Banana Republic Newsflash

[Sigma_Orionis]

Actually you'd be surprised how many of those are similar to a US history textbook by my recollection, just sub in George Washington. Conclude what you will.

Textbooks are one thing, when I was a kid, of course a lot of the textbooks had pretty pictures illustrating the equivalent of our "founding fathers" in a rather similar fashion. The Constitution is another. And I'm pretty sure that if back in the 80s the (let's not even talk what would have happened if something similar occured in the US these days) the government issued a version of the constitution for kids with pretty pictures of Reagan, Bush, Haig et al, along with Washington, your Mom would find it eerily similar to what she saw in Hungary during her childhood.

What makes it look Orwellian is the personality cult around Chavez, Maduro, et al. And considering their track record, I find it very disturbing.

[Sigma_Orionis]

A couple of days ago, stumbled onto this:

Is Venezuela a middle class country? Which contradicts conventional wisdom that says that most of the people of this country are poor.

Then, a few days later (namely: today) this comes out.

Now, I don't know if the author is trying to make a convoluted case for his views which happen to fit neatly with the (mostly) accepted view that the shit is going to hit the fan for real pretty soon.

What seems though is that the much touted new foreign exchange mechanism, one month after it was implemented doesn't seem to be holding up.

One month is most probably too soon to know. And of course, reports that it's not working all that well should be taken with a grain of salt AT THIS TIME.

HOWEVER:

A) Time is a luxury we don't have, the corner the government painted all of us into is a ticking time bomb: The longer the scarcity problems continue, the shorter the fuse gets.

B) From what I've been able to reliably gather, there's a 30% (and rising) difference on the exchange rate of US Dollars between the new "market based" mechanism and the black market rate. That is NOT good news.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Oh goody, Nicky raised the Minimum Wage.

Venezuela to raise minimum wage by 30%, Maduro says

Bravo Fox Delta.

The increase is below the level of annual inflation, which official figures put at 56.2% for 2013.

Not to mention that: what good is it for? We have what seems like chronic scarcity problems

Street vendors who sell some of the most wanted products to prices that pass those established by the Fair Costs and Prices Law. For example, a bottle of cooking oil has an official price of 10,69 Bs., but buhoneros sell it to up ten times that (after all, the BCV reported a 100% shortage rate of cooking oil for last month). And even if the government promised to crack down on them, things remain unchanged so far.

So, color me unimpressed.

I am starting to think that Nicky is doing this on purpose for the benefit of the US Right-Wing nutjobs, who can then simply point here and say "See? this is what the HNIC wants to do to the US"

[Cyborg Girl]

The horrible irony, of course, being that the wingnuts are much more like the Cult of Chavez than the President is. Same selfish turd, different rationalizing polish.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Ideology: Faith for Atheists

It's funny, because IMHO, at the core, the Right Wing Nutjobs are driven by a religious agenda, they just coat it with the "Financial Responsibility" bullshit to attract moderates and to be funded by Rich Bastards who want low taxes. (Who is using who is not clear to me though). Look at the incident with that Clive Bundy character in Nevada, it was particularly funny how all the Right Wing Nutjob Darlings: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul (yeah yeah: Libertarian Rand Paul trying to be palatable enough for the GOP), et al flocked to this idiot under the guise of "protecting the average American and the states against the evil overreaching pinko commie federal government" and then ran like hell when it turned out that Bundy was about the most backward racist idiot around ("Let me tell you about the Negro") almost right out of a cartoon.

So we have the godless pinko commie ideologist idiots being the poster boys so the "god-fearing 'murricans" can point and say "THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU LISTEN TO THE HNIC".

If I am wrong and God actually exists, I am pretty sure that God must be a Monty Python fan.

[Swift]

And looking at the pretty pictures that illustrate the copy of the constitution given to school kids don't make me very confident on the impartialilty of the idea.

Hey, that one kid isn't wearing any pants!

