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Venezuela's Maduro Mocks Obama, Grants Himself "Special Powers" To Defend Against "Imperialist Aggression"
Maybe it is because the soap-opera factor of the puppet proxy civil war in east Ukraine is dying down, it is time for another major geopolitical diversion, and it appears that the administration's attention this time has fallen on Venezuela.
Perhaps he was tired of being accused for being too soft and engaging in a detente with not only Iran but Cuba, and so he decided to turn his attention on the one country he knew had absolutely no way of retaliating especially now that Venezuela's only asset, has become a liability and all production at current prices is a loss maker for Caracas.
Whatever the reason, as Reuters reported yesterday, the United States on Monday yesterday declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against seven officials from the oil-rich country in the worst bilateral
diplomatic dispute since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013.
U.S. President Barack Obama issued and signed the executive order, which senior administration officials said did not target Venezuela's energy sector or broader economy. But the move stokes tensions between Washington and Caracas just as U.S. relations with Cuba, a longtime U.S. foe in Latin America and key ally to Venezuela, are set to be normalized. Declaring any country a threat to national security is the first step in starting a U.S. sanctions program. The same process has been followed with countries such as Iran and Syria, U.S. officials said.
The presented reason for the latest escalation was that, according to the White House, there are people whose actions undermined democratic processes or institutions, and who had committed acts of violence or abuse of human rights, and were involved in prohibiting or penalizing freedom of expression, or were government officials involved in public corruption. So just your run on the mill generic excuse to exercise waning superpower status.
"Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of U.S. financial systems," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.
"We are deeply concerned by the Venezuelan government's efforts to escalate intimidation of its political opponents. Venezuela's problems cannot be solved by criminalizing dissent," he added.
And to think that in reality Maduro is perhaps the closest ideological peer to the US president.
As for the Venezuela president, he wasn't going to take this assault on his persona by the "imperialist" US president lying down. According to RT, he promptlyt accused the US of trying to “defeat” and “intervene in” his government.
Maduro called the sanctioned officials heroes. "President Barack Obama, representing the US imperialist elite, has personally decided to take on the task of defeating my government and intervening in Venezuela to control it,” Maduro said in a national TV address. “That’s why they have taken today’s measure.”
Maduro called the move a “colossal mistake” and “imperialist arrogance” similar to that of former US leaders such as Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.
Not surprisingly, Maduro promptly tried to turn Obama's action into his advantage by rounding the population "around the pole" of imperialist overreach, and casting himself as the tragic protagonist:
“I congratulate them,” he said, adding “it’s an honor” to be included on the US sanctions list. Maduro even named one of the sanctioned officials – national intelligence head Gustavo Gonzalez, the new interior minister.
And the biggest punchline: the Venezuela ruler will use the Obama executive order precisely as the catalyst to grant himself even more powers, because as Bloomberg reports, today Maduro will request the passage of an ‘anti-imperialist’ enabling law.
"I have put together a special law that gives me special powers to preserve the peace, the integrity and the sovereignty of the country before any situation that presents itself due to this imperialist aggression,” Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro says on state television.
Vice President Jorge Arreaza to deliver request tomorrow to National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello for a “special and extraordinary enabling law to defend the peace, the sovereignty, the tranquility and the integrity of our homeland,” Maduro says
“I will request an anti-imperialist enabling law to prepare us for all the scenarios,” Maduro said, adding that “I am obligated as head of government to apply the constitution in its entirety.”
Just like that with the stroke of a pen, Obama succeeds in cementing the public opinion against the US of yet another nation. And perhaps just to show where Latin America's socialist allegiance really lies, despite Obama's "shift in policies" moments ago we saw this: CUBA SAYS `UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT' FOR VENEZUELA AGAINST US: AFP.
Well, as long as Putin is the one who is isolated...
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Great -- a dumber tanner Stalin.
Maduro Mocks Obama, Grants Himself "Special Powers"
It's the battle of the pens.
It will come down to who has the most ink.
Commie vs commie.....grab some popcorn.
Venezuela may not the best example of governance, but sanctions will surely make things much worse for the people over there.
When will the "morally superior" reptilian creatures in DC realize that sanctions end up hurting the average and innocent people the most, while the billionaires they are supposed to target tend to escape unharmed? There is no learning curve for some people.
You think these psycopaths actually care about "average and innocent people"?
Fuck me they just have to be in everyone's shit.
Fuck me they just have to be in everyone's shit.
