Don’t Weep For Me, Venezuela….
Sorry, couldn’t resist that line.
This morning’s news about Venezuela is that the people of Venezuela did not want the 1999 constitution replaced by Maduro’s rule. That was what their election was supposed to address.
It did not go the way they had hoped. In some places, voters were blocked from the polls altogether.
And now we have to worry about what is going to happen in that country. If the Venezuelans in general are as vocal as they seem to be about how much they detest Maduro and his attempts at dictatorship, then it’s logical to start asking if this is going to be another episode like Peron, Pinochet or Allende, where people just disappear….
This is several decades after those attempts to install Marxist governments, and both Chile and Argentina have settled down. Some of my winter fruits and veggies come from Chile and I have wine from the Rapel Valley. Good stuff. Chile has become a mecca for skibums and snow bunnies. This simply shows that a free market economy will make a country prosper.
But this disquiet in Venezuela does not look good. I hope our people have been evacuated from Caracas, and that these riots do not result in wholesale destruction. It’s unclear how much loyalty the military have for Maduro. That remains to be seen.
I can say that when it makes reports at the local news stations, which are frequently dull as a stick, it’s not just another election.
Maduro has, unless I find otherwise, become Venezuela’s dictator.
Allende committed suicide after three years.
I wonder how long Maduro will last.
Category: Foreign Policy
The people voted for communism and now they have what they voted for. They ran out of other peoples money, food, toilet paper, power etc… Perhaps someone can step in and offer free coupons for helicopter rides for the commies. Coupon good for one free half ride.
Here is a novel idea:
Band together and wipe out the rulers.
Then form a government similiar to the US model. Enjoy great wealth through hard work while building a nation of laws that respects individual freedom and liberty.
Don’t forget to have a second amendment also so you don’t have to go through this shit again.
If I remember correctly, the socialist took advantage of a very real problem. Much like Mexico, there are a few with great wealth, and many in great poverty. The middle class was practically non-existent.
I remember being able to walk just a block or two from our house in Maracaibo to where people were living in grass huts with dirt floors. There was a upper-middle-income neighborhood, I suppose.
But when people did not have to clothe their children until they enter first grade, just because most of them could not afford clothes for their children during the period of time that they grow so quickly, you know that income distribution is not all that even.
And all this time we thought the Weimar Republic was past. “History does not repeat itself – but it does rhyme” – attributed to Mark Twain
Not exactly. Populist autocrats don’t usually announce their intentions when they run for office. They promise to punish other people to YOUR benefit.
Their autocracy usually doesn’t show up until someone tries to tell them no, or remove them from office.
Chavez had a cult of personality that Maduro can’t replicate. He is just worse at being a dictator, which is why he is so hamhanded and ineffective.
The people of Venezuela in December 2015 voted overwhelmingly to remove Maduro from power. But he controlled the courts & armed forces, declared some of the winners illegitimate, and the current crisis was born.
Cue the Commissar to show up and lecture, yet again, how wonderful socialism is, and the only problem is that the right people(like him and AntiFa) aren’t in charge.
This
You are so wise, UpNorth. 😉
What Venezuela has is not communism. Communism has no government.
and
Communism =/= socialism
socialism =/= market socialism
I do not advocate either communism or socialism. Neither works in practice and neither is particularly good at distributing goods and services or fostering innovation.
The economic model I advocate is more capitalist than most of you advocate given the nonsense I see on this board and the support for Trump (who is decidedly NOT a capitalist; google “neo-mercantalist”).
People think communism is the opposite of capitalism. That is false. Communism is regarded as a consequence or response to the perceived inevitably failures of capitalism. And communism has no state or government. What we have seen in actual practice is authoritarianism masquerading as communism.
In actual practice the opposite of capitalism is mercantilism. In many ways Trump is the opposite of a capitalist. In fact he is in direct opposition to modern global capitalism.
“Capitalism is the exploitation of the people by other people. Communism, is, of course, the exact opposite.”
That’s a good one.
Another lecture about “communism” from the non-erudite acolyte of Karl Marx. He loves to tell us about the fiction of communist theory as opposed to what history has proven it really is. He reminds me of a Scientologist describing how it is a real religion that will save the human race and the planet from annihilation. Too bad the commie perfessors got to him first or he coulda been a Commodore in the Sea Org.
So, I guess Communism is some “other” people exploiting rest of the people. Sounds pretty accurate to me. Isn’t that what a crime syndicate or gang does?
I wonder, Lars, if some day you’ll realize how ridiculous you sound. But that would require you to dial your ego back by a few orders of magnitude, and we all know that ain’t gonna happen!
Please go back to wetting your bed and leave the adults alone to have a real discussion on the subject. Nobody cares what you have to say, you are a blithering idiot that just wants attention, so go the fuck away and stay away!
Interesting. Last time I checked, both Chavez and Maduro termed themselves “Socialists”.
FWIW: best I can tell, most sources define “Market Socialism” as a form of Socialism lacking central planning but which includes some form of common ownership (state, cooperative, or other) of the means of production. So since you’re a self-identified supporter of one form of Socialism, I fail to see how you can be categorically against “Socialism”.
Seems to me that means you’re a Socialist, just one of a particular sect or branch.
Personally, I like to think of Market Socialism as “Socialism-Lite”. Since Socialism is itself in effect “Communism-Lite”, I guess that makes Market Socialism “Zero Calorie Communism”, AKA the Diet Rite of Economic Systems.
Yes Hondo, they called themselves socialists, but like the nazi’s and other socialists through history, they didn’t “do it right” if only one of these countries would put “lars the all knowing” in power, he’d finally get it right…. can’t you see that???
