Banana Republic Newsflash

[Sigma_Orionis]

Posted without comment.

I sanctioned Venezuela and all I got was this lousy T-shirt

[Sigma_Orionis]

The wild wild west Venezuela style, according to this anyways.

this quote is literally worth its weight in gold.

Armando Betancourt, a local council member from the city of El Callao in Bolívar state, claims that the people behind these [paramilitary] organizations are high-ranking members of the Armed Forces. He even claims that the military directly gives the gangs the weaponry they use (AR-15 or AK47 automatic rifles). He claims the military is the head of the local mafia.

The “El Chingo” gang, working out of the Planta Perú mine which theoretically belongs to state-owned Venezuela General Mining Company, boasts about being an organization that does not heed to military authority. They refuse to pay the military their commission, and in turn the military has attacked and robbed them. According to one of the gang’s members, military personnel kill their members and claim they did it.

Time for a Facepalm.

[Sigma_Orionis]

This is interesting:

Why Obama Went Over The Top On Venezuela This Week

First says this:

Maduro’s approval rating at home lies just above 20 percent as Venezuela’s oil-rich economy collapses. His international image is tanking just as badly as he desperately tosses opposition politicians into jail on trumped-up sedition charges.

. . .

What Maduro needed most at this moment was a made-in-the-U.S.A. diversion. A pretext for screaming that los yanquis are poised to launch an armada across the Caribbean to invade Venezuela and rape and pillage the socialist revolution.

Well, at least internally it didn't help all that much. Sure, Nicky raised a major ruckus after the announcement and had a grand ole time blaming US Imperialism for everything, but according to what I found (in spanish) The sanctions aparrently raised his popularity rating from 22 to 25%. And, from what I have seen in world news, Internationally, nobody really gave a damn.

Now, the piece says that the HNIC went over the top with the language of the sanctions because he needs the US Right to be distracted from his overtures towards Cuba.

That move is all but necessary for normalizing relations with the communist island. But it won’t sit well with U.S. conservatives, especially the Cuban-American congressional caucus, who will call the terrorism-list concession more proof that Obama is a foreign policy weakling who likes getting sand kicked in his face by the Castro regime.

Which is why Obama needs to flex his own beach brawn – and he’s betting that playing hardball with Venezuela will blunt the Beltway condemnation on Cuba.

“It certainly helps placate the people who will say he’s soft on the Latin American left,” says Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C.

. . .

And what’s more, Shifter adds, “It demonstrates how geopolitically unimportant Venezuela has suddenly become.”

It seems just a few years ago Obama was playing Maduro’s late predecessor, Hugo Chávez, with kid gloves, thanks to Venezuela’s outsized, oil-fueled influence in Latin America. But now that falling crude prices and Maduro’s policy blunders have reduced the Bolivarian Republic to a barely solvent republic, Venezuela may look diplomatically expendable.

I am not too happy about the source of this piece. After all, it's the Miami Herald, but the author's points seem reasonable.

ETA. After reading THIS other piece, I must say that the author definitely knows what he's talking about.

[SciFiFisher]

So much potential.... South America between Brazil and Venezuela could have leveraged their oil advantage into being at least a medium sized fish in the world pond.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I would settle for being able to live without worrying about inflation.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Time for Soviet Era Jokes....

Where's the Beef?

For those wondering what "Tenemos Patria" means, the rough translation is "Our Country is now OURS!"

[Sigma_Orionis]

In Venezuela, One President Too Many

[Rommie]

Saw this on the BBC today- queuing in Venezuela

Accurate, Sigma?

[Sigma_Orionis]

I'd say pretty accurate.

Last Saturday, I did my weekly shopping, it usually involves going to 5 different stores to find everything.

I wanted to buy some meat (haven't seen any in any supermarket for the last...... 2 months) so I went to a butcher shop.

One hour waiting in a queue, and then told they had run out of meat.

The video at the bottom of the BBC piece is pretty accurate. I actually go to the first supermarket the reporter went to, and seen the queue on the basement.

They're not usually on Saturdays, but one day I caught one. That particular day, the queue was to buy Washing detergent.

On the last store I went to on Saturday, they had skim milk (my mother drinks it) which I hadn't seen in about three months. Alas it was not on a day I could buy because of the last number in my National ID card.