Like Bloomberg?
The only difference between Maduro and Bloomberg is the tan and the fact that Maduro USED TO DO something productive with his life (drive a bus). But put them in the same dictatorial position and you quickly get.... the same behavior.
You mean they may cut another country off from SWIFT??? Oh the humanity!
Maybe Maduro is upset because he was discovered with $14.8B in assets in HSBC.
That's interesting, have a link?
it seems like the usa should sanction itself...hell they meet and exceed the quilafiers, being exceptional and such.....kind a adds a new twist to go fuck urself...
Maduro is a small time third world hustler compared to our dear leader!
Blanket amenesty, ammo bans, more drone strikes than GWB, the list goes on...
All in the name of fairness and progress.
Obama's Legacy will be a continuation of GWB's incursions into our civil liberties...
DaddyO
.
Forgive me if I've missed something, but aren't those the intended results?
Bingo, Shemp!
no. only part of them. you see, your whole way of putting the matter implies an elite that cares for "the average and innocent people", either positively, i.e. love, or negatively, i.e. hate
in this, you find great differences among the countries of this world. in some, the elites share space and life with the average. mingling. in others, the elites are completely detached
in any country where the elites start to segregate themselves from the average... an emotional detachment follows up
interestingly, this is the very moment where the average starts to think that the elite hates. because it's still less hurtful then realizing of not being even considered
Interesting take...
+1
Kinda hurts yer Socialist feelings, don't it?
You'll prolly never read this, Shemp- but do the fucking idiots-in-charge not realize that once they've strangled all us "little people" that they remain targets of their own scam?
When one man remains, and owns all the earth's resources, what is it worth to him?
Zero?
On a long enough timeline...
U.S. Corporate-Fascists don't even give a damn about U.S. citizens, much less people in Venezuela.
I DEMAND A DANCE OFF BETWIXT THE DICKTASTERS!!!
Obama will send a crack team of Seals down there to TP the Presidential mansion, then fly down for selfies...
They are more fucked than Russia. Might is RIGHT
Everyone is pretty fucked right now. Switzerland and Norway are looking more and more appealing all the time.
Iceland or Bhutan
Andorra or Kiribati
another planet.
Venezuela doesn't have China as an ally and 11,000 nuclear warheads like Russia does!
Haus-T
Your slur ("a dumber tanner Stalin")
against the US President has surely been monitored
by Homeland Security, the NSA, and the local "fusion center".
Uh, who doesn't mock Obama? What a pock.
See what I mean? lol
Kinda looks like Gort, only with two eyes! :>D
If you can grant yourself "Special Powers" .... you already have "Special Powers" ?
You have nailed Obama accurately, and with only 5 words!
tear down that statue!
Pretty interesting write up on the Chavez / Maduro calamity here:
The Left’s Mess in Venezueahttp://www.nationalreview.com/article/415126/lefts-mess-venezuela-kevin-d-williamson
Venezuela had a good run of it for about five minutes there, at least in public-relations terms. When petroleum prices were booming, all it took was a few gallons of heating oil from Hugo Chávez to buy the extravagant praise of House members, with Representative Chaka Fattah (D., Philadelphia) issuing statements praising Venezuela’s state-run oil company “and the Venezuelan people for their benevolence.”
Lest anybody feel creeped out by running political errands for a brutal and repressive caudillo, Joseph Kennedy — son of Senator Robert Kennedy — proclaimed that refusing the strongman’s patronage would be “a crime against humanity.” Kennedy was at the time the director of Citizens Energy, which had a contract to help distribute that Venezuelan heating oil — Boss Hugo was a brute, but he understood American politics.
Celebrities came to sit at his feet, with Sean Penn calling him a “champion” of the world’s poor, Oliver Stone celebrating him as “a great hero,” Antonio Banderas citing his seizure of private businesses as a model to be emulated in the rest of the world, Michael Moore praising his use of oil for political purposes, Danny Glover celebrating him as a “champion of democracy.” His successor, Nicolás Maduro, continued in the Chávez vein, and even as basics such as food and toilet paper disappeared the American Left hailed him as a hero, with Jesse Myerson, Rolling Stone’s fashionable uptown communist, calling his economic program “basically terrific.”
