Will the U.S. become Venezuela?

From a Christian Aid Ministries newsletter: ". . . a street artisan weaves a beautiful handbag out of 800 pieces of large denomination banknotes. The money is worthless. Welcome to Venezuela."

 
And I wonder. Will we be next as Biden's totalitarianism makes our money worthless? Hugo Chavez introduced socialism gradually to Venezuela until he'd destroyed a once prosperous country rich in petroleum assets. It didn't take but a few years. Watch out.

Buying Venezuelan oil while Biden kills our own industry won't save Venezuela from its own leaders' bad socialist choices and it certainly won't help Americans. A Potential U.S. Oil Deal with Venezuela Faces Hurdles (investopedia.com)  Biden enriches and enables bad governments elsewhere, while poking American citizens in the eye and lying to them.

Raisi: Iranian Tanker Delivery to Venezuela A Victory over US Sanctions - Politics news - Tasnim News Agency

Oil producers Iran and Venezuela sign 20-year cooperation plan | Euronews

Thoughts on Cuba

Why now, Cuba? First, when Castro took over they were propped up by the USSR. Then when it collapsed they turned to Venezuela which Cuba had infected with Communism. In turn it collapsed and Cuba lost again in the game of dictators. Both countries lost enormously in the exodus of its middle and upper class. When tourism finally came back to Cuba under Obama's circumventing the law, the pandemic soon followed. Supported by relatives in the U.S. for decades with remittances (billions), the Cuban government and its lackeys and apologists in the U.S. media and the Democrat party, the people have said, ENOUGH. Is it too late?

We could learn from Cuba and Venezuela, but will we? We have powerful socialism lovers in Congress and the White House.

https://providencemag.com/video/venezuelas-chavismo-disaster/  

Our media flunkies are bragging about the literacy rate in Cuba. What's to read? More Communist propaganda about how great the Castros were? More lies about the heroic Motherland? And who can trust the data from a Communist country? Other Latin American countries also saw literacy and health care improve in the same decades, and they didn't have to give up their freedoms. Also, if a family tried to provide their children with religious instruction, those children would then not be allowed a higher education and a career. How's that for literacy?

And it's all coming to the USA if you don't pay attention to your local school board, stop the cancel culture workshops in your churches and community organizations, if you don't put the NFL and MLB owners in their place by refusing to play (watch) their games or support their sponsors, if you don't go to the polls in 2022, if you don't insist on honest elections free of "pandemic" special rules for some.

Senator Sanders Is Wrong on Cuban Education and Healthcare | Cato at Liberty Blog

Cuba isn't the only western country with political prisoners. Compare the January 6 prisoners with those arrested for the ongoing assaults on Democrat run cities and federal property. You can't even find a total because our "free press" refuses to investigate. Here's just ONE list for ONE riot in ONE city. Our Columbus still hasn't recovered from the Floyd riots. 

More than two dozen Antifa rioters charged for Portland mayhem (nypost.com)

There will never be a fair investigation as long as Nancy Pelosi is in charge, because she's the one who dropped the ball (deliberately, I believe) when she knew from undercover investigation that people planned to storm the capitol. That said, she's ordered no investigation of who killed Ashli Babbitt, and unless that's included there should be no investigation.

A Venezuelan speaks on freedom

https://youtu.be/j4c6oRxh4S8

Daniel DiMartino grew up amid violence, poverty, and corruption in socialist Venezuela. Luckily, he escaped those horrors and began a new life in the United States with a full tuition scholarship to a university in Indiana. “Waking up in America and waking up in Venezuela are two very different things. While in Venezuela I didn’t have the hope of ever having my own home, having a car, starting a family, in America I’m not only hopeful but I am sure that I will be able to do those things,” said DiMartino while sharing his story in a new Heritage video. DiMartino’s story is a prime example of what makes America truly exceptional.

Socialism by guest blogger, Michael Smith

"Socialism is like a Ponzi scheme, it only works for the ones at the top and only then if they an keep everyone in the game. The major difference is that where Ponzi schemes depend on greed, socialist regimes depend on coercive force.

Socialists always promise Norway (which is a capitalist country with a massive welfare state funded by oil an gas - not socialist at all) but socialism is not scalable - it doesn't have a volume knob that goes from one to ten, Socialism is binary, it only has an on/off switch. When socialists shoot for Norway, they always wind up with Venezuela."

Who believes socialism will be different this time?

I keep reading on WaPo, NYT or BBC or even posts of liberal Facebook friends, that it isn't really socialism destroying Venezuela, but some other hybrid monster. This comment is being passed around on FB as "from a friend," and makes much more sense about what happens when you vote the Socialists in--and doesn't happen overnight.

