That’s right, it was not Puerto Rico, but Costa Rica, whose congress approved the mobilization of 46 US Navy vessels in its harbors, including the billeting of 7,000 uniformed US Marines to conduct humanitarian and drug-war operations. Did permission come with conditions? It did, but ours, not theirs. Before the US is to visit Costa Rica with 200 helicopters and combat planes, we stipulated that “US personnel in Costa Rica shall enjoy freedom of movement and the right to engage in activities they may consider necessary to fulfill their mission.”
Opposition parties in Costa Rica complain that such a huge military fleet in their waters will be disproportionate to the requirements of fighting the drug trade, and appears to have its sights further ashore.
Meanwhile the US armada off the coast of Iran is being joined by Israeli warships. Fidel Castro wonders at the likelihood they’ll move any direction but escalation sooner than retreat with tail between their legs if Iran complies with the latest UN demands.
I’d be surprised if they don’t charge the Costa Rican people reparations for their “liberation”. Oh, that’s right, they’ve BEEN doing that for well over a century.
Say, Rush Limbaugh said that if the Health Care bill passes in any form he would move to Costa Rica, to one of the of course Non-Colonial gated communities the Real Estate brokers are pushing, where the Local Servants are required to adopt English names and address their Non-Masters in English Only.
Guess Rush was lying… Again. But, hey, he’s a professional and enjoys his “work”.
But unless the Corporations found a large source of Oil or some other expensive commodity that they don’t already “own” in Costa Rica, I’d say they are, in fact, trying to reclaim the U.S. Oil Corporations’ “property and rightful belongings” in Venezuela.
But of course, it would be to “liberate the People of Venezuela from a cruel and despotic dictatorship”. They don’t change the words to their song very much.
Maybe they’ll have “intelligence” reports that Venezuela has WMDs.
This doesnt make sense. Gotta be a hidden agenda here. America will go to CR to battle the drug war but cant even mobilize our own borders. Something funny here.
Money. Venezuela has a commodity that American Corporations want… oil. Nationalized oil meaning: BP and Exxon-Mobil have to buy it from the Venezuelan people at a price the Venezuelan people want them to pay. Much like the PAN “liberation” of Mexico, or more specifically, Liberating PEMEX from that nasty old Socialist sell-our-natural-resources-for-the-benefit-of-our-people, not-your-corporate-rich-pigs.
Costa Rica is pretty much a “tamed” Banana Republic, held in slavery to American agricultural products and mining corporations by the sheer force of sending in the Marines every time the slaves rebel.
Which is yet another commodity, slave labor. If the mine workers and coffee and banana plantation slaves can look to a nearby country like the formerly Socialist Mexico or the Still Socialist Venezuela, and see nations which have at least once broken the chains of Imperialism, that inspires them to say No Mas to the Masters. Especially now that the Empire has lost.
It’s why the Empire had to slap down the people of Honduras these past two years.
Funny thing about conquered people… they don’t STAY conquered forever. Just ask the Irish.
Do you know, the English did to Ireland what they did to America? Actually forbade the People they conquered to speak their own languages and practice their own religions. Also snarfed up all their land holdings and either evicted the former owners, made them Tenant Slaves or simply killed them.
Now they’re whining that the Conquered Slaves still practice their own cultural rituals and speak their own language and don’t bow down to the Superiority of the English Great White Father. And attempting to cut off cultural solidarity across an arbitrarily drawn line stretching from El Paso, Texas westward to California, drawn by the Conquerors after a contrived war based on lies, much like the current Iraq and Afghan wars. There’s a smaller portion of that Arbitrary line that runs south-east, more or less, from Ciudad Juarez/El Paso to Matamoros, following a meandering creek called the Rio Bravo.
Maybe you’ve heard of it. Meanwhile on the westward Imaginary Line the state of Arizona gave its Pigs arbitrary powers to arrest anybody who looks illegal in the judgment of the KKK related police officers. And the so-called Minutemen terrorists.
Did you know that the Minutemen have murdered a few Americans? The most famous was named Brieña Flores, who had barely reached her novena cumpleaños (she was nine years old) when last spring several of the Minutemen burst into her home, disguised as police officers, and blew her and her father away.
Of course, the same Right Wing Hate Speech non-warrior Warmongers who encouraged and enabled the Minutemen to commit that particular act of Anti-American Terrorism also urge constantly the invasion of Venezuela to “take back the oil that belongs to the American Oil Corporations” only they usually say it’s to liberate the people. The same way they say their race war against Hispanics/Native Americans is “defending America from foreign invasion” and their invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are to bring English-speaking Freedom to the Iraqi and Afghan People.
Of course they lie through their tobacco-stained gap teeth.
And, a lot of people who have been on the receiving end of their Gunboat “liberation” Diplomacy see right through those lies.
Which is probably why the Navy has to send so many soldiers there in the first place. Only, since this has been going on for much longer than a century, 4 centuries if you count the “liberation” of Plymouth, MA from the Savages… and Jamestown VA from a different group of Savage Insurgents…
It’s not exactly the “first” place for anything.
