Is Turkey the next Venezuela?

[BenThere]

The Erdogan nixing of Istanbul's mayoral election should raise some hackles and a foreboding sense of risk that the previously institutionalized and long-standing Ataturk reforms are on the ropes.

A democratic election has been nullified by an autocratic, Islamist despot. As in Venezuela, Turks voted the current regime to power, but they're in danger of losing the power to vote it out, as Istanbul is a case in point. The squalor to follow is predictable.

The Turkish Lira isn't doing so well either, and Erdogan's decision to eschew acquisition of US F-35, now the world's state of the art fighter, so as to acquire a Russian air defense system, means that Turkey's NATO membership is at risk as its position generally deteriorates. Should Turkey lose access to the F-35, I'll be looking forward to the day they regret it.

As I see it now, Turkey is no friend and no longer belongs in NATO. I'm hoping the 40% or so of Turks who are pro-Western, pro-democracy, and Freedom-loving, can bolster their ranks and re-establish Turkey as the bulwark of stability in the Middle East it once was.

[llondel]

It's part of their play to become a member of the EU club. They're demonstrating that they can re-run a vote if it doesn't give the answer they want the first time around.

[Stoneboat]

When the wealthiest people in the country begin to up stakes and leave, it's probably a good indication things aren't A1.

Millionaires Flee Their Homelands as Tensions Rise and Taxes Bite.

And if Bloomberg isn't your cuppa, maybe the NYT is, albeit a year old.

The Millionaires Are Fleeing. Maybe You Should Too.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Whilst the wealthy are important, I would suggest that the professional and business entrepreneur class are even more important, partly because they are the cogs that make everything turn, and do it efficiently, but also because when they leave, they generally never come back (unlike the rich) no matter whether things get fixed or not. And the UK Government knows this, which is why it both commisioned a Home Office study on, then hid the results of, the emigration from the UK
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... report.pdf

Key finding
A large and increasing proportion of British citizens emigrating from the UK are those from
professional or managerial occupations and this may have implications for the availability of skills
in the UK. In 2010 almost one-half (48%) of British emigrants were previously in professional or
managerial roles.

British citizens, responding to the IPS, most frequently said their main reason for emigrating was
to take up a definite job. Most were planning to be away for four years or more.

In fact, 4 years or more is forever. The dead giveaway is that they are taking their non-funded (e.g. Teachers) pension funds with them. Or were. The British Treasury quietly banned this in 2015, because they said the Treasury could not longer afford the amount hemorrhaging out of the country.

[Stoneboat]

Maybe the next Venezuela is a little closer to home.

Cuba rations chicken, eggs and rice as economic crisis worsens.

[Capetonian]

Socialism in action. What a great system!

[John Hill]

Are there US sanctions in force against Cuba?

[Capetonian]

All socialist countries are turkeys.

[John Hill]

All socialist countries are turkeys.

Any country you don't like is called socialist and subjected to continuous economic warfare.

[Capetonian]

I didn't realise you were a mind-reader.

[Stoneboat]

Are there US sanctions in force against Cuba?

Sanctions on chicken, eggs, and rice, by the looks of it.

[John Hill]

Sanctions are not precision weapons more like a blunderbuss aimed at the economy of the victim country.

[Undried Plum]

Turkey hasn't got any oil.

Neither did Afghanistan, but Unocal craved a pipeline through there so the country got raped.

If The Empire wants to rape Turkey, The Empire will do so. It's what they do.

[barkingmad]

After Erdogan’s outburst today are we waiting with baited breath for the new EU army to defend the EU’s eastern flank?

Wait a minute, I think I’m turning blue.

Meantime the POTUS Chump’s declaration that the Kurds didn’t help during the Normandy landings may have the American Psychiatric Association reaching for their “What and who is normal?” handbook.

[Undried Plum]

the Kurds didn’t help during the Normandy landings

Yamean the Kurds didn't help us during the Battle of Dunkirk? Bastards!

Yamean the Kurds didn't help us during the Battle of Britain? Bastards!

Yamean the Kurds didn't help us during the Battle of Suez? Bastards!

Yamean the Kurds didn't help us during the Battle of the Falklands? Bastards!

[Boac]

Once again showing his lack of knowledge of history - they didn't help defend the airfields during the American Civil War, either.

[Slasher]

Are there US sanctions in force against Cuba?

Sanctions on chicken, eggs, and rice, by the looks of it.

Never been a cigar smoker but I’ve never turned down any offered that were made from that country. Only opportunities were those offered by Yanks who got ‘em through across the Romulan Neutral Zone. While cigars IMO are nasty brown bloody smelly things that stink and taste as if one is smoking a black African’s smouldering jock strap, those damn Cuban ones were very enjoyable indeed.

[Stoneboat]

Slash, CR Smith - of American Airlines fame - used to have a fishing lodge a couple hundred miles east of here, accessible only by floatplane. I flew him down there a few times. He was usually accompanied by some other airline exec, in this instance it was Robert Six, the guy who started Continental Airlines. CR was a cigar smoker, and since there was a US embargo on Cuban cigars, he'd pick up a box of the real deal at the Bowrings smoke shop in Montreal on the way in. This trip he fired up a cigar on taxi out, and Six asked him how he planned to smuggle what would be left of his box of cigars back into the US once the trip was over. CR said not to worry, every one of them cigars would be cremated before they crossed the US border.