/sarc
It’s the same old excuse. Every time socialism fails, it wasn’t real socialism, because socialism is great and will solve all your problems if you just adopt a socialist system. Never mind all those other socialist systems that failed spectacularly!
“Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?”
I thought the definition of insanity was getting ready to testify against Hillary and not having your life insurance paid up.
Told ya, folks. You can damn near set clocks by him.
His ego is matched only by his idiocy.
True dat, TOW,
Well… that didn’t take long. Watch out for ineptitude. I hear it’s easy to stumble when you hit it.
Banana Republic Dictator jokes are just too easy at this point….
And if said ruler is gay that makes him a Dick-tater!
Or dick-taker!
Hmmm, do you suppose Carter still thinks “the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world”?
https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7315
I don’t assume that Carter thought in the first place.
Unfortunately, I must confess that I voted for Mr. Peanut – the first time.
Young and naïve I was. Older and wiser I am.
Me, too.
Alas …
Yeah, me too, bad case of buyers remorse I had after the 1st Presidential election I participated in.
not only did I not vote for him in ’76, I postponed my re-enlistment till after the 1980 elections. One of us was not going to continue in our job.
My grandma went home early from visiting us that year so she could vote, I remember hearing her say “If that Goddamn Jimmy Carter gets reelected it’s NOT gonna be my fault!”
I did the best I legally could to help her.
Comparing the election processes in place in 2012 to what is happening now is ridiculous.
This election is nothing like previous elections and is decidedly not being conducted in a democratic manner.
Very true commissar… The dems took voter fraud and election manipulation to a new low, and still failed to secure the Whitehouse… so you’re correct for once, this was like no election before it ( though obummer did do his best, and set new levels of fraud in his elections, this time around, the people saw through it.. too bad for clowns like you!
Ya know, I can’t help but think of scenes from “the hellfighters” every time I think of Venezuela… It’s interesting to realize what a political statement was made in that movie… when they were trying to put out those oil wells, it’s was chavez and his clowns that were attacking them..
Obviously, The Piuperdink Commissar Commissar thinks that Jimmie Carter is still involved in government somehow and that the 2006 election did not count.
But I digress.
That was fun.
I absolutely hate Jimmy Carter.
That Lame Stream Media’s silence about this is hilarious.
Putin Putin Putin!!!!
As yet another socialist paradise flourish for the world to see.
You know, when shit is free you get what you pay for.
That is an astute and profound observation.
Verily.
“Sorry, couldn’t resist that line.”
You HAD to go there, Ex-PH2.
Now, I’ll be hearing that playing over and over today … with various campy versions as I get bored with it. My inner child expressing …
Resistance is futile.
Now I’m going to laugh all day.
Here’s an update from Reuters. Ten people have died since Sunday’s elections. Chavez is sneering with derision at the USA, his biggest oil customer. He can sneer all he wants to. If his supporters are starting to slip away, he may not last long.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN1AG0N0
I think you mean Maduro, as Chavez isn’t in a position to be doing any sneering, since he is now on the wrong side of the grass and dirt.
Yes. Brain cramp. My bad. I did mean Maduro, but they look so much alike, it’s easy to confuse the two of them and separate the dead dictator from the live dictator.
Not necessarily the “wrong side of the dirt” depends on how you view these warts on the butt of humanity! 😉
This is what Maduro has been after all along, anyway. Unfortunately for him, he is losing the supporters he did have and will have to rely on the military to bolster what he does. They might just turn against him, as did that rogue police officer a few weeks ago.
This is not over yet.
How long before Maduro becomes muerto?
Would later today be too soon to hope for?
I’m not sure if the resulting chaos would be any worse for the poor people of Venezuela.
The bolivar as currency is already worthless. The only product Venezuela exports is oil. Pres. Trump is proposing economic sanctions on that country, including an embargo on importing Venezuelan oil.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/foreign-policy/344586-how-oil-can-break-the-back-of-venezuelan-despotism
So how long? I’d give it a year, max, but realistically less than that. Maduro is too incompetent to even keep the military in line if they decide to turn against him.
As David said earlier: “And all this time we thought the Weimar Republic was past.”
And we can remember how the Weimar Republic turned out.
Yes, we can and we should keep bringing it up.
And frankly, I will not be surprised to find the same abuses that existed under Allende, Pinochet and Peron being reported before long.
Is it any happenstance or coincidence that Chavez’s daughter is one of the richest people in Venezuela?
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” – Lady Margaret Thatcher
I remember a page from one of my high school textbooks that illustrated Banana Republic politics in a nutshell,
1. In country “A” Generalissimo “B” rules, he is a Dictator.
2. Colonel “C” rebels, the people back him.
3. Generalissimo “B” flees with the money.
4. The country is broke and has to start over again.
5. Colonel “C” is elected President and the Army makes him a General.
6. The President gives himself the title of Generalissimo.
8. Ten years go by, Generalissimo “C” is now a Dictator.
9. Colonel “D”‘ rebels, the Army and the people back him
10. Generalissimo “C”‘ flees with all the money…
That is a remarkably accurate textbook…clearly not “The People’s History of the United States”!🤠
I think Mr. Zinn’s textbook is where Lars learned his distorted views of American history.
Obviously, Dr. Quest and the boys failed to stop Zinn’s nefarious textbook plot.
Ans so it begins….
Venezuela’s intelligence agency Sebin has violated a house arrest order on Leopoldo Lopez. Took him away last night. He is not the only opposition leader they did this to.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-oppostion-idUSKBN1AH382?il=0