Some of the more old-fashioned liberals at The New Republic voiced concern about Venezuela’s sham democracy, its unlimited executive authority, political repression, the hunting down of government critics, the stacking of elections and the government’s perpetrating violence inside polling places — but Myerson insisted that Venezuela’s “electoral system’s integrity puts the U.S.’s to abject shame.” Never mind that opposition leaders there are hauled off to military prison after midnight raids. Vice President Biden, who can always be counted on to cut straight to the heart of any political question, ran into Maduro in Brazil and, noting the potentate’s thick mane, commented: “If I had your hair, I’d be president of the United States.” Tragically for the Sage of Delaware, hair transplants don’t work that way.
That is all going down the memory hole. The Obama administration has announced economic sanctions on Venezuela’s rulers and its intelligence agents, citing the “erosion of human-rights guarantees” – erosion, as though this were something new, as though Hugo Chávez hadn’t been a tyrant back when President Obama’s ally Representative Fattah was carrying his political water all over the eastern seaboard. In the New York Times’ account of Venezuela’s woes and Maduro’s misrule, there is no mention at all of the critical role the American Left played in lending legitimacy to Chavismo, of the so-called liberals and progressives who denounced legitimate protests against Maduro’s brutality as nefarious U.S.-backed coup attempts, who remained — and remain — silent on the regime’s censorship, political repression, torture, and economic incompetence.
No toilet paper for you!
Psst......I have gold.
Obama failed his coup in Venezuela by Thierry MeyssanOnce again, the Obama administration has tried to force the change of a political regime that resists it. On February 12, an Academi (formerly Blackwater) plane disguised as an aircraft of the Venezuelan army was supposed to bomb the presidential palace and kill President Nicolas Maduro. The plotters had planned to place former MP María Corina Machado in power and have her immediately acclaimed by former Latin American presidents.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article186879.html
Earlier in February, Maduro accused America of being behind the attempted coup in Venezuela.
“The northern imperial power has entered a dangerous phase of desperation, going to talk to the continent’s governments to announce the overthrow of my government. And I accuse Vice-President Joe Biden of this,” Maduro said.
Later that month, Venezuela’s leader announced that the country successfully defeated an alleged US-sponsored coup, adding that a plot involved an attack on the presidential palace or another top target.
http://rt.com/news/239161-maduro-us-sanctions-venezuela/
Venezuela Passes Saudis to Hold World’s Biggest Oil Reserveshttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-06-13/venezuela-overtakes-sa...
Ah yes the Muilato communist little angry dictator dimwhit who's economy is falling apart ........................and then there is Maduro.
I don't care what happens.....I'm not giving Obama my fingerprint.
If you want to keep your EBT card you will.
We morally high-grounded some folks. Exceptional!
Obama- morally high-centered, and no 4WD.
He should continue to mock the creature that dwells in the WH. Probably, they are working hand in hand to provide a diversion for each other.
Venezuela, according to Obama,
is a "national security threat" to the USA ?
[Isn't it the other way around?]
anyone sitting on top of a sea of oil &/or without a Red Shield central bank is a threat.
It's crazy Venezuela has to import oil.....that's socialism for you.
No. that's US economic warfare
and
the requirement to blend light oil from other countries
with Venezuela's heavy crude.
Special powers. LMAO. Sounds like grade school.
.
With a US foreign policy based on plot lines from Cold War era comic books, Maduro's special powers seem like the appropriate response.
Venezuela should install bidets and tell Obama to stick it.
Socialist officers are safe .... they will guillotine family heads .... trying to buy soap and toilet paper .... libertad, fraternidad y egualidad !
Let them eat cigars !
looks like your eating cigars
butt dipped
Why don't they retaliate by banning Sheldon Adelson from entry?
Shelly is busy trying to fire nukes into the desert at the moment, but he'll get back to ya.
Huh? Can someone please explain to how this Douchebag hasn't conceded to "Imperalist Agression?" His people are staving yet he continues to pay Imperalist IMF Debt back.
The dirty role of US organizations in Venezuela
Enabling Law? And they haven't even burned down the Reichstag (er, I mean, Parliament building) yet.....
I dunno. Obama's got that pen and a phone, which is probably an iPhone, so he could penetrate Maduro's special toilet paper roll defense.
But, I think I saw Tim Cook sneaking in the back door of the White House, purportedly to sneak into Obumma's back door. He was wearing an Apple Watch and carrying some of those IBM Watson analytics, which I hear are pretty powerful and can solve any problem.
So, will Maduro end up being on the next Dancing with the Stars? Not if Cook ad the Crook have their way.
