Banana Republic Newsflash

[Sigma_Orionis]

Major Power Outage in most of the country. Oh Joy.

Before you ask, I'm at the office, the Power Plant that keeps my servers alive also allows me to reach the Intertubes.

Tomorrow's News Headline: "Sabotage Takes out most National Electric Grid" Riiiiiight

Keep voting for Nicky Ripe, Bitches.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Ahhh, it hit the news:

Blackouts hit nearly half of Venezuela

And of course...

Authorities say delays in several initiatives designed to boost electricity output are partly to blame. But they also have suggested that government foes have sabotaged the grid

[Sigma_Orionis]

Well, the power came back at the office

[cid]

RE: your recent postings...

...keep the low profile, sport, lest ye become a headline yerself.

All available protuberances crossed in yer general direction...

[SciFiFisher]

Ahhh, it hit the news:

Blackouts hit nearly half of Venezuela

And of course...

Authorities say delays in several initiatives designed to boost electricity output are partly to blame. But they also have suggested that government foes have sabotaged the grid

My friend you would make a great psychic!

[Sigma_Orionis]

RE: your recent postings...

...keep the low profile, sport, lest ye become a headline yerself.

All available protuberances crossed in yer general direction...

We haven't gotten to that point..... YET, the moment it becomes the norm for "average Joes" like me, I'm going to run away so fast, that The Flash will look like Slow Poke Rodriguez

Thanks for the good wishes though.

My friend you would make a great psychic!

Yeah, Watch out Randi, I'm going for that Million Bucks.

Look at the BBC take on the thing

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blamed the opposition for "sabotage" to power transmission lines.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Oh man this is good:

Venezuela force to guard electrical system post-blackout

The Venezuelan government has announced the creation of a security unit to defend the country's electrical system, a day after a blackout that affected 70% of the country.

What a joke.

Hey Charlie! you think I got a big mouth?

If this lady disappears I'll be on the next boat to Miami pretending to be a Cuban Refugee....

One woman has told the Associated Press news agency she did not believe "this tale about sabotage".

"We all know who is to blame,'' said Adriana Montoya, a housewife who said she was stuck for hours in traffic jams that formed as traffic lights went dark in Caracas, which lost power for five hours on Tuesday.

[cid]

...If this lady disappears I'll be on the next boat to Miami pretending to be a Cuban Refugee....

I got dibs on the life vest concession...

[Sigma_Orionis]

I'm voting for Nicky Ripe to be the new Energizer Bunny....

In Venezuela, Surrounded by Dark Plots (Real or Not)

But ever since Mr. Maduro was elected by a narrow margin in April to replace Mr. Chávez, his mentor, he has cranked the discourse of conspiracy to an ever higher pitch, darkly warning of plots that seem to lurk around nearly every corner, aimed at killing him, destroying the economy or wrecking Mr. Chávez’s socialist-inspired revolution.

Few people are ever arrested and none have been convicted of any of the schemes Mr. Maduro has warned of in recent months.

Still, he makes it clear who he holds responsible: his political opposition and the United States, which he paints as an imperial enemy bent on subjugating Venezuela.

Surprise! Nicky Ripe actually knows that the NSA exists!

He also claimed to have information of a meeting in the White House in late July in which officials from the State Department, the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Pentagon came up with a plan called “Total Collapse” intended to destabilize Venezuela.

See? it's all your fault, you damned Imperialist Gringo Infidels! Patria, Socialismo o Muerte! Venceremos!

[SciFiFisher]

He also claimed to have information of a meeting in the White House in late July in which officials from the State Department, the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Pentagon came up with a plan called “Total Collapse” intended to destabilize Venezuela. See? it's all your fault, you damned Imperialist Gringo Infidels! Patria, Socialismo o Muerte! Venceremos!

And then we will install a true Puppet President and Let ShellExxonTexacoBP rob and pillage your noble socialist country. Just like we did in the 1950's or whenever it was we did that the last time.

[Sigma_Orionis]

It was from the 1920s to the 1950s

[SciFiFisher]

It was from the 1920s to the 1950s

I think this is why that particular paranoia works so well for your noble leader. There are probably people who remember when we evil capitalist imperialists actually did do these things.

And if we did it before who's to say that we won't just do a more subtle version of the same thing? Updated for the 21st Century.

Say, would you like to buy these wonderful hackproof whizbang voting machines from us? Guaranteed to help you elect a true democratic leader.

[Sigma_Orionis]

It was from the 1920s to the 1950s

I think this is why that particular paranoia works so well for your noble leader. There are probably people who remember when we evil capitalist imperialists actually did do these things.

You're at least partly right. Resentment against the US began mostly in the 1920s after our Dictator-in-Turn gave the first exploitation concessions to Royal Dutch Shell and Standard Oil (Exxon). According to this:

With a large influx of foreign "invaders", the effects of a xenophobia that had not been seen before became apparent. Novelist Jose Rafael Pocaterra described the oilmen as "the new Spaniards". He wrote in 1918:

One day some Spaniards mounted a dark apparatus on three legs, a grotesque stork with crystal eyes. They drew something (on a piece of paper) and opened their way through the forest. Other new Spaniards would open roads…would drill the earth from the top of fantastic towers, producing the fetid fluid…the liquid gold converted into petroleum.

