Venezuela: Left Winger's Heaven on Earth

[MachineGhost]

Scary and sad situation!

[ochotona]

I work with many Venezuelans and it has become a community tragedy at our office in Houston.

[MachineGhost]

I work with many Venezuelans and it has become a community tragedy at our office in Houston.

I guess junk silver wouldn't help with the food shortages, huh? It's just sad this is all a direct result of government incompetence. The most easily preventable thing in the world, except that it isn't.

[ochotona]

Maybe PDVSA is going to pay oilfield services companies in junk silver. If oilfield services firms stop working, Venezuela's oil production was grind to a halt.

BTW, I know Sr. Del Pino, the PDVSA President. A very nice man in a very tough spot. I would not trade places with him.

[MachineGhost]

Maybe PDVSA is going to pay oilfield services companies in junk silver. If oilfield services firms stop working, Venezuela's oil production was grind to a halt.

BTW, I know Sr. Del Pino, the PDVSA President. A very nice man in a very tough spot. I would not trade places with him.

That's the problem with capital. It's absurdly weak in formeting coups or revolutions against socialist tyranny compared to the exploiters. You'd think it was otherwise listening to all of the leftist propaganda!

[MachineGhost]

[MachineGhost]

What has been a slow-motion crisis in Venezuela seems to be careening into a new, more dangerous phase. The long economic decline of the country with the world’s largest oil reserves now shows signs of morphing into a humanitarian emergency, with government mismanagement and low petroleum prices leading to widespread shortages and inflation that could surpass 700 percent this year.

The political stakes are mounting. Exhausted by government-imposed power blackouts, spiraling crime, endless food lines, shortages of medicine and waves of looting and protest, citizens are mobilizing against their leaders. In recent days, Venezuelans lined up to add their names to a recall petition that aims to bring down the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and put an end to the socialist-inspired “revolution” ignited 17 years ago by Hugo Chavez.

“This can’t continue,” said Angel Rondon, a mechanic, who now sometimes eats just once a day. “Things have to change.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/th ... story.html

[Maddy]

What went wrong?

Time to review the liberal plan for the perfect socialist utopia, compliments of the California woman who exhorts the Santa Cruz City Council to take advantage of the "free food" growing on "vegetable trees." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScgFIKXKFkc

[Reub]

But Maddy, how could this utopia on earth have failed? Leftists are always right. They know what's best for you. They even know which bathroom you should use. They can lie about their true agendas because it's the wonderful end result that's important. Anyone who questions them is a ________. You can fill in the blank because the character assassination towards their enemies takes many forms.

[MachineGhost]

Never seen a bearish parabolic before. What happens next?

[MachineGhost]

[Kriegsspiel]

What went wrong?

Time to review the liberal plan for the perfect socialist utopia, compliments of the California woman who exhorts the Santa Cruz City Council to take advantage of the "free food" growing on "vegetable trees." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScgFIKXKFkc

This video is gold.

[Reub]

What went wrong?

Time to review the liberal plan for the perfect socialist utopia, compliments of the California woman who exhorts the Santa Cruz City Council to take advantage of the "free food" growing on "vegetable trees." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScgFIKXKFkc

This video is gold.

One sole Democrat claps at the end.

[dualstow]

I thought it was not just incompetence but also corruption, no?

...
It's just sad this is all a direct result of government incompetence.

[MachineGhost]

I thought it was not just incompetence but also corruption, no?

...
It's just sad this is all a direct result of government incompetence.

There's a difference???

[dualstow]

I thought it was not just incompetence but also corruption, no?

...
It's just sad this is all a direct result of government incompetence.

There's a difference???

Obviously. Corruption is willful. Incompetence does not always lead to self-aggrandizement.

Most of the time some lunatics (not you) talk about some mysterious power keeping the little man down, I think to myself, nope, that one's down to incompetence.

[MachineGhost]

Obviously. Corruption is willful. Incompetence does not always lead to self-aggrandizement.

Most of the time some lunatics (not you) talk about some mysterious power keeping the little man down, I think to myself, nope, that one's down to incompetence.

In my lunatic worldview, incompetence in government is what allows government to become corrupt. Weakness corrupts. The path of least resistance is never in doing the right or hard thing.

[dualstow]

Lack of transparency.

[MachineGhost]

Lack of transparency.

There's lots of transparency in this country and it hasn't resulted in a political revolution yet, so color me skeptical.

[dualstow]

But we have far, far less corruption than countries with little transparency.

You could call this lack a form of incompetence if you like (in the area of checks and balances). It would fit in with what you said above.

[WiseOne]

Finally watched the video.

I hope you all don't think she is representative of liberal views or the Democratic party. She sounds like someone with an IQ not substantially greater than her shoe size. And probably with nothing better to do than attend council meetings and spout off nonsense.

I did love the part about how the East Coast has "slavery" but the West Coast has "union".

[MachineGhost]

People in Venezeuela seem a little slow on the uptake...

[Maddy]

Finally watched the video.

I hope you all don't think she is representative of liberal views or the Democratic party.

I don't think this video would have gone viral, as it did, if it did not have a fair bit of political resonance.

Frankly, I don't know what the democratic party is any more, or what it means to be "liberal." Earlier in my adult life, my libertarian, civil liberties orientation put me squarely in the "liberal" camp, as it tended to be defined at that time. That clearly isn't the case any more, as the social justice warriors and the socialistic/Marxist agenda have come to occupy the entire field of liberalism and appear to be speaking for the entire left wing. Perhaps that's not with the consent of the majority of democrats, but if it's not, I've got to ask where these "normal" democrats are and why they're remaining so silent.

[MachineGhost]

Frankly, I don't know what the democratic party is any more, or what it means to be "liberal." Earlier in my adult life, my libertarian, civil liberties orientation put me squarely in the "liberal" camp, as it tended to be defined at that time. That clearly isn't the case any more, as the social justice warriors and the socialistic/Marxist agenda have come to occupy the entire field of liberalism and appear to be speaking for the entire left wing. Perhaps that's not with the consent of the majority of democrats, but if it's not, I've got to ask where these "normal" democrats are and why they're remaining so silent.

The multicultural-transgendered leftwing loonies have take over the insane asylum and scream "SAFE SPACE!" or "RACIST!" in the faces of "normal" Democrats if such dare bring up any common sense for conversation? It seems like a rather predictable outcome to me. Give an inmate an inch, they'll grab a mile.

I thnk PS said his family and friends are still "normal" Democrats, so maybe he can provide a better answer.

I'm convinced all of politics is about people belaboring under delusions.

[Maddy]

Seriously, though, the ideology of even "normal" liberals these days seems to be based on a fair bit of idealism. Free food from vegetable trees is admittedly an extreme, but the cultural resonance of the "Garden of Eden" theme is hard to miss. Even on this board, the arguments from the left-leaning folks tend to rely upon a lot of wishful thinking about how things could be in a perfect world.

The idea of a "perfect world" is, of course, highly subjective. Almost invariably the positions of progressives rely, at least implicitly, upon the premise that "If everybody would just think/behave like me, then we could solve this problem." The liberal does not regard this type of thinking as narrow or self-serving, since another foundational (but highly debatable) premise of their ideology is that ultimately we all want the same thing.

At the root of this kind of thinking is the liberal's conviction in the absolute rightness of his own thinking and the belief that the answer to every problem lies in getting others to come around. The variations seem to be in the degree to which they are willing to use force to accomplish that end.