Smart money's on Obama and Cook, cuz, ya know, the Apple Watch and all that KY Jell gonna use up lots of that toilet paper fast.
Jeebus, and I haven't even had a drink yet.
I wish all these cock suckers would just die off already, this Chess game gets boring after awhile.
Raul Castro will send emergency supplies of TP, Shampoo and Spaghetti .... from Cuba's immense Strategic Reserve Stockpiles !
The US is addicted to regime change.
Pretty much defined as control of presently sovereign countries by western banks.
Everything the US does proves Obama is unqualified. He thinks being in the White House bestows some kind of credibility or talent upon him the same way gang thug thinks wearing a flat brimmed hat or clock around his neck makes him hard core. Obama doesn't come from a culture of working hard, doing honest business, or results. He comes from a culture of unjustified ego and zero restraint in matters of self indulgence. We are all paying the price for letting this idiot believe he can do the job. Obama needs to resign.
I agree, and his method of 'how to win friends and influence people' is working really well.
Now Cuba is siding with Venuzuela, yep, working very well.
I woud advise anyone who has money in the us to take it out now, who knows what country is next for his 'special' treatment.
He has already special treated the USSA. We are in the logo redesign phase which will soon be followed by the NWO conference / thought leadership phase.
I love how the Communists ALWAYS have to have a boogie man....and SPECIAL Powers.....when does the Marvel Comic movie come out....Maduro..the man of wood....or something
What does that say of the United Snakes whose anglozio psychopaths wage war against the entire planet and whose "agri business" wages war against life while its banksters wage war against the economy. You want boogie men....jeeez look at the big picture though you can never hope to grasp it!
It's sad when two Presidential law-givers spat.
Shouldn't Modura be aresting without trial or habius corpus CIA operatives and their cohorts (terrorists) trying to overthrow his exceptional wonderful government / economic system and sending them off to some prison complex in Cuba where they can have tubes shoved up their ass-holes and where they can continually have their heads submersed in water until they "almost" drown and where there is no possibility for release except by suicide or other forms of death.
Sounds to me that Venezuela could sign the exact same documents for the same reasons against the US. Checkmate.
I have an idea, threaten to ban them from swift! Show how strong and exceptional you really are Obammy.
Ni un paso atras. A la chingada con los anglozionazis pendejos!
Mr. South American Mexican Dude. Please let us know here in the US if you are successful and how you did it. We hate Imperialism too but they are still supplying us with toilet paper.
Looks like one more customer for the new Chinese SWIFT system. He only has to hold out until this fall when it gets up and running.
These countries never learn. The first step is surround the American Embassy, and then put it's staff on the next plane to the United States. IF they absolutely feel the need to have an American presence in their country, it should be located on an off-shore island or some other equally isolated and remote spot, and certainly never in the capitol on a hillside overlooking the entire city.
People: ANY dictator anywhere on the planet, who declares himself special powers, needs to have his head removed. Let's quit fking about and take back human freedom. Allowing these guys to live another day is sheer stupidity.
of course, if in the aftermath of a dreadful attack a government declares himself special powers in a Patriot Act, the whole thing is completely different, isn't it? particularly if the great leader of that nation urges the citizenship of doing their patriotic duty and shop 'till they drop and goes to war in search of confirmed WMDs
dueling dictators.
Countries like Venezuela should be ignored at least until they give us a legitimately good reason to do otherwise.
It would be wonderful for Venezuela if the US would ignore the country.
But it doesn't: Venezuela, together with Russia, China, Iran, Siria and others, does not respond to the élite. Without entering the merit of Maduro's presidency, I propose some links (then you tell me...):
http://rt.com/op-edge/196148-saudiarabia-oil-russia-economic-confrontation/
Where does all this oil manipulation/ US dollar increase leave other countries?
Russia? China? Iran? The EU?
Seems to me, if I am grasping this whole scenario correctly that the US is waging economic warfare, in a repeat episode, with the assistance of Saudi Arabia against some of these aforementioned countries. Venezuela also gets a mention in one of oped’s below
Thoughts? Will the US be successful? How will this play out in the global economy?
http://www.4thmedia.org/2014/10/global-oil-wars-ussaudi-arabia-vs-russia...
Venezuela and Russia, the economies of which heavily depend on oil exports, have experienced considerable economic problems amid falling oil prices. Russia's ruble has lost approximately 40 percent of its value against the dollar since mid-2014.
