Venezuelans Voted for Tyranny

For the life of me, I cannot understand why immigrants from third world countries advocate for a welfare state knowing the oppression and corruption that breeds from authoritarian regimes.  Mexicans have a word for it: mordida.

So when I was debating a business owner of Venezuelan descent about Obamacare, I couldn’t help but laugh.  How could this man advocate a Chavez-esque expropriation of an industry knowing the outcome.  He didn’t appreciate my derisive inquiry and proceeded to kick me out of his store.

A couple of years later, after Chavez died and the eventual breakdown of their socialist society began, I asked this same business owner how his family was doing in Venezuela.  It wasn’t good.  As a matter of fact, they’re living a nightmare.

He was wondering why the United States didn’t intervene on behalf of the Venezuelan people.  I flat out told him they voted for tyranny.  They’re getting exactly what they asked for.  And the United States shouldn’t stick our nose in this business because we’ll end up owning their stupidity and then they’ll scapegoat the “Yankees” for the problems they created.  

So when I heard the Trump administration is considering a military intervention in Venezuela, I couldn’t believe it.  Isn’t it about time we learn from our mistakes.  Better yet, why don’t we let others learn from theirs.          

Source:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_STATES_VENEZUELA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-08-11-18-24-52

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2016/08/democrats-impose-third-world-corruption.html

Michael Moore is a Modern Day Nostradumbass

Michael Moore is a modern day Nostradumbass.  Conservatives shouldn’t be too hard on this libtard.  The whole damn Democratic Party subscribes to this kind of socialist philosophy.  The problem is they’ll never admit to being wrong even when the future has proven them false.

Source:

http://www.weaselzippers.us/328117-michael-moore-moons-over-hugo-chavez-and-the-success-of-socialism-in-venezuela/

http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/an-old-tweet-from-michael-moore-underscores-that-socialism-doesnt-work-ever/

Medicaid: From Helping the Poor to an Entitlement Leviathan

Medicaid was established to help the poor.  But as usual, Beltway courtesans aren’t content with a government program’s original mission.  No, they have to subject everyone to the wonders of bureaucratic red tape by turning it into an entitlement. 

Middle-class families, who once proudly were able to afford private health insurance, are now forced to go hat in hand to a federal commissar for a government handout.  Mind you, this country is $20 trillion in debt with $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities.  Take a look at the graph below and tell me this is sustainable.

If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it’s free.  Venezuelans have universal healthcare.  I wonder how that’s working out for them.

Source:

https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2017/02/25/two-utterly-depressing-medicaid-graphs/

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/10/04/venezuela-health-care-is-such-failure-scraped-knee-turns-into-medical-crisis.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/world/americas/dying-infants-and-no-medicine-inside-venezuelas-failing-hospitals.html?_r=0

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2013/11/07/doctors-in-venezuela-say-their-universal-health-care-system-in-collapse/

Venezuela's Democratic Party Platform

The Venezuelan government is carrying out the Democratic Party platform.  Both expropriate industry, property, and the sweat off people’s brow.  Now, the Maduro government is confiscating guns and marking ammo.  It’s a progressive wet dream! 

"We are going to bring disarmament and peace," Reverol told reporters, while police officers drilled and sawed at rusty shotguns, home made pistols and some newer weapons.

Other guns were crushed in truck-mounted presses. Some members of the public watched, although more danced to a nearby sound system playing salsa music

Venezuela has also bought laser technology to mark ammunition, Reverol said, in an attempt to keep a registry of the bullets given out to the South American nation's many state and municipal police forces.

Experts say that much of the ammunition used in crimes in Venezuela is made at the country's government munitions factory and sold on by corrupt police.

Now that’s how a dictator uses a pen and a phone.

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-crime-idUSKCN10S2I9

Washington Post Wakes Up from Venezuelan Nightmare

I never thought I would read an article in the Washington Post that condemned centralized economies.  Most of these rags are infested with unrepentant Marxist.  I guess the Venezuelan nightmare has awakened some in the mainstream media.    Here is an excerpt from Matt O’Brien’s article:

Venezuela is stuck in a doom loop that's become a death spiral.