"A friend writes: "For two decades the people of Venezuela voted for Socialists. They celebrated as their President stripped the successful of their property and their rights. They cheered as their government derided other nations for their commitment to capitalism and property rights and individual liberty.

I don't feel sorry for that majority who created the monster that now runs over them with armored vehicles, that stole their arms and left them defenseless against a nanny-state-turned-cannibal, that left them so penniless and hungry that they're eating their pets.

As Venezuela turns into a river of blood, as all socialist experiments necessarily do, I feel bad only for those who knew better all along. I feel bad for those in Venezuela who know history, who employ reason, who value evidence and logic and know basic economics. They are the victims of the mob, and they are the only victims in Venezuela.

The rest of them are getting exactly what they asked for, whether they knew it or not. Still, it will be less than a week before Democrats in our government demand we import these people here in the hopes they will vote for the same disastrous fiction that now eats their own country, a country that was one of the most-successful countries in the world."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreydorfman/2018/07/08/sorry-bernie-bros-but-nordic-countries-are-not-socialist/#2d99e46f74ad

A perfect storm—Venezuela and a measles outbreak

Some people don't think that socialism in Venezuela is a problem, or they think the problem hasn't been caused by "real" socialism"; and others think no vaccines is not a problem. So when they meet, it's a perfect storm. This abstract is from Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 25, Number 4—April 2019. Keep in mind, that although the U.S. isn't a "neighboring country," we are at risk from unvaccinated people storming our borders.

"Venezuela’s tumbling economy and authoritarian rule have precipitated an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Hyperinflation rates now exceed 45,000%, and Venezuela’s health system is in free fall. The country is experiencing a massive exodus of biomedical scientists and qualified healthcare professionals. Reemergence of arthropod-borne and vaccine-preventable diseases has sparked serious epidemics that also affect neighboring countries. In this article, we discuss the ongoing epidemics of measles and diphtheria in Venezuela and their disproportionate impact on indigenous populations. We also discuss the potential for reemergence of poliomyelitis and conclude that action to halt the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases within Venezuela is a matter of urgency for the country and the region. We further provide specific recommendations for addressing this crisis."

From the article: "In Venezuela, circulation of wild measles was interrupted in February 2007 after a mass vaccination campaign that followed outbreaks in 2001 and 2006 (15). However, since 2017, measles has reemerged in Venezuela, particularly within vulnerable indigenous populations, and has subsequently reached neighboring countries (Figure 1, panel A) (16). As of October 23, 2018, Venezuela had contributed 68% (5,525/8,091 cases) of the measles cases reported in the Americas and most of the measles-related deaths (73/85) (16). Genotyping of the measles virus isolated from patients from Venezuela (imported cases) in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru confirmed that the strains were genotype D8, lineage MVi/Hulu Langat.MYS/26.11 (16). The D8 genotype is associated with endemic transmission in Asia and the Pacific (17) and is the main lineage circulating currently in South America (16)."

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/4/18-1305_article?

Democrats are just being honest about who they are

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has pushed Democrats out of the closet--they are finally honest about who they are. Elizabeth Warren wants to tax wealth instead of income, Kamala Harris wants to raise taxes and make all medical care free for the asking, getting rid of health insurance, and Julian Castro thinks a 70% tax rate (AOC's suggestion) is too low--he's going for 90%. Meanwhile, Venezuela is in chaos--people are starving while the rulers stash away money for what they know is coming, Cuba looks like a 1950s used car lot, North Koreans don't have food or electricity, and 100 million East Europeans, Russians and Chinese are dead. All is forgotten by gen-x and millennial snowflakes due to erosion of the education system that began before their parents were born. It's been 30 years since Americans naively believed when that wall came down between the Germanys, Communism had failed. We have several generations who are reanimating the Socialist Zombies of history.

And what countries had the most liberal abortion laws in history, and are now suffering for it? USSR and China. Democrats are pushing that too.

America’s socialists

I keep reading that 51-57% of Democrats favor socialism--more in the younger range, but enough in the 50+ to cause concern. Strange that they call Trump a Nazi. Our school system has failed them, even people my age and older who should know better, who remember Hitler, Mao and the USSR.

Socialism means the state controls the land and the means of production. The only difference between Hitler and Stalin was the length of their reach--one wanted just Europe and the other the world. Their hearts beat together. American Communists in the 1930s weren't worried about Hitler until he attacked their boy Stalin, then we entered the war.