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20141230/1016383295.html
“A single civil-military plan to defend the sovereignty, integrity, peace, coexistence, democracy, the Constitution; to defend ourselves,” said the Head of State to reiterate that he is aware of the orders issued from the United States to topple his government and destabilize Venezuela.
By manipulations and lies they have managed to capture a tiny group of officers, who wanted to execute a coup on February 12, recalled the President to assert that this coup plan has “an invoice from Washington”.
http://www.embavenez.by/en/news/1701-presidente-maduro-nunca-traicionare...
Caracas, 18 Feb. AVN.- Bolivia's president Evo Morales called Tuesday for an urgent meeting with the heads of state and foreign ministers of the member countries of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to set position on the imperialist conspiracy that has led to fascist actions in Venezuela from February 12.
http://www.avn.info.ve/contenido/bolivia039s-president-calls-unasur-meet...
"We have agreed to step up the investment and participation of Russian companies and their share of joint ventures in the Orinoco oil belt and other projects. This will expand investments in stocks and oil production,” Maduro said to reporters on Thursday after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that an exchange of technology was also agreed.
Russia and Venezuela agree to boost investment in Orinoco oil belt
http://russiansupport.blogspot.com.ar/2015/01/russia-and-venezuela-agree...
US Tried To Overthrow The Government Of Venezuela
http://thegaycourier.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/us-tried-to-overthrow-govern...
How the CIA Launched the «Financial Pearl Harbor» Attacks on Russia and Venezuela
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/12/20/how-cia-launched-the-fi...
Westerners should be paying more attention to Evo Morales. He spoke on behalf of 'China + 77' (which these days is more like 135) at the UNFCCC CMP 10 last December in Peru:
Evo Morales CHina+77 @CMP10
Also, 'China + 77' issued a scathing statement regarding the interference with Bolivia's presidential jet on its way back from Russia during the Edward Snowden travels.
Thanks TNTARG
I am not a great fan of the New York Times, but the following story appeared a few days ago entitled
Venezuela’s Currency Circus
In a faraway land, an eccentric king nailed an edict to the door of his palace that said: “Henceforth, $20 bills will be sold here for $1.”
Within minutes, his subjects were clamoring for those cut-rate twenties. So the king posted a second edict: “Each $20 bill shall be used only to buy things abroad.” Then a third: “Whatever you buy abroad with your $20 you must sell in our kingdom for $2.”
“This will make me beloved!” he thought. “Foreign goods will be cheap for all.”
But it didn’t work out that way. Soon, the lines for $20 bills were matched by lines at every store that sold foreign goods.
Since nobody saw much point in buying anything abroad to sell for just $2, people mostly pocketed the twenties and the imports never showed up on store shelves. And if any item did hit the shelves, whether it was a $2 box of diapers or a $2 sack of flour, it could be sold for $6 on the black market — so standing in line at the shops became a job.
The king was incensed. A new edict appeared: “Pocketing your twenty and marking up a $2 import are henceforth economic crimes, punishable by imprisonment.”
Riot police officers roamed the queues sniffing out dissent; subjects were recruited as spies. “It must be a conspiracy! A foreign plot to overthrow the monarchy,” raged the king.
If this fable strikes you as far-fetched, spare a thought for the people of Venezuela. For 12 years, their economy has been run pretty much along these lines.
In 2003, a beleaguered President Hugo Chávez imposed currency controls to try to hold down inflation and prevent a speculative run on the Venezuelan bolívar. Over the years that followed, these controls evolved into the byzantine tiered system by which the government’s oil dollars are sold at three different official prices — while hard-currency dollars fetch a fourth, higher price on the black market.
An importer who pledges to purchase basic necessities to bring into the country can buy a dollar for about six bolívars. But walk up to a bank teller and the same dollar costs 178 bolívars: nearly 3,000 percent more. For the 264 bolívars that it cost at the time of this writing to buy one black-market dollar, you could buy 42 dollars at the official rate.
The system gives rise to a mind-bending tangle of economic distortions. By one calculation, with a single $100 bill exchanged at the black market rate, you can buy enough subsidized gasoline in Venezuela to drive a Hummer around the world 28 times. A new Toyota Corolla retails for about 1.9 million bolívars — that’s either about $300,000 (at one exchange rate) or around $7,200 (at another), take your pick. As in our fable, the exchange-rate regime creates huge incentives for importers to pocket their cheap dollars rather than bring in goods —
Soon all nations will boycott USA, earth is tired of these bullies. then the second revolution can start within USA and purge the evil.