 Its stores are empty, its people are starving, and its government is to blame. It has tried to repeal the law of supply and demand, and, in the process, eliminated any incentive for businesses to actually sell things. The result is that the country with the largest oil reserves in the world now has to resort to forced labor just to try to feed itself.

 It gives new meaning to the revolution devouring its own.

 How has it come to this? Well, Venezuela was always going to have a tough time when oil prices fell from $110 to $40 like they did the past two years. That's because it doesn't have an economy so much as an oil exporting business that subsidizes everything by making up 95 percent of the country's total trade revenue. Even then, though, the oil crash has hurt it much more than any other petrostate. To take one example, the International Monetary Fund estimates that Russia's economy will "only" shrink 1.8 percent this year compared to 10 percent for Venezuela. That's the difference between a run-of-the-mill recession and a complete collapse.

And it's entirely man-made. The easiest way to think about this is as a four-stage cycle of doom that begins with inflation, continues to price controls, then shortages, and finally nationalizations. Here's how it works, or rather doesn't.

Mr. O’Brien enumerates the cause and effects of a controlled economy.  What is happening in Venezuela is not new which brings us to the old adage: Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.  Unfortunately for America, we have a political party that romanticizes the Great Depression and is dedicated to a Chavista-esque revolution.   

Source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/08/venezuela-is-stuck-in-a-death-spiral-and-its-only-getting-worse/

Liberals Should Learn From Venezuela's Misery

Any time I run into a wild-eyed socialist, I ask them about Venezuela.  Most of the time, I get a blank stare, others are in denial.  My neighbor fits in the latter camp.  He supported Bernie Sanders who has a similar ideology as the Chavistas.  When asked this question, he proclaims he doesn’t know what’s going on down there.  I know damn well he’s lying to me.  He just can’t admit his utopian ideology is a proven failure.

Last week, I asked a millennial what he thought about Venezuela.  He stated their condition is directly related to the price of oil.  I asked him why it is that a resource rich country is dependent on one government controlled commodity.  He couldn’t answer.  The simple fact is this regime installed wage and price controls and expropriated private property which created shortages.  The only worthwhile investment is in government bonds.  As of now, speculators are wondering when Venezuela is going to default  on their debt.  Here is an excerpt from CNS News:

During the decades of continuing price controls, the profits of farmers and other processors were eliminated through the artificially low state-mandated prices. What happened to the coffee-roasting companies beginning in 2006 is a typical scenario. First, some coffee producers simply held supplies off of the market in hopes the government would agree to price increases that covered their costs. The government countered with military force, authorizing the National Guard to “find every last kilogram of coffee” being “hoarded.” By 2009 the Venezuelan government seized control of two of the largest coffee-processing plants, claiming that the private companies were engaged in hoarding and smuggling coffee and therefore being disloyal to the state. Shortly thereafter, Chavez nationalized the two largest coffee enterprises. However, the government running the plants produced no benefits for the consumers. Today, market analyst Luis Vicente Leon sums it up this way. “They [the government] expropriates the sugar companies, and you cannot find sugar … They expropriate the coffee companies … and you cannot find coffee. They expropriate Owen-Illinois, and we cannot find packages.”

This kind of economic policy is a proven failure.  FDR tried it with the New Deal and it was disaster.  Nixon tried and it too failed.  I guess people have to learn the hard way.

Venezuela Feels the "Bern"

Garry Kasparov, an ex-Soviet Union citizen, tweeted socialism is a luxury paid for by capitalism.  This man lived the nightmare Bernie Sanders supporters have romanticized.  He and others, who’ve escaped socialist hellholes, wonder how Americans could possibly embrace an ideology that has meted out nothing but poverty and misery.  One only has to do a minimal amount of research to debunk this mythical paradise that only naredewells and college professors embrace.

