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  1. #676
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    There has not been a free and fair election in Venezuela since the one the swept him to power on the expected wave of support fueled by Chavez' death.

    I though Chavez was bad for the country in what he did to its oil industry, but Maduro is the worst kind of parasite.
    ('arry surely knows that I will not disappoint him...):

    The Venezuelans are not yet so developed to organize such a fair and transparent election like in (please no names here). And they count their votes just over the weekend - by hands - they do not have such sophisticated voting machines like in (please no names here) to make the election super fair...

    So why not to liberate them and enable them fair election - and a happy free life either - like in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. (not to speak about some other countries that - after all - had not agree with the liberation and go further their own way...)

    (BTW, actually the Venezuelans do have their 2nd president recognized by many countries (also by Kingdom of Tonga). Why he does not pursue his noble case in Supreme Court like in (please no names here)...

  2. #677
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    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    ('arry surely knows that I will not disappoint him...):
    Everyone's expectations of you are so low that you simply can't disappoint

  3. #678
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    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    ('arry surely knows that I will not disappoint him...):

    The Venezuelans are not yet so developed to organize such a fair and transparent election like in (please no names here). And they count their votes just over the weekend - by hands - they do not have such sophisticated voting machines like in (please no names here) to make the election super fair...

    So why not to liberate them and enable them fair election - and a happy free life either - like in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. (not to speak about some other countries that - after all - had not agree with the liberation and go further their own way...)

    (BTW, actually the Venezuelans do have their 2nd president recognized by many countries (also by Kingdom of Tonga). Why he does not pursue his noble case in Supreme Court like in (please no names here)...
    I would explain it to you but it would be easier to explain thermo dynamics or string theory to an amoeba. No offence intended, (please no names here).

  4. #679
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    Had to larf at this-

    U.S. Embassy caught scrubbing Tweets urging Venezuelans not to vote

    MR Online | U.S. Embassy caught scrubbing Tweets urging Venezuelans not to vote


    Why do Republicans hate voting so much?

  5. #680
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Had to larf at this-

    U.S. Embassy caught scrubbing Tweets urging Venezuelans not to vote


    MR Online | U.S. Embassy caught scrubbing Tweets urging Venezuelans not to vote


    Why do Republicans hate voting so much?
    I don't know why they bothered, as most Venezuelans have long given up thinking their vote will actually change things.

  6. #681
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    Now in control of all three branches of the Legislature, the Chavista's are more in control of Venezuela than ever before under Maduro. US efforts to overthrow the people's vote by any means possible have, yet again, backfired. But you hardly read about this in MSM, so here's a nice Alt-net article to remind us.


    Hush, Hush (Venezuela is Winning!)




    By now it is obvious that the mainstream media does not cover any good news whatsoever about Venezuela. Even non-political issues are always accompanied by a poisoned cliché sentence or two about “dictator”, “authoritarian regime”, “collapsed economy” “humanitarian crisis”, etc. etc.

    So, the game-changing news that there are peace talks being held in México City between the Venezuelan government and opposition parties is ignored. México is acting as host and facilitator with the kingdoms of Norway and Netherlands, and the Russian Federation as mediators. This seminal event has been scarcely reported by the North American media or commented on by politicians. Not a peep. Perhaps it is because neither the USA nor Canada have been permitted to be part of these negotiations, although certainly the USA has tried, and failed, to worm itself in.

    There are two reasons why these negotiations are a landmark for the region.

    Firstly, because of the exclusion of the USA and its sidekick, Canada. Only Venezuelans are sitting around the table making decisions, trying to resolve their own political problems. A Latin American serious peace talk without the oppressive presence of the North, has rarely happened, if ever.

    Secondly, it is a landmark in that it is an evident accomplishment of the Venezuelan Bolivarian government that has prevailed under the most savage USA/Canada/EU illegal economic war and has prevailed over serial attempts to violently overthrow it. President Nicolás Maduro, unfairly demonized worldwide, had called for dialogue with the opposition more than 100 times these last few years. He can certainly consider these talks a huge vindication of his strategy and search for peace and security for his nation.

    The head of the government delegation is led by the president of the National Assembly, Dr. Jorge Rodríguez and the various opposition parties are being led by the lawyer Gerardo Blyde. The opposition is now calling itself Plataforma Unitaria(United Platform) and consists of the opposition parties: Un Nuevo Tiempo, Primero Justicia, La Causa R., AD, COPEI. These parties are constantly at each other’s throats, especially since the group includes the most extremists among them.