Socialism is Communism-lite. It is a utopian philosophy that has murdered millions under cover of equality and fairness, because the individual means nothing. Bill de Blasio, Bernie Sanders, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, university administrations and faculties, certain Christian clergy and various members of the workers party of Hollywood and late night TV/ sit-coms are just fellow travelers on the path to a system that has failed in every country that got sucked in. There are millions of dead Chinese and starving Venezuelans to prove it.

Guest blogger Yusnaiberth explains how socialism really works in the 21st century

I was born and used to live in a very rich country, where anything you planted grew, where any small or big business used to succeed, where people used to leave the country ONLY for two reasons: 1. to study (Post-Grades or Masters) or, 2. for tourism, but they used to come back to keep growing and to keep living happy with everything...with their family and friends to be in an eternal party and comfort.

Since the 50’s, that country used to be the destiny of thousands of immigrants, most of them from Europe. That Country, blessed with beautiful lands, forests, rivers, desert, mountains and beaches; where the Angel Falls is!. . . that country where the most beautiful women used to be . . . that country, that was a paradise WAS my Venezuela, UNTIL Socialism=Communism put its hands on her in 1998. 

That was when Hugo Chavez Frías took the power (a military ex-convict for trying to take the power by force in 1989 and 1992, but then got amnesty from the left party in power).  Everything else I tell you about this story you can find in YouTube or Google.  This man convinced people to vote for him to get rid of the two main parties (AD & Copey) and their corruption, based on Socialism, but at the end it came out to be something worse . . . that “XXI ‘s Century Socialism” was just Pure Communism.

That government became a Dictatorship regime, my country went from a wealthy status to just ruins today.  Chavez destroyed the national production, he closed and/or expropriated any business which disagreed with his ideology: all free, high taxes, exchange control, price control,  etc. Electrical, Communication, Transport and Water companies went from private to public.  Money destined for technology, improvement and maintenance of all those services were stolen . . . disappeared!

He made indefinite re-election, made the presidential period longer . . . anybody in the public administration or system who disagreed or wasn’t registered in his party was fired.

Venezuela was destroyed economically and socially in less than 14 years and once Chavez died, he left as his successor, Nicolas Maduro and this one made things worse, radicalizing the “revolution” and receiving orders and instructions direct from Castro’s Brothers.

Venezuela became a partner with Iran, Russia and China and it is confirmed those countries already have cells and colonies residing there, making Venezuela a huge threat for United States.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died fighting against this regime or due to the insecurity, food and medicine being scarce.

I used to work for +14 years in a big American Company (Procter&Gamble), which during +50 years had its Latin American Division settled in Caracas-Venezuela. We used to be +2000 employees between offices and industrial plants.  Now there are no more than 30 employees, I’m not exaggerating.  Company had to move all its operations due to the insecurity and exchange and price control and the has same happened with all the industries.

Ruins...just ruins is what you can see today...

I came here legally, running away from the regime and insecurity, that was 11 years ago (2007), after I fought against the regime, I protested, voted, signed, ran and almost was killed in a march in 2002.

I finally gave up and realized there was nothing to do anymore if I wanted a future . . . alive. In the last two years I’ve lost 4  members of my family due to lack of medicine or medical attention. People are dying for human rights violation during protests in 2014, then in 2017 . . . Do you know what Obama did or said? NOTHING! He looked to other side!

It’s hard to summarize so many things my country has lived, but what I wanted to say you in one phrase is: “I know the monster and I know what’s inside his guts”...and during 8 years of Obama’s Presidency I could detect so many signals of the same socialism Chavez sold to us. A socialism fed with populism, hate, resent and envy.

I used to give him the benefit of doubt, until in 2013 when I personally participated in a movement to ask Obama for sanctions for the Human Rights violators and Narco-Cartel Military Leaders. Obama ignored us for 7 months, he ignored the +400 students killed or disappeared plus hundreds of political prisoners. HE DID OR SAID ANYTHING! Approved the first sanctions because the pressure of the Republicans Marco Rubio and Diaz Balart and because 2016 election was coming.

Donald Trump, well I didn’t like him that much at first, but I knew that anything against Hillary would be much better...but, something happened, he has not only done everything he promised the USA, he approved not once but 6 rounds of sanctions against Venezuela’s regime corrupt and military cartel members AS HE PROMISED.

Other things made me so convinced about Trump and the RED Wave: the daily cry and attacks of the lefties, everyday posts in Facebook promoting hate and spitting resent and an eternal victimization for the past. . .people who didn’t forgive and move on. . .parents like me supporting things like abortion or early years gender change (I wondered what about if is your own kid?). . .the always “poor illegal immigrant” but God forgive you! if you tell them to open their homes to strangers and pay all their expenses even their visas, medical and school expenses! I’m tired of hearing people who take all for granted and believe a government is responsible for each of their failures and wrong decisions.