Venezuela is a perfect example of how socialists can expropriate wealth and impoverished its people.  This once prosperous country was Latin America’s beacon for handouts.  Now look at them.  President Maduro is now the one with hat in hand begging for scraps.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — An association of South American countries on Friday urged the region to help Venezuela keep basic goods on the shelves.

The 12-nation UNASUR group called on every country in Latin America to do what they can to ensure Venezuelans have access to staples after a delegation met with President Nicolas Maduro. Secretary General Ernesto Samper said UNASUR would create a special commission to strengthen distribution chains.

Pantry and cleaning basics like dish soap, detergent, milk and cooking oil, chronically in short supply in recent years, have become been even harder to find in the socialist-governed country since the year started

Venezuela is feeling the Bern.  Fools who believe this can’t happen in the United States have another think coming.

Source:

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2016/03/socialism-is-luxury-paid-for-by.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/embattled-venezuelan-president-seeks-international-support-143719182.html?ref=gs

Bernie Sanders Wins Coveted Venezuelan Endorsement

California Has Turned into a Medieval Society

California is the ideal utopia for ruling class liberals.  The “richerals” as Victor David Hansen describes wealthy progressives have carved out a niche of prosperity for themselves while impoverishing the citizenry.

Mr. Hansen has published a series of essays describing the degeneration of a once prosperous state into a medieval society.  Here is an excerpt from WND:

Hanson dubbed it “the weirdest place in the world” in his new e-book, a collection of PJ Media essays titled “The Decline and Fall of California.” And who could argue the point when he calls out absurdities like Tiburcio Vasquez Elementary School – an institution of learning named after a 19th century robber and murderer?

That just scratches the surface of his thesis, though. Hanson demonstrates the sweeping impact of liberal elitism on the state’s culture. “California is both more poorly managed than any time in its past, more divided between rich and poor, more fragmented by opportunistic ethnic identity politics, more impoverished by massive illegal immigration – and never more naturally wealthy.”

California is naturally wealthy, yet is impoverished by socialist policies.  Doesn’t that remind you of Venezuela?

Source:

http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/california-now-resembles-a-medieval-society/#MwRcIzZJJOVwxOcF.99

Don't Be Seduced by the Sirens of Socialism

When I was young, I too was susceptible to the siren song of “free stuff” liberals use to seduce the uninformed and inexperienced.  However, I grew up in the Reagan era; therefore I wasn’t so easily enticed by socialism.  The Carter administration was plagued with high rates of unemployment, inflation, mortgage rates, and long lines to get gas.  Wage and price controls didn’t work then and they won’t work now, but that is exactly what the democrats want to do with health care and other segments of our economy.

Americans should be disturbed when politicians try to buy votes with promises of free health care,  college education, broadband internet, phones and anything else a lip-smacking, teat squawker demands.  There are consequences.  One only has to look to Venezuela for an example of what “free stuff” can do to a country.  Here is an excerpt from Breitbart.com:

Maduro announced a 60-day “economic emergency,” beginning on Friday, which will allow Maduro to override any attempt by the legislature to liberalize the strictly socialist Venezuelan economy. The decision followed the release of official economic data for the first time in more than a year, showing Venezuela’s rampant inflation problem and warning of even worse economic decline. The government estimates the national inflation rate at 141.5 percent.

This number, experts say, is significantly smaller than the actual inflation rate in Venezuela, which the socialist government is trying to hide. Alejandro Werner, Latin America regional director for the International Monetary Fund, noted that the IMF’s official studies found that Venezuela’s inflation rate in 2015 reached 270 percent, and IMF estimates show the nation has the potential to reach a 500 percent inflation rate by the end of 2016.

  

People can’t buy toilet paper in Venezuela.  A man was caught smuggling dried milk for Pete’s sake!  Is this what we want?  Socialism is a flawed ideology.  It doesn’t work.  It never worked.  What makes democrats think it will work here in the United States?

