Venezuela

[Undried Plum]

[John Hill]

I am sorry plum but you missed out Afghanistan!

[Undried Plum]

And another half dozen South and central American countries which have had 'the treatment'.

Using a Trojan Horse as a battering ram to bash their way in is an interesting tactic.

[BenThere]

Also, it wasn't the grim reaper of the US that knocked on the Syria and Ukraine doors, it was Russia's.

Are you sure you want a hands-off US policy in Venezuela? The people aren't faring too well under Socialism, starving, no medicine, extreme poverty and such.

So far, the US is supporting the new president as constitutionally (Venezuela's) selected by the Venezuelan legislature. There is a widespread collection of nations, including most of Latin America, calling for Maduro to exit. The US so far has donated and positioned desperately needed humanitarian aid at Venezuela's borders. Maduro won't allow that aid into Venezuela, despite the obvious need - Socialism at work.

Plum and John Hill see the US as evil - I get that. But so far, what have we done wrong?

[John Hill]

Plum and John Hill see the US as evil - I get that. But so far, what have we done wrong?

Are serious?

[FD2]

Never let starvation get in the way of political dogma:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/0 ... -colombia/

Must be an invented story if it's the Telegraph...but wait, the Guardian is also reporting it so it must be true.

[Slasher]

Am quite surprised to see Mr Plum has that attitude towards America.

I know he doesn't exactly like Washington and its foreign policies but to regard it as the GR was unexpected.

[John Hill]

Why would anyone not expect the GR when the US comes uninvited?

[Slasher]

Are you sure you want a hands-off US policy in Venezuela? The people aren't faring too well under Socialism, starving, no medicine, extreme poverty and such.

...- Socialism at work.

AFAIC Ben let 'em starve. The USA should just watch what's going on while sitting in the spectators seat. The Venezuelans voted for Socialism so (scuse their pun) let 'em eat cake and tell them to put up and shut up. I have no mercy whatsoever. The earlier they themselves bump off Maduro et al the better. Then America can do bleeding-heart deals if it wants with whatever rises out of the ashes.

In the meantime just leave it all to Hill K&C Ocasio and the 'crats to offer aid to their still-surviving socialist brothers down there. I'm sure the first three names will be more than willing to pay for food and medicine out of their own pockets. The rest of the Dems of course are too embarrassed to give a sh!t.

[Seenenough]

So Jorge Ramos and his crew have been detained by Maduro in Venezuela -I suppose he expects the Trump admin to sort it out for them.

[Woody]

So Jorge Ramos and his crew have been detained by Maduro in Venezuela -I suppose he expects the Trump admin to sort it out for them.

Don’t think so !

"What I told Nicolás Maduro is that millions of Venezuelans and many governments around the world don't consider him a legitimate president but a dictator."
During their detention, Mr Ramos and Univision Vice President María Martínez were kept for "a few minutes" in a separate room where the lights were turned off, the broadcaster said.
The Univision crew will be deported on Tuesday, Reuters news agency reports.
Mr Ramos, a veteran Mexican-born American journalist, is known for his confrontational style of questioning. In 2015, he was thrown out of a news conference of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

[Capetonian]

Medical equipment and internet fails as Venezuela is plunged into darkness during 16-hour blackout

Venezuela was almost entirely without power on Friday morning amid a blackout that the Maduro government blamed on sabotage and which wrought chaos across much of the country.

Communications went down, water pumps failed and transport ground to a halt as Venezuela was plunged into darkness at around 5pm local time (9pm UK) on Thursday night. The power cut was believed to have hit up to 23 of the country’s 24 states, though with mobile networks and internet largely out of action, the situation in some areas was unclear.

In Caracas and elsewhere, workers were forced to walk miles to get home as the lights went out in the oil-rich South American nation. There were reports of life support machines and other essential medical equipment failing at hospitals without back-up generators. In the capital, municipal officials said they had attended emergency calls from residents reliant on oxygen machines.

School and labour activities were suspended, businesses were shuttered and many Venezuelans were virtually stranded in their homes. There was no word as to when the power cut might end, with fears that it could last for days - a daunting prospect for Venezuelans already struggling to survive amid punishing shortages of food, medicine and cash.
People walk around a shopping People go about their business at a shopping mall in Caracas as the blackout continuesmall in Caracas during the blackout
People go about their business at a shopping mall in Caracas as the blackout continues Credit: Reuters

Amid a deepening international crisis over his leadership, Nicolas Maduro blamed the blackout on an “electric war” waged by the enemies of his Socialist government, claiming “sabotage” at the Guri hydroelectric dam.