    On 13 August 2021 the parts signed a Memorandum of Understanding setting the rules and objectives of the dialogue. This was a first huge step because they unanimously agreed to:
    + Reject any act of political violence against Venezuela, its State, or institutions. This is no small achievement because sitting at the table are those who for years supported and promoted coup d’etats, and acts of terror and violence against the Venezuelan institutions and people.
    + Accept dialogue and negotiation for the peace and security of the nation.
    The significance of this MOU is that
    + The extremist opposition parties at long last recognize the Venezuelan State, political institutions, and the legitimacy of President Nicolás Maduro. Previously, they had refused any dialogue alleging that Nicolás Maduro was not a legitimate president and demanding his resignation or new elections (which would have been against the Constitution) before they would even sit down to talk.
    + It spells the end of the US attempt to create a bogus alternative government with the fantasy that Juan Guaidó was any sort of president.
    + It indicates the end of the vicious Canadian absurdity of the Lima Group created solely to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Shockingly, at present, during an election campaign, not one Canadian media or party leader has reported the utter failure of this Liberal Party strategy of aggression towards Venezuela.

    Next very day, on 14th August, the negotiation reached two concrete and vital, unanimous decisions:
    + To work to have the illegal sanctions against Venezuela eliminated so that it can obtain the resources needed to serve the needs of the population especially those related to the pandemic.
    + A firm ratification and defense of the sovereignty of Venezuela over the eastern territory known as the Esequibo, bordering on Guyana. (Exxon-Mobil has their eye on this ages-old land dispute and has been fanning the flames of discord between Guyana and Venezuela).

    The first decision absolutely changes the political scene in the country, considering that those signing are the parties who went cap-in-hand to the US, Canada and EU asking for the sanctions. Now they are going to have to try their hand at eliminating them.

    It will not be so easy to put the genie back in the bottle. However, there was an excellent consequence of this accord: on the 14th of September, the IMF handed over to Venezuela $5.1 billion, thus increasing by 83% its foreign reserves. These funds are for the costs related to the pandemic. This is no loan.

    On the 17th of March 2020, at the moment of world-wide anguish and uncertainty due to the start of the pandemic, Venezuela asked the IMF for $5 billion to obtain medicines and medical equipment. It was flatly, inhumanely, and unjustly denied. Venezuela has every right to these funds because the IMF has an emergency account of $650 million for regional emergencies, and these funds are provided by the member nations, of which Venezuela is part. Venezuela was not asking for a loan, but a right, particularly facing a situation that was full of risk for the health of Venezuelans.

    There is always the possibility, of course, that the opposition may kick the table and walk away, which they have done twice in the past. But, there are important circumstance today that make it unlikely.
    + Demented Trump is no longer in the White House, the principal backer and financial supporter of the Venezuelan extremist opposition.
    + There are now strong Democratic voices in the US Congress advocating the end of the Venezuelan sanctions and Joe Biden cannot simply ignore the more progressive wing of his own party.
    + The extremist opposition has realized that without the support of a Trump, it cannot overthrow the Venezuelan government, and the only way it could ever gain any power has to be through elections. However, more than 83% of the population approve of the negotiations and poll after poll, show that the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans are against violence and coup d’etat. Therefore, there is no hope for votes for the opposition unless they renounce violence and stop the sanctions they promoted.
    + The USA has just suffered a defeat and stunning humiliation with the war in Afghanistan. At this time, there cannot be much desire for military adventures in Washington, let alone against a Latin American country. There are sufficient voices in the political world realizing that the illegal sanctions have failed – they were geared to overthrow the Bolivarian Government and could not.

    It has been astounding to witness the strength of the Bolivarian Revolution and the firm support of the people who rallied against the attacks of the foreign- led opposition and their masters. Even the USA Chamber of Commerce now admits this failure and bemoans that US corporations have lost billions of dollars because of the sanctions. They lament that China and Russia, who very much respect the Venezuelan government, are now benefitting from a closer relationship and trade with Venezuela. Have they realized you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar?

    As for dollars, Guaidó and his gang of thieves have cheated Venezuela out of its oil company and its foreign assets. The sanctions they sought and obtained resulted in 40 banks in 17 countries looting $6 billion from Venezuela. All in all, the country has been deprived, due to the sanctions and looting, of $350 billion. This is enough funds to provide the entire population with food and medicines for 26 years. It is 25 times the amount used to rebuild Europe after WWII.

    Guaidó and company have also cheated the USA. In 2017-19 alone, USAID handed over though various NGOs an amount of $472 million for “Venezuelan humanitarian crisis” and for “democracy promotion”. To date, they do not have any clear idea at all where the money is or on what it has been spent. Also, there is no knowledge of what happened to the $2.5 million raised for the media stunt of the supposed “humanitarian invasion” of Venezuela on the Colombian frontier in February of 2020. If the Venezuelan justice system does not nab Guaidó and his gang, surely the USA’s will since, when it comes to money, they do not forgive one cent.