Source:

 http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2187

http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1978102700

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/18/venezuela-declares-economic-emergency/

When Progressive Policies Go Bad

If you talk to a socialist and point out all the failures of their ideology, you’ll invariably get, “the right people weren’t in charge,” argument.  I’ve heard it countless times.  The next time I engage a libtard, I’ll be sure to ask for a successful example.  But we all know none exist, and polite conversation will degenerate into recriminations about greedy corporations, the genocide of American Indians, and the Koch brothers.

The only way a libtard can set his mind free from this flawed ideology is for him to live it.  What progressives need is a “come to Venezuelan moment.”  And what better way to do that than showing them what’s in store for their misery-for-all policies?  Here is a testimonial from a Hugo Chavez acolyte:

“I’ve always been a Chavista,” said Ms. Noriega, using a term for a loyal Chávez supporter. But “the other day, I found a Chávez T-shirt I’d kept, and I threw it on the ground and stamped on it, and then I used it to clean the floor. I was so angry. I don’t know if this is his fault or not, but he died and left us here, and things have been going from bad to worse.

The situation has become so dire that Venezuelans are now lining up by the hundreds, often waiting for hours for a chance to buy whatever the grocery store happens to get that day. The NY Times reports that people are not starving, yet, but many have been forced to reduce the amount of meat they eat. Those who used to eat chicken are now eating canned sardines.

On social media, some Venezuelans were using the hashtag#AnaquelesVaciosEnVenezuela, which translates empty shelves in Venezuela. Empty shelves inside and long lines outside have become the norm as these photos collected on Twitter demonstrate.

Show a progressive, Venezuelans baptismal in misery and despair, he’ll ask,
“where did you get that information?”  If you tell him the story originated out of the New York Times, he’ll call it a right-wing rag.  I kid you not. 

Source: 

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/30/venezuela-heads-for-a-breaking-point/

The Road to Hell Passes Through Venezuela

The road to hell passes through Venezuela.  Has anyone read or watched a feel good story out of that socialist paradise in South America?  Grocery stores are under military protection.  People are rioting in the streets for want of basic necessities.  And it’s only going to get worse!

 "Scarcity is getting worse in Venezuela. Basic products are so hard to get," said Josseline Viera, a doctor in Venezuela. "It used to be that certain products were scarce, now it's basically everything."

Viera says shortages have made it impossible for hospitals to find essential medical products such as gauze and acetaminophen.

"I basically have to send patients to other hospitals," she said. "But patients have to go to a lot of clinics and hospitals before they find the medical supplies they need for their care. I feel very sorry for my country."

Experts predict the situation in Venezuela will worsen as early as the first half of 2015.

"It will be a year of extreme scarcity," Venezuelan economist Angel Garcia Banchs said. "What's coming to Venezuela is chaos that will probably lead to barbarity and people looting."

The state of the Venezuelan economy is the result of years of economic mismanagement that the government, for years, was able to cover up by pumping oil revenues to support its populist policies. But this was when oil was at more than $100 per barrel, and despite declining oil production in Venezuela, revenues were enough to keep people happy.

But since this summer, Brent fell from above $115 per barrel to $70, thanks in part to North America's shale boom, and oil analysts predict oil prices will keep declining below $70 for Brent and even more for crude.

Even their capitol building is falling apart!  Imagine that.  The holy temple of socialism is crumbling like the Tower of Babel.  News crews had to run for their lives. 

Hugo Chavez, the patron saint of Venezuelan socialism, couldn’t have exited from the stage at a better time.

Source:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/venezuelas-future-barbarity-people-looting-165018511.html

http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelas-protest-city-edge-economic-crisis-worsens-153117308.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-09/venezuelans-throng-grocery-stores-on-military-protection-order.html

https://progwatch.wordpress.com/author/defendwallst/

The Obamafuscation Factor

The Obama administration’s “hapless fool” policies are, once again, praised in the media.  If you want a lesson in sycophancy just watch the talking heads effervesce over the genius of our president and his troop of bureaucratic monkeys.  There should be a new term for this kind of political spin.  How about the Obamafuscation factor?