So I went yesterday and got lucky, they still had, and it was my day.. They had National Guard soldiers watching over the pallet.

Car parts are even worse, two weeks ago, I decided to send my car to the shop, needed to replace shock absorbers and a couple of other things. I had sourced most of the parts for the last two months.

Turns out one of the parts wasn't right and I could not find a replacement. Plus the mechanic needed extra parts. Total time in the shop? Two weeks. in normal times it would have been two days at the most. Most of the time was finding the parts.

If you're going to do shopping or need to move anything, using a Motorcycle cab is unpractical. So, not having a car is not a good idea in this city. Normal Cabs are expensive too.

Oh yeah, and on Saturday, while going to a baker shop to buy bread and cold cuts, the nearby street was jammed and it was impossible to park. The reason? someone was shot and killed while resisting a robbery. I also caught the same scene last Wednesday elsewhere in the city, while walking from the repair shop to the office. Tell me again how dangerous your country is?.

[geonuc]

That's just depressing.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Damned Straight it is.

[Rommie]

Fuck man *big hug*

[SciFi Chick]

So sorry you're going through this.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Thanks

[Sigma_Orionis]

This is why we always fail.

Do I think that the author is wrong? Nope

But looking in the comments section they spend the time talking about the merits of including or not an article in the constitution that "guarantees decent housing".

And IMHO they missed the larger point:

I sit in astounded silence, wondering whether house building would be touched on in any way, whether feasibility would come up at all in the discussions. We’re there for two and a half hours. It never does. Not even obliquely. Not even once.

Furthermore, in one of the comments you find something like this:

I come from a background with big business companies which board of directors or management committees transacted their business in a very structured technical, pragmatic, straight forward way , where there were no fools on the floor but instead people with a lot of gathered experience who had tough and incisive questions to every angle of a decison .

Well, I have worked in the PRIVATE sector all my life and those "board of directors or management committees" transacted their business very differently, it usually went like this:


1) Is Money Involved?
if the answer is yes, go to step 2
If the answer is no, go to step 3
2) Project NOT approved.
3) Endless discussion about how many angels you can fit on a pin.

I can agree that most people here have a feudal view of the world, regardless of their political inclination. But our main problem is our extreme impracticality. As long as that problem remains unsolved, all of the others will remain unsolved as well.

[Sigma_Orionis]

And the Blackouts return

Monday, Power failure at home, from 10 PM to 5 am in the morning
Tuesday, Another power failure, from 2 PM to 5 PM

And then there's this, and this

Mr Arreaza said private companies would be asked to use their own generators to reduce pressure on the national grid.

But he said it was private homeowners who consumed the most energy, and he called for everyone to turn the dial down on their air conditioners.

"We are appealing to everyone's conscience, to use energy efficiently."

Newsflash asshole, I DON'T have air conditioning at home, just a couple of fans. FUCK YOU.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Things have become so surreal that conspiracy theories are starting to become believable.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Just like in the 80s, just ten times worse...

Venezuela’s Economy Suffers as Import Schemes Siphon Billions

[Sigma_Orionis]

Surrealism in action

Venezuela bikers reportedly being killed for scarce motorcycle parts

“They’re killing those of us in the street to steal our bike because there are no bikes or spare parts,” Jorge Montaño, a leader of Venezuela’s National Socialist Federation of Motorbikers, said on Thursday.

"National Socialist Federation of Motorbikers"? with that name it HAS to be a "colectivo", and they're asking HELP from the government? Guess what? the Bread ran out and the Circus is not enough to keep the natives busy.....

[Sigma_Orionis]

Oh Great, turns out that the rumors that NUMERO DOS is a drug lord are becoming louder and louder and even worse: supposedly are true

[Sigma_Orionis]

Predictably......

[Swift]

Predictably......

Nice hat.

[Sigma_Orionis]

I'm up to my nose with those damned red berets

[Thumper]

NPR had a couple stories this morning, the first one about Cuba and how the condition of Venezuela as its "bankroller" is forcing the thaw in its relationship with the US. The second was about corruption in Venezuela is facilitating drug trafficking through there into the US. And how prosecutors in the US put pressure on the drug lords and they in turn roll over and give up some high ranking gov't officials.
Sounds like alot of fun.

[Swift]

I'm up to my nose with those damned red berets

Uh... I don't think that's how you wear a beret. Just saying...