And the last drop in the glass...Venezuelans who came here running away of socialism voting for Democrats just to obtain personal benefits.

I’ve been pretty active not only here but in Spain (my husband’s country) where socialism is already destroying that country economy and safety stability. The violent immigrants coming from Africa are being supported and protected by the left-socialist government. I see that  if Democrats win, the same is gonna happen with the violent invasion called “caravan”.

I’m sorry! I tried to summarize too many stuff...I could be writing and writing hundreds of reasons why USA is in danger.  My only purpose is to open the eyes of those who have never been out of USA and don’t really know what socialism is.

I became a Citizen Last May 2018 and I couldn’t be more proud to give my first vote in this country to fight against what I ran away of. I will defend this Country, the country which opened its arms to me, my kids’ country, because they were born here and now my Country, My Sweet Home.

I’m sorry if my English grammar isn’t good, I’m doing my best to speak and write better English every day as part of my obligation of INTEGRATION as immigrant.

Thanks!

John Kerry—listen up

John Kerry thinks climate change is the most serious threat to the globe.  He needs to go where it is really hot. Let him be a tree hugger on his own time, not mine.

Chavez blame game

I won't be reading his book, the one Obama accepted as a gift after listening to a despot denigrate his country for 50 minutes. Curiosity seeker-buyers have pushed it to the top of the Amazon list. Man, does this guy know how to market, or what? Too bad his politics aren't democracy and capitalism. I'm sure he's more than happy to take the profits and store them out of his country. The book appears to blame Latin America's failures on white Europeans. So what is Chavez' ethnicity? According to one census account I read (for 2000) Venezuela is 34% mulatto (African European mix), 10% black, 21% white, 34% mestizo (European Indian mix) and 2% Indian. Now, in the United States that would mean 44% black, 21% white, and 36% Indian. Also, the Venezuelans have long played loosey goosey with their own racial designations--according to the report I read (sorry I didn't note the link--I usually do). Looking at Chavez, who in photos appears to be darker than Obama, I'm guessing he's part mestizo and part mulatto, which would make him a big part European, right? So we've got one big boss, the son of a white teenager who had an affair with an older married African, hobnobbing with another big boss ridiculing his own ancestry. Where are their manners? It's not nice to dis your mama. Or your country.

Latin America's Leftist regimes

How left is left?

"First, the multiplicity of projects reveals the loss of a common political referent. The failure of the socialist experience in the Soviet Union and Central Europe, and perhaps more significantly the deficits in economic development and human rights of the Cuban model, made marked impressions on many leftist movements and organizations. Today, only Venezuela, and perhaps Bolivia, Nicaragua, and to a lesser extent Ecuador, seek to emulate the Cuban experiment.

Second, the ‘various lefts’ of Latin America reveal that the region continues in the search for alternatives to deal with the historical legacy of economic dependence and profound inequality. Although broadly speaking there are two distinct strands of the Latin American left—one that it is committed to democracy and free economies and the other that is trying to emulate the experiences of the socialism of the 20th century—the consensus emerging in the majority of countries about how to achieve the goal of development and progress seems to prioritize a commitment to democracy, the understanding of the importance of the market, with its limits, as the driving force of economic growth, and the obligation to a social agenda aiming to address the burden of poverty and inequality in these nations. . . The people of Latin American are choosing leftist governments of several sorts, but they are choosing them through use of democratic procedures." Damarys Canache, University of Illinois

Choosing leftist government . . . well, at least we're in step with our neighbors. Just keep in mind that the "failed socialist experience" (the politically correct term for the 70 years of the former USSR) he refers to killed more people through democide (murder of your own citizens, not through war) than the Nazis in WWII with all out war, invasion and murder of the Jews.

"In a couple of weeks the socialization of the United States will begin. Government ownership of bedrock banks will start. Widespread downturn of the economy will be guaranteed. Some say it was planned by the left. Some will say that it was just a fateful turn of events that led to the republics demise. All hail the new Leader of the United Socialist States of America. No longer will you be pressured to stand at American demagoguery such as Pledge of Allegiance, America the Beautiful, or Old Glory. The country was taken not by a communist country, but by a hidden socialist orator from within, promoted by a historically left leaning media, and by the new Brownshirt brigades formerly known as Acorn. Hail the One, the deliverer from racism, from selfishness, from capitalism." Comment at Houston Chronicle on Chavez' relationship with Obama

Update: I wrote this before I saw the book review in today's WSJ, "The threat closer to home" by Douglas E. Shoen and Michael Rowan, about the demogogue who is depicted as savior to the poor.