The on-rushing climate crisis. Left unchecked, it is literally an existential threat to the health of our planet and to our very survival. In fact it's the same worn-out jobs program for Democratic Party interest that he's been pushing since he became a senator in the early 1970s. I see the steel that will be needed for those windmill platforms, towers and ladders. I see the ports that will come back to life, the longshoremen, the shipbuilders, the communities they support. Climate change is real but it's not the end of the world. It's not even our most important environmental problem. Writer and activist Michael Schellenberger was named a hero of the environment by Time Magazine in 2008. His new book, Apocalypse Never, makes the case that the climate alarmism, which has become a central part of the Democratic Party's platform, is flat out wrong and counterproductive for both the environment and the economy. The two most important things anybody needs to know about climate change are that deaths from natural disasters have declined 90 percent over the last hundred years. They've declined 80 percent over the last 40 years, including in very poor countries. We should be celebrating this like every day of the week. And then the other thing is that carbon emissions have peaked in rich countries. They're going to peak in four countries in the next 10, 20 years maybe most. A major problem of Biden's rehash of the Green New Deal is that renewable energy sources such as solar power simply can't scale to provide the electricity that modern society needs. So the problem with renewables is just, it's just physics. Renewables are for, you know, pre-industrial subsistence farming societies. They're low energy density. It's woods, sunlight, water, wind. They're all very low energy density fuels or flows. Fossil fuels are much bigger increases in energy density. They're what allow us to have cities. Before Biden revealed his massively expensive green energy plan, he had already promised more than $6 trillion in new spending over the coming decade, paid for through a mix of borrowing and hikes and income and corporate taxes. This comes at a time when the COVID-19 lockdown and emergency spending will push the national debt above 100% of GDP by the end of 2020. And the federal government is running larger deficits than it did even at the height of the financial crisis. Schellenberger says that politicians were really serious about combating global warming. They would get behind fracking and nuclear energy, which is both clean and practical. Biden doesn't mention nuclear power, though, because it won't create jobs for longshoremen and shipbuilders or fulfill any other progressive fantasy, such as his dream of a modern day civilian climate core based on the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corp. The problem that nuclear energy poses to Malthusians who want to control society and restrict growth and do all the things that we know, what the people that call themselves environmentalists want to do, it's threatened by nuclear energy because nuclear energy means you have infinite energy, infinite freshwater, infinite fertilizer, that means you have infinite food. So nuclear eliminates resource scarcity. When I think about climate change, word I think of as jobs. Good pain, union jobs. Joe Biden's clean energy plan might even help get him elected, but if passed as prologue, it won't create many jobs or help heal the planet. It'll just mean spending gobs of money we don't have in a massive giveaway to special interests.


Hey guys, what is up? Welcome to my channel. For today's video, I am going to be reviewing a couple of the new Rare Beauty products that I picked up. So I have the Always in Optimist Soft Radiance Setting Powder. And then I also picked up the Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Sticks. I was pretty curious about these. There haven't been a lot of new launches lately and I've been dying to do a review. I missed reviewing makeup. So I got these and I am so excited. So if you want to see my thoughts, then just keep watching. I'm at a weird stage of makeup right now. So excuse what we have going on. But I have my foundation and concealer on. No powder yet. I will have all the details of what I'm wearing down below if you are curious. So right now I don't think I'm selling it to very well. So these items are available right now on Sephora as well as the Rare Beauty website. I will have a link down below if you are interested in picking any of these products up. Since I don't have any powder on my face, let's start off with these bronzer sticks. Now I wasn't too sure of what shade I should get. So I got two shades. So that will be fun. So these guys are going to be $23 each, which I think is a great price point for Sephora. This is supposed to give you a quick and visible sun-kiss glow with a smooth, seamless, second skin finish. Just swipe on blend and go apparently. This also is vegan and cruelty-free if you need to know that. They're going to come in the typical Rare Beauty style box. They do have a 12 month shelf life, which is pretty standard for a cream product and are made in Italy. And here is what the packaging of the product itself is going to look like. It looks like a little chubby stick and then you open it up and here is the product. It is twist up I believe. Yep. So the two shades that I picked up were Happy Soul, which is the one that's in my hand and then Always Sunny. There are five shades available, which for a bronzer stick I think is decent. So let's swatch Happy Soul. Oh these feel super creamy, like glit on almost a little too easy. Oh I like that this is a snap closure by the way. So if you do pick this up make sure you listen for that snap to make sure that the product's longevity is secured. The other shade that I picked up was Always Sunny. You can see this one is definitely warmer. Happy Soul is more my speed. I think this one's a bit dark for me. So Happy Soul is a light brown with cool undertones and then Always Sunny is a rich caramel with neutral undertones. I don't know what called to me to buy this color, but it looks pretty dark. That's okay. Just for reference I brought out some other cream bronzers that you might have to help you with comparison. So this is the Elf Putty Bronzer in the shade Tan Lines. Tan Lines is definitely a lot lighter. I have my Tande Chanel. This is the original formula in color by the way. Oh wow. So the colors that I got from Rare are actually going to be a lot darker than what I'm used to. Next up I have the Huda Beauty Tantor in a fair. This one's one of my favorite colors and it's a little bit more neutral than Happy Soul. In terms of texture, it definitely feels the closest to the Huda Beauty. And then the last one that I have that I'm going to compare is Butter Biscuit from Fenty Beauty. That's Butter Biscuit. So none of them really look like any of the shades that I got. It's like these two are probably the closest. The Huda Beauty I would say is probably the closest in terms of consistency and finish just for reference. Let's get to applying. Let's see. Just the way they felt, they felt really good. So I'm excited. I do not have a lick of powder on my skin. This is normally how I choose to do things when I am using something like this. So let's start off with the lighter shade here. I'm going to apply how I would normally apply, which I have two ways that I normally apply. So the first way, we're just going to draw her on. Really gliding on nicely here. Ooh, I love this shade. If you're around my skin tone, Happy Soul is going to leave you very happy. And I'm using a BK Beauty 106 brush, and it's blending out very easily, working out better with wiping motions as opposed to patting motions. You can definitely pat it out though if you're patient, which I do recommend because it doesn't move the product underneath. But let's see how fingers do. Oh yeah, it's warming up with the fingers really nice. This is a beautiful blend, you guys. I must say. Love how this product blended. I'm going to try it with my other favorite technique. So the other way that I like to apply is directly on a sponge and patting it onto my skin. So we're going to do that now. I'm just using a Shop Miss A sponge. It's only a dollar. It's bomb.com. So I have a little bit of that on here. And this also is beautiful. So this product is so malleable that you can really apply this whatever way you want. It's very versatile. You can totally blend it in with your fingers. You can apply it straight to the skin out of this stick and use a brush to blend it out or a sponge, whatever you wish. So whatever your application style is, I like how smooth it's working out. So really like the application on this. Wow, okay. And it does look like second skin. This is beautiful. I love a bronzer stick that has this type of consistency. Oh, I'm so happy. Okay, let's use a darker one now. Always sunny. Probably not the color that I needed, but I guess we'll get some extra depth in here. So I'm going to focus this right where I want the extra shadow. And I'm also going to put just a little bit on my finger and we're going to contour with this shade. Now, this is a bit warm for a contour shade, but it's fine. Happy Soul probably would be better for contouring, but it's fine. I blend it out beautifully on my cheek. And you guys have seen that girl in TikTok where she like puts this all over. I'm not going to do that, but we'll just put it right there. Subtle tea. Okay, let's blend it out. I'm going to use my BK Beauty Brush because this is my favorite. And I just want to show you if you have patience and you want to pat it out. It will get there pretty easily. It does get there pretty easily. I am slightly swiping though because the product is staying a little bit put, but I'm being extra careful as well because this is a dark shade. Okay, so you can see there is a little bit of a dry down to it. So if you let it set, it's not moving, which is good. But then you apply a little bit more pressure, a little bit more sweepies, and it blends right out. Very, very beautiful. And then let's just swipe it out on my nose. Okay, 23 bucks. I'm very, very happy with this formula. I think it's really, really beautiful. Rare Beauty did a great job with this. I'm going to pay attention to longevity today, but this has every quality of a cream bronzer that I really like. And I think a lot of you guys are going to like it. I think this is a great cream bronzer product for beginners, especially beginners to contour because it's so easy to use. You guys know I love my makeup by Mario. I love the tones he picked, but I prefer this formulation. This one is definitely more easy to use, more easy to apply. However you wish. I'm a fan of this and I like the colors. So, so far so good. Just realized I forgot this. Okay, this shade is a bit warm. It's going to be beautiful on medium tan skin tones. Okay, let's get into what I've been waiting for so that I can finish my crazy makeup. We have the Always an Optimus Soft Radiance Setting Powder. Now this is $22. It is a dollar less than the Cream Bronzer. This has a 12 month shelf life, and it's also made in Italy. So there are also five powders in here. I picked up the Shade Light Medium, which is the second to lightest powder, and it has the very simple, sleek, and clean, rare beauty packaging. You twist open and then you have a very interesting component here. So what you do is you, I believe, yeah, you move this and then the powder is going to come out the sifter here. I like this. This keeps everything very clean.  