The single largest national security threat to the United States is Barack Obama.
Venezuela is America, seems a real leader would deal better with statistics
.
and not colonial re-education
Just like that with the stroke of a pen, Obama succeeds in cementing the public opinion against the US of yet another nation. And perhaps just to show where Latin America's socialist allegiance really lies, despite Obama's "shift in policies" moments ago we saw this: CUBA SAYS `UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT' FOR VENEZUELA AGAINST US: AFP.
Among the 20% of the population that still thinks Maduro is something other than a brainless sack of shit simply because he is more intelligent than they are, there is no doubt some (manufactured) outrage.
Among the 80% standing in line on Tuesday to buy chicken feet for Sunday dinner, I suspect that they either don't care or are outraged that not enough was done to eliminate this problem.
As for AFP, the unconditional support of Cuba for the idiot that is giving it free gas should come as no surprise. But to assume that this equates to widespread support for el Presidente Ralph Kramden seems far-fetched at best but typical of adoring socialist "he's our asshole" media coverage.
I'd rather pull our embassy out and send their's packing.
The 15 year media bombardment and shaping operations have been massive and thoroughly effective. When it comes to Venezuela, it is a Herculean, or perhaps Sisyphean task to even attempt to deprogram a people so thoroughly indoctrinated and trained to suspend their critical thinking.
Entire books can (and have) been written on this subject. It would be too much to try to lay everything out at once, so I will take it upon myself to periodically point out some inconvenient truths and facts that you might not find elsewhere and always fly under the radar. I sincerely offer these views, to inform and hopefully enhance the pathetically low level of discussion about Venezuela and its politics, so kindly try to stick to logic and facts, sparing me any unnecessary personal vitriol and venom.
However, if personal flaming is absolutely required, by all means fire away... after all, this is fight club.
----------------------------------
On "Maduro's Special Powers"
The implicit propaganda goal here is to reinforce the perception that Venezuela lives under a dictatorship and is not democratic. This will probably be followed by the usual characterizations, such as "Strongman", "Maduro's Regime", and many other Pavlovian code words which we are trained to react to. Once this idea is cemented, it makes it easy to act with impunity and automatically discard any valid and true points made by the Venezuelan government about US destabilizing actions, because they are a "lying dictatorial, socialist regime", and not a democracy under attack.
The MSM does not bother to explain, and the average US citizen cannot care less about, what these "powers" actually are. This is deliberately overlooked, and you can be certain that the subservient media will do everything in its power to use oily language of innuendo and insinuation, suggesting that it is a "usurpation of power" by Maduro, because it reinforces the above-mentioned point.
-----------------------------
So what exactly are these "powers" and what is the context? Well, in Spanish, it is called a "Ley Habilitante".
It is not a power grab or usurpation of power, nor is it a slide toward dictatorship. The president cannot "grant himself special powers". He has to request it and be granted this power by the legislative branch of Venezuela's government. It is a legitimate and legal mechanism spelled out in Article 203 of the country's Constitution. BTW, Venezuela is not the only democratic country who has these provisions included in its primary law.
These legislative powers have existed throughout Venezuela's history, and have been used by Democratically-elected Presidents, including Romulo Betancourt (1945–1948, 1959–1964), Rafael Caldera (1969–1974, 1994–1999), Carlos Andres Perez 1974–1979, 1989–1993), Hugo Chavez Frias (1999–2013), and now Nicolas Maduro Moros (2013- )
The "ley habilitante" allows the executive (elected president) to legislate directly by decree. However, it has built-in checks and balances.
This is not quite what comes to mind when you read that "Venezuela's Maduro Grants Himself Special Powers" now is it?
Come on now --- open your eyes people --- this is the way the world works --- us or them --- just be greatful that so far you are on the winning side and get thrown some scraps from your overlords....
You could be on the losing side in Venezuela, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Syria etc etc etc....
- The luckiest, fittest, smartest, with the capability for ruthlessness survive – always have – always will
I call this poem 'WISDOM' --- it took many years to truly understand how things work:
- Resources are finite and therefore ownership is a zero sum game
- The strong always take from the weak – if they do not then that is a sign of weakness and a competitor will take from the weak and will usurp the formerly strong dropping them into weakling status
- Humans tend to group by clan or on a broader basis by nationality (strength in numbers bonded by culture) and they compete with others for resources
- Competition always exist (I want it all!) but it becomes fiercer when resources are not sufficient to support competing clans or nations
- Tribal societies understand these dynamics because they cannot go to the grocery store for their food – so they are intimately aware of the daily battle to feed themselves and the competition for scare land and resources
- Modern affluent societies do not recognize this dynamic because for them resources are not scarce – they have more than enough.
