House Democrats urge the lifting of sanctions on Venezuela

| August 14, 2021

If Maduro had a daughter. (Branco/Americans for Limited Government/Creators.com)

Although the Democrat signers attribute many of the problems in Venezuela to Maduro and his allies, they’re calling for the lifting of the sanctions that Donald Trump imposed. They insist that Trump’s policies made things worse in Venezuela. In the letter, the Democrats offer alternative diplomatic actions.

From the House of Representatives letter:

By any measure, the current “maximum pressure” policy towards Venezuela has been a total failure. Trump officials attempted to force Maduro from power by imposing far-reaching sanctions; trying to foment a domestic military uprising; threatening U.S. armed intervention; and by cutting off all relations with Maduro and Maduro-aligned authorities. Despite these and other aggressive measures, Maduro remains more firmly in place than ever.

U.S. economic sanctions enacted since 2017 have inflicted greater hardship and suffering on ordinary Venezuelans. Rampant mismanagement and corruption under Maduro are at the root of Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. But, as a recent GAO report noted, U.S. sanctions have likely contributed to the country’s steep economic decline by sharply reducing the country’s oil revenue. Economist Francisco Rodríguez calculates that U.S. financial and oil-sector sanctions led to $17 billion of lost revenue for Venezuela per year between 2017 and 2019.

These dire numbers signify an escalation of the human tragedy taking place in Venezuela. A 2019 study found that sanctions contributed to significant increases in malnutrition, disease and general mortality in 2017 and 2018 (before even harsher sanctions were imposed by former President Trump, starting in 2019). As a UN Human Rights expert noted, sanctions on Venezuela “have exacerbated pre-existing economic situations and have dramatically affected the whole population of Venezuela, especially but not only those in extreme poverty, women, children, medical workers, people with disabilities or life-threatening or chronic diseases, and the indigenous populations.”

Sanctions have also seriously hampered COVID-19 relief efforts in Venezuela. While the Biden administration recently issued a general license to allow Venezuela to access COVID-related medical goods, the general license does not resolve issues with banking and supply chains. Sanctions continue to deprive the country of the necessary resources with which to effectively combat the pandemic. To date, less than one percent of the Venezuelan population is fully vaccinated.

On election night, some Venezuela-Americans recognized similar anomalies in the US election that they saw occur in Venezuela’s elections. They suspected fraud, like the election fraud that Chavez, later Maduro, and their allies, perpetrated. It’s no surprise that the party that benefited from similar election fraud, and who share similar ideologies as those in power in Venezuela, would try to relieve the diplomatic and economic pressure on that country.

The full letter, signed by 19 House Democrats, could be read here. Just the News has a related article on this subject.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Liberals suck, Politics

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A Proud Infidel®™

Aahh Venezuela, a Nation that the likes of Bernie Sanders and Sean Penn gushed over just a few years ago that noe has NO Middle Class, either it’s rich elite or those combing through garbage seeking food to survive.

26Limabeans

Following the lifting of sanctions there will be a humanitarian aid package.

The Stranger

That will promptly end up in the pockets of Maduro and his allies. I’d love to see that fat pig hanging from a lamp post.

Hatchet

Yup. Just like the Italians did to dear ‘ol El Duce and his Ho…

gitarcarver

Next up on the agenda is Peru, whose recently elected Communist Governor announced while campaigning if elected, Peru would seize private property and businesses owned by non-Peruvians.

That’ll work out well.

Hack Stone

That policy on seizing White owned farms in South Africa turned out well. What used to be a highly efficient industry that fed millions is now just acres and acres of non arable clods of dirt. At least they got rid of Whitey.

rgr769

Zimbabwe is an even better example than South Africa. As Rhodesia, it was a net exporter of food. I guess people who are barely capable of sharpening a stick just don’t make successful modern farmers.

A Proud Infidel®™

BUT according to “Experts” like Bloomberg, “Farming is easy…”, yeah right, I’ve never seen a successful Farmer or Cattleman who didn’t work at least 70-80 hours a week!

Anonymous

Only thing Bloomberg can successfully run is his mouth…

A Proud Infidel®™

Or like when B. Hussein 0bama ran his mouth saying “You did not build that…” yeah right, I’ve also seen others pour their hearts and souls into building their own businesses while getting stymied by Government!

SFC D

At an extremely low profit margin, and occasionally, no profit.

The Other Whitey

How are they supposed to realize their socialist utopia if we don’t pay for it for them? Come on, man!

Hatchet

DA! Tovarishch, da!! Vy govorite absolyutnuyu pravdu, tovarishch… GITACARVER ne verit v utopiyu…

Sparks

Yes Comrade, no utopia for you, or me. But only the Party.