Funny how a cycle of conquest and repression becomes established like that.
Briseña Flores. The “s” key kind of stuck the first time.
Funny thing about the Drug War, the drug they say they worry about the most from south and central America, Cocaine, more of it gets sold Legally here in America than illegally. I’ve got this sunburn lotion I use to relieve the pain in my foot and the itching from the nerve and circulatory damage, brand name is Solarcaine. And there’s a toothache salve sold for use on babies and grown-ups too, called Anbesol, has the same cocaine-derivative in it, it’s called “lidocaine” and when I was at the dentist a couple of weeks ago having a tooth extracted they gave me Novocaine. One drug that gets commonly used here in America and is imported from places like Costa Rica is caffeine. The coffee you buy at King Soopers for anywhere from 3 to 20 dollars a pound, the price paid to the slavery based Plantation Managers is something like 7 cents a pound.
Since the Plantation Managers are Rich, and make more from their workers than the sum they pay to ALL of their workers cumulatively, that means the workers must be getting like a dollar a day apiece to harvest, process, package and ship the coffee. Why wouldn’t workers like that look to the production, packaging and sales of “illegal” drugs, which is about the only way any of them will ever escape the Slave-chains of enforced work for the mines or plantation owners? Enforced by the Navy and Marines and Army and Air Force of the so-called Land of the Free. Either work for the Slave System or get shot down as a terrorist. There’s a third alternative to selling dope or slavery…
Escape. The “love it or leave it” option.
Of course if they take THAT option the Racist Retards in the Minutemen and TeaBags and other Right Wing groups call them criminals and have them arrested for being “illegal aliens”.
Guess those Dark Skinned INGRATES are supposed to just stay in “their” owned-by-U.S. Corporation countries as slave labor and be God-damn grateful for the Marines coming in every now and then to give them the “freedom” to do so.
Sounds like more whining about your freedom of speech, you could just leave..
Hey, Costa Rica has a colony of Right Wing Freaks who can’t handle being constrained to Not Running America in the totalitarian fashion you so desire “Patriot”.
YOU can leave, bitch. You want to live in Totalitarian “Paradise”, there’s plenty such places you can go without trashing OUR country. And most of them are colonies carved out by YOUR Army.
Besides, it’s YOUR Army and other Pigs who say they’re fighting for freedom of speech.
You want to lie about that, then get all huffy and dare I say it, all Drama Queen Bitchy about it when your lies are questioned.
What will you do about it, Drama Queen, get your Pigs to beat me down for saying it, maybe have them shoot me in the back like they did Oscar Grant?
I know fully well that you personally won’t do anything about it, unless you have a few more of your Useless Moron Comrades to back you up.
That’s not “Patriotism” that is abject slave-like behavior and you would be ashamed of it if you were capable of feeling shame or any other aspect of Dignity.
By the way, your Navy is being bitch-slapped by the British right now, in American Coastal waters. Told to go off and mind their own business by their Corporate Masters British Petroleum.
You can take your Fascist pig buddies from the C.S. Gestapo Department with you, we won’t miss them either.
Neither you nor they ever fought for anybody’s freedom and you really shouldn’t LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH and say you did.
Especially not to recruit comrades to go and fight and be killed for your Corporate Masters, telling the kids that you’re “fighting for freedom”. What a puke.
Clean water, good food, medical help, clothes, shelter, and equal education will solve the human fear and violence problem. I live in Costa Rica and am married to a Tica for twenty two years. I moved here to live in peace. The Latin American Free Trade Agreement is about global dominance through military force. Oscar Arias is one of the main figures involved in the killing of peace in Costa Rica in favor of greed and more greed.
The clean water and equal education and real pay equality were well within the reach of the Banana Republican
LeadGreeders for the past century and a half. The government of Costa Rica has been in the pockets of the richest men in America for that long. And Guatemala, and for most of the time Nicaragua and Venezuela, and Colombia, and El Salvador, …What I find amazing is the export of American Capitalism forced on Mexico, you know, a Socialist state from 1911, has brought much poverty, pollution and corruption to the region, not just to Mexico but Texas and New Mexico and California and RacistZona.
That’s predictable, the amazing part is that even though so many Mexicans and Central Americans are voting with their feet and emigrating to the U.S., even though they know full well the wall of Hatred that awaits them,
And still the Capitalists insist that they’re the best thing for the Mexicans etc. The almost a century of Mexico being not a slave state, and thriving, the Banana Republics have gone further and further down the hole. It wasn’t from lack of Capitalist Rulers either. The richest Corporations in the world owned them, the same ones that still do.
As for the “war on drugs” there’s ten times as much coca grown legally as Illegally, and hundreds of times more Legal Drugs than illegal.
