For those who still believe that Black Lives Matter is legitimate grass-roots movement which came out of nowhere in response to events in Ferguson, Missouri over a year ago, consider BLM co-founder Opal Tometi.
Tometi somehow took the time and somehow found the money to get down to Venezuela, home of the latest failed attempt to impose a socialist "workers' paradise" on an unwilling population. On Sunday, despite shameless gerrymandering, significant government-imposed barriers on political speech and a virtual denial of media access, the "revolution" Hugo Chavez began in 1999 and which Nicolas Maduro continued after Chavez's death in 2013 suffered an unprecedented electoral rebuke, as the government's opposition won 112 of 167 seats in the country's legislature. Guess whose side Opal Tometi was on?
Well, I would think it would be the side of the person who invited her.
Ms. Tometi certainly was impressed with Venezuela — enough that she tweeted a not so subtle dig at the U.S.:
Saner people have characterized Venezuela under Maduro as a "A Dictatorship Masquerading as a Democracy." Though the electoral results are a heartening first step towards reversing that reality, William Neuman has noted in a Tuesday op-ed piece at the New York Times that Maduro has about four weeks to engage in obstructionist and election-nullifying behavior, as Chavez did in 2007 when he suffered a relatively minor electoral rebuke.
Note that Tometi's tweets occurred two days before Sunday's election. Though she has tweeted and retweeted about visiting some polling stations on Election Day and the supposed "perfect" fairness of the process, Ms. Tometi appears to have had nothing to say about the results of the balloting. I wonder why?
With a short live update item at the web site of US News as a notable exception, the U.S. press hasn't seemed to notice Ms. Tometi's coziness with a regime which has ruined a once prosperous nation's economy and has steadily increased its repressive tactics since Maduro succeeded Chavez. An AP reporter noted Tometi's "intelligent political discourse" tweet, but Tometi's name was not found in any AP story in a search on her name late Wednesday at its national site.
It turns out that Maduro visited the U.S. in December and was honored by BLM activists:
Oh, and as if anyone really doubted it, BLM has also thrown in with Palestinians, obscenely accusing Israel of "ethnic cleansing."
Opal Tometi and other BLM leaders have demonstrated beyond doubt that the group is not and has never been a genuine grass-roots movement with a focused purpose. It's just another far-left multi-purpose activist group funded by dollars from rich leftists.
Luckily for BLM, as was the case with Occupy Wall Street several years ago, the vast majority of the establishment press won't point out the group's obvious lack of authenticity or its violent actions and tendencies. Unfortunately for BLM, enough of the American people to matter have caught on to the scam, and have been spreading the word.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