    There is a general malaise in the country fearing that these thieves and terrorist will go scot free and not pay for the 100,000 people who have died due to the illegal economic war and blockade that has deprived the population of food and medicines, for the hundreds injured and killed during their street violence, for the various attempted coup d’etat, for the sabotages, attempted paramilitary invasions, for the attempted assassination of the President, for the many assassinations of Bolivarian leaders, in summary, for the treason they so surely have committed.

    However, President Maduro has assured the nation that the negotiations in México have nothing to do with the independent judicial processes which continue their proper development, and that there will be no impunity, but due process. Apart from the desire for justice, the desire that these criminals pay for their crimes, the truth is that if Guaidó, Vecchio, Borges, Rondón, Guevara, López and their ilk escape from paying for their multiple crimes against the people, it would leave the Venezuelan judicial system like a tiger without any teeth. In any democracy in the world they would be in jail. Who will respect a justice system that turns a blind eye to crimes of this magnitude? I do not believe this will happen. It would be a major scandal that would leave in tatters the rule of law, the government, and Bolivarian Revolution.

    So let us celebrate these negotiations. They are a triumph of México, Norway, Netherland, and Russia; a triumph of the Venezuelan government and also for the opposition that we hope are putting aside their mad violence. They are all ushering in a new political scenario in which there is real hope for peace and security for the Venezuelan people.

    The media and politicians in USA and Canada can try to ignore these events, but the pace of history cannot be detained, and history is being made whether they like it or not.

    María Páez Victor, Ph.D. is a Venezuelan born sociologist living in Canada.

    Hush, Hush (Venezuela is Winning!) - CounterPunch.org


    The USA has succeeded in.... locking itself out of the process. Expect more petulance and general dummy spitting.

  7. #682
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Now in control of all three branches of the Legislature, the Chavista's are more in control of Venezuela than ever before under Maduro.
    And that is Venezuela in a nutshell.

    Another corrupt dictatorship.

    The rest of the article is thus a complete waste of time.

  8. #683
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    Make voting machines, not guns 'arry.

  9. #684
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Make voting machines, not guns
    Equal dangerous in wrong hands.

    And both to be avoided.

    Yes; I know. Both AUS and US uses voting mashines.

    Good luck

  10. #685
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Make voting machines, not guns 'arry.
    And that's the sort of witless reply one expects from people who are cheerleaders for dictatorships.

  11. #686
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    people who are cheerleaders for dictatorships.
    He doesn't take money from them, like you do

  12. #687
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by helge View Post
    He doesn't take money from them, like you do

    You don't really understand commerce, do you?


  13. #688
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
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    Hello Harry

  14. #689
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    You don't really understand commerce, do you?
    If it's your body you are peddling around, I'll forgive you.

    Can't see the murderous regimes getting much satisfaction from that.

    Mutual ?

  15. #690
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Yeah, didn't think so.

  16. #691
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    Five Reasons the Left Won in Venezuela

    While much is made about the alleged lack of support for President Maduro (the millions of votes his party got will never be acknowledged by the U.S.), it’s less known that the opposition is deeply unpopular.


    For the first time in four years, every major opposition party in Venezuela participated in elections. For the fifth time in four years, the left won in a landslide. Voters elected 23 governors, 335 mayors, 253 state legislators, and 2,471 municipal councilors. The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won at least 19 of 23 governorships (one race remains too close to call) and the Caracas mayoralty in the November 21 “mega-elections.” Of the 335 mayoral races, the vote count has been completed in 322 of them, with PSUV and its coalition taking 205, opposition coalitions 96, and other parties 21. Over 70,000 candidates ran for these 3,082 offices, and 90% of the vote was counted and verified within hours of polls closing. Turnout was 42.2%, eleven points higher than last year’s parliamentary elections.

    Here’s why chavismo, the movement behind Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, won:

    1. Good governance in health, housing and food. Venezuela’s health policies in response to Covid-19 have been exemplary. The expectation in the U.S. was that the coronavirus would overwhelm Venezuela’s healthcare system, which has been devastated by years of sanctions. And yet, per million population, Venezuela registered 15,000 cases and 180 deaths. For the sake of comparison, the figures in the U.S. are 146,000 cases/million and 2,378 deaths/million, Brazil’s are 103,000 and 2854, and Colombia’s are 98,000 and 2,481. Unlike images we saw in Ecuador or Bolivia, there were no bodies of victims left on the streets, nor were there overflowing morgues like in New York.

