Heady days for the National Endowment for Democracy

News consumers will no doubt be following developments in Thailand and Ukraine. In both cases democratically elected governments are being pressured by mobs of "democracy activists" to abdicate.

In both countries the NED has spent years funding and developing networks of so-called democracy activists.

The NED was born in the Reagan era as a conduit to funnel support to reliable allies within foreign states. Although it claims NGO status it receives all its funding from the US government and does the bidding of same. It is not "independent" in any way. It's mission is to support groups who will be supportive of US interests and to undermine groups who are not.

US "interests" are of course the usual stew of anti-democratic initiatives designed to further American military and corporate goals around the world. The reason the work of the NED is so important is that democracy is a delicate flower not properly appreciated by many foreigners. People in the so-called lesser-developed world often make the mistake of putting their own interests ahead of those of the US.

Luckily, those errant results of a flawed democratic process can sometimes be reversed, as in Paraguay and Honduras, both countries in which the NED had actively supported reliable cadres of properly indoctrinated "democracy activists." Such reversals are known as "constitutional crises."

Egypt under Morsi was too far gone for a constitutional crisis and required a full-out military coup. While it may seem counter-intuitive to those not familiar with US-style democracy, a military coup can sometimes be the most democratic way of affecting change.

So buck up, democracy activists in Bangkok and Kiev. Keep the pressure on. Sooner or later you will prevail. You too can have a democracy that Uncle Sam can be proud of.

America's bumboy in Paraguay destined for presidency

The party of Alfredo Stroessner is favored to win tomorrow's election in Paraguay.

Horacio Cartes is certainly not the favorite of the poor or the working classes or the aboriginal peoples of the land, but he is favored in Washington.

And we all know that's what counts.

That's how democracy is supposed to work.

Chavez dies, Dow surges

Next to the Castro brothers, Hugo Chavez was the one leader in the Western hemisphere who could be counted on to be the party-pooper at the non-stop celebration of American exceptionalism that seems as natural to us as the air we breathe.

Chavez famously took the podium at the UN in 2006 and claimed he could "still smell the sulfur" left by George "the Antichrist" Bush the previous day.

Chavez had good reason to be bitter about American designs on his country. After all, it was the Bush administration that gave the nod and the wink to the 2002 coup that took Chavez out of power for two days. The coup unraveled as massive street demonstrations showed that Chavez was a hugely popular leader. Nonetheless, the lessons learned made the US backed coups in Honduras in 2009 and Paraguay in 2012 successful.

While Chavez may have distrusted the US administration, he seemed quite fond of Americans. The Venezuelan government has since 2005 delivered almost half a billion dollars in free heating oil to millions of needy Americans through it's CITGO subsidiary.

No wonder he was despised by America's ruling class.

And what a coincidence that on the very day Chavez goes to his reward, the Dow-Jones hits an all-time record high!

Coincidence?...