Politics

Submitted by Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com,

Venezuela can’t pay its millions of dollars in debt to Indian pharmaceutical companies, say Indian officials, so officials are considering a proposal that would see the Latin American country swap oil for its drug debts.

After an unlucky gamble on India’s part that Venezuela’s emerging economy would be a good place to hawk Indian pharmaceuticals, the debt is now mounting and poor crisis management coupled with the long-running oil price slump has left Venezuela too cash strapped to pay up.

The US economy must be truly fixed and all geopolitical conflicts resolved, because as the world enjoys its global utopia on a day when yet another airplane was taken down by terrorist according to the latest news, the US Congress is busy dealing with stuff like this: according to the Hill, "the house floor devolved into chaos and shouting on Thursday as a measure to ensure protections for members of the LGBT community narrowly failed to pass after Republican leaders urged their members to change their votes."

Meanwhile, over at The Week, I’ve been offering Hillary Clinton some free campaign advice in a series of columns.

In the first column, which you can read here, I focus on the need for Clinton to redefine herself yet again:

As I fully expected them to, most of the institutional GOP has fallen into line behind their standard-bearer, whatever their private reservations. A handful of intellectuals – mostly neoconservatives who have long had ties to both parties – have openly defected to Clinton, which makes perfect sense since her foreign policy views are largely congenial to them, and foreign policy is what they care about most of all. But most of those who previously expressed disdain or alarm about Trump are being cajoled or bullied into supporting the nominee.

Early this morning, following news of the tragic crash of yet another airplane, Donald Trump was the first to suggest that the catastrophe was the result of "yet another terrorist attack"...

Looks like yet another terrorist attack. Airplane departed from Paris. When will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 19, 2016