Different, but still quite functional. So I actually really like this. This is a tout-free, loose setting powder that visibly smooths blurs and controls shine for a natural finish. And all day comfort is supposed to give you a light, natural finish. Now this shade, Light Medium, I think it might be a bit dark. Okay, so if you're my shade, which is a Light Medium, the lightest shade I think would have been best. Let me swatch this for you. Let's see how it acts over my hand. Okay, it actually pulls. Yeah, I don't know. This shade might work for me. Let's see, let's see. Okay, I'm going to get some more in the cap. To set my face recently, I've been using the Blinked Brush F5. I'm going to just make sure all of my creases are all blended out. Let's give this one a try. I wish I would have gone with the lightest shade because this definitely deepens my under-eyes a little bit. There is a very, very subtle sheen to it. It's not like a glow or anything, but there's a little bit of reflective particles in here, I would say, which isn't my favorite. If I want my powder to have a little bit of radiance to it, I want it to be more glowy as opposed to just flat out being able to see those reflective particles because that is causing right here to emphasize a little bit of texture, but it's not bad. Like, it looks good. It looks soft because it's winter. My skin's been extra picky with the powders that I put on top, so I'm not mad at it. Let me try the other side using my sponge just to see if that makes a difference because I like to put a little bit in the cap and then just press it on. I think that this was a prettier application. I think it looks a little bit smoother than using the brush, and I'm not using too much powder to do this. It's just a different way of application, and I think leaves the skin looking a little bit more airbrushed. It looks pretty smooth on the skin, though. Overall, when I take a step back, I am liking what I see. I just got the wrong shade, so Light Medium is not for me. I'd go with the lighter shade next time, but the finish looks nice and soft. It says it does have a natural finish. I do agree with that. I'm not in love with the finish, but I think as the day goes on, it's going to settle in quite pretty. So let me finish the rest of my makeup, get my life together, and I'll be back to show you everything. Okay, so here is the final look. I'm not going crazy with makeup today because I have stuff to do, but let's go over my final thoughts of these products. So the number one thing that I do recommend from this video is the Rare Beauty Bronzing Sticks. These are legitimately really, really nice. Very blendable, very malleable. If I notice anything bad with wear, I will put it in the description box down below for you guys, or I'll pin the comment. We'll see. But if you don't see anything, that means I didn't notice anything bad about it, and I stand by what I said right now where this must have. $23, really great, malleable, creamy, super easy to use, super versatile, bronzing sticks, very impressive. The powder on the other hand, it's not a must-have for me. I'm going to continue playing with it as I continue to use it. Maybe my opinions will change, but to me, it's just a nice powder. I do notice that it did blur the skin and set and everything, but I don't think it's anything amazing. I'm still going to reach for my hood of beauty powder and my Maybelline Loose Fit Me Powder over this one. I think it's a nice addition to their line. I don't think there's anything bad about it. I just wish I went with a lighter color, but it's pretty. So anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this video and you found it helpful. Did you pick these products up? Let me know your thoughts down below, and we'll see you guys in the next one. Bye guys. Have a good one.


Hello, this is OcellatorSync. Welcome to another video where we're looking at some programming tricks that we can use on the Korg monologue. So one of the objections that you sometimes see leveled at the monologue is that we've got quite a limited envelope generator up here. We've only got an attack and a decay and it can only be arranged in certain ways. It can only be sent to a limited subset of parameters. Now personally, I'm a big believer that these sort of restrictions actually help with creativity, both in terms of cutting down options so that you spend more time creating and less time trying stuff out and also because it leads to you trying to look for novel workarounds which can lead to new sounds. But I have to admit sometimes I do find myself missing that flexibility that maybe a second envelope generator would bring. But we do kind of have a pseudo second envelope generator on the monologue and we find it in the LFO. So we all know what the LFO does usually and that is that it will oscillate a parameter at a lower frequency although we can go audio range on the monologue and so we can do something like this if we apply it to the pitch. So we can hear there that the pitch parameter is being altered by the LFO and it's happening cyclically. That is once the LFO gets to the end of its waveform, it's starting its waveform again. If we move into one sharp mode however, that behavior changes a little bit. So rather than altering the parameter cyclically, what's happening instead is we are going through the waveform once and then finishing and that's kind of like what an envelope generator does. We are again somewhat limited in the types of envelope generators that we have here though. So if we set our LFO on to sawtooth mode, what we get here is the equivalent of an envelope generator with an instant attack and a decay that we can modify by changing the rate. Now the way that the rate works here is a little bit counter-intuitive compared to a normal envelope generator. Usually with our decay knob if we turn our decay knob up we expect the decay to last longer but here we're talking about the rate with which it takes place. So actually if we want a shorter decay, we turn our rate up instead. So sawtooth instant onset and then a variable decay. Our triangle wave gives us an envelope generator essentially where the attack and the decay are coupled. That is to say if we have a fast attack we also have a fast decay or if we have a slow attack we also have a slow decay. At the square wave it's kind of not really like an envelope generator that you'd have anywhere else I guess. Here what we have is an instant onset, a hold time which is defined by the rate and then an instant release or decay depending on how you want to look at it. Or faster. So what sort of things can we do? Well let's start with this square wave because actually I quite like this one because you don't tend to do this sort of thing with envelope generators. So if we find a nice sort of octave interval by changing the intensity out an octave and we turn the rate up we kind of get this kind of plink at the start of the note which is quite quite pleasant and we might couple that with maybe a filter cutoff happening on the envelope generator. Now already what we've got here are two one plus a pseudo envelope generator changing two different parameters which you can't do using just the envelope generator so that's really cool. Let's try something else. Let's open up our filter again for the moment. So one of the things that the monologue does really well is it syncs sounds so if we turn up VCO2 turn this off for the moment as well. And usually what you do with the sync sounds is that we are going to affect pitch two to get that classic sort of turn off VCO1 just to emphasise it. A little bit of VCO1 back in. Classic sync sounds. Sounds great. If I want to affect the overall sort of harmonic content here using the filter I've kind of only got really the options to do it statically I can either have the filter open or I can shut it off. I can't easily do that sort of classic opening at the start and tile off with the envelope generator because I'm using that to do my sync sound but if I have my LFO in one shot mode and I go over to probably the sawtooth is most applicable and we send that over to the cutoff. I'm going to rate that works for us. Now we've got the option to have that filter cutoff happening as well as our sync sound which is great. Good news. Now what's that sound like with the triangle instead? That's cool. A bit of resonance. Change our EG. So next time someone tells you that the monologue is limited because it only has one envelope generator you kind of look at them riling and think to yourself well one and a half probably. Thank you so much for watching guys if that was useful if you enjoyed the video please hit that like button it really helps me out and also hit the subscribe button so you don't miss out on any upcoming videos. Thank you so much for watching guys see you again soon.


