Banana Republic Newsflash

[Sigma_Orionis]

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.)

I don't believe a thing the government says. I was being sarcastic.

BTW. The headline altered things a bit in order to be provocative, Kerry didn't actually say "the US", he was saying Venezuela's neighbors. In any case, I lost patience with my country about 30 years ago.

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.

That my dear Mr. Mono, is just me making crude fun of the inferiority complex we Latin Americans have with respect to North America.

Ironically, my opinion of Rodó is the only part where I am not being sarcastic. Despite his accomplishments in Literature (which BTW seems to be THE field where we Latin Americans excel) His promotion of nonsense like that has done more to hinder us than anything the US has ever done. He reminds of of Noam Chomsky. I don't doubt Chomsky's accomplishments. But he allowed the Chavistas to use him as propaganda when Chavez was riding high and never even admitted that mistake. That makes him more than a "Useful Idiot". Rodó pretty much did the same thing.

[code monkey]

I don't believe a thing the government says. I was being sarcastic.

sarcastic? you? i can't believe it. and such sarcasm in one so young. i must lie down with a cold cloth on my forehead.

BTW. The headline altered things a bit in order to be provocative, Kerry didn't actually say "the US", he was saying Venezuela's neighbors. In any case, I lost patience with my country about 30 years ago.

now you're saying that a news organization deliberately misquoted someone. i feel another attack of the vapors coming on.

That my dear Mr. Mono, is just me making crude fun of the inferiority complex we Latin Americans have with respect to North America.

Ironically, my opinion of Rodó is the only part where I am not being sarcastic. Despite his accomplishments in Literature (which BTW seems to be THE field where we Latin Americans excel) His promotion of nonsense like that has done more to hinder us than anything the US has ever done. He reminds of of Noam Chomsky. I don't doubt Chomsky's accomplishments. But he allowed the Chavistas to use him as propaganda when Chavez was riding high and never even admitted that mistake. That makes him more than a "Useful Idiot". Rodó pretty much did the same thing.

and now you're calling yourself crude. never!

all kidding aside, i find it the height of dishonesty when someone who's publically backed a cause that turns out to be wrong doesn't say so. maybe it made sense at the time. maybe things just went off the rails but say that the result isnt what you had in mind.

[Sigma_Orionis]

There it is

Notice this is a first hand account, the person who wrote this actually went up to Chomky's office at MIT to talk to him about this. I am not impressed.

[Sigma_Orionis]

If this is true, the last flimsy excuse Chavistas have just disappeared

To take just a single example: 67.4% of Venezuelans qualified as “not poor” in the second semester of 2008, and 67.9% qualify in the second semester of 2013. The number has barely budged. In the last five years, there has not been any progress in poverty abatement in Venezuela – and this is according to official figures.

And this brings us closer to a nice civil war.

Now? Well, let’s just say that goodwill towards the poor is harder to find that cooking oil.

Many people I spoke to view “the poor” as being guilty of the mess the country has become. They see the poor as having been empowered, and then turning around and giving that power to a bunch of crooks and nitwits. They go to the store to find basic items missing, and they blame the poor for leading the country toward a disaster just so they could get their hands on a social program or a government job.

edited for spelling

[code monkey]

There it is

Notice this is a first hand account, the person who wrote this actually went up to Chomky's office at MIT to talk to him about this. I am not impressed.

that was depressing. the sad thing is that he knows; he just can't/won't admit it.

[Sigma_Orionis]

According to this guy, The Carter Center is guilty of the same thing.

One thing is for sure. Chavez Apologists are having one hell of a bad year. Too bad that our economy had to go to the toilet for it to happen, otherwise it would be Schadenfreude time.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Oh my!

US House of Representatives approves Venezuela sanctions

The link in the BBC News site that points to the article says "US approves Venezuela sanctions bill" tsk tsk tsk. worthy of Faux News I'm afraid.

The article says that:

"The White House opposes sanctions against Mr Maduro's government. It says such measures could undermine efforts to find a political solution to the crisis.

