HT to Chuck Simmins on FB
Venezuela held legislative elections last weekend and the results are heartening for anyone who believes in freedom.
Not since the late Hugo Chavez took power in 1999 had his United Socialist Party of Venezuela lost an election. This time, though, the opposition party won a two-thirds majority in the congress, and will have the ability to challenge the rule of Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's successor as president.
This was a result Maduro and his socialist government feared. In the run-up to the election, he jailed opposition leaders on flimsy pretexts, and banned others from running for office. His allies put a sham third party on the ballot with a similar name to that of the opposition in hope of confusing voters and winning by splitting the vote. Maduro rejected international monitoring of the election, raising fears that he would steal it. Even now, it's hard to say for sure he didn't try.
But despite all of this chicanery, and perhaps partly because of it, Maduro's United Socialist Party was buried in an electoral landslide. The reasons for the public's discontent with Chavism are plain enough, and rooted in the nature of socialism, a system that always and everywhere attempts to govern by thwarting human nature through state control of economic life
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/06/2016 10:11 ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
If the oligarchy actually leaves, I wonder if they will be allowed to keep the billions of dollars they siphoned off while destroying the economy.
#3
So you sayin' it ain't over 'till the fat lady sings, Skid?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/06/2016 12:32 Comments ||
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#4
Maduro and his henchmen aren't leaving quietly.
And Oogo's daughter, the one who stole the $2 billion plus, isn't giving it back without a fight.
I'm not a particularly bloodthirsty person (as I've demonstrated time and again here at the Burg), but a Mussolini-style solution for these folks wouldn't bother me a bit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/06/2016 12:42 Comments ||
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#5
If the oligarchy actually leaves, I wonder if they will be allowed to keep the billions of dollars they siphoned off while destroying the economy.
I'm waiting for someone to say I'm a communist if I suggest taking it all away from the aristocrat m-er effers.
[Iran Press TV] The US presidential race is underway with primaries and caucuses across five states.
In Kansas, Senator Ted Cruz won the Republican caucuses on Saturday. It was Cruz's fifth victory of the Republican primary season, beating GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
With 100 percent of the vote counted, Cruz had 48.2 percent of the vote, compared to 23.3 percent for Trump. Rubio had 16.7 percent of the vote. Ohio Governor John Kasich ended the night with 10.7 percent.
"God bless Kansas!" said Cruz in a campaign rally in Idaho, upon learning that he was projected the winner. "And the scream you hear, the howl you hear from Washington, DC, is utter terror for what we the people are doing together. What we’re seeing is conservatives coming together.''
"I am here today with a word of hope and encouragement. I believe this election will center on three issues: jobs, freedom and security," he added.
Cruz is vying to solidify his candidacy as the alternative to Trump.
The billionaire real estate mogul is ahead in the all-important delegate count for the Republicans, having won 10 of the 15 states that have voted to date in the process that determines the nominees for both parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
Imho, a more interesting race will take place on March 22nd (Utah) with Mr. Trump going against a Mitt Romney surrogate.
#3
There are more than 14 million Mormons in the U.S.
But disagreeing with Mitt Romney would hardly be noticed. The Mormon people have disagreed among themselves, about Mitt Romney, since long before he became involved in politics.
But saying that Mitt Romney would get down on his knees for Donald Trump (for whatever insinuated reason you may want to attach to it) is a direct insult to all 14 million Mormons.
In the last poll I saw Donald Trump was leading in both Utah and Idaho. If the polls turn upside down this week, it will not be because of Mitt Romney's speech.
It will be because of what Donald Trump insinuated in his response.
Donald Trump may be a great businessman. But a great diplomat he is not.
#8
"The Mormon people..."
The only place, in the world, where I was the victim of discrimination was Utah. F... [rant] ... [screaming rant] ... [rant], white sheets and 14 million victimized souls.
#9
The real news is in the delegate split. Trump "won" LA and KY, but only got 3 more delegates than Cruz from those wins. Cruz won ME and KS, and got 3 and 15 more, respectively. Had Rubio not been in Kansas, Cruz likely would have topped 50% and taken all the delegated. Interesting little fact: Cruz won the votes cast on primary day in LA, so Trumps margin was from mail-in voters, typically low information unless military.
Funny how Democrats and now Trump seem to gain the most benefit from early votes, while if people have time to think it through, they go elsewhere. The same thing is shaping up in Florida.