Vera owns a boutique cupcake shop and her tasty treats are quite popular with her customers. She sells 200 cupcakes every day. Unfortunately, her tiny bakery is at maximum capacity, and with increased rent payments, she is losing money. Vera will be moving to a bigger bakery in a cheaper location next month, but she still has one month left on her lease for her current location. She can't decide between two options, to close the old location right away, or to keep operating until the new facility opens. As a skilled business person, Vera must make a decision based on profit. Therefore, she sketches out her financial situation. She sells each cupcake for $4, which is pretty high, but she doesn't think she can raise that price. This is her revenue for each cupcake. The ingredients for making each cupcake, which include flour, eggs, chocolate and sugar, cost $3. These are her marginal cost, or the additional cost it takes to bake a new cupcake. The rent for the bakery is her fixed cost, meaning that it will not change no matter how many cupcakes she bakes. The landlord will still expect that check at the end of the month no matter how much she produces. On average, her rent comes to about $300 each day. Vera considered simply closing the small location. If she puts a lock on the front door and walks away, she would still have to pay $300 a day for rent. Of course, she won't pay for the ingredients, but she won't get any revenue either. Vera then runs the numbers for staying open. She makes $4 for each cupcake and her ingredients are $3. So Vera can put $1 towards rent for each cupcake she sells. At $200 cupcakes a day, that covers two-thirds of her rent. In terms of profitability, it's preferable to only lose $100 instead of $300 in the short run. In other words, when the price for a product is greater than the marginal cost it takes to make it, the firm should stay open the short run no matter how high its fixed costs are. In this case, Vera took in $4 the price of the cupcake, which was more than the $3 in the ingredients for it, which is the marginal cost. By bringing in revenue, she can offset some of the burden of her high rent costs. So Vera decided to stay open, much to the delight of her loyal customers and her pocketbook. They are excited for her to move to her bigger location, but thanks to the short run shutdown rule, they will not have to take a break from eating Vera's cupcakes.


Super excited to be the head coach. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time.  But to do it here is going to make it even more special to me. It'd be in my alma mater. And just the community, the people here in the community, they mean a lot to me. The school means a lot to me. And the basketball program definitely means a lot to me. I've had a lot of comments about coach Ryan to me. And the thing about coach Ryan is he's a legend in the 15th region. He's a legend in the state of Kentucky. I will never try to compare myself to him because I learned so much off of him. I'm going to take a lot of what he taught me and use it myself. And for me, I'm going to try to be my own man and teach basketball the way I know how. And it's something I really love doing. And I want to show a lot of passion when I do do it. All in all, more than anything, I can't wait to get started inside here. I look forward to building relationships with the players and their families. And I know a lot of these kids, I coach them in middle school. I've coached them as an assistant here at the high school. But that's one of the things I really look forward to is just getting in the gym with them and help them, like I said, reach their potential. And do whatever I can to help them in life.


Hi everyone this is Jason here from Nathaniel. In this lesson we are going to explore the use of suspended chords and look at a little bit of theory, a little bit of song writing and also how they impact or they get impacted by the bass register. That's pretty much what we have and it's quite a short lesson but you need to follow through so get a keyboard along, get a book or a paper or whatever. Before we get cracking it'll be great if you could hit that subscribe button, hit the bell icon for regular notifications. Consider following us on Patreon where all these lessons are explained with my handwritten notes, notations sometimes when the lesson demands it, backing tracks sometimes when the lesson demands it and it'll keep happening on Patreon. So it'll be great if you could support us on Patreon, hit subscribe, give us a thumbs up, a like, share whatever nice stuff you'd like to do with this video. Let's now start.  Let's first learn how to form this stuff. We have the root F then a suspended 4 uses the root, the perfect 4th and the perfect 5th. F Bb C. There's also an interesting case with respect to the suspended chords is when you invert them. Inverting basically means you just flip the notes around. So what was once F Bb C will now become Bb C F and then it could also become C F Bb. So F sus 4 F Bb C when inverted it becomes Bb sus 2. Sus 2 will have the root, the major second which is C and the pinky is currently playing the perfect 5th. So again F sus 4 when inverted becomes Bb sus 2 and there's another very interesting thing. Remember a triad or a three note chord always has three inversions. So I've done two already F sus 4 Bb sus 2 and when we invert it further we get C what we call as C quartal right or a C7 sus 4 without really the fifth without the fifth you could also say C quartal. Now a quartal chord is built using 4th. So if you look at this chord C is perfect 4th is F F's perfect 4th is Bb very different sound compared to Bb sus 2 and F sus 4 very different than the Bb sus 2 and the F sus 4. So it's very important to realize that a sus 4 chord when inverted becomes another sus 2 chord which when inverted becomes another quartal chord which is really nice for your arpeggios and stuff. Okay so the main thing I wanted to point out in this lesson is what you can do in the bass with all these three chords. So first off suspended chords have inversions a sus 4 when inverted becomes a sus 2 and a quartal chord in this case C quartal Bb sus 2 F sus 4 okay but what you can really do with these chords and what I have explored a lot in my music is the bass does not have to commit itself to the root of any of these chords. In fact well we could start with the roots of the chords Bb now it becomes Bb sus 2 C7 sus 4 or C quartal then F sus 4 but if I actually now take the C quartal chord which is C Fb flat you could do this with even Fb flat C or B flat C F. So let's try and put some bass going with this chord so that's the C quartal which I'm playing in my right hand in my left hand let's start off with C simple right so this creates like a C7 sus 4 kind of a vibe because it has the dominant seventh and the sus 4 C7 sus 4 but now when I go to the Db it's a very interesting vibe it creates a very major seventh along with a 13th let me try and explain so you have Db you have the F which is a major third you don't have the fifth instead you have the sixth so the sixth when added along with the seventh C is the major seventh in this case so major seventh major third and major sixth you could call this a very you could call this a 13 all I did was move C which was C7 sus 4 all the way to Db not all the way Db is right then I do D beautiful sound you could say that's a Bb sus 2 with a D bass nice passing chord if I do E flat a very interesting sound again like a 9 with a 6 because C is the 6 F is the 2 which we call 9 so we actually call this a E flat 6 9 chord now what's the next note you have E now this could become an acquired taste but it's not a very pleasing sound because you're hearing that tension between E and F so we'll ignore that or you can use it it's not too bad actually it's an acquired like E flat so let's just explore again C Db E passing chord E flat E slightly tense but usable F sus 4 very interesting chord let's try and study this this is a major seventh there's a major seventh there but then a normal major seventh would have a major third and a perfect fifth in this case I flattened the five so you could say this is a major seven flat five it goes they all go really well with each other very mysterious sound now if you take G creates a G minor seventh flavor with a four added it's a very beautiful sound that's an A flat again is a 6 9 a proper 6 9 you have your root A flat major third 6 and a 9 okay then you have F over A with a sus F sus 4 over A B flat sus 2 this is the only sound I don't like B now I don't know if any of you like that but at least I don't now there's a reason behind that B is a dissonance with respect to C and it forms a tritone which is another dissonant interval with respect to F and it forms another dissonance with respect to B flat so it's like three of the tensions in music the tritone the major seventh and the minor second are created when you play B with that C C quarter chord so apart from that B pretty much everything works well you could say E is also a bit debatable I kind of like it so all the way if you see C D flat D E flat E works F F sharp G A flat A B flat B ouch B just doesn't work and so on so if if we are trying to address the question which is that one chord which when used doesn't really ever need to change with respect to move moving bass elements it's this chord it's the suspended chord either you could play it as a sus 2 a quartal or a sus 4 all of them are inversions of each other so this is a very useful way to use suspended chords usually what people do is they'll play a sus chord resolve it to major which is very common or resolve it to minor but you don't have to necessarily resolve it when you focus on the bass element so you could just keep the sus lingering in your treble area or treble register and just explore the bass and try to build a bass progression you don't have to necessarily call it a chord progression you can say bass progression so maybe check that out so I'm doing F D flat C D flat E flat F B flat you can always kind of sneak in a few extra notes like sometimes what I do is if I want I can just make my thumb a little bit bigger or wider if that's the right word I think and you gain access to both notes with your thumb creating a very fatter sound you could say so it's the fatter option so this is a B flat major add 2 add 9 you could also use it for very line cliche movements like the bass drops for the most part it's pretty much that chord right could be a starting point from where you can start exploring even the right hand like for example start with this chord and then just add in a higher C which is actually the same chord but I'm just adding the same C a bit higher and I get a line there maybe repeat it going to E flat so basically one note in this chord could vary it could either move you know maybe you move your thumb or you move your ring finger or whichever finger right guys so let's just recap what we've been doing so far we took pretty much one chord a sus chord which I told you in the beginning you're visualizing it as F sus 4 it could also be D flat sus 2 it could also be C quartal and the idea is to hold that in your treble area or in the right hand and in the bass area or the left hand try to explore different bass routes and as you change the bass the chord will change the chord will will will will absolutely turn over is its head like the great sting says it ain't C major unless I play C or until I play the the C in in my bass sting is a bass player and a singer songwriter should definitely check out this artist he's an incredible