Popular resentment of the foreign oil companies was also evident and expressed in several ways. Rufino Blanco Fombona, a Venezuelan writer and politician, accounts for the conflict between Venezuelan workers and their foreign bosses in his 1927 novel, La Bella y la Fiera:

The workers asked for a miserable salary increase and those blond, blue-eyed men who own millions of dollars, pounds and gulden in European and U.S. banks, refused.

These strong sentiments towards foreign oil companies in many ways never went away, and it was the thought that Venezuela’s natural resources were being exploited by foreign countries that convinced the government it needed to gain more control over its oil industry. This led to the eventual nationalization of the oil industry in 1976.

Rumor has it that in 1958, when our last Right Wing Dictator left the country after an uprising, he didn't stay and fight because he lost the support of the US government, and that was because he apparently objected to the then current arrangement between the Oil Multinationals and our Government to split the profits 50-50.

Of course, our two legged donkey exploits the resentment half the country has against the US and uses other examples like: the CIA involment in the 1973 Chile coup (despite that apparently, the CIA pulled out before it actually happened), the backing of the US of the coup that put the Shah of Iran back in power in 1953, and the US occupation of the Domenican Republic in the mid 60s.

And if we did it before who's to say that we won't just do a more subtle version of the same thing? Updated for the 21st Century. :

And you damned yanks gave credibility to that argument when Condi Rice and her State Department "sort of" supported the aborted coup of 2002.......

Say, would you like to buy these wonderful hackproof whizbang voting machines from us? Guaranteed to help you elect a true democratic leader.

rofl, we get them from these guys they're as bad as yours

[Sigma_Orionis]

In my last post I said that you were partly right,

The part you're missing is this, the part that shows that our problems were NOT caused by the Oil Multinationals, or the Foreign Policy of the US. Those were caused by ourselves.

Sure, the Oil Multinationals came here to make money out of extracting our Oil and, With the passive support of the US Government, and the help of a local Dictator (which despite all you can blame him for, and boy there's plenty, at least had the courtesy of ending almost a century of civil war and cleaned up our economy at the time) got a very good deal for them and a bad deal for us. Gee, what a surprise, that was the way it was done in those days. If WE had been in a position to do something like that, WE WOULD HAVE DONE IT TOO.

However, when we were able to take control of our oil resources instead of developing this country into a stable and prosperous state, we chose to squander our revenues and turn it into a basket case. And when the disaster we have made becomes too evident, we use the tired refrain of blaming the US and the Multinationals.

My point is, we are extremely unpractical as a culture. We got lucky because undeneath this country we have the largest oil reserves in the world. Bravo Fox Delta, we have shown to be too incompetent to manage it. If this was the 19th century (or even the early 20th century) we would have been invaded and taken over by a bigger country (hint: it's NOT the US, it's BRAZIL).

[SciFiFisher]

In my last post I said that you were partly right,

The part you're missing is this, the part that shows that our problems were NOT caused by the Oil Multinationals, or the Foreign Policy of the US. Those were caused by ourselves.

My point is, we are extremely unpractical as a culture. We got lucky because undeneath this country we have the largest oil reserves in the world. Bravo Fox Delta, we have shown to be too incompetent to manage it. If this was the 19th century (or even the early 20th century) we would have been invaded and taken over by a bigger country (hint: it's NOT the US, it's BRAZIL).

It reminds me of the 50 year old person who still blames his or her parents for why they are screwed up. At some point don't you have a responsibility to take charge of your own life and do the best you can?

[Sigma_Orionis]

In my last post I said that you were partly right,

The part you're missing is this, the part that shows that our problems were NOT caused by the Oil Multinationals, or the Foreign Policy of the US. Those were caused by ourselves.

My point is, we are extremely unpractical as a culture. We got lucky because undeneath this country we have the largest oil reserves in the world. Bravo Fox Delta, we have shown to be too incompetent to manage it. If this was the 19th century (or even the early 20th century) we would have been invaded and taken over by a bigger country (hint: it's NOT the US, it's BRAZIL).

It reminds me of the 50 year old person who still blames his or her parents for why they are screwed up. At some point don't you have a responsibility to take charge of your own life and do the best you can?

Meh, you've just described how 90% of Latin America behaves IMHO.

[geonuc]

Maybe Brazil is stilling willing to invade, if you ask nicely?

[Sigma_Orionis]

Nah, they're a net exporter of Oil, they don't need us

[Sigma_Orionis]

Nicky Ripe is at it again:

Venezuela expels three US diplomats over 'sabotage'

President Nicolas Maduro said the diplomats have 48 hours to leave the country, saying "Yankees, go home!"

Mr Maduro says he has evidence that the trio took part in a power-grid sabotage in September and had bribed Venezuelan companies to cut down production.

[Rommie]

Does anyone ever actually believe that stuff?

[Sigma_Orionis]

In one word: NO

[SciFiFisher]

El Presidente does... and so do a few of his closest supporters.

[Sigma_Orionis]

No they don't. They just need something "Anti-Imperialist" to keep the base happy, and I'm having serious doubts the base is buying it......

[Sigma_Orionis]

This dude is surprised that Nicky Ripe has lasted this long. However IMHO he's going to run out of steam with the Anti-US rethoric sooner rather than later (simply because as the economy goes from worse to worst, I think that the audience is not going to buy it any further). Then we'll see.

[brite]

Well.... at least now y'all have something to point and laugh at....