A Proud Infidel®™

“The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” – Lady Margaret Thatcher

Hack Stone

The problem of people advocating socialism is that they have never had to live under socialism. Lee Harvey was pro communist, and he managed to last 2 1/2 years in the USSR before coming back.

Hatchet

Lee Harvey Oz. Yup. No two ways about it. Came back and according to his wife, hated living in Russia. Good example, Hack.

Commissar

Socialism and communism are not the same thing.

People in Northern Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan are doing fine living under socialism.

rgr769

You are full of it, and have either not read or ignore the definition of socialism. According to my Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, “socialism” is “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods.” It is further defined as “a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.”

You can keep repeating your propaganda lies fed to you by your Chicom masters, but they have no traction here.

Commissar

Dictionaries are not how you learn what a political or economic theory argues.

The way dictionaries are created is they define it how it is being conventionally used in society. Since the purpose of a dictionary is to help someone understand what the word likely means in the context of conventional use.

Because there are so many fucking idiots like you the word has come to mean as you use it.

But the conventional use of the word is a very superficial and largely false understanding of what socialism is.

Because of idiocy and propaganda most Americans cannot distinguish the difference between marxist conceptions of socialism and non marxist conceptions of socialism.

This despite the fact that socialism predates Marxism by nearly half a century. So viewing socialism from purely a Marxist lens is an incoherent way to come to understand it.

So both the Nordic Model, and Marxists models of socialism are lumped together by fucking rooms like you as all “socialist” with no understanding of the differences.

And it is not that you don’t know there are differences..you do,,,,you don’t know or understand what the differences are but you fucking know they are different…you just pretend not to do that you can make bad faith arguments about how horrible socialism is.

Sweden and Cuba are completely different systems of political economy.

You dumb fucks lumping together as “socialist” with no distinctions.

Which is why American English dictionaries make no distinction either..

You know damn well AOC proposes a social democratic model of socialism…one with a free market for the overwhelming distribution of goods and services…

Yet you continuously equate her to dictators like Chavez….

It is both bad faith and stupid.

And then to justify it you use ignorant blunt definitions.

You are a no integrity shitbag.

Which is why every god damn major socialist country, and every single social democracy

rgr769

“ When I say a word, it means what I say it means, nothing more and nothing less.” You stick to your “NewSpeak” dictionary, but Japan looks a lot less like the super-states in “1984” than North Korea. And none of the “socialist” countries you cite meet the accepted meaning of “socialism” in use for the past 160 years.

I guess you can use any definitions you want in your imaginary delusional universe. Go back to your X-box. You can’t sell crazy here.

A Proud Infidel®™

Looky there, you made him whip his “Empirical Evidence” out!

Hack Stone

But isn’t your definition of socialism what was sold to the Venezuelan people, only to fall victim to the “bait and switch” of Hugo Chavez and continues under the Commander In Thief. Venezuela used to be one of the major producers of oil in the world, but a few years under the control of Chavez and the pipes are dry, and the citizens without political connections are eating garbage to survive. Sounds like a plan that will work here in America.

Av8or33

This crap gets rebranded for each new generation and ends up at the end of a bayonet. Socialism vs communism is a matter of degrees. Once you start stealing people’s wealth and freedom you need increasingly harsh measures to make the population compliant. Stop comparing Nordic systems to socialism, they reject being called socialist. By the way countries with small relativity homogeneous societies that have a cultural work ethic are very different than a huge country with a large population of slackers and losers that produce and contribute zero. They are now finding out that the generosity they offered to the waves of immigrants they invited is not appreciated. Sorry Lars, I don’t know you but you need to get away from academic group think. This new wave of socialist poison didn’t start with workers, it was started by academics and fed to slackers.

Fyrfighter

” it was started by academics and fed to slackers.”

That description fits Marx to a “T”.. of course he was also an abusive piece of shit, keeping his housekeeper as a slave, but at the root of it, he was a slacker academic who never worked for anything in his life, coming from privilege, then exploiting the workers he claimed to help, in order to continue that privilege … sound familiar?

Av8or33

Yup a complete POS that lived off his wife’s family and benefactors duped into thinking he was a great philosopher.

Mason

Never thought I’d actually see you argue that the dictionary shouldn’t be used to define words.

HMCS(FMF) ret

It’s Lars-speak…

SFC D

Commissar, someday you’ll enter the real world, and it will beat you to death with all your theoretical, only-works-in-the-classroom liberal/progressive utopian horseshit.

Commissar

Fuck off. I lived a far harder and more real life than you did you fucking snowflake.

You live your life a delusion. As though you climbed into a bomb shelter in 1970 and interpret everything in the world as though the last time you saw it we in the midst of a gold war and “commies” were invading the west.