musician composer singer guitar player bass player everything right so until the bass note is committed to see if I just do it's a very ambient sound but if I do well even that's ambient but it has a definition it's all these notes seem to have purpose because of the bass so that's the importance of committing to the bass changing the bass for the purpose of harmony for harmony to move you need the bass to keep driving forward okay so we took the sus chord in the right hand and we just floated our left hand and tried to create a progression you could do like a descending drop like thing you could climb or you could do something poppish right you could also change stuff in the right area in the right hand keep two constant and move one so that's pretty much the gist of this lesson I just want to talk about this important fact a lot of people have asked me about suspended chords the different kinds of suspended chords there are a lot of videos which we have done on suspensions addressing other ways of creatively using these chords you'll find all of the videos most of the videos at least in the description because there are quite a few just on suspended chords so I'd encourage you to go through the other lessons on the subject you could also go to our website where all the lessons are catalogued well under our free tutorial section that would be a good resource for you and yeah just keep sticking on to the channel we'll have a lot more videos on various topics you could also suggest a topic of interest and I will consider it try to practice and do a lesson do a youtube lesson on that particular topic right keep watching keep supporting us give the video a share a like comment subscribe if you haven't already that really helps the channel you can download some of our notes on patreon for this lesson the previous lessons and whatever we are going to do in the future right guys thanks a ton for watching the lesson again this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel do keep in touch with us via our website you can fill up a form if you'd like to reach us join any of our workshops courses or anything like that and do stay in touch we are also on instagram you can follow me or the school on instagram as well you can just search us there and yeah we'll look forward to the next video and it's going to hit you very soon so stay tuned cheers


Welcome to what the F is going on in Latin America, CodePink's weekly YouTube program of hot news out of Latin America and the Caribbean. In partnership with Friends of Latin America, Massachusetts Peace Action, and Task Force on the Americas, we broadcast every Wednesday, 7.30 p.m. Eastern on CodePink YouTube Live. On July 24, the 238th anniversary of Simone Bolivar's birth, Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador addressed an audience of foreign ministers and international dignitaries saying, Let's initiate a relationship in our hemisphere based on the premise of George Washington, according to which nations should not take advantage of the misfortune of other peoples. I am aware that this is a complex issue that requires a new political and economic outlook. The proposal is no more and no less than to build something similar to the European Union, but in accordance with our history, our reality, and our identities. In this spirit, the replacement of the OAS by a truly autonomous organization, not a lackey of anyone, but a mediator at the request and acceptance of the parties in conflict in matters of human rights and democracy should not be ruled out. Serving as President Pro Temporre of Salac, AMLO reconvened members of the organization in Mexico City on September 18 after a several-year-long pause. President Nicolás Maduro attended the summit representing Venezuela's democratically elected government. Such of the summit's conversation focused on creating a unified Latin America and Caribbean economic bloc similar to the European Union free to trade in a multi-polar global framework. Last week, the world witnessed the opening of the 2021 United Nations General Assembly debate. Thursday morning, 18 countries, including Venezuela, gathered to sign a declaration to uphold the founding principles of the United Nations. The countries are collectively known as the group of friends in defense of the UN Charter. Also in Mexico City, we've witnessed since August Venezuelan dialogue occurring between the democratically elected government of Venezuela and all opposition parties. So a lot has been happening in the Americas. I'm sure all of you have witnessed some, if not all of these events. And I'm so happy this evening to have a very special guest, Carlos Roan, who is the Venezuelan vice minister of foreign affairs for North America. He's joining us this evening from Caracas to talk with us about all of these changes and exciting events occurring in the Americas and the Caribbean. So welcome, Carlos. I'm so thankful you had time to join us today. No, thank you very much. My pleasure. Always ready to share whatever we can with our friends from Copenhagen. So let's talk about, I'm not really sure, where's the best place for us to start? I could tell you here in Mexico City, where I'm talking to all of you from, we were all, and not just me being an extranjero, but the city was really a buzz in July, 24th with on those discourse and laying out what we thought was a really exciting and progressive vision for the Americas. But then here on September 18, we end up having this fantastic Salah summit with 31 of the 33 members represented. So maybe we should start with this vision and then how we, how you see a potential evolution for the Americas, a unified block. The I agree. A very important moment back in in July. When the state. And send American states. As you know, had. In the path. Those running. That's that forum, the United States and American states. We, you know, first of all, we've realized that. It never, it was never a space for Latin American unity of Latin American solidarity or cooperation, but rather it was always a place where the interest of the United States government sort of imposed itself over the rest of the region. And then we see this because in instances where there has been controversy and disturbances and attacks between. You know, from the Secretary General's office to the rest of the or some of the countries, for example, you know, they constantly attack Minnesota's democratic government, but not only Venezuela, there's a long history of interventionism within the organization for American states. You know, it's an organization that allowed or sort of, you know, legitimated U.S. intervention in the 1960s in other countries, such as the Dominican Republic. 1965 particular. It also approved the exclusion of Cuba from from the space, you know, and that's that's the exclusion of country, you know, unlike Venezuela, which decided to you know, in a sovereign move to leave the space of the organization American states, Cuba was expelled in soon after the Cuban Revolution arrived. So so it was never really a space of complementation of, you know, or where you could actually work together, but rather it was it was an attempt to impose a certain line on the rest of the region. And it's also, I believe, and you know, this before that sort of mentality, a tonial framework where you still hold many of the countries in the region, you know, subjected to funding and other other things that come from the inter-American system that sort of generate dependency. So for example, politically today, politically, the organization American States is an empty shell. I mean, this is not really the space where Latin American countries can feel like they can go and, you know, communicate their concerns. But there's an inter-American system that includes a human rights board that includes the American Bank, the government bank, other instances within this framework strongly financed by the United States, which also generate dependency in some of the countries that have weaker economies or that have, you know, other issues that tie them to the system. So what we believe is that it's time to present this type of framework to develop a space where we can actually be on equal terms, on equal footing, where our interests are more similar and where the main interest is to cooperate with each other, respecting each other's political orientation, respecting every country's sovereignty, respecting every country's internal affairs, not sanctioning other countries or not, you know, not the aggression that we see. I mean, for example, the organization of American States in its charter states explicitly that not one country can use measures of coercion against any other for whatever political reasons. This is not followed at all, you know, we see the United States sanctioning Venezuela, Nicaragua, you know, Cuba's no longer a member, but, you know, at the time it also applied measures against Cuba. And there's nothing, there's a silence because the secretariat doesn't respond to the interest of the interest of who pays the bills, which is mainly the United States. With the CELAC, the purpose was to go back to our own history and again to create a space among equals where we could actually think about solving the problems that the region faces collectively. Could you, could you tell us? And, you know, we believe that this is today, sorry. Well, oh, I'm sorry, I think you froze a bit. And I wondered if you could just digress for a minute and tell our audience what CELAC is because this is a creation from Venezuela. And that's why and 33, well, I don't know, we have to question Brazil at this point, but 33 of the 35 nations in the Americas are members and the three, the two that are not in the U.S. and Canada. And maybe just give a quick description of CELAC. Sure, so CELAC is a space that is, that was created to be the space of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Like you said, the only two countries in the Internet that do not belong in CELAC are the United States and Canada because they have another history, another sort of interest and another way of viewing each other with relation to the region. Unfortunately, last year with the President Bolsonaro assumed the reins in Brazil, he decided to take out Brazil from the organization, which is a great loss. And we hope that Brazil can come one day, come back. Brazil is an important, essential part of Latin America, like all the other countries are. And it was really a political decision. And that's the whole point. The issue here with CELAC is that the relations between the countries are not, the political relationship should not be the main issue because we must accept each other's differences. It is our diversity that makes us strong. The issue with CELAC in particular is that we want to face together the problems that we all face as Latin American countries, as countries come out of colonialism and countries that come out of an independent struggle or dependency within our own region, dependency to the United States and to Europe. We have similar problems and similar challenges and that is where we come together. So this space, and this is, I mean, the idea that a person, López Obrador brought up about this being a space for Latin America that must stress. And the other way around is that there is now a new environment, a new climate in the region that sees this as an opportunity. And I would have to say that one of the key issues that brought us together, or maybe two key issues that have brought us together to strengthen, one has been the COVID-19 pandemic. It is urgent for us to find ways to address this as a common group, because there's a very different situation between Latin America and North America. I mean, Canada and the United States have totally different realities, have had totally different to tend to the pandemic. So we can't compare and we cannot be in a position of on these countries in order to move forward and address the pandemic. We must try to put together our potentials and see which ways we can resolve them. This was one of the issues that was discussed in the summit a couple of weeks ago. And the other issue that I think is important is that we are facing, we are also facing a common reality of climate change. And the common reality of Latin America, you know, problems, you know, from forest fires and rains to earthquakes and volcanoes. I mean, so all these things that have been the product of the alterations of India Earth. Well, we need to draw a common position that again cannot be the same position that, you know, the United States and Canada have. We're going to have different perspectives and different, and we're affected in different ways. So another thing that I think is very important that came out of this meeting was that we will have a common position as select on the environment issue that we will take together at the COP26 in the coming months or coming weeks in November in Glasgow. So again, the issue here is not, is not to divide the continent but rather to strengthen unity to find a space where we talk to each other on equal footing and where we address concerns that are common, interests that are common and solutions. We lost you for a moment.  