries (save Costa Rica) and
a scattering from other places.
I have to follow pretty much everything going on in the United States
and Mexico. as much as I can of Central America, and whatever is hot in
Latin America, like the way Macri has managed to bankrupt Argentina is
just a couple of years. So don't ask me about Assad or whatever Maduro
may be saying. Things I know about are the fight over the new Mexico
City International Airport, the disappearance of the 43 students in
Iguala, Peña Nieto's "white house," and then Medicaid expansion in
Georgia, voter suppression, Trump and the wall and all things Trump
(much as I hate and resent it).
The reason I post so little nowadays is that I stopped doing it when I
got sick a decade ago. It takes a long time to recover from an illness
like that (throat cancer) and the treatment. Before I was fully
recovered, and got back into posting here, I got restructured out of my
job at CNN and so I was able to get very involved with the Latino
community and the immigrant rights movement here, with Occupy while it
lasted, and then in 2012 with Radio Información.
That's pretty much determined what I focus on and follow. I've taken a
different path is all.
And when I look at this email list, there is usually very little that
intersects with what I am doing or focused on. For example, I just did a
quick search through Thunderbird of how many posts mentioning Syria
there had been in the past week: 8. That's also the number of posts
there have been about Mexico since July 1, when the election was held.
And it is not just this list. The same thing happened with Solidarity. I
got involved with DSA because the Sanders campaign and subsequent
developments (especially AOC's upset in the New York House primary) are
a frequent subject of conversation in the show, as are issues of
electoral strategy and tactics.
Louis, You are of course, free to be flippantly dismissive because you
think I'm an Assadist or that I'm a Maduro or Putin fan boy. But I
suspect that however important whatever it is that is going on in Syria
turns out to be, and I realize it is a question of the entire region and
not just one country and it is important, at least in an immediate sense
what is going on in Mexico and at the border, and having a clear vision
and understanding of it, is of more near-term relevance to those engaged
in radical politics in this country, and I would not exclude the
possibility of that turning out to be true in the longer term also.
By the way, the ONLY time I can remember Syria coming up on our show is
when a frequent caller asked about whether what was being said about
some poison gas attack was true and I told him quite honestly that I
didn't know.
And don't take my word for it, you can actually find out what I really
think about the things that I am really following by going to Radio
Información Facebook page or YouTube account and listening to "Hablemos
con Teodoro." I'm the gnome underneath the mostly bald head nearest the
window.
* * *
As for my near hysterical I don't know what in relation to Trump and
Russia, I provided a list of carefully sourced blog posts that even
have links to the sources.
But of course if y'all prefer the government's version, there's a new
propaganda indictment from the Justice Department against the Russians
accusing them of saying unkind things to undermine American democracy.
As if there were such a thing!
Joaquín
On 10/17/2018 9:34 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
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On 10/17/18 9:11 AM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:
Bustelo's approach is that this is simply "repeating brain-dead American
imperialist propaganda." This is actually similar to those who defend
Assad
on the grounds that Assad is opposed by US imperialism.
That's because Bustelo is an Assad supporter. As well as a Gaddafi
supporter. He hasn't been much of a presence on this mailing list for
years now but only shows up to write some violent attack on those of
us who don't share his "anti-imperialist" analysis that is drawn from
the Cuban and Venezuelan press.
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