“The electric war announced and directed by US imperialism against our people will be defeated. Nothing and no one will be able to defeat the people of Bolívar y Chávez,” he said, calling for “maximum unity of patriots!"

But for most Venezuelans, the government’s claims did not ring true, with many noting that Guri was state-operated and under tight security. Instead they pinned the blackout on years of infrastructural decay, a lack of investment and poor maintenance under the Maduro government.

Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly leader who has been recognised as interim president by more than 50 countries, said the blackout demonstrated the “inefficiency of the usurper”, referring to Mr Maduro. The recovery of the electricity sector and the country would come with “the end of the usurpation,” he added.

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, said: “The power outage and the devastation hurting ordinary Venezuelans is not because of the USA. It’s not because of Colombia. It’s not Ecuador or Brazil, Europe or anywhere else. Power shortages and starvation are the result of the Maduro regime’s incompetence.”

“Maduro’s policies bring nothing but darkness,” he wrote on Twitter. “No food. No medicine. Now, no power. Next, no Maduro.”

[BenThere]

I wish I could access the threads from TOP dating back to the rise of Chavez. I and others were never on board with him and argued with those who extolled his virtues. Maduro was only a continuation of 'The Bolivarian Revolution' which, predictably, reduced Venezuela to penury.

The US has observed a hands off policy towards Venezuela all along. The throes Venezuelans have endured for the duration are mostly the results of their own votes, first empowering Chavez, and when the power of their votes were taken away, enduring the consequences of Socialism.

[Capetonian]

From Germany to Venezuela, how many times must we try out socialism to see it doesn't work?

People collect water from a leaking pipeline in Caracas, Venezuela amid the country's worst ever power outage

I was quietly waiting at a bus stop last week when a troupe of fresh-faced, earnest schoolgirls passed by carrying banners declaring their support for socialism. It is extraordinary that this sort of thing is happening. How many times does socialism have to fail before everyone accepts that it really doesn’t work?

According to Marx, socialism is the stage we inevitably must go through prior to reaching the utopian state of communism in which money and property magically become redundant. This supposed paradise has never actually been achieved anywhere, ever. But my goodness we have certainly tried out socialism!

We have had the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which was such an economic disaster that millions died of starvation. Oh, and there was mass slave labour, torture and executions of political opponents, too.

Then came the People’s Republic of China: pretty much the same thing.

East Germany was one of the least bad attempts at socialism. Guess how many households had a telephone before the residents finally started hacking down the Berlin Wall. The answer is further on.

There were over 20 attempts at socialism in the 20th century, and every single one ended in economic failure and political terror. Most recently, Venezuela has had a go. Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott were both thrilled when the new regime began. But yet again, it has ended horribly. If you tried playing golf using a spoon you would find the ball did not go very far. After trying a dozen times with different techniques, you would probably accept there was something inherently flawed about using a spoon to play golf. So why don’t people similarly realise that socialism is a rotten way to run a country?

A lot of people have wrestled with this puzzle. Kristian Niemietz, in Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies, reckons it’s because our brains are those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors who cooperated to hunt and then shared out the food. This way of thinking is therefore hard-wired into our brains. You might think that, being rational creatures, we would nevertheless learn that this system does not work in a modern economy. Unfortunately, it turns out that we do not use reason to create our views. We have our views and use our reason to justify them and diss any evidence to the contrary. This is a theory first proposed by Jonathan Haidt.

There is another, more cynical theory. Our academics and teachers were often clever children who did well at school. They have belatedly found that some thicko at the back of the class has gone into the doughnut business or women’s underwear business and made buckets of money. This persuades them that the world is deeply unjust and that expropriation of the rich is the only fair answer. They then teach young girls viscerally to hate capitalism and enjoy the delicious fantasy that, via socialism, they can make the world a better place.

By the way, 16 per cent of East German households had a telephone in 1989. In capitalist West Germany, the figure was 99 per cent.

[Slasher]

Some real journalism for a change.

[Slasher]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... s-collapse