There were a couple of things that, that were really poignant to me listening to this was basically a graduate Spanish class for me here in Mexico City. I listened to the whole summit on the 18th. And most of it was in Spanish and a few countries speaking English. And there were, there were two things. Well, one thing that made a big impression on me, as were the comments from Vice President Ulloa of El Salvador, despite some of our impressions of his president Bukele, I was interesting to me. I mean, he started his comment saying that OAS was created in 1948 as part of an instrument of the Cold War when the world was divided into two distinct political camps in 1962. Cuba was expelled, as you mentioned earlier, because they had a different political ideology. He went on to mention interference by the Secretary General of the OAS regarding election returns in numerous countries, particularly Bolivia. And it was, was really a surprise. But he all, for me personally to hear that, because we have this vision of what is happening in El Salvador now, particularly with the president. But it was also very telling that he was expressing on behalf of El Salvador this position of manipulation by the OAS, that there was a need to find the common ground. And he did flat out say the political differences, you know, are secondary and can be resolved later. But the need to create a unified response to COVID-19, to create a unified economic block that can deal with the world in a multilateral fashion. And he flat out said, we have Salak. It's an existing institution. It's efficient. It's effective. And it already exists. He didn't flat out say, let's get rid of the OAS. But it was, so that, that was a real surprise to hear that from El Salvador. And the other theme that kept, that I kept picking up on, were clearly the unification because of COVID-19, but also the push for an economic block and a multilateral approach to the globe today, which is in fact the true structure of the globe. I think the United States doesn't quite understand that yet or doesn't want to embrace it, but the rest of the world pretty much knows that's how things are. But it was impressive.  And there were a few detractors, but not really. I mean, there were some little tit for tat diplomatic stuff going on, but not, you know, the unity seemed very clear. No, I agree with you. And again, I think this is the product of years of interventionism in our region. You have to remember that when this process started before the, you know, 2011 meeting, you have people as the similar as President Hugo Chavez and President Alvaro Uribe in the, in the makings of, of CELAC. I believe that, you know, Uribe was already out by the time of the 2011 meeting, but, you know, he was in Uribe in CELAC to say we have worked this thing. I mean, we know, we know we have differences from that we, that we do this. Now, what we can't tolerate is not of opinion or political positions from our governments. What we can't tolerate is interventionism. What we can't tolerate is, is, you know, another to try to exert pressure on them. Okay, everyone, let's give Carlos a minute to see if he can reconnect. Thank you for your patience. Carlos, do you want to, do you want to talk with us audio only? Would that maybe be better? So everyone, if you could just give us a few minutes before, are you back? Yes, I'm back. Okay. Do you want to try and talk with audio only? Or should we just keep, we'll just keep going. I found the question. Let me share the video in case that, you know, that helps. I believe that might help better. Okay. I'm sorry about that. No, it's all right. I'm not sure. Okay. I'm not sure if we got caught off at that moment, but what I was saying is, you know, in the past, when the process of CELAC was starting, you know, right before even, you know, the CELAC was actually formed, but when we're in the process of making the space, you have positions as this similar as President Chavez and President Alvin Alvarez in Colombia. These are, you know, two very extreme positions and very, quite very different. There's probably nothing that you can say is in common between the two leaders. However, there was, you know, there was a room for talking and moving forward and carrying out the, you know, the eventually what became CELAC. What we're not able to tolerate is intervention by, you know, that tries to attempt against the integrity of the countries against, you know, internal issues within our countries. I think that's probably what Bukele was pointing to. You know, the great tension that is created within the OAS system is the amount of interventionism that we clearly see from the United States and sometimes from Canada as well.  We are either on, you know, some of the, some specific issues and we're able to raise them and move forward. And I think this meeting in itself was approved for that, you know. The fact that we were able to agree about, you know, a plan for the vaccines and to tend to the pandemic. I think that's a good, you know, it's a good, it shows, you know, that we can cooperate despite our differences. The fact that we can come together and draw, you know, a common position on the environment I think is also important. The fact that most of the, I mean that all of the countries actually, you know, approved during the CELAC, meaning a statement against the blockade on Cuba. It's very important as well. It's not the, again, it's not the first time that we had this position. So, you know, and this is, you know, governance from the left and governance from the right. So I think, I think the problem is when we have open interventionism against our countries, when we have the United States trying to pit countries against each other, trying to, you know, to force rivalries and to try to, you know, force, you know, country to question the internal affairs of the other country and so forth. And that's what generates divisionism. That's what the OAS is in working because the OAS has just become a space, you know, to divide each other and not to, you know, find common solutions. There's some presidents there that spoke very clearly. The president of Uruguay, the president of Paraguay, they spoke very clearly in support of the OAS. They believe, you know, it's a space that it works. We think the OAS is a dead space, but that's great. You know, that's, again, this shows our differences in position, but we did come all together to participate in SELAC. So I think it is a very important moment for our region. I think the meeting in and of itself is very important. It's that it was a presidential meeting, you know, a high-level meeting. It shows we're a different conjunction. It shows we're in a moment where we have a different position. We have, we know that the challenges are big and that we know that we need to, you know, get ourselves a common position to face them together. Let's, I wonder if you could tell us a bit about, you were in New York City for the opening of the, of this year's UN general debate. How did this meeting here in Mexico City on the 18th, the SELAC summit, how did the SELAC summit transition, translate to some of the activities that we witnessed opening week in New York City? For instance, 18 countries, including Venezuela, signed the declaration of friends to defend the UN Charter, which I would presume are some of the, preserving some of the very same principles across the globe that SELAC is attempting to preserve in the Americas. Well, I think that you made a mention of a bit ago, which I think is important. You talked about multilateralism, and I think that it's a very key issue. I mean, one of the reasons that SELAC moved forward is precisely because we all believe that, you know, solutions are not unilateral to our challenges. Solutions must be addressed in a multilateral format. Now, this is, you know, this is a position that we hold not only in the region, but we also hold worldwide. And some countries, you know, there were 18 countries that manifested the need to strengthen this principle of multilateralism, you know, to strengthen also this idea that, you know, we must respect the values, the core values, historical values of the United Nations, you know, the values to defend peace, the values of defending the self-determination of the peoples, you know, the values of the principles of defending non-intervention. So when we gathered in New York to defend the United States, I'm sorry, the United Nations charter, it is, of course, not against anybody. It's not a position that we take against any country in particular, but we think against the actions of unilateralism that try to distort, you know, international relations, that try to pressure countries into, you know, into taking different positions through the issuing of, you know, unilateral coercive measures, things that are illegal according to you and Charter. If you remember, for example, sanctions as such are only legal when they are taken by the Security Council of the United Nations, not when they are taken by specific countries on their own. And again, you know, the meeting of the friends of the Charter was a meeting that took place with countries that, again, are very, very dissimilar in their political orientation and their historical background, but that they come together realizing that it is important to make a stand, to take a stand in defense of multilateralism, in defense of diplomacy, you know, in defense of peace, because, you know, when countries start acting outside of international law, outside of this framework that we have built, I mean, the whole reason we built the United Nations was to preserve peace around the world, to preserve, you know, country sovereignty and have, you know, allowed for countries to develop themselves, you know, through their own needs and through cooperation. Now, if we depart from those principles by trying to impose one country's view over the other by, you know, promoting war, by promoting all this, you know, we overlook the whole United