[SciFiFisher]

Ideology: Faith for Atheists


If I am wrong and God actually exists, I am pretty sure that God must be a Monty Python fan.

I think God has a very interesting sense of humor. and that he points and laughs a lot.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I think God has a very interesting sense of humor. and that he points and laughs a lot.

He should point at himself, he can bitch all he wants about free will but it was HIS idea. Right now I'd be happier if I was an amoeba elsewhere.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Hey, that one kid isn't wearing any pants!

You only say that because you secretly wish that Nicky was president of the US, you pinko commie!

[hides under the rug]

[SciFiFisher]

I think God has a very interesting sense of humor. and that he points and laughs a lot.

He should point at himself, he can bitch all he wants about free will but it was HIS idea. Right now I'd be happier if I was an amoeba elsewhere.

Actually, see what happened was.... God got bored. The angels were predictable. They didn't really have any other choice. He made them that way. So, he thought about it and realized the universe would be more interesting if his creation was more unpredictable. So he invented Chaos theory. Then it got really interesting.

[Sigma_Orionis]

So Henry Louis Mencken was right? and "God is a Comedian Playing to an Audience who is afraid to Laugh"?

I just read about him at Wikipedia, he would fit pretty well with the TP nutjobs

[Sigma_Orionis]

As usual the situation remains fluid.

These guys claim that those pinko commie krauts at the Deutsche Bank say that things might stabilize economically (I say claim because while the document they show LOOKS like an official release of the DB, it's on someone's Google Drive. So, maybe it's, maybe it isn't), and that things will still suck it will be more or less stable.

In that same blogpost they point at a supposedly leaked document of the Venezuelan Financial Planning Ministry (leaked to a Spanish Newspaper apparently) where they say that things suck (surprise) and are getting worse.

SO, one day looks like the dust willl settle and the next day looks worse than ever.

O.K. Everybody take a Valium. but not for the same reason the old Cartoon with Rene Levesque said so.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Well it finally happened.

There were several protester camps set up on the city that have been around for weeks, I've personally seen two of them: one two blocks from where I work, one a couple of blocks away from where one of our main customers have their offices. The Police and the National Guard, kicked them all out yesterday morning and arrested them all. I spent most of the day at our customer's and while there were no outright riots, it wasn't pretty. The protesters tried to block the street, security forces throwing tear gas at them. One policeman was killed, and the shot came from one of the buildings nearby. Not a pretty day.

In the meantime the opposition does what it does best, shoot themselves in the foot.

[SciFiFisher]

I cannot imagine what it must be like to be in the middle of all that chaos and still have to get up in the morning and go to work as if everything is normal.

[Sigma_Orionis]

The Traffic Jams were unbelievable. Took me 2 hours to get to the Customer's Premises. During the Traffic Jam, someone called me and told me about the removal of the protesters' camp. The closest I got to the mess was when I was heard a Tear Gas grenade pop and a lot of people run like hell. One of the customer's employees came in all teary eyed, he was too close to the damned thing when it went off.

Afterwards, when the ruckus died down I passed through (no Virginia, I wasn't the least curious, I had to go to pick up a pair of shoes I was having re-soled) and there was trash everywhere. I saw about 100 policemen in riot gear hanging about. (No, nobody stopped me or asked me for ID either), two blocks away there was some ruckus. Of course I didn't get close.

Could be have been much worse.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Open Mouth, insert foot, insert other foot.....

[Sigma_Orionis]

Latin America: The Continent of Magical Realism....

Oh yeah.

In the land of silicone socialism

[Sigma_Orionis]

Good Riddance, you Bastard

[Sigma_Orionis]

As I read this, I see that Nicaraguans are just as dumb as we are....

Nicaragua in thrall of Ortega's canal dream

Once again: one of the biggest rallying cries most of our left wing idiots have is that we're taking back our countries from being under the "economic heel" of the US.

Sure, and we're so smart that we immediately go and put them under the economic heel of the Chinese.

