Tag: Venezuela

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A very profanity laced video from a very angry Canadian unvaccinated truck driver alleging that 38,000 trucks are about to come off the Canadian roads in protest and your store shelves are about to become as bare as a baby’s bottom. Oh Canada! https://www.bitchute.com/video/mzQrdlLbCF7s/ Preview Open

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Click here to listen to the podcast! As Venezuela falls into the abyss of economic collapse – the economy has halved in five years, a contraction worse than the Great Depression or the Spanish Civil War – a simplistic narrative in the American press has formed, which starts with the Chavez regime seizing control of the […]

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How Totalitarianism Rhymes Throughout History: Czechoslovakia, China, & Venezuela

 

“It can’t happen here” is a political cliche in the United States. Regardless of your personal viewpoint, there is a vast swath of the American population who simply do not believe in the possibility of any kind of totalitarianism in the United States.

It’s worth noting that throughout history, in virtually every place that totalitarian regimes have arisen, the residents of these countries felt the same way. Russia was seen as too traditional and backward, the power of the Czar too entrenched to be defeated. Germany had been viewed throughout most of the modern period as the home of GoetheSchiller, and Mozart, a place where the local Jewish population had largely assimilated.

Poverty Is ‘Scarce’ In Venezuela (The Guardian 7 Years Ago)

 

The Guardian published an article about Venezuela’s “success” in 2013. It is still up and now titled, “Sorry, Venezuela haters: This economy is not the Greece of Latin America: Predicting a Venezuelan apocalypse won’t make it happen.” (Of course, they’d gladly trade places with Greece today.)

For more than a decade people opposed to the government of Venezuela have argued that its economy would implode. Like communists in the 1930s rooting for the final crisis of capitalism, they saw economic collapse just around the corner. How frustrating it has been for them to witness only two recessions: one directly caused by the opposition’s oil strike (December 2002-May 2003) and one brought on by the world recession (2009 and the first half of 2010). However, the government got control of the national oil company in 2003, and the whole decade’s economic performance turned out quite well, with average annual growth of real income per person of 2.7% and poverty reduced by over half, and large gains for the majority in employment, access to health care, pensions and education.

Now Venezuela is facing economic problems that are warming the cockles of the haters’ hearts…

[Member Post]

 

In 1999 Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela, the culmination of 30 years of increasing political instability in the country.  His party took control of the legislature and vowed to rule by Bolivarian populist socialist principles.  I said at the time that this was the beginning of Venezuela’s decent into a totalitarian Hell, and […]

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The Best Articles I Read in 2020

 

Here at the end of 2020, I’m trying to close up a number of tabs I have open on my browser. Many of them are articles, and of that number I’m certain several were suggested or linked to by fellow Ricochet members, mentioned in podcasts, or discovered through searches prompted by Ricochet discussions. I was originally going to say “The 10 Best Articles…”, but the list is more than ten articles and I’m sure I’m forgetting some additional ones that I read months ago…it’s been a long year.

For this post I loosely define “the best” articles as those that challenged my thinking on an issue, were educational, were unexpected or deservedly scandalous, courageously broke with prevailing current narratives, or discussed an important topic otherwise ignored or forgotten. I’m not going to say which characteristic applies to which article as I’m trying to keep this post relatively brief, and each article could form the foundation of a post and become fertile ground for discussion. Some of the articles were written in years prior to 2020, but I just got around to reading them this year and they were either prophetic or remain pertinent to current events. Grouped with some of the articles I have read, I’m also listing what I’m going to read next in regard to that topic. These will have “to be read” in parentheses next to them.

[Member Post]

 

This Russian journalist has amazing videos from places I can’t imagine going. Here is reporting on the Venezuelan border with Colombia and how he finally exited the country, though not to Colombia.  He has another video on Venezuela’s most dangerous city because of gangs. Preview Open

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Some have doubted, so I think its best to drag the evidence into the open and settle the question. Let’s start with this January 2016 article from Accuracy in Media by James Simpson, which says: Exploiting blacks to promote Marxist revolution is an old tactic. The late Larry Grathwohl, former FBI informant in the Weather […]

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Jim and Greg shudder as 3.28 million Americans lost their jobs last week. They also recoil at an alleged plot to bomb a hospital full of COVID-19 patients. But they cheer the U.S. lowering the boom on Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro.

