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They have a socialist paradise in Venezuela! People there receive "according to their needs". But you'd better not need much in Venezuela Lest you find your self buried under weeds. Oooooooooohhhhh! They're cooking cats on every corner in Caracas. In Maracaibo they make a meal of mud. Palmasolans put pepper on their pooches. Hugo Chavez sure turned out to be a dud! The professors in their classes in the US Tell their students that socialism is great. But I don't think they'd be asking for seconds If Spot and Mittens were cooked and on their plate! Oooooooooohhhhh! They're cooking cats...

Mike Allen reported over the weekend that "Gregory B. Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer who quarterbacked President Bill Clinton's impeachment defense, has been chosen White House counsel by resident-elect Barack Obama". Believe it or not, the time Craig spent shilling for Clinton may have been his most honorable days of work ... In the early 1980s, [Craig] was an attorney for John Hinckley, the man who shot President Reagan and three others. Craig helped put together an insanity defense that led to Hinckley's acquittal. Nine years later, he advised Ted Kennedy in the Palm Beach rape case involving the senator...

It was around noon when a food truck rolled up to a Venezuelan state-subsidized supermarket in the town of Guarenas just east of the capital. But, to the fury of the long line of people waiting out front, the cargo wasn't unloaded. Instead soldiers took it away. "We want food!" the crowd roared in protest, to no avail. Some tried to run after the truck. Under the state of emergency imposed by President Nicolas Maduro, the military, along with government-organized civilian committees, ensures that food packets are delivered door-to-door in order to -- as officials say -- cut out black...

Smartmatic: All Things Connected By Aleksander Boyd Smartmatic revisited 08.03.2011 London 14.08.05 | The Florida register of companies contains details of the board of directors of Smartmatic Corporation, which is formed by Antonio Mugica, Alfredo Anzola, Antonio Mugica Rivero, Roger Piñate, Antonio Mugica Sesma and Luis Feliu [1]. Its principal place of business is 1001 Broken Sound Parkway, NW, STE D, Boca Raton, FL 33487. The company's history in Venezuela dates back to seven years ago when the venture was "the Research and Development Unit of Panagroup in Venezuela" (sic) and in "2000 we realized the true impact of our...

MIAMI -- For the second time, Venezuela has failed to pay mining company Gold Reserve the $750 million it has been awarded for Venezuela's expropriation of its gold mining operation in 2007.

Venezuelan opposition leaders are rejecting a 60-day state of emergency declared by President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro declared the state of emergency over the weekend, giving himself decree powers to intervene in the economy and protect national sovereignty. He said the expanded powers were needed to guard against U.S. meddling in the socialist country. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles called the move unconstitutional Tuesday because Maduro acted unilaterally. Capriles said Venezuelans should reject the decree. …

Venezuela's army is to be backed by civilians grouped into ancillary security units, to tackle food shortages and public unrest, under a state of emergency decree published on Monday. The decree, published in the government gazette, brings into effect for at least 60 days sweeping powers President Nicolas Maduro announced on Friday. The measures give his government and security forces broad authorization to ignore most constitutional safeguards in a bid to keep order and supply basic food and services, and to counter a crippling energy shortage....

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles has urged the army to choose whether it is 'with the constitution or with (President Nicolas) Maduro", after a state of emergency was declared. President Maduro has announced a 60-day emergency, giving soldiers and police wider powers to deal with the country's sprialling economic crisis. Mr. Capriles said the decree gave the president unconstitutional powers. He called on Veneuelans to ignore it and take to the streets on Wednesday. "We Venezuelans, will not accept this decree. This is Maduro putting himself above the constitution," Mr. Capriles told journalists. "To impose this, he'd better start preparing...

Venezuela's opposition has urged the public to defy a state of emergency that President Nicolas Maduro decreed over a nation sapped by food shortages and a collapsing economy. Key points: Opposition-controlled parliament rejects the President's state of emergency decree The opposition leader asks army: are you "with the constitution or with Maduro" Polls show 70 per cent of the population wants a new government The opposition-controlled National Assembly rejected the decree in a vote, saying it "deepens the severe disruption of constitutional and democratic order that Venezuela is suffering through".