One of the reasons why, despite all its warts I still prefer the US instead of Russia or China (the devil you know... and all that).

[SciFiFisher]

As I read this, I see that Nicaraguans are just as dumb as we are....

Nicaragua in thrall of Ortega's canal dream

Once again: one of the biggest rallying cries most of our left wing idiots have is that we're taking back our countries from being under the "economic heel" of the US.

Sure, and we're so smart that we immediately go and put them under the economic heel of the Chinese.

One of the reasons why, despite all its warts I still prefer the US instead of Russia or China (the devil you know... and all that).

And don't forget we are the source of McDonalds. and Levi's (indirectly)

[Sigma_Orionis]

............ and Team America

[Sigma_Orionis]

You evil imperialist gringos are "losing patience" with us poor spiritually superior Venezuelans.....

US 'losing patience' with Venezuela - John Kerry

[code monkey]

You evil imperialist gringos are "losing patience" with us poor spiritually superior Venezuelans.....

US 'losing patience' with Venezuela - John Kerry

sigma, sigma, sigma. there you go again. not with venezuelans (and just where did the spiritually superior come from?). with the government.

[Sigma_Orionis]

No, No, Mr. Mono, you gringos don't get to weasel out of this one with that tale,The government says "MADURO ES PUEBLO!" (Translation: That idiot braying ass you stupidly elected as President of Venezuela is part of you). So an attack on him is an attack on us. And just to show you the consequences of provoking our righteous wrath, we tattled on you at UNASUR (do notice that the news were so important that the only other online service carrying the news was the Voice of Russia, known for pushing stuff like this) so you learn your lesson

As for the Spiritually Superior bit, it goes all the way back to 1898. Turns out that resentment against the US started with what you gringos call the "Spanish-American War". In 1900 this Nincompoop published an essay called "Ariel" where you evil Anglo-Saxons were "Caliban" representing the brutish side of humanity and we Latin Americans were "Ariel" , who represented the more "enlightened" side of it (very ironically, it takes a lot from Shakespeare's "The Tempest") . Our revered idiots consider "Ariel" to be the "answer" to the "Aggression of 1898"

[code monkey]

No, No, Mr. Mono, you gringos don't get to weasel out of this one with that tale,The government says "MADURO ES PUEBLO!" (Translation: That idiot braying ass you stupidly elected as President of Venezuela is part of you). So an attack on him is an attack on us. And just to show you the consequences of provoking our righteous wrath, we tattled on you at UNASUR (do notice that the news were so important that the only other online service carrying the news was the Voice of Russia, known for pushing stuff like this) so you learn your lesson

As for the Spiritually Superior bit, it goes all the way back to 1898. Turns out that resentment against the US started with what you gringos call the "Spanish-American War". In 1900 this Nincompoop published an essay called "Ariel" where you evil Anglo-Saxons were "Caliban" representing the brutish side of humanity and we Latin Americans were "Ariel" , who represented the more "enlightened" side of it (very ironically, it takes a lot from Shakespeare's "The Tempest") . Our revered idiots consider "Ariel" to be the "answer" to the "Aggression of 1898"

oh sigma, where do i begin?

do you believe everything that the government says? and even if you do, if the president is part of you (and we've jumped from the government to the president) then he can only be a small part of you. a tiny part as he's a part of all venezuelans. (or is it only those who vote? or thse who voted for him? still, it would be a very small part.) so it's hardly an attack on you. besides, you/ve posted criticisms of the government that were far more pointed than anything kerry said. (attacking yourself, sigma? that's worrisome.)

would spiritually superior beings indulge in wrath? even ineffective wrath. i think not.

the spanish-aerican was?! sigma, that was so long ago. and my forebears (not anglo-saxon btw) were still in europe so you can't blame them.

as for rodo, if you go just a little further into that wikipedia article you'll find this -

Rodó is today considered the preeminent theorist of the modernista school of literature.
nincompoop? you must be using that word in irony.