Recently, the mainstream media had an orgasm over a reported 5% GDP growth in the third quarter.  Great isn’t it?  Not quite.  What they didn’t tell us is where Americans were spending their money.  Guess where all that hard earned cash went to.  That’s right healthcare.  Zero Hedge published the following graph:

Not only were libtard, talking heads praising this misleading report, they also attributed lower gas prices and the collapse of the ruble to our feckless leader’s energy policies.  Anyone worth their salt knows the Obama administration has an axe to grind when it comes to conventional energy.  The EPA has practically declared a war on the oil, gas and coal industry.  We can attribute this oil boom to fracking on state and privately owned lands.  The federal government had nothing to do with it, yet, they and their minions claim all the credit.  Nola.com writes: 

President Barack Obama and his left-wing environmental allies have declared war on America's energy sector. That's not hyperbole, according to a Senate committee's minority report; it's a quote.

"Setting the Record Straight: Hydraulic Fracturing and America's Energy Revolution" the report Republican staffers on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works released, sounds as dry as kindling. But it makes for some scary Halloween reading.

The report harshly criticizes the Obama administration's duplicity with energy production and supply. While publicly extolling the benefits the United States has reaped from fracking, the administration has done all it can to undermine it and other techniques.

The war is conducted on two fronts. One involves limiting the land involved. Many green extremists want energy supplies kept in the ground and when it comes to federal land Obama's bureaucrats are doing what they can to help.

"The Obama Administration has granted only half the amount of leases compared to those granted under the Clinton Administration and a third less than those granted under the Bush Administration," the report says.

Citing government statistics, the report notes a 6% fall in oil production and a 28% fall in natural gas production on federal lands between 2009 and 2013.

The second front involves mobilizing the federal bureaucracy to gum up the works and trump state management. The regulatory overload makes it much harder to get a drilling permit and much more expensive to operate.

And finally, the coup de grace, King Obama declares he will, by executive order of course, normalize relations with Cuba.  This president has a bad habit of aiding our enemies, while at the same time, alienating our allies.  This should be a relief to Cuba’s benefactor, Venezuela.  That regime can no longer afford to subsidize its totalitarian compatriot.  But now, because of another misguided and hapless policy, the Obama gives these two regimes a reprieve.

At some point and time, we have to ask ourselves, whose side are these people on?  We can only thank God for American ingenuity and perseverance.  As long as we have that, this country can endure all the Obamafuscations this administration and their minions in the media throw at us.   

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-23/here-reason-surge-q3-gdp

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2014/10/the_obama_administration_v_fra.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/20/us-cuba-usa-idUSKBN0JY0GV20141220

http://www.ibtimes.com/venezuelas-currency-bonds-plummet-government-grapples-oil-prices-1731469

Venezuelan Socialist Declare Hugo Chavez a God

Venezuelan socialist have a new god.  Hugo Chavez has ascended to Mt. Olympus.  He’s rubbing shoulders with Zeus, Poseidon and Athena.  Hell, they even have a new prayer. 

CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Venezuela's Socialist Party PSUV (Socialist Party United for Venezuela) unveiled a new version of the Lord's Prayer during an ideology workshop on Monday.

Attendees of the First workshop for designing socialist training systems were the first to hear "Our Chavez," the Hugo Chavez-inspired version of the Our Father.

Representative María Uribe introduced the prayer as "The Delegate's Prayer" during Monday's event and began reading: "Our Chavez who art in heaven, on earth, in the sea and in us the representatives, Hallowed be Thy Name."

"Thy legacy come,
So we can bring it to towns here and there, 
Give us this day your light so it guides us every day,
Lead us not into the temptation of capitalism,
And deliver us from the evil of the oligarchy, like the felony of contraband, 
Because the mother land is ours, and so is peace and life, 
Forever and Ever, Amen
Long Live Chavez"

President Nicolas Maduro said in his closing remarks that the Venezuelan revolution is at a stage that "increasingly requires the formation of values​​."