SFC D

Touched a nerve, Commissar? I live in reality, neither extreme left nor extreme right. I’ve earned everything I own, I don’t labor under any sort of ideological illusions or theory. I’m happy, debt free, owe no one a thing and no one owes me a thing. I don’t scream “unfair” if someone earns more than I do. You need a long period of self reflection. Examine yourself, your beliefs, and your life. You’re lost in a world that exists only in your head. You’re a fraud and you need to stop believing your own lies.

A Proud Infidel®™

Wow, you DID yank his chain! That’s quite an insight to the mind of a career college stoodint who has never held a real job in the Private Sector where I’m sure he’d get eaten alive!

A Proud Infidel®™

“I lived a far harder and more real life than you did you fucking snowflake.”

Only in YOUR little dream world, Major Moonbat. I see now that you also go around thinking that NOBODY has had it harder or worse than you and everyone owes you because of it, you’re addicted to being the “Angry Little Man” just like a gambling or pr0n addict goes about his habit. SURPRISE Major Moonbat, there are others here on TAH that have done more and had it FAR worse than you, but you just want to go about life projecting your Angry Little Man persona.

Av8or33

Do you actually have a job? If so do you have any ambition? It seems like you’re a bitter wanna be college professor with no marketable skills shitting on a system he feels he can’t get ahead in. I may be wrong but I’ve been reading your opinions for years. Get away from Berkeley, get a job work hard and stop whining. Socialism is a system for slackers. Anyone can make it here under capitalism if they make good decisions, work hard and have faith in themselves. Obviously you’re no dummy to be able to get into Berkeley but maybe you listen to educators with very little life experience but lots of opinions.

A Proud Infidel®™

Major Moonbat himself said that the only time he had a job in the Private Sector was a brief stint at a McGunk franchise. IMHO he has his own version of what life HAS to be like and he runs around projecting his anger and insecurity on everyone else because it’s not exactly HIS way.

Av8or33

My kids encountered many idiot educators in college but fortunately were inoculated from bullshit by hard work and parenting. They can’t believe some kids fall for this leftist crap. But they played sports, had physical jobs, and worked for scholarships, in other words skin in the game. Best vaccine against stupid ever.

A Proud Infidel®™

Major Moonbat has NO excuse whatsoever, he’s a full grown Adult Male with no real Job Skills or experience in the private sector.

Av8or33

The problem is people like this end up as educators spewing this bile to kids. Thats how we got to this level of stupid.

SFC D

Don’t forget, he dabbled in law enforcement and became a self-professed expert. And who can forget his lecturing TOW about firefighting. He believes he sees all, knows all, the facts are he sees fuck-all through his myopic tiny view.

A Proud Infidel®™

Yeah, he says he did one year in the LE field, and I’m convinced that he flunked lunch during his Probationary Period.

The Other Whitey

Lars has lived a wasted life, blames everyone else for his failures, and refuses to acknowledge his own fallibility. You’ve probably noticed two common themes in all of his crap: that he’s always right (even when he’s very obviously and demonstrably wrong), and that he’s not only smarter than you (even when he clearly has no idea what the hell he’s talking about) but also morally superior. I kinda wonder if it’s just a juvenile coping mechanism or if he really has some kind of deep-seated narcissistic disorder. Either way, he’s a bloviating asshole, and by his own admission even his fellow commies can’t stand him.

Gwdusn

Socialism and communism are the same. The ordinary citizen of Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, China and Vietnam are living the same as those in power (sarc).

AW1Ed

Another opportunity for Joe to continue his long and well established record of foreign policy fuck-ups.

E4 Mafia '83-'87

The Dems want to put money in Maduro’s pocket by propping up their oil industry while they kill the oil industry in this country. John Kerry and The Left need cheaper fuel for their fleet of private jets.

A Proud Infidel®™

And their huge yachts as well!

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

What ever happened to that ship which was loaded with arms on the way to see maduro. Haven’t heard anything about it.

Sparks

Great question Jeff. That just kind of poof vanished from the media. Meanwhile, it is being unloaded at a port in Venezuela.

AW1Ed

They hooked a right after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and went waaay North.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/politics/iran-ships-baltic/index.html

Trent Klug

Of course they do. Anything to help Bernie Sanders beloved way of life.

Anonymous

Leftists gonna leftist…

Sparks

Guess what? The left just found another place to give our money to.

Berliner

You get a pallet of cash! You get a pallet of cash!

UpNorth

Why doesn’t Iran bail out their pals? Seems that would be a good thing for them.

Commie-Tsar

We need to give them all of the FREE SHIT that they want as reparations for being an evil, white-led devil country that has suppressed them for so long!

LONG LIVE THE SOCIALIST WORKERS PARADISE OF VENEZUELA!!!

AOC ID MY HERO!!! WORSHIP HER YOU FILTHY CAPITALIST HEATHENS!!

Hatchet

Bruv, you really ought to go get some help for that. Just..a.bit.too.angry…

QMC

Who’s side are these guys on again?