I presume that Rubio & Co just want to make trouble for the HNIC. Why? considering how much we Latin Americans complain about US interference in our internal affairs, if it actually makes it through the Senate and the HNIC doesn't veto it, it will give all the "Useful Idiots" idiots ammunition to complain further. If it dies in the Senate or worse if the HNIC vetoes it, the right wing nutjobs will claim that as proof that the HNIC is a pinko commie yadah yadah yadah. Because the best thing the US can do is what is doing right now: sit, wait and bitch.

For example (from the same article):

Mr Maduro says right-wing sectors inside and outside Venezuela had come together to create dissent and destabilise his government.

Earlier on Wednesday, Venezuelan officials accused opposition politician Maria Corina Machado of plotting with US officials to assassinate Mr Maduro.

The same as it has been for the last 10 years, but the sanctions would be used as "proof".

Having said that. I'd love to see the sanctions make it through. Airline Tickets just went up about 800%. So it would feel warm and fuzzy to know that the Top Boliburgeses can't go live it up in Miami or Disney World as they do now (despite all their bitching of the US), because most of us grunts can't afford to either thanks to them (Misery loves company and all that).

Political High Command of the Revolution. that's a new one....

[Sigma_Orionis]

Since I'm pissed off cause I just had a hard disk failure on my Main Storage Array I am going to get "petty"

According to this Turns out that our glorious socialist leaders have a penchant for expensive watches.......

Let's see the price for some of them:

- Our beloved Minister of Internal Affairs Justice and Peace (quite a mouthful ain't it) carries a nice proletarian US$ 10000 watch made by a socialist swiss company called IWC.

- The president of the main State TV station has an austere US$ 12000 Rolex

- The mayor of the biggest municipality in the country is a bit more socialist, his watch (also made by IWC) is only worth about US$ 5600.

- The former VicePresident, Ex-Minister of Defense, Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs and all around patriotic socialist do-gooder carries around a US$ 30000 Rolex.

- The Former governor of the state of Carabobo (a former General who made the headlines when he burped on TV) carries a nice socialist US$ 7000 Rolex

- Our Glorious Minister of Sports takes the cake, he carries around a US$ 60000 watch (apparently studded with 21 Carats worth of Diamonds)

- As for the two legged donkey we elected president?

Nope, he's quite moderate, the most expensive watch he carries is a swiss made Tissot worth about 1000 US dollars.

All these worthy heroes of the revolution and their proletarian timepieces are shown here (sorry, site in Spanish you damned gringo imperialists), if we're to believe the site, these selfless socialist patriots own several of these austere watches.

This quote is priceless...

No matter the occasion, whether it’s lambasting the evil empire or preaching socialism to the poor, these watches make perfect accessories for busy professionals who need to count their minutes.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Back in the late 70s when this useless turd was campaigning for president. His electoral slogan was "Donde Estan Los Reales?" (Where's the Cash?). Because of the rampant corruption during this moron's first presidential term.. Of course, when the former idiot got in power, he managed to crash our economy in 1983, so it's not like I have any sympathy for him.


However, the slogan could be applied right now.....(after it has been appropriately salted of course)

Donde CARAJO estan los Reales?


BTW I've always complained about almost everyone holding the presidential seat (as it's MY prerogative ). well, despite the fact that these two were Military "Semi-Strong Men" that were not put in office by direct election, they weren't too bad

[Sigma_Orionis]

Oh well, the Government has to set up a Kangaroo Kourt (I presume that Maduro's buddies at Unasur forced his hand) ...

Obsessed with Leopoldo’s ethos

According to the blog post I just linked to, the Government Produced a 228 Page Legal Brief where they claim that Leopoldo Lopez was inciting open rebellion or something like that.

I have said several times that the Faction of the Opposition that Lopez leads is full of shit. And I think that Leopoldo Lopez is a bumbling fool unfit for political office. And I also think that his temper tantrum played right into the government's hands.

Now, without being a legal eagle, I also think that they're railroading him.

The opposition has once again shown that they're incompetent idiots. I am of the opinion that If they stuck to purely economic matters they'd get elected pretty quickly, but no, they have to talk about Freedom and Democracy, when they include people like this asshole (sorry, link in spanish) who are just as bad as the Chavistas.

They say that all countries in the world have the government they deserve, the current mess shows what we did to deserve ours.