What kind of sacrifices does God Chavez demand?  Expropriating small businesses, perhaps?  Confiscating private property?  Oh, I know, how about burning a capitalist as an offering.  I wouldn’t put it past them.  Chavez’s disciples know how demanding their god is.

We can only hope Obama’s followers aren’t as slavish as these lost souls.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2014/09/02/Venezuelas-Socialist-Party-unveils-new-prayer-Our-Chavez-who-art-in-heaven/6101409672908/#ixzz3CDwGpuTO

Greenies Too Extreme for Venezuelan Regime

Venezuela has long been a favorite destination for libtards.  Hollywood actors basked in the glow of authoritarians like Hugo Chavez and his successor.  There is nothing like the smell of a dictator that sets a moon bat aflutter.

Recently, a group of greenies held a conference in that socialist paradise.  A declaration was created to rid the world of capitalism, which the host country whole heartedly agreed with.

A UN-backed conference in Venezuela has ended with a declaration to scrap carbon markets and reject the green economy.

The Margarita Declaration was issued at the end of a four-day meeting of around 130 green activist groups, which the Venezuelan government hosted in order to raise the volume of civil society demands in UN discussions on climate change.

“The structural causes of climate change are linked to the current capitalist hegemonic system,” the final declaration said. “To combat climate change it is necessary to change the system.”

The declaration will be handed to environment ministers when they meet ahead of the UN’s main round of talks in Lima this year.

The meeting, called the Social Pre-COP, is the first time that civil society has been invited to participate with the UN at this scale at international climate talks.

A little problem happened on the road to utopia.  The greenies turned on their fellow travelers.  It seems these activists are too extreme for the Venezuelan government.

Maria de Pilar García-Guadilla, a professor at the Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela, said that there was an underlying assumption in the declaration that capitalism was the cause of climate change – a position maintained by the Venezuelan government in its own development plan – but that this was a “fallacy”.

“Venezuela relies heavily on the use of hydrocarbons, or the extractive economies, to support their anti-neoliberal socialist policies. The extractive economy has a severe negative social and environmental impacts in the indigenous communities and in the most biodiverse areas,” she said.

You just can’t ask a totalitarian government to give up its one source of revenue.  How are they going to feed, clothe and house all those teat squawkers?  Utopia isn’t as easy as these greenies think.

Source:

 http://www.rtcc.org/2014/07/22/venezuela-climate-summit-calls-for-end-to-green-economy/#sthash.hoxfz3lF.dpuf

Revolution: It Starts With Toilet Paper

The wonders of modern day plumbing, we all take it for granted.  Hardly anyone stops to think and appreciate the porcelain throne.  If you’re like me, once that door shuts, it’s time to do business.  This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no foolin around.  It’s game time! 

Others will disappear for hours.  Those people I don’t understand.  What are they doing in there, appreciating the ambiance?  Are they planning to redecorate?  What could they possibly be doing that could take up that much time?  Could it be long term financial planning?

But no matter what our proclivities are, all of us know what it’s like when there’s no toilet paper.  First reaction is surprise, followed by despair, and finally anger.  Now experience that realization every day.  It would be enough to start a revolution.  And indeed, that’s what’s happening in Venezuela.  The plebeians have had enough of chapped asses.  They want toilet paper, even if it’s the kind that turns your rump into Peter Cottontail.

It seems that Latin Americas second most revered religion is the Goddess Socialism.  Once the populace discover the wonders of everything “free,” they come to find out their goddess wants sacrificial offerings, such as private property, self-determination, and finally the staples of life.  Yes, Goddess Socialism can be a real bitch.  Or better yet, liberalism’s new word de jour:  bossy.  Look at the lines these people have to endure just to get the basics in life.

Did you notice there wasn’t one portable toilet anywhere along those lines?  I guess those in charge decided since there wasn't any toilet paper to be had, what difference does it make?  Hillary Clinton anyone?

Source:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-21/venezuela-s-wild-west-reinforces-barricades-against-government.html

http://capitalismisfreedom.com/joys-socialism-venezuela/

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/02/21/Venezuela-The-Toilet-Paper-Revolution