Venezuela's army is to be backed by civilians grouped into ancillary security units, to tackle food shortages and public unrest, under a state of emergency decree published on Monday. The decree, published in the government gazette, brings into effect for at least 60 days sweeping powers President Nicolas Maduro announced on Friday. The measures give his government and security forces broad authorization to ignore most constitutional safeguards in a bid to keep order and supply basic food and services, and to counter a crippling energy shortage. But the opposition, which controls the National Assembly and is seeking Maduro's ouster through...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Venezuelan military tells customers not to take pictures of empty shelves in supermarkets The Venezuelan military has troops stationed in supermarkets, and they are telling customers not to take pictures of empty shelves. But that hasn’t stopped people from doing it. During the first week of 2015, the Twitter hashtag #AnaquelesVaciosEnVenezuela (“Empty shelves in Venezuela”) listed more than 200,000 tweets.For example: (posted here under fair use from https://twitter.com/Indiferencia/status/551547489565016064/photo/1 ) Nicolas Maduro, the country’s president, has continued the policies of Hugo Chavez, the country’s previous president who died in March 2013.Chavez was an incompetent, communist dictator, who...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isO52VeBUaQ

It was once billed as a model of socialist fraternity: South America's first high-speed train, powered by Chinese technology, crisscrossing Venezuela to bring development to its backwater plains. Now all but abandoned, it has become a symbol of economic collapse — and a strategic relationship gone adrift. Where dozens of modern buildings once stood, cattle now graze on grass growing amid the rubble of the project's gutted and vandalized factory. A red arched sign in Chinese and Spanish is all that remains of what until 16 months ago was a bustling complex of 800 workers. That's when the project's Chinese...

...praised the Vermont lawmaker and even empathized with his humble beginnings. “He is an emerging candidate with a renovating and revolutionary message,” Maduro told a crowd congregated in Caracas to commemorate the “Anti-Imperialism Day” — a holiday created last year to mark March 9 as the day President Obama declared Venezuela a national security threat. ... Meanwhile, during the Wednesday night debate Sanders was asked to comment on positive remarks he made in the past about Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, two close allies of Venezuela’s Chavismo. One of the hosts played a 1985 video in which Sanders...

Venezuela's opposition on Saturday slammed a state of emergency decreed by President Nicolas Maduro and vowed to press home efforts to remove the leftist leader this year amid a grim economic crisis. Maduro on Friday night declared a 60-day state of emergency due to what he called plots from Venezuela and the United States to subvert him. He did not provide specifics. The measure shows Maduro is panicking as a push for a recall referendum against him gains traction with tired, frustrated Venezuelans, opposition leaders said during a protest in Caracas. "We're talking about a desperate president who is putting...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday ordered authorities to seize factories that have stopped production and jail their owners, a day after declaring a state of emergency to combat the country's economic crisis. "We must take all measures to recover productive capacity, which is being paralyzed by the bourgeoisie," he told a rally in Caracas. "Anyone who wants to halt (production) to sabotage the country should get out, and those who do must be handcuffed and sent to the PGV (Venezuelan General Penitentiary)," he said.

At the moment, the armed forces’ position vis-à-vis the government is not clear. Some speculate that the Bolivarian National Guard is divided. Others claim that the regime exerts full control over the Bolivarian National Guard’s members. The only certainty is that uncertainty abounds. The PanAm Post had the opportunity to interview a Bolivarian National Guard member of middle rank, who asked to remain anonymous since his views could expose him to danger. Why has the state launched an offensive against criminal groups? The situation was getting out of hand for political reasons. The state has no means to control criminal...

CARACAS, Venezuela—The largest private Venezuelan company and producer of 80% of the beer consumed here began to shut down its last beer plant on Friday, the latest deprivation in a country crippled by shortages. After Empresas Polar SA closed its three other beer plants over the past several days, the shutting of the San Joaquin plant, near Valencia, will leave just a week’s supply of beer, the company said. Like many other firms here, Polar blames the government, which hasn’t allocated the dollars the company needs to pay for imported raw materials such as malted barley. President Nicolás Maduro’s government...

Food Producers Alert They Have Only 15 Days Left of Inventory amid Rampant Inflation. Despair and violence is taking over Venezuela. The economic crisis sweeping the nation means people have to withstand widespread shortages of staple products, medicine, and food. So when the Maduro administration began rationing electricity this week, leaving entire cities in the dark for up to 4 hours every day, discontent gave way to social unrest. On April 26, people took to the streets in three Venezuelan states, looting stores to find food. Maracaibo, in the western state of Zulia, is the epicenter of thefts: on Tuesday...

Back in February, when we commented on the unprecedented hyperinflation about the be unleashed in the Latin American country whose president just announced that he would expand the "weekend" for public workers to 5 days...... we joked that it is unclear just where the country will find all the paper banknotes it needs for all its new physical currency. After all, central-bank data shows Venezuela more than doubled the supply of 100-, 50- and 2-bolivar notes in 2015 as it doubled monetary liquidity including bank deposits. Supply has grown even as Venezuela has fewer U.S. dollars to support new...