#10
Interesting that the pols are seeing margins of error approaching 20% in closed primary states as was the case in Kansas. The states that the polls seem to be accurate are the open primary states where Ds are voting int the Republican primary for Trump. Smart strategy on their part - encouraging discontent within our party. There is a Trump vote out there, enhanced by the D vote, for a candidacy encouraged by Clinton herself. Don't underestimate the deviousness of the Clintons.
This also means that the Trump vote was based on information available 2-3 weeks ago. Votes cast on more recent information broke for Cruz. This argues in favor of a Trump slump, which makes sense. Trump had a strong message 8 months ago. Everything since then has been a disaster.
One other interesting data point. Trump's victories were narrow: 4.3% in KY and 3.6% in LA. That's a massive shift from the 20 points Trump carried NH with.
[Dhaka Tribune] It’s an odd moment in the 2016 campaign: Not even half the states have voted for the party nominees and no candidate has half the delegates needed to win, yet the sense is spreading that it’s practically game over.
This weekend, voters in five states and one territory are taking their turn. They possess the power to make Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Liberatress of Libya and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John C. Calhoun ... and Donald Trump closer to unstoppable or to give the conventional wisdom about one or both front-runners a shake, News Agency that Dare Not be Named reports.
A look at a weekend of politicking anchored by primaries and caucuses, capped by a Democratic debate Sunday night:
Where?
On Saturday, both parties have contests in Kansas and Louisiana. Republicans in Maine and Kentucky and Democrats in Nebraska also vote.
On Sunday, Maine Democrats and Puerto Rico Republicans are up.
The campaigning
Republican Marco Rubio, in a sign of retrenchment or at least strategic focus, canceled Louisiana and Kentucky events Friday, instead landing in Kansas to unload on Trump at a Topeka airport. The Florida senator did so in stark terms, telling a few hundred supporters Trump "accentuates the most dangerous instincts in humanity." Rubio’s Waterloo will be his home-state primary March 15 and Florida is where he’s campaigning the hardest.
Trump staged a late rally in New Orleans followed Saturday morning by one set for Wichita, Kansas. Maine also drew considerable attention, with visits in recent days from Democrat Bernie Sanders ...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords... , Trump and his GOP rival Ted Cruz.
Iffy impact
It’s easier for GOP hopefuls to gain delegates in the weekend round of voting than it was in the Super Tuesday extravaganza. That means it’s harder to have a breakout that changes the nature of the race.
Candidates in Kentucky must get just 5% of the statewide vote to get delegates, and in Kansas and Maine the bar is 10%. In Louisiana’s primary, there is no threshold to earn a portion of the delegates. Contrast this with 20% thresholds in some other states.
And in coming Republican contests, like Florida and Ohio, all delegates in a state will go to the winner, for the first time in the campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/06/2016 00:00 ||
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"The State Department’s recent discovery of thousands of unsearched records from Hillary Clinton’s tenure has delayed several public records lawsuits and could keep many of the documents out of the public sphere until next fall.
The watchdog groups Citizens United and Judicial Watch, which are suing the State Department for Clinton-related records, are two plaintiffs that have been affected by the discovery. The State Department said the new documents could take months to process, a time period that extends well beyond its court-ordered deadlines."
At some point the judge has to call a halt to the shenanigans and require a final inventory from the State Department. Any documents discovered after that lead to immediate contempt of court. The folks in State are Obama appointees and Hillary supporters. They simply will never comply with the courts until forced to do so.
#3
"keep many of the documents out of the public sphere until next fall"
How... convenient. For Hillary. The judge must order they release what they have now and a batch every Monday, or else go to jail for contempt of court and obstruction.
#4
I maybe wrong here, and others with military/diplomatic/spy experience feel free to weigh in; doesn't any information classified or otherwise that comes in via a "classified or above" machine (email, fax, radio, telegraph) automatically become classified de facto due to coming thru said portal?
Had a buddy on a naval vessel who told of newbie comm techs, when the shredders went down, tossed stuff like sports scores and headlines from newspapers overboard, to decrease amount of clutter, only to be busted by the watch of the day (floating trash bags) and served brig time because that info come in over classified machines and therefore was considered classified.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Hillary Clinton
"The State Department’s recent discovery of thousands of unsearched records from Hillary Clinton’s tenure has delayed several public records lawsuits and could keep many of the documents out of the public sphere until next fall.