Nations. So we feel that it is a time where we need to go back to the principles of the Charter and to remind the world that most, you know, are still defending this Charter, are still committed to the principle on this Charter. So there's a lot, I've got like a ton of things I want to ask you now as we start talking. There's something that hit the news today that to me is another sign of this embrace of multilateralism and trying to break this yoke, this stranglehold that the United States and its related international institutions have on so many countries. Peru announced that it's going to adopt blockchain technology and adopt a cryptocurrency that is going to be I guess you can exchange it into a basket of currencies including the Euro and the US dollar and I think the Real in Brazil. Venezuela introduced the Petro in 2019, I think one of the first countries to adopt a cryptocurrency and we heard El Salvador has done the same. So what does this mean to you? This adaptation of cryptocurrencies by a number of countries now Argentina is exploring this option as well. Oh, I think it's a sign of the times as well. I think countries have different reasons for doing them. We in Venezuela for example adopted Petro as part of our struggle against the financial blockade in the United States and that was attacked also by the United States unilateral measures. But I think it's a sign of the times. It's a new way of engaging financially and it's a new way to also contest the dominance of the United States that the United States have over the international system. Because most of what we see today is some type of United States. Now these initiatives are not new in the sense that for many years we know that countries have been seeking ways to have a more independent financial system that gets brought by the whims of the other. There's exchanges that take place between Russia and China for example within their own currencies and there's other attempts. But it is a difficult thing to do in reality is the part to completely establish a whole different system because the US has dominated financial institutions for a very long time the networks and the flow of money and how banks connect to each other. It's a sign of the times that things are changing, that people are trying to have a more independent financial system that I think is important for humanity again. Depend depends on one country or depends on whatever aspects that may be, whether it be for cooperation or for health, it's always a dangerous thing. I think what the world is seeking through multilateralism and through all these different alliances that we see regional alliances everywhere is to find common ground between similar currencies and that you generate cooperation and not dependency. At the end of the day, most countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the new context that we have after the Cold War well, it's important which does not tie the specific superpower of diversity and in that make sure that we respect each others and I think that is key you're a little garbled and are you there still? Okay, everyone, if you could just sit tight for a minute or two, let's see if Carlos can rejoin us for some closing comments. We're very lucky that he was able to connect, oh here you are. Hello. I'm so sorry, guys. No, it's okay.  So yeah, I mean, I would this crypto, this blockchain technology and the development of cryptocurrencies really is a way and I know this is somewhat controversial when I say because not all countries feel this way, but I think for so many of us that have done anti-sanctions work we view it quite like you have said it's a way to break through one country's currency and one country's financial system controlling what everyone else on the planet can or cannot do as far as international trade and exchange and it's also just a very good example. You know, it's a modern way of handling economic transactions and I think there were a couple countries that were very particularly with younger governments such as yours where this is just the way of the future and things are just evolving that way for multiple reasons. I wonder Carlos if you could tell us two things I'd like to ask you if it's possible for you to comment on the Venezuela dialogue happening here in Mexico City I guess I personally would say it's been quite an experience living here for the past year I've been going to language school as many in the audience know the leadership that the Mexican government specifically President Lopez Obrador has shown for the hemisphere in helping orchestrate this dialogue meeting on September 18th it's really pretty exciting what we're all witnessing here I'm not you may not be able I'm not expecting you to divulge what's being discussed at the table but it's a great it's a great thing we're witnessing and not just for Venezuela it's a terrific sign for all of the Americas with what your country is doing at the moment yeah well I think I'll say this of course I'm not part of the negotiating team so I cannot give you specific details on the negotiations but I can tell you what has gone on you know so far and I think that and we can probably talk about a couple things that are important first of all as you well know during the last few years very tough moments in Venezuelan history I mean 2014 we saw very violent actions on behalf of or by some of these actors in the opposition that you know we're trying to we're almost pushing Venezuela into the brink of civil war or constitutional transition trying to overthrow the president trying to kill the president trying to just engage in political violence the fact that the same groups that are led these movements into violence that they are now back on the negotiating table I think it's a great achievement and it's a great benefit to the country and that is one of the things if anything that we take away tonight on this issue of the dialogue it should be that it is important that these groups that have opted for violence are now sitting back on the table it is not an easy negotiation it's very as you can imagine it's very complicated because there are many many differences of views on what the future of Venezuela is should be but that this part of the opposition finally is back at the table I think it's very important and we are thankful of Mexico and Norway and all the countries that have cooperated into facilitating this also I think that it's important that when you see the document that was established the rules of how the the agenda better is going to be discussed the document clearly states that this is a dialogue process between the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela headed by President Maduro represented by the President of the National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez and the unity platform of the opposition which represents this one part of the opposition we're not talking about two governments we're not talking about two presidents we're talking about the government and an important opposition so I think that is also very important for what we've seen so far besides this there have been some agreements that have already come up in the sense of united positions that Venezuela has taken both the government as well as this opposition for example the support of the Esaquibo region this is a historical claim that we have on the border dispute with Guyana which was really our border dispute with the British empire but you know that was inherited after Guyana's independence and then we have also agreed to set up a round table for addressing important social concerns that the country has elements that we are bringing to the table include the lifting of sanctions there is a discussion that we are bringing up of course these sanctions are imposed by the United States government but it was part of this opposition and from the unity platform that called and eventually asked for some of these sanctions to be implemented against Venezuela so it is important that this discussion is going on and in the days there was also an announcement another common position that was made a rejection to the attacks that were suffered by Venezuelan immigrants in Chile where it was very difficult that we saw this xenophobia and these attacks against our Venezuelan by people that unfortunately seem to have a threat or who knows what but there is a common position by and this should not take place and there was also a statement that was read by the facilitator from Norway where it was mentioned that we will include or take into consideration more of the issue of gender when we address and consult in the coming days society as to where this dialogue process is going as far as I believe I can share with you with regards to the dialogue process I must emphasize the government has always been open to dialogue we have been in permanent dialogue with parts of the opposition part of the opposition is already participating in the last elections in the national assembly so what is important is that this one part that was read by the unity platform the so called G4 which is four political parties in particular including that of where Juan Guaido was a member well they finally came to the table and I think if we can conduct a process where violence is completely discarded is completely renounced is completely abandoned by the opposition as a means of doing politics but rather on the ballot box we concentrate in public debate we concentrate on all those things that strengthen our democracy then we will have a very successful outcome of this dialogue and that is what we really seeking for the peace and for the future of the country so I think these are very hopeful times again these are difficult negotiations because there is a widespread differences in our opinions and how we look at the country and what we think the country's future should be but it is important that for the sake of the Venezuelan people we are all sitting down and trying to work these things out peacefully and in dialogue and not through violence I think it is an absolutely perhaps it is very exciting it is very hopeful and it is an incredible example for the rest of the Americas the rest of the world actually what your country is doing right now it is such a it is a microcosm or it is one nation's example of what all of Salah like to achieve where you have a country resolving its politics its economics its cultural issues all of it you have a nation resolving all of the issues itself you have all these different political factions sitting at the table the government and all the other political parties and it is just such it is such a fantastic thing to see after so many years of attacks from outside of your country to see this this is what everyone is striving for to be left alone to solve problems ourselves or each nation's on its own with its own people and its own institutions and its own structures that is one of the things that we have often strive for and that we've asked people to understand that this is an issue the solution to Venezuela's problems can only and will only come from Venezuelans everything that you try to impose from outside that you try to force from outside will eventually crumble and fall there is no example in history where intervention has somehow improved situation of any country and you could just take Afghanistan as a recent example yeah you change the intervention yes play a role and maintain certain positions and once you take intervention out then you almost have the same scenario all over again with the fact that you had 20 years of terrible war now we don't want that