As the Council Speaker seeks to overturn the mayor’s veto of 175B, it is important that city councilors - both those who voted against and those who abstained- hold the line for our labor and speech/assembly rights. It’s not hard. Just read Harvey’s reasoning below.
Join IPK on February 23 for a book talk with @julia_azari. She will discuss her new book Backlash Presidents: Transformative to Reactionary Leaders in American History with @KimberleyNYC and @JoeLowndes.
https://t.co/ndYQ77Vx9D
The next 72 hours are critical for the world.
If the United States succeeds in imposing control over Venezuela, and by extension over the world’s largest proven oil reserves, it will mark a major shift in global power.
Such a move would not be about restoring democracy or protecting human rights, but about reasserting strategic dominance over energy, trade routes, and regional alignments.
In that case, Iran would likely move to the forefront of Washington’s strategic priorities.
Securing control over Venezuelan oil would reduce U.S. vulnerability to energy disruptions in the Gulf and provide a buffer against supply shocks in the event of a confrontation with Iran.
With a reliable alternative source of heavy crude under its influence, Washington would be better positioned to absorb or offset the destruction or shutdown of energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf during a war.
This would lower the economic cost of escalation and make military pressure against Iran more politically and economically manageable.
At the same time, such control would strengthen the United States’ ability to shape global oil flows and pricing, reinforcing the central role of the dollar in energy markets and helping preserve the petrodollar system that underpins U.S. financial power.
Venezuela would thus become more than a regional issue.
It would become a strategic precedent, a demonstration that economic pressure, political engineering, and, if necessary, force can be used to restructure sovereign states and realign the global balance of power.
However, if the United States becomes entangled in Venezuela and faces sustained resistance, the outcome shifts dramatically.
A prolonged crisis would drain political capital, stretch military and economic resources, and weaken Washington’s capacity to project power elsewhere, including in the Middle East.
That would also complicate Israeli strategic planning, which is closely tied to U.S. regional leverage.
What happens in Venezuela will not stay in Latin America.
It will shape the future of energy control, the limits of American power, and the direction of geopolitical confrontation far beyond Caracas.
Just three months after the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA held its AmericaFest 2025 confab last weekend. @JoeLowndes reports for @newlinesmag on the tensions within the organization — and the American right. https://t.co/OepPkj5dm5
NEW: Just three months after the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA held its AmericaFest 2025 confab last weekend. @JoeLowndes reports for @newlinesmag on the tensions within the organization — and the American right. https://t.co/OkYf0nsJn7
Tonight at IPK: @crrebin discusses her new book The Radical Mind: The Origins of Right-Wing Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building with @JoeLowndes.
Excellent read. @JoeLowndes: “Just as remembrance is key to national identity, so, as the 19th-century theorist of nationalism Ernst Renan pointed out, is selective forgetting” https://t.co/JYoaVEY0Od
NEW: What message does Trump’s “Chipocalypse Now” meme send, with its declaration of war on an American city? @JoeLowndes dives into the ideological heart of darkness for @newlinesmag.
https://t.co/a8py6Du7Cy
Good afternoon @ChancellorCUNY Here is a look at my syllabus which includes discussion of #settler#colonialism - is this also “divisive, polarizing + inappropriate”? Or is #Palestine the exception?
@ChancellorCUNY Here is a multiple choice question on #settlercolonialism from an exam I gave last week in the @HunterCollege class Historical Intro to US Politics drawn from a widely-used @wwnorton textbook on US Govt, 'We the People.'