[Sigma_Orionis]

More on this

[Sigma_Orionis]

Somehow, this reminds me of a little something that happened in St. Petersburg in 1905.........

[Sigma_Orionis]

Venezuelan Exceptionalism

[Ikyoto]

i feel slighted... i collect nice watches (out of fewer than 10, I think I'm averaging $75 a pop!), coins- (fewer than 10 right now 1oz silver) and Thinker belle pins from Disney-world- got lotsa them at 12 for $25. Where's my over priced bling!?!

[Sigma_Orionis]

1) Learn to write in Spanish
2) Start posting here, make sure you let them know that you're a gringo and that you love our "Eternal Comandante".
3) Do Op-eds at the NYTimes in support of Chavez (doesn't matter if the asshole is dead, CHAVEZ FOREVER!)

Done, that will make you a full-fledged-card-carrying PSF (Pendejo sans Frontiers) you'll get yer overpriced bling for free, worked for this hag.

[Sigma_Orionis]

About two weeks ago we had another major power outage

The question now is who will Nicky blame this time? after all, it messed up his televised speech.....

[Sigma_Orionis]

Guess what? we spiritually superior Venezuelans took all you gringos for a ride......

On the Uses of Phantasmagoric Profits

According to this

Brink’s, the armored car company, could see about $400 million in revenue disappear this year from its operations in this country. Procter & Gamble announced a write-down of $275 million on its Venezuela business. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are slashing their Venezuela flights.

Venezuela, once an apparent profit center for multinational companies, increasingly looks like a financial black hole.

That in itself is no news, just the consequence of the covert massive devaluation we are experiencing.

The author of the blog post I referenced does mention this:

There’s a dynamic at play here that Neuman didn’t quite capture, though. As he notes, lots of MNC executive in Caracas understood perfectly well that the “profits” they were reporting were never really likely to materialize in dollar form.

So why didn’t they say something before things came to a head? Is it just because of those nebulous “standard accounting practices” he talks about?

BS. It’s because lots of them had signed contracts that based their bonuses on formulas tied to those profits!

That might be a shock to you gringos, as incompetent or venal your private enterprise might or might not be, how did they let that one slip through? I don't find it surprising though, it's typically our way.

A practical example of Upton Sinclair's quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

[SciFiFisher]

That might be a shock to you gringos, as incompetent or venal your private enterprise might or might not be, how did they let that one slip through? I don't find it surprising though, it's typically our way.

A practical example of Upton Sinclair's quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Actually this same issue is at the heart of the scandal currently going on in the Veteran's Administration here in the US. It seems the VA tried to fix things by tying bonuses to a metric that measured access to care. The metric measured whether or not veterans were seen within 2-4 weeks of when they called for an appointment.

The administrators who successfully met the mark got bonuses. Care to guess what everyone started lying about?

[Sigma_Orionis]

You mean your private sector is about as incompetent as your government?

[brite]

You mean your private sector is about as incompetent as your government?

The VA isn't private sector....

[Sigma_Orionis]

The Post I made that Fisher was referring to, dealt with how the Venezuelan subsidiaries of US based Multinationals bilked their head offices right under their noses, taking advantage of our particular Foreign Exchange problems....

[Sigma_Orionis]

I just found one of those "idyllic" 1950 institutional films. This one in particular was made by a subsidiary of Standard Oil (or Exxon as it is known these days) that operated in Venezuela, the name of the company was Creole Petroleum Corporation.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

According to my old man and to my mother, life here in Bananaland was pretty much like that in those days.


Edited for Clarity

[brite]

The Post I made that Fisher was referring to, dealt with how the Venezuelan subsidiaries of US based Multinationals bilked their head offices right under their noses, taking advantage of our particular Foreign Exchange problems....

You need to quote this stuff... LMAO

[Rommie]

So... a breathing tax eh?

[Sigma_Orionis]

Depending who you ask, the tax is funny, infuriating, or just one more surreal aspect of a country that has the biggest oil reserves in the world, yet at the same time has shortages of toilet paper and sugar

If you ask me, i'll settle for surreal, remember my comment about Magical Realism? I think that Garcia Marquez came up with it while living here, too bad he could never see past it.