Marijuana is a weed that grows everywhere between the polar regions. The leaves are so easy to spot that they can be distinguished in satellite photos. 75 years of Pot-hibition and the “High” tech military hardware and plenty of Low-Tech Militarist Police State Thuggery haven’t stopped it, slowed it down or slowed down the increase in use worldwide.
It was a stupid play and now some of the more enlightened thinkers of Government are starting to realize it. People who have a choice between raising Coffee for Nestle or raising coca for themselves and their families, well, DUH!. Make impossible and even Illegal for them to secure wealth through the “legitimate” economic means, try to bind them to Plantation Slavery of the worst order, and sure they’ll go for the better deal.
At least the cocaine industry doesn’t have quite the same collars and chains. It’s a Populist choice. No matter how much firepower the U.S. government sends to keep the Native slaves in their place. The British tried it for 4 centuries in Ireland and a century and a half in India and Africa and Afghanistan.
Now they’re so broke that the Isle of Mann is suing for independence, Scotland is reviving the Secession Movement and even the Welsh aren’t going to stay long. Conquered people don’t stay conquered forever. And there’s never been an Empire rich enough to keep its subjects is bondage. Not Egypt, Not Rome, Not Britannia… not the United States.
Brother Hannah, Glad to see you speaking out on what Obama’s military is doing because the state run media will not mention it. If people knew the truth about how Obama is using this military and how it was used in the past they would be sick. Maybe they will finally impeach him.
Brother Hannah, I agree with you on most points. What is the solution. I say get rid of all laws that do not directly harm a person. Get rid of the Fed and all departments and rebuild it as it was intended.. Let everyone be free to do what they want as long as they dont harm people or blow things up. Allow them to make their own money and stop depending on the government for everything. We have all became dependant on the Free hand outs that are not free at all.
Bryon how is life in costa Rica. Was it hard to move there. Is the housing and medical care along with other nessesaties met? What is the cost of living there. Do you see trouble coming soon? I have grown to distrust this government for the past two years. Obama has opened my eyes since before we were getting timbles full of poison instead of buckets full. This President is going to use the military to bomb Iran and start WW3. Hopefully Obama is gone soon. But I doubt it
Costa Rica has two health care systems, on ‘for profit” run by the same thieving corporate profiteers who managed to kill, among others, my wife, through consistent denial of health care. If you want to trust them with YOUR life, they’ll be more than willing to take all your money… until you run out of money, then you’re dead. Great way for Capitalism to improve the infrastructure of a nation, right? The way they did for America…
Socialized medicine properly applied saved my left foot.
Corporate Profiteers, the thieves you say aren’t common in American Capitalism, destroyed my right foot and any chance they could exploit my labor for their profit ever again. On the Job, not that your thieving Capitalist heroes ever gave a damn about the workers who put money in their pockets.
But go ahead, treat Costa Rica like a colony. The people there would never DARE rise up against the Mighty Empire, would they? Except they have. They rose up against Spain when the U.S. Marines were in Tripoli getting their first major ass-whoopin’. And Spain actually WAS a super-power at the time.
You can blame the decay of the American Empire on the Final President if you wish. But empires decay because they became empires in the first place. That would include your little “safe haven” in Costa Rica. It’s only a “safe haven” for the thieves UNTIL… the U.S. is no longer able to maintain it. The people you arrogantly declare should change their language to that of the Master Class of American Capitalists, and even change their names, how would YOU feel if you were told never to address your masters in your own tongue? The British tried that in Ireland. But you feel the “peasants” will be so overwhelmed with pride at the thought of being your slaves that they would never rise up and strike you down for arrogance?
The British used to think that of Ireland. And India. And China.
China owns the bank loans that have kept the American Military Machine afloat, and the money fountain has dried up. The only place to get money now will be from the American Taxpayers.
So now the Rich ChickenHawk War-Pigs are going to try to abandon ship as soon as the taxes are due on their wars and their deliberate dismantling and selling of American industry.
Flee the country when the bills come due, like the cowardly sneak thieves they truly are. Leave the poorest in America holding the bag. Just like the Duvalier family did for Haiti.
Run up a huge bill that you could never pay, then run like little rats.
The other medical system in Costa Rica, and one you should know about because, once the American Propped-up System doesn’t have any more support coming from America, which is right about, oh, last year….
But it’s a joint Cuban-Venezuelan thing. When the U.S. Navy sends around the Propaganda Ship Called Hope, to pretend they seriously give a rat’s ass about the health of the Peasants, the U.S. Propaganda Press makes a big hullaballoo over it. The Cubans send doctors there and maintain clinics and quality basic health care, and the Tame Press calls it “terrorism” and “military occupation” like the lying pukes did with Grenada.
Oh, the war spending that’s bankrupted America… that’s been going on for a much much longer time than the year and a half of the Obama administration. You Chickenshit Tax Frauds didn’t complain at all when Bush and Cheney robbed America blind, or when Reagan and Bush the Elder did the same thing. How come it’s suddenly “patriotism” to duck out ahead of the bill collectors?
Now its come to Egypt