Banana Republic Newsflash

[SciFiFisher]

What? and lose my Professional Victim status? NEVER!

You would still have the right to senseless whining and irrational assumptions.

[Sigma_Orionis]

You would still have the right to senseless whining and irrational assumptions.

Yeah, but it would be too evident, How can you manipulate people like that?

[code monkey]

What? and lose my Professional Victim status? NEVER!

sigma, to be a professional one must be paid. i find it very hard to believe that anyone is paying you to be a victim.

[code monkey]

You would still have the right to senseless whining and irrational assumptions.

Yeah, but it would be too evident, How can you manipulate people like that?

sigma, i truly hate to be the one to tell you this but you're not manipulating anyone. we see through you.

[Swift]

sigma, to be a professional one must be paid. i find it very hard to believe that anyone is paying you to be a victim.

I hate to derail this discussion with a serious, but side point, but I and others have disputed that (you have to be paid to be a professional). For example, a good friend of mine had a major debate with a professor once in a course on ethics. They were talking about professional ethics, and the professor made the same claim (that you have to be paid to be a professional). My friend, who was and still is a volunteer paramedic on a rescue contended that he was a professional, even without being paid. I agree with that position.

I would contend that to be a professional you have to have some sort of formal training, you have to have some sort of recognition of that training (a degree or certificate, for example), there is an expected code of conduct for that profession.

I'm unsure if Victim meets those criteria. There certainly is an expected code of conduct. I'm not familiar enough with the career to know if there is some sort of training. I think there is, though it is mostly by apprenticeship. Is there some sort of test to complete the training?

[code monkey]

I hate to derail this discussion with a serious, but side point ...

swift, i thought that it had been established that derailment was expected if not required.

clearly your friend was, and remains, highly trained and competent. he conducts himself with the utmost professionalism. however, i would hold that, as he is a volunteer, he is not a professional. consider sports pros vs amateurs.

as for sigma's standing as a professional victim, i look forward to reading his responses to your questions. i have trouble seeing being a professional victim as a viable career.

[geonuc]

Let's keep in mind that there are currencies in the world other than money. One can be 'paid' in adulation, power or, as it seems in the case of Victim, unwarranted attention. While the Amateur Victim merely plays up one or two circumstances in hopes of getting some sympathy here and there, the Professional Victim employs tested tactics to maximize attention in all circumstances. As codemonkey suggests, it's a problematic career choice - irregular payment, no health benefits, etc.

[code monkey]

an excellent point, geonuc. i would point out that adulation and power may be seen as equivalent to money. adulation leads to people giving one things and power enables one to simply take what one wants.

now doesn't this seem like a discussion tailor-made for z?

[Sigma_Orionis]

That just means that I'm bad at getting people to do my dirty laundry, I guess I'll have to give up my Venezuelan Passport

[Sigma_Orionis]

Great, now Nicky is extending border closure I guess that since he couldn't get any sympathy for the beef he pretends to have with Guiana now he turns to Colombia....

In the meantime, he's offering asylum to 20000 Syrians

Maduro made the comments on Monday during a meeting of his council of ministers in the government palace. He said: “I want 20,000 Syrians, Syrian families, to come to Venezuela and share this land in peace.”

I wonder... in which planet does this idiot thinks he lives?

[Sigma_Orionis]

Surprise, Lopez got a 13 year sentence Railroading complete.

[Sigma_Orionis]

And he closes the border in other places......

Venezuela extends state of emergency to third border state

[SciFiFisher]

Is he closing the borders to keep people out?....or in?

[Sigma_Orionis]

He's closing the border in an attempt to keep the MERCHANDISE in

[Sigma_Orionis]

Now that Nicky and Santos kissed and made up in a photo op they say the border will be opened again....

[Sigma_Orionis]

Lopez just did an NY Times op-ed (from prison)

[Sigma_Orionis]

Stagflation in Action:

Venezuela annual inflation 180 percent -opposition newspaper

CORRECTED-Venezuela says economy shrank 4 percent in 2014


The Reuters note about inflation mentions that the figure was taken from a local opposition leaning newspaper and that our Central Bank refused to confirm it (but didn't deny it either).

Well, I've seen product prices more than double this year, the Black Market prince for the US$ has risen about 400%. So I don't find it hard to believe at all.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Gringos, don't come here

[Sigma_Orionis]

According to this guy Nicky is a strong candidate for the Kim Jong-Un Insanity Award

one minor correction.

According to Carrasquero, the combination of inflation, reckless currency printing, and black market activity inside Venezuela is actually to blame for the chronic shortages rocking the nation.

The black market activity and shortages are caused by the insane price controls the government has. the "soaring inflation and reckless currency printing" of course cause plenty of other problems. The usual stupid response by our idiots is price controls.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Too bad this is not in English

“Tengo las pruebas de que el FMI ha recibido la visita de un grupo de tecnocratas, pelucones, quienes expusieron este plan y le han pedido 60 mil millones de dólares, y el fondo les ha dicho que pudiera prestárselos si derrocan el Gobierno Revolucionario, así que el plan de ellos no es electoral, aunque salgan a hacer campaña, lo que buscan es acumular fuerzas para destruir la Revolución”, dijo el Primer Mandatario Nacional en su programa “Contacto con Maduro”.

Translation of the Money Quote:


"I have Proof the the IMF has been contacted by a group of technocrats, bigwigs whom presented this plan and requested US$ 60 Billion. The Fund answered that it could honor that request if they could topple the Revolutionary Government, so their plan is not to win the election, even if the have a political campaign, what they're seeking is to gather strength to destroy the Revolution", said the president in his TV show "Contacto con Maduro".

[Sigma_Orionis]

Here's the Alleged Proof of the "IMF Coup Plan" (in English too)

A phone call between a Venezuelan Business Man and a Harvard Economy Professor

The Businessman is Lorenzo Mendoza, president and owner of the largest private company in the country Empresas Polar (yes swift, they make that beer you drank when you came down here).

The Economy Professor is Ricardo Hausmann who, back in the 90s, was Minister of Planning and a Board Member of our Central Bank.

The link with the supposed proof is from our very own version of Faux News: Telesur

I listened to the conversation (thoughtfully provided in the link) and all I heard was Hausmann telling Mendoza that his contacts at the IMF (Hausmann used to work for them before his tenure at Harvard) were convinced that sooner or later the IMF would be called to assist Venezuela, because, in Hausmann's opinion there's no way out of this (economic) mess without international assistance and he figured that the IMF could loan between 40 and 50 billion US Dollars and that the World Bank could cough up between 10 and 11 billion US Dollars. Mendoza (who most of the time just said "aha" ) agreed with him. Considering how far of his handle Nicky is, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually believed this would be evidence of a coup attempt.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Ok. Now we know how bad things are down here when a PSF says we're screwed Hell, according to him, the Nicaraguans are less stupid than we are.
OTOH the Nicas went ahead and put the idiot that almost undid them in the 80s back in power in 2006 and he has been at it ever since....

[Sigma_Orionis]

Just in case it wasn't clear enough....

Few in Venezuela Want Bolívars, but No One Can Spare a Dime

[Sigma_Orionis]

Earth to Nicky: NOBODY IN THIS WORLD GIVES A RAT'S ASS ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK OR WANT.

Venezuelan President Maduro says $88 oil price needed

[SciFiFisher]

Earth to Nicky: NOBODY IN THIS WORLD GIVES A RAT'S ASS ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK OR WANT.

Venezuelan President Maduro says $88 oil price needed

Especially those of us who are enjoying gas that is under $3 per gallon.