for Venezuela we don't want an intervention that would take us 20 years to find out that it never should have been I mean what we want is to have the opportunity to solve our own problems on our own with you know at the end of the day some people outside don't realize that we Venezuelans still have a lot of things in common both government and our position we have common history we have families in both sides of the debate so it is up to us to clear out our differences and find our solutions and avoid war and avoid confrontation and avoid tensions but we happen if we solve our problems ourselves not if we have interventionism from any kind trying to meddle into our own affairs it is such a beautiful example of what is possible and you and your nation are making it a reality for the rest of the world the rest of the hemisphere to witness this possibility is such a great recognition and preservation of national sovereignty which every nation is pushing to well maybe not the United States is pushing to preserve for itself and its people there are several people watching this evening who were in Venezuela for the national assembly elections December of last year and we had those people participating tonight had an opportunity to meet with the opposition parties that participated in the elections in December and it really you helped expedite that meeting for us it was really one of the best educational moments for those of us who have been doing solidarity work with Venezuela and anti-US intervention work and anti-sanctions work it was a really eye-opening moment for us to meet with people against the government who overtly said and this is not a narrative you hear in the United States they opened the meeting with us saying we believe the Venezuela electoral process is free and fair and without fraud and they continue to participate they believe that they do want change in the country it's a different political and economic model than currently exists but they believe and again they overtly shared this with us that they believe in affecting change by constitutional means forming political parties which means participating in the electoral process that is the majority of the opposition in your country and those are the people we never hear about in the United States we only hear about the violent faction who thank goodness are sitting at the table in Mexico City now and have stated they'll be participating in the November elections as well it's a fantastic evolution of events and it's just so inspiring for everyone no indeed I think it's very important like you said there has been there has always been part of the opposition that wants to maintain within the democratic norms in the constitutional framework now we have to take this opportunity now that we have at the style of the table we have those that announced the constitution that acted against it to now maybe come back and maybe abandon those practices definitely definitively so we can preserve our peace and our democracy the way it should be again I think it is important that there is understanding outside of Venezuela of the importance of dialogue that we like you said the narrative that you often hear in Washington or in other places in the United States comes from a small group there is still a small group even a smaller group of people in the opposition that have nothing to do with the dialogue for them the best option is the marine plan and just hand over power to them and hand over the country this unfortunately is still true of a very small minority but it is still true so what people that are engaged in peace and committed to democracy around the world should do is precisely support the dialogue process there are going to be many attempts to attack this process we have already seen it by irrational actors such as the government of Colombia trying to intervene because their interests are other their agenda is a different agenda their agenda is not the agenda of peace for Venezuela their agenda is the collapse of our country so they can have some benefit from it so I think it is important that anybody again you don't have to agree with our policies with socialism, with our views but please we ask that you respect the world of Venezuelan people to carry out our democracy freely to carry out our dialogue process freely free of intervention and to allow us to solve our own problems I think anybody who is really committed to democracy and to peace has to support the dialogue process and help them to their conclusion without any interruption without any intervention from anywhere else it is such a great example a single nation example of what is possible for the entire hemisphere specifically for the countries that create Saloc Venezuela is really setting the example of what is possible when people are left alone to solve their own problems their own way and as president Lopez Obrador said in July to solve the problems based on your own history and culture and your own norms and your own internal systems so it is just really we just are all wishing you know the best for you and your country that this dialogue process it seems to be progressing in a very positive way and we want it to ultimately end in a very positive way for all of you I wonder if you would like to comment on this program 30 minutes long well approaching an hour and I am thankful you have been able to stay with us is there is there anything you would like to comment on before we close this evening anything that we have neglected to talk about well again I think first of all I thank you for this opportunity I thank you always for the interest in the region I think very few organizations are doing this important work of taking solidarity to the steps of making sure that the public understands what really goes on in our countries and we have very complex realities and it is always important to show that complexity and I think all the organizations that also work together with Copenhagen I thank you for allowing Latin America and Latin American movements to express themselves in this way and to talk about our reality again I think it is important that we see that we are under a new moment where again unity seems not only possible in our region but it is also a necessity these great challenges that we face throughout the planet like climate change like the pandemic these are moments to come together as equals to come together with the principles of cooperation so that we can move forward and I think it is important to for you we appreciate that you reflect this reality that people can understand why even when we are diverse and even when we have very different positions we can find common ground enough to push for these spaces such as SAILAC such as the group of friends so I think again multilateralism is the guarantee that there will be world peace that there will be respect for national sovereignty and self-determination this is not just an idea or rhetoric this is actually truth I mean when we respect international law when we are here to international law we know that we can expect peace and to prevail when we attempt against international law when we try to impose ourselves over the rights of other countries and other peoples we can only expect terrible things to happen so that will be I guess the message that we have and again thank you for this opportunity to engage on these issues thank you so much I want to share with you a comment in the chat as we sign off from Leslie Sago who is with friends of Latin America in the DMV and friends of Latin America is one of our broadcast partners for this program and she says oh we've got a couple things thank you for your positive and hopeful presentation I thank you on behalf of friends of Latin America thank you Carlos Ron for sharing this very valuable presentation about Salak and efforts towards peace in Latin America and the Caribbean so you're right it's a moment it's a very special moment and we all need to grasp it and help push it forward so thank you for joining us this evening I want to remind our audience that you've been watching what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean of hot news out of Latin America and the Caribbean we broadcast every Wednesday evening on Code Pink YouTube live 7 30 p.m. Eastern also you can catch us now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and please don't forget to catch Code Pink Radio every Thursday morning 11 a.m. Eastern on WBAI out of New York City and WPFW out of Washington DC so thank you for joining us everyone thank you for your time Carlos really appreciate your comments and you joining us this evening really it's such a special moment that's right and Venezuela has a lot to do with achieving this moment I think everyone in Latin America and I think everyone elsewhere can also have a role to play and to promote the respect of national law so everyone even in the United States has a role to play in defense of Latin American sovereignty and independence thank you very much okay thank you good night


Joe Biden has named Marcia fudge from Ohio to be the HUD secretary now the reason why this is important news For you for me for the left isn't necessarily because I have a strong opinion about Marcia fudge either way But because of who might be running to replace her Reportedly the individual considering running for Marcia fudge's old seat is None other than Nina Turner If this is true, I Cannot tell you how big of a deal this would be for the left and progressive movement a lot of signs and evidence point to this being True although Nina Turner hasn't confirmed anything yet However, there's a lot of reasons to believe that this is going to happen So as Holly Otter been an Alex Thompson of Politico report former Ohio State senator and top Bernie Sanders surrogate Nina Turner Is contemplating a run for representative Marcia fudge's seat if Joe Biden brings the Ohio member of Congress into his administration According to two people close to Turner reached by phone Turner was Koi Currently there is no vacancy in the district and if it becomes vacant things will unfold as they should she said pressed on whether She was considering a run Turner said well, there's been an outcry for me to at least consider it You know, I'm a public servant through and through but I'm just going to leave it there for now She's not saying much But her response tells us a lot now on top of that the author of this article one of them Anyways, I tweeted this out Nina Turner has filed with the FEC for fudges seat in Ohio reached by phone She says she has nothing to add. I'm in my 48 hours. She said but when I reached the campaign treasurer on the FEC form They said they'd pass along my message to quote to the campaign This is happening This is happening and I could barely contain my excitement. I feel the way I felt Back in I think it was February of 2019 when Bernie Sanders announced that he was running for president again This genuinely gives me hope in a way that I haven't felt Since that that time and this is really important Nina Turner is someone who Wouldn't just be another progressive in Congress She is a leader of this movement and she could be the leader of this movement Now the reason why her running is important is because she has a really strong shot at winning First of all, she has access to a lot of Bernie Sanders staffers that would likely very willingly jump on board On top of that all of the infrastructure that Bernie Sanders built up around, you know grassroots fundraising all of the donors that Bernie Sanders had would almost certainly Support Nina Turner. I know I would the