Anti-Semitism, Socialism -- and What About Haiti?

We can tell from the post-holiday morning paper that the evolving strategy to maintain allegiance to a foundering status quo has for the time being settled on two epithets: "anti-Semite" and "socialist."

For the former, we have these three dispatches:

• Anti-Semitic Taunts by Yellow Vests Prompt French Soul-Searching
• 7 Labour Lawmakers Resign in U.K., in Rebuke of Jeremy Corbyn
• Anti-Semitic Attacks Fuel Continuing Rise in Hate Crimes in New York

For the latter, these three:

• Trump Delivers Blunt Warning to Venezuela Military Over Aid Impasse
• As Trump Attacks Maduro, Some See Bid for Florida Votes
• Kamala Harris Faces Questions About ‘Democratic Socialist’ Label and Jussie Smollett in N.H. Debut

Yes, it appears we have arrived at a point where to doubt the neoliberal status quo is to invite repudiation as an anti-Semite and a socialist, and this at a time when a prominent Jewish socialist has declared his intention to run for president.

One of the interesting takeaways from Trump's coup rally yesterday in Florida is Bolton's acknowledgement (first bullet in the second block) that the aid convoys being staged on the Venezuela's borders are a publicity stunt:

John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, told reporters in Miami before the speech that Venezuelan volunteers would bring in all the donated supplies, with no assist from the American forces that have stockpiled the aid on the Colombian side.

Regardless, the outcome would not be ideal for Mr. Maduro, Mr. Bolton said, because if the Venezuelan military blocked the aid, the world would see Mr. Maduro’s “true colors.”

“We hope that the press will be there to see the Maduro loyalists stopping humanitarian assistance from going to the poor people of Venezuela,” Mr. Bolton said. “People want to know why the Venezuelan people are rising up. That act by Maduro would be proof beyond words.”

But Venezuela is responding with PR of its own: delivering food aid to Colombia and staging a concert to rival the one staged by odious British billionaire Richard Branson.

And where's the news about the ongoing revolt in Haiti? Armed U.S. mercenaries were arrested there on Sunday. The mainstream press doesn't want to report on Haiti because it refutes the narrative concocted on Venezuela.