    In terms of housing, the Venezuelan government has built 3.7 million homes for working-class families over the past ten years, the majority of which were built and delivered by the Maduro administration while under sanctions.

    As deadly as the sanctions have been, things would be significantly worse were it not for Venezuela’s most important social program in the past five years: the CLAPs. These consist of boxes of food and other necessities, some of which are produced locally, which are packaged and distributed by communities themselves. Seven million Venezuelan families receive CLAP boxes every month, out of a country of 30 million people. Not only has this program been instrumental in keeping people fed, but it has also invigorated the base of chavismo and reconnected the government with grassroots after the PSUV’s defeat in the 2015 legislative elections.

    2. The economic situation is improving. According to an August 2021 survey by opposition pollster Datanálisis, 50% of Venezuelans consider that their lives have improved compared to the previous year or two. Despite sanctions that have caused a 99% drop in government income, the Venezuelan economy is stabilizing. Inflation is down to single digits for the first time in four years. Credit Suisse projected 5.5% growth in 2021 and 4.5% growth in 2022. Oil production hit an 18-month high in October, helped by a trade deal with Iran.


    3. The left is united (mostly). The PSUV didn’t win the elections alone, they were united with 8 other left parties in a coalition known as the GPP (Great Patriotic Pole). The PSUV itself held internal primaries in August, the only party to do so. Over half the GPP candidates were women, 52%, while another 43% were youth. Overall, 90% of the candidates hadn’t held office before, suggesting a renewal of the party from the grassroots. However, this marked the second election in a row in which the left wasn’t completely united. A coalition that included Venezuela’s Communist Party ran its own ticket. These parties got less than 3% of the vote in the 2020 parliamentary elections and their decision to run separately appears to have had no impact on the gubernatorial races.

    4. The opposition is divided. Never known for their unity, the Venezuelan opposition suffered a major split as a result of some parties opting for boycotting elections and attempting to overthrow the government, while others preferred a democratic path. Despite all the major parties participating in these elections, the opposition was split into two main coalitions, the MUD (Democratic Unity Roundtable) and the Democratic Alliance. The vast majority of the 70,000 candidates are in the opposition and they were running candidates against each other in almost every race. Of the 23 gubernatorial races, six were won by PSUV candidates with less than 50% of the vote and by less than six points – more unity between the MUD and Democratic Alliance could have made the difference.
    A count of the votes in the gubernatorial and Caracas mayoral races shows the PSUV coalition taking 46% of the total vote, with the rest split between the various oppositions. A united opposition could win in Venezuela, but “united opposition” is an oxymoron.

    5. The opposition is deeply unpopular. While much is made about the alleged lack of support for President Maduro (the millions of votes his party got will never be acknowledged by the U.S.), it’s less known that the opposition is deeply unpopular. Here are the disapproval ratings for some of the opposition’s key figures: Juan Guaidó, 83% disapproval; Julio Borges (Guaidó’s “Foreign Minister), 81%; Leopoldo López (Guaidó’s mentor and mastermind of coup attempts), 80%; Henry Ramos Allup (longtime opposition leader), 79%; Henrique Capriles (2012 & 2013 presidential election loser), 77%; and Henri Falcón (2018 presidential election loser), 66%. All of these but Falcón are part of the MUD.

    The MUD coalition spent years claiming they represented a majority, a claim which couldn’t be verified by their strategy of electoral boycotts. However, their return to the electoral process only marked a ten-point increase in voter turnout compared to 2020.

    Moreover, the MUD placed below other opposition parties in 9 of 23 states and in Caracas. The MUD only won one of the three governorships taken by the opposition. This might be due in part to the widespread rejection of U.S. sanctions. The MUD has repeatedly endorsed deadly sanctions despite the fact that 76% of Venezuelans reject them.

    The MUD enjoys the political, financial and logistical support of the United States and the EU, while members of other opposition parties have been denounced and sanctioned by the U.S. for negotiating with the Maduro administration. These elections should put the Biden administration on notice that continuing to support the MUD, and in particular, the fiction of Guaidó as “interim president”, is a failed policy.
    https://www.mintpressnews.com/five-reasons-left-won-venezuela/279043/


    Three cheers for President Guaido! All Hail the Chief!
    Last edited by sabang; 27-11-2021 at 05:50 AM.

  17. #692
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Five Reasons the Left Won in Venezuela
    1. They rigged the election again.
    2. They rigged the election again.
    3. They rigged the election again.
    4. They rigged the election again.
    5. They rigged the election again.


    while a government victory was widely anticipated in most states, many Venezuelans commented on a tweet by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who congratulated his ally, Mr Maduro, on the "convincing victory" even before Venezuela's electoral authorities had announced the first results.

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