minute she announces I'm gonna sign up to donate 27 bucks a month to her as I did with Bernie Sanders so There's a lot that She has going for her to win this seat I don't know what the primary is going to look like I can imagine that the Democratic Party establishment may try to You know a recruit individuals to run against her because they don't want Nina Turner to win But Nina Turner is Nina Turner if you're running against her good luck Good luck And you know Nina Turner is someone who I think that as it is now She's qualified to run for president if she wanted it But I think this is actually a really important step if she ever wants to seek out the presidency because one it'll bolster the Experience that she already has I'm not necessarily worried that the establishment is going to attack her for not being experienced because you know as a state senator you do have a lot of experience and After so many people in the Democratic Party supported Pete put a judge a mayor of South Bend, Indiana I mean you can't say that he's experienced, but Nina Turner is not so that's not necessarily what I'm worried about But what I like is that this gives her the opportunity to kind of pave her own path Because right now she's associated with Bernie Sanders when you think of Nina Turner You think about Bernie Sanders and it's important for her to establish her own national profile in This way right because there is a lot of baggage with Bernie Sanders for whatever reason a lot of people don't like Bernie Sanders And part of this is propaganda because of the media and even some individuals who like AOC dislike Bernie Sanders So if Nina Turner can kind of create a name for herself nationally, that's not associated with Bernie Sanders I think this can help her because Bernie Sanders ran for president twice and you know He he lost both times so that association I don't necessarily think it would hurt her But it would help her to kind of create a name for herself That doesn't include Bernie Sanders like we don't want to think of her as a Bernie Sanders surrogate We want to think of Nina Turner as Nina Turner and I know that the Sanders supporters do myself I think of her as the leader of this movement But we need America to see her as a leader and if they saw her in Congress saw the things that she could accomplish The things that she'd be able to do That would really help her chances if she wanted to run for president, but whatever she wants to do I'm on board with it. I support whatever she wants. She wants to run for Congress. I'm there if she wants to run for president in 2024 I'm there too. I think that Nina Turner is someone who is so unique and so special to this movement that what she does Could literally determine the future of the leftist movement the progressive movement in America That's how meaningful her presence is so this honestly this news made my day I know it made your day to probably when you heard this, but when I when I actually saw this I thought oh my god This is actually a reason to be hopeful because part of the reason why I was so depressed after Bernie Sanders dropped out was because I mean Who else is going to take his place Bernie Sanders? He's not young and I don't know who wants to step up I mean we have AOC potentially wanting to run for president maybe in the future But would she actually want to do that?  I don't think by 2024 we need like a lot of folks who would be interested in running and The person who keeps coming up in my mind to continue on Bernie Sanders legacy and Be the new leader of this movement is Nina Turner like anytime I try to put someone else in that place It doesn't fit properly because she's the one she's always been the one So this news is encouraging to me because it's not just about this one seat Marcia fudges old seat this is about the long term health and You know relevance quite frankly of the progressive left in America and if she is able to win this Which I think she'd have a great chance at it We'd be really We'd be on a good path going forward, so I I'm over the moon about this news Of course, it's not official yet And I don't want to step on her toes by like talking about this when she hasn't even announced But there's a lot of evidence on a lot of talk around her and just the fact that there's this much Noise around her possibly running it kind of shows you that people know that this individual is A powerhouse right Nina Turner running for Congress I mean who is gonna want to run against her? That's just You're gonna get decimated you know so for someone to step up and run for Congress if Anyone needed to be there it would be someone like Nina Turner who we need as a fighter But again, it's not just about her role in Congress This is about the future and where she's going to go and when it comes to Nina Turner Sky is the limit, honestly, so I'm thrilled I'll you know reserve my excitement until she actually makes it official and announces because I feel like I Don't want to get my hopes up and this isn't real You know she maybe she's making the moves, but ultimately changes her mind, but if she wants to run she has my Absolute full support. I think that that goes without saying I think Everyone was supporting in a turner who supported Bernie Sanders, so yeah Nina Turner might Run for Congress or will very likely run for Congress Yeah, I like that


What's the role of nutrition for both preventing and beating COVID-19? Nutrition-related myths on protection and treatment have been widely prevalent in this pandemic, and while there's no diet that completely prevents infection, there are certainly dietary steps we can take to minimize risk. Those with healthier diets in general seem to suffer less serious courses. But this appears to be an indirect benefit of lower rates of obesity and pre-existing medical conditions. I mean, that's great, but is there any diet that may have direct effects on the course of disease or susceptibility to infection in the first place? Well, plant-based diets have been shown to decrease the risk of suffering from other respiratory infections. In fact, plant-based seminaries during the pandemic of 1918 appeared to have been relatively spared. Why might a plant-based diet help? Vegetable nitrates, concentrated in dark green leafy vegetables, can be used to make nitric oxide, which is part of our lungs' first line of defense against infection. There are also polyphenol phytonutrients in plants that may directly inhibit viral infection. Then there are beneficial effects on our microbiome, which plays a key role in our system-wide immune function. Fiber-containing foods facilitate more of a symbiotic relationship with our gut bugs, whereas processed junk and animal foods can have the opposite dysbiotic effect. Fiber, concentrated in whole plant foods, is the single most anti-inflammatory food component, whereas saturated fat, concentrated in meat, dairy, and junk, is the most pro-inflammatory food component. And so, no surprise, those consuming more pro-inflammatory diets were at greater risk of suffering a severe course and of getting COVID-19 in the first place, up to nearly 12 times the odds, even after taking into account body weight, diabetes, and blood pressure. But this study only covered 60 COVID patients. How about 11,000 COVID patients? Diet-associated inflammation increased the risk of getting COVID-19 infection, suffering a severe course, and dying from the disease. Might this help explain why the COVID death rates were 100 times lower in Africa? Can a plant-based diet help mitigate COVID-19? Let's find out. In this study of COVID-19 illness severity in the elderly in relation to vegetarian versus non-vegetarian diets, statistically the non-vegetarians had up to like 20 times the odds of suffering a critically severe course of COVID, but that was based on only nine vegetarians. Now here, a study of thousands of front-line healthcare workers across six countries found that those eating plant-based diets had 73% lower odds of suffering a moderate or severe course of COVID-19, and even combined with pescatarians who eat fish, but no other meat, still had significantly lower odds. The biggest spread was between those eating plant-based versus low carb. Compared to plant-based healthcare workers, those eating low carb, high protein diets had nearly four times greater odds of suffering a serious infection. This may not seem surprising, given that many of the underlying risk factors for COVID-19 mortality, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, can be controlled or even reversed with health enough plant-based diet and lifestyle, but the parent plant-based protection went above and beyond. The greatly reduced risk was independent of all those conditions. The researchers suggest that a healthy diet rich in nutrient-dense foods may be considered for protection against severe COVID-19. The one food group most associated with lower symptom severity in one outpatient study was legumes, followed by grains, the top sources of dietary fiber. The investigators suggest that the anti-inflammatory effects of the short-chain fatty acids released by our fiber-feeding good gut bugs may explain the connection. The healthcare worker study enrolled a few thousand people, Harvard researchers collected data from nearly 600,000 participants using a plant-based diet scoring system, where you get points for eating healthy plant foods, but points deducted from meat, eggs, junk, and dairy. And indeed, those scoring higher not only had a significantly lower risk of suffering a severe course of COVID-19, but also significantly lower risk of getting infected in the first place. And again, this was after taking comorbidities into account alongside non-dietary risk factors such as exercise and smoking, bottom line, the best available evidence suggests plant-based diets are beneficial in directly reducing the risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms and the risk of infection, even independent of other health-related factors. A more Mediterranean-style diet may reduce the risk of infection by 22%, while an even more plant-based diet may cut infection risk in half. For dealing with long COVID, a plant-based diet has been suggested based on the abundance of data showing positive associations of plant-based diets with improved immune function, neurotransmitter balance, pain and inflammation reduction, improved sleep and mental health. So in terms of lifestyle adjustments and long COVID management, large-scale promotion of plant-based eating may have the potential to improve physical and mental impacts, but this has yet to be put to the test. There was a study that suggested those who eat more vegetables are less likely to end up depressed, and those who eat more nuts, beans, and whole grains may end up less depressed, anxious, and stressed after COVID, whereas stress levels were correlated with higher meat intake. But the only interventional studies are like this, showing a detrimental impact on high-fat, high-sugar diets, but that's in Syrian hamsters, though there's definitely some unhappy hamster lungs on the crappy diet. All in all, adopting a healthy plant-based diet may be a powerful tool to decrease the risk of severe COVID-19 and should be promoted as a public health safety measure. And what are the side effects? A delay in aging and decreased disease? Maybe this is the booster we need. After all, if real effort had gone into encouraging and incentivizing healthier diets and lifestyles, we would not only have saved many more lives from COVID-19, but we would also reduce future mortality from all major causes of death.