Thanks for joining the Three Martini Lunch today.  Once again, Rob Long of National Review and Ricochet is sitting in for Jim.  Today, we celebrate the resignation of socialist Bolivian dictator Evo Morales and notice how very sad the mainstream media and far left politicians are that Morales is no longer in power.  They also note the retirement of New York GOP Rep. Peter King, and while they don’t really care if King retires. they see it as further evidence that things look bleak for Republicans in the suburbs in 2020.  And they chronicle ABC and CBS acting like the Keystone Cops in apparently firing the wrong person for leaking the Amy Robach rant against ABC for spiking the Jeffrey Epstein story for three years.  Rob is also shaking his head at the producer tearfully insisting she would never make public something as compelling as Robach’s comments.

Latin American Death Squads!

 

You have likely heard for most of your life, from the ever-more-leftist universities and media organs, “Latin American death squads” are a tool of right-wing dictators and military governments trying to suppress the people’s champions, the leftist, progressive, forces. You have also heard Democrats consistently defend leftist regimes in Latin America. You will recall that a Democrat-controlled Congress prohibited funding support to the “Contras” in opposition to the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua (a crew that is now back in power through the ballot box).

You will also remember that the New York Times suppressed knowledge of the Holodomor and the Holocaust, as each unfolded. So, it is quite shocking, and refreshing, to see the New York Times publish “Venezuela Forces Killed Thousands, Then Covered It Up, U.N. Says.”

Special Action Forces described by witnesses as “death squads” killed 5,287 people in 2018 and another 1,569 by mid-May of this year, in what are officially termed by the Venezuelan government “Operations for the Liberation of the People,” United Nations investigators reported.

Alexandra DeSanctis of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America grab some popcorn as supporters of Sen. Cory Booker blast the media for giving far more attention to Pete Buttigieg, calling the coverage gap the epitome of privilege.  They also slam Code Pink for commandeering the Venezuelan embassy in Washington in solidarity with dictator Nicholas Maduro and but get a kick out of Code Pink howling in protest when the water and power are cut off – some of the very same conditions Maduro is inflicting on the people of Venezuela.  And Alexandra highly enjoys the irony as Alyssa Milano and other modern feminists protest state laws banning abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected by refusing to have sex so they don’t get pregnant.

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are exasperated as Democrats and the media breathlessly report that Robert Mueller disagrees with Attorney General Bill Barr’s summary of the report since the very same story confirms that Mueller did not find the summary inaccurate.  They’re also disappointed as Juan Guaido’s effort to remove Nicholas Maduro from power in Venezuela appears to be a failure.  And they applaud MSNBC for inadvertently explaining the purpose of our second amendment while watching Venezuela’s military crush protesters in the streets.

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America pray for the best in Venezuela as opposition leader Juan Guaido urges the military to rise up against the corrupt, socialist Maduro regime.  They also roll their eyes as Stacey Abrams still plays the victim card of voter suppression while announcing she will not be running for U.S. Senate in 2020.  And they condemn the attempt to cook up a fake sex scandal targeting Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg.

Rob Long of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud President Trump for telling the Russians to get out of Venezuela but worry about what might happen if they don’t.  They also groan as congressional Republicans still don’t have a strategy on health care if Obamacare gets struck down in the courts.  And they ask if even politics is becoming a 1990’s rerun after longtime DNC chairman and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe hints he will run in 2020.

Socialism Like . . . Sweden?

 

A few months ago Ricochet member @mattyvan put up a great post about Sweden, Sweden. Lessons for America? , which included an hour long documentary about Sweden’s economy. Since then we have seen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez become one of the most popular young Democrats and one of the oldest, Bernie Sanders, announce that he will run for president in 2020. With admitted socialist becoming more and more more prominent, it might be worth revisiting this topic.

While Cuba and Venezuela give us good examples of what socialism can do to a country, they do not exactly tell a happy story. So, the folks promoting “Democratic Socialism” are telling us to look to Sweden as an example of what we can do in America. The problem is, Sweden doesn’t really fit the model of what Bernie and company are trying to sell.