geonuc wrote:Huh. So it really is all the US's fault. Who knew?
Sigma_Orionis wrote:I'll say one thing about yer wannabe Commies: they're as much self-righteous assholes as Trump Suporters.
Your Trump Supporters and your Wannabe Commies are a lot more similar than they're different.
SciFiFisher wrote:Of course, they would fight to the death denying that.
SciFiFisher wrote:It's sort of like a slow motion train wreck. You know it's terrible. You know it's getting worse. And yet you still can't stop looking. And it's even worse when you are on the train.
(Reuters) - U.S. oil major Chevron Corp has evacuated executives from Venezuela after two of its workers were imprisoned over a contract dispute with state-owned oil company PDVSA, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
Chevron asked other employees to avoid the facilities of its joint venture with the OPEC nation’s oil firm, the sources said.
The arrests, in a raid by national intelligence officers, were the first at a foreign oil firm since Venezuela’s government launched a purge last fall that has resulted in detentions of more than 80 executives at PDVSA and business partners accused of corruption.
The Chevron workers may face charges of treason for refusing to sign a supply contract for furnace parts drawn up by PDVSA executives, Reuters reported earlier this week. The workers balked at the high costs of the parts and a lack of competitive bids.
There’s a heavy dose of Undercook/Overcook, Parks & Rec black comedy here (sign the procurement deal, jail; don’t sign the procurement deal, jail right away), but the broader strategic aspect is, not to put too fine a point on it, simply baffling. PDVSA needs Chevron. I mean, PDVSA NEEEEEEEEEEDS Chevron. With the bottom falling out of its own production capacity, PDVSA has never had a weaker negotiating hand vis-à-vis its foreign partners.
It’s never a good time to bite the hand that feeds you, but this is a step beyond. This is chomping on the hand that feeds you when you’re emaciated, delirious from acute malnutrition, on the verge of quite literal starvation, then severing the hand, dousing it in gasoline, setting it on fire and shitting on the ashes. We’re in a space beyond corruption here, beyond ideological turpitude and moral abasement beyond garden variety self-harm into the realm of spiteful, sadomasochistic national self-immolation.
Swift wrote:John Oliver's take on this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYfgvS0FA7U
The segment is uncomfortable to watch at times. Oliver’s brand of humor feels tone-deaf when it has to deal with a humanitarian crisis instead of, say, the latest gaffe of the Trump administration. It also suffers from the usual generalizations — not talking about the weakened private sector during the Chávez years, for instance — which fail to provide a proper understanding of the causes and inevitability of the current crisis.
Rommie wrote:Good luck Sigma. Is there anything we can do to help you?
Sigma_Orionis wrote:Gee, what a surprise, Masburro won
Sigma_Orionis wrote:Yeah, really.
And in unrelated news, I have just been the subject of a public poll for the first time of my life. As you can imagine I had nothing but praise for Maduro and the Chavistas....
SciFiFisher wrote:Sigma_Orionis wrote:Yeah, really.
And in unrelated news, I have just been the subject of a public poll for the first time of my life. As you can imagine I had nothing but praise for Maduro and the Chavistas....
Frankly, I am glad to hear you have not lost all sense of self preservation.
Thumper wrote:A drone assassination attack?
SciFiFisher wrote:From what our news outlets are reporting here Maduro is blaming the opposition and a few others. Almost like a general sweep of all the "usual suspects".
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