Vasabjit Banerjee

The leadership may respond. Venezuela may not. That's the problem with iterated decapitation. It removes the credibility of the upped rungs of power to the lower rungs.

Venezuela’s National Assembly chief rules out new presidential election Jorge Rodriguez, the interim president’s brother, says the current government is focused on national stability.

Essentially, America has resolved the most critical problem of every authoritarian regime: leadership succession. Possibly played into a palace coup that will keep alive the regime, but with more resources.

BTW: this gent is Acting Pres. Delcy Rodriguez' brother.

www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Hi American Politics Scholars! What are some books and articles that I should read about the expansion of the domestic and foreign Intel agencies into American society and politics in the Cold War era, i.e., from 1950s to 1980s?

Many thanks in advance!

What the U.S. is heading towards is a zero immigration policy or something effectively like that and amnesty for everyone who is in the U.S. if they haven't committed any crimes. All this pain and suffering for the most inane solution.

I want the confidence of a person using a real handle to sell their used massager on Facebook Marketplace.

I was not only unbothered by my associate's moral depravity and pederasty. I brought my wife and children to hang out with him. It's not a moral vacuum: it's a moral black hole.

Even the utterly debauched princes in the Raj couldn't beat this lot: they feared tradition and British imperatives.

Many comparativists are ignoring state and local politics in America when applying insights. This is a strongly federal system. Despite recent nationalization, party elite and base preferences also vary by state.

I am not surprised because many of us do the same in comparative politics, too.

Let us all travel to the moon! Like, at some point it's the multitude of marks not the para-statal running hustler.

High-Level Latin American Delegation Visits to Taiwan in 2025 | Global Taiwan Institute Latin America is a critical region for Taiwan’s diplomacy. Seven of its 12 remaining diplomatic allies—Paraguay, Guatemala, Belize, Haiti, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. ...

Taiwan is reviving its long standing ties to Latin America. Sec. of State Rubio's priority has been to roll back China's diplomatic influence in the region.

globaltaiwan.org/2026/01/cong...

Es lo mismo en la India. lol

From going to Mars to going to the Moon. Next up: Pretoria.

There's a time when many men think their father (figure) is a sage. Usually happens in middle age when they start facing similar personal and career issues. Then their father goes over the hill: fast becoming out of touch and possibly senile. Sometimes that decline is only apparent in hindsight.

Nothing soothes the body and mind in a crisp, cool way than a sunset over the English countryside near George Barnard Shaw's home in Hertfordshire.

That's a key bit of information that I was not aware of. Thanks!

Reading old "On Guard" magazines for a research project, and just came across this article about a gent who served in WW2 and the Gulf War. Epic!

Were the bazaaris part of the first wave, too?

I deleted the original post because I was apprised of the date. Many thanks to @delexical.bsky.social and my apologies.

White House frustrations with Venezuela’s Machado grow after elections comments “None of this is ‘Operation María Corina Machado.’ It’s ‘Operation U.S. national security,’” said a White House adviser.

American plans for Venezuela are collapsing because nobody wants to negotiate with the real power brokers, the Venezuelan army. So, a regime transition is now delayed and mutual trust with the democratic leader Corina Machado is being frittered away.

www.politico.com/news/2026/02...

Populists in Latin America near always turn to authoritarianism as their hold on power is threatened. This can be through attempted coups, electoral losses, or economic downturns. When institutions stand firm, they can fail. But they could have also destroyed the institutions when they were popular.

The man is born for this kinda thing. I have zero sympathies for him, but whoever came up with this idea should be drawn and quartered.

a man stands in front of a crowd with the words are you not entertained ALT: a man stands in front of a crowd with the words are you not entertained

Bill Clinton in a nationally televised political spectacle being attacked by a bunch of fierce opponents baying for his blood? Y'all have no idea who that man is.

Yeah, it kinda changed in Britain in the 1970s with Saeed Jaffrey, Victor Banerjee, and other actors in the Merchant and Ivory stable.

Someone once gravely noted to me how Gandhi has spindly legs. I retorted, those were Kingsley's legs.

Poor man had to change his name to get ahead in the British film and theatre scene.

While British conservatives flog Shakespeare, Byron, and Shelley across the world to make perspiring children in Calcutta by heart Wordsworth stanzas about daffodils, American pretenders only think of the color of the orator's skin. As if Hemingway, Faulkner, Twain and Melville are not universal.

Where was Charles Murray's indignation when Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Cleopatra or Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago?

Art is über alles!

Analysis: The US wants to push China out of Latin America. The Panama Canal is the latest test | CNN China has come out swinging after Panama’s high court ruled against a Hong Kong-backed company’s right to operate key ports at the Panama Canal, vowing the government will “pay a heavy political and e...

www.cnn.com/2026/02/05/c...

Pace Faulkner, to understand American politics today, you must first understand the politics of a state like Mississippi.

Knowing how perfidious Albion does foreign policy, they are probably handing over an island base because the rise in sea levels due to climate change will make it impossible to maintain and operate from the place anyway. All the while claiming generosity, fair play, and generating good will. lol

We are about to find out this in real time in the Epstein case. Commentators will pick their favorite punching bag, but pay to play spying is way more common--and has been forever--than we think.

Credit card companies will lend less with a 10 percent ceiling on interest rates.

Also, does this cieling apply to the pay day lenders?

Removing ATM and overdraft fees (for less than a certain amount) are easy and less harmful ways to help the working poor, but we only do Mad Max stuff.