- One of the main reasons that resources are not scarce in affluent societies is because they won the battle of the fittest (I would argue that luck is the precursor to all other advantages – affluent societies did not get that way because they started out smarter --- rather they were lucky – and they parlayed that luck into advances in technology… including better war machines)
- As we have observed throughout history the strong always trample the weak. Always. History has always been a battle to take more in the zero sum game. The goal is to take all if possible (if you end up in the gutter eating grass the response has been – better you than me – because I know you’d do the same to me)
- And history demonstrates that the weak – given the opportunity – would turn the tables on the strong in a heartbeat. If they could they would beat the strong into submission and leave them bleeding in the streets and starving. As we see empire after empire after empire gets overthrown and a new power takes over. Was the US happy to share with Russia and vice versa? What about France and England? Nope. They wanted it all.
- Many of us (including me) in the cushy western world appear not to understand what a villager in Somalia does – that our cushy lives are only possible because our leaders have recognized that the world is not a fair place --- Koobaya Syndrome has no place in this world --- Koombaya will get you a bullet in the back --- or a one way trip to the slum.
- Religious movements have attempted to change the course of human nature --- telling us to share and get along --- they have failed 100% - as expected. By rights we should be living in communes --- Jesus was a communist was he not? We all know that this would never work. Because we want more. We want it all.
- But in spite of our hypocrisy, we still have this mythical belief that mankind is capable of good – that we make mistakes along the way (a few genocides here, a few there... in order to steal the resources of an entire content so we can live the lives we live) --- ultimately we believe we are flawed but decent. We are not. Absolutely not.
- But our leaders --- who see through this matrix of bullshit --- realize that our cushy lives are based on us getting as much of the zero sum game as possible. That if they gave in to this wishy washy Koombaya BS we would all be living like Somalians.
- Of course they cannot tell us what I am explaining here --- that we must act ruthlessly because if we don’t someone else will --- and that will be the end of our cushy lives. Because we are ‘moral’ --- we believe we are decent – that if we could all get along and share and sing Koombaya the world would be wonderful. We do not accept their evil premises.
- So they must lie to us. They must use propaganda to get us onside when they commit their acts of ruthlessness.
- They cannot say: we are going to invade Iraq to ensure their oil is available so as to keep BAU operating (BAU which is our platform for global domination). The masses would rise against that making things difficult for the PTB who are only trying their best to ensure the hypocrites have their cushy lives and 3 buck gas (and of course so that the PTB continue to be able to afford their caviar and champagne) …. Because they know if the hypocrites had to pay more or took at lifestyle hit – they’d be seriously pissed off (and nobody wants to be a Somalian)
- Which raises the question --- are we fools for attacking the PTB when they attempt to throw out Putin and put in a stooge who will be willing to screw the Russian people so that we can continue to live large? When we know full well that Putin would do the same to us --- and if not him someone more ruthless would come along and we’d be Somalians.
- Should we be protesting and making it more difficult for our leaders to make sure we get to continue to lead our cushy lives? Or should we be following the example of the Spartans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZeYVIWz99I
- In a nutshell are our interests as part of the western culture not completely in line with those of our leaders – i.e. if they fail we fail – if they succeed we succeed.
- Lee Kuan Yew is famous for saying ‘yes I will eat very well but if I do so will you’ Why bite the hand that whips the weak to make sure you eat well.... If you bite it too hard it cannot whip the weak --- making you the weak --- meaning you get to feel the whip….
- Nation… clan … individual…. The zero sum game plays out amongst nations first … but as resources become more scarce the battle comes closer to home with clans battling for what remains…. Eventually it is brother against brother ….
- As the PTB run out of outsiders to whip and rob…. They turn on their own…. As we are seeing they have no problem with destroying the middle class because it means more for them… and when the weak rise against them they have no problem at all deploying the violent tactics that they have used against the weak across the world who have attempted to resist them
- Eventually of course they will turn against each other…. Henry Kissinger and Maddy Albright bashing each other over the head with hammers fighting over a can of spam – how precious!
He granted himself special powers, so he's just like obola.