Doesn't to be too much outcry about this and everyone is recognising the guy who just proclaimed himself president. Is it just that it says that it is socialist?
Yes and no. The socialists have fcuked it up. I think Chavez was well intentioned and initially did a lot of good for those whpo needed it thre most. However corruption seeped in and things have just got worse under Maduro. Don't think the change will improve things but it will give the US back control of Venezuela's oil....which is the answer to your main question.
Hugo Chavez daughter is worth an estimated $4.5b, that tells you what you need to know
Seen this coming 10 years ago. Venezuela held onto their oil and the big oil companies wanted it. Now they'll get it. That's what it's all about.
Oil
Quote from: Kidder81 on January 28, 2019, 05:16:39 PM
Hugo Chavez daughter is worth an estimated $4.5b, that tells you what you need to know
Yes, but could she iron my shirt?
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
They already are suffering and have been for a while, and this is real poverty not the type we hear about here
Quote from: Kidder81 on January 28, 2019, 07:05:54 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
They already are suffering and have been for a while, and this is real poverty not the type we hear about here
He described them as "starving and destitute". Was that not apt enough for you?
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up
Norway did a much better job managing the wealth from their oil.
Chavez and Maduro spent too much with no thought for the future.
Two good pieces on Venezuela, and on the role of US sanctions on it, here:
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/24/former_un_expert_the_us_is (https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/24/former_un_expert_the_us_is)
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/25/how_washingtons_devastating_economic_blockade_of (https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/25/how_washingtons_devastating_economic_blockade_of)
Sinn Féin blindy supporting Maduro just because he is on the left is ridiculous.
Yes Us probably after oil but Maduro has killed his own people during protests so no way they should be publicly backing him
Quote from: Sheugh Water on January 28, 2019, 08:13:13 PM
Sinn Féin blindy supporting Maduro just because he is on the left is ridiculous.
Yes Us probably after oil but Maduro has killed his own people during protests so no way they should be publicly backing him
I take it that the loyalist will be supporting the other guy?
Quote from: dec on January 28, 2019, 07:39:42 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up
Norway did a much better job managing the wealth from their oil.
Chavez and Maduro spent too much with no thought for the future.
Pretty much. Chavez was so incompetent he'd have made Trump look like a genius, and that's saying something. I saw a good show about it one time, showing Chavez doing long TV marathons, Fidel Castro style, where he'd talk a big long rambling monologue and end up making executive decisions live on the air. Like turning around to one of his generals and saying "Send a battalion to the Colombian border." He had a live audience full of his supporters to clap and cheer his every word. He even made pronouncements on what to do with the currency, only to have advisers pull him to one side and warn against it, saying it'd tank the economy.
Instead of investing the oil revenue in a sovereign wealth fund, he took the money directly and spent it on micromanaged social programs that had little or no benefit. They set up businesses that produced goods but didn't know how to sell them, set up public housing programs that were left incomplete, etc.. Then more recently they fired a ton of people from the oil company and replaced them with stooges loyal to the regime and who hadn't a clue how to run an oil company. Jobs were handed out like prizes at a bazaar.
Venezuela is no Norway, that's for sure. It's a textbook example of resource wealth squandered by an incompetent dictatorship.
Quote from: Milltown Row2 on January 28, 2019, 08:36:02 PM
Quote from: Sheugh Water on January 28, 2019, 08:13:13 PM
Sinn Féin blindy supporting Maduro just because he is on the left is ridiculous.
Yes Us probably after oil but Maduro has killed his own people during protests so no way they should be publicly backing him
I take it that the loyalist will be supporting the other guy?
:D Its the way of it I suppose. Sheep hi, big pack of sheep in this part of the world, some people never seem to question anything. Twitter is just crazy for this
Not sure if this is the best way to do this but something has to change there....tho not sure if this will do so. The only thing that can oust Maduro is the military and the heads are all handsomely rewards with jobs they are not qualified for....
Like running an oil company. Maduro is bleeding the oil dry like an African warlord but production has went off a cliff thanks to no investment and lack of expertise.
If America stops buying his oil he will up shit creek as he will have no money left to bribe his generals. unless of course he can manage to flog it to the Chinese.
oil
its always about oil
Recognising Guaidó is insane. Regardless of whatever has happened in the past, he has not been elected democratically as president. Declaring himself interim president is a coup. Supporting him as president is supporting a coup.
The NZ government has the right of this - immediately organised free and fair elections are the only way to go and this is what international pressure should be focused on.
Didn't international observers (some from the US) already come out and say the last elections were free and fair? The opposition boycotted them because they knew they were going to lose?
Quote from: Arthur_Friend on January 29, 2019, 10:51:29 AM
Didn't international observers (some from the US) already come out and say the last elections were free and fair? The opposition boycotted them because they knew they were going to lose?
Pretty much every Western state denounced both least year's presidential election and the 2017 National Constituent Assembly creation and election that has effectively stripped the legislature of almost all power.
Quote from: Eamonnca1 on January 28, 2019, 09:44:02 PM
Quote from: dec on January 28, 2019, 07:39:42 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up
Norway did a much better job managing the wealth from their oil.
Chavez and Maduro spent too much with no thought for the future.
Pretty much. Chavez was so incompetent he'd have made Trump look like a genius, and that's saying something. I saw a good show about it one time, showing Chavez doing long TV marathons, Fidel Castro style, where he'd talk a big long rambling monologue and end up making executive decisions live on the air. Like turning around to one of his generals and saying "Send a battalion to the Colombian border." He had a live audience full of his supporters to clap and cheer his every word. He even made pronouncements on what to do with the currency, only to have advisers pull him to one side and warn against it, saying it'd tank the economy.
Instead of investing the oil revenue in a sovereign wealth fund, he took the money directly and spent it on micromanaged social programs that had little or no benefit. They set up businesses that produced goods but didn't know how to sell them, set up public housing programs that were left incomplete, etc.. Then more recently they fired a ton of people from the oil company and replaced them with stooges loyal to the regime and who hadn't a clue how to run an oil company. Jobs were handed out like prizes at a bazaar.
Venezuela is no Norway, that's for sure. It's a textbook example of resource wealth squandered by an incompetent dictatorship.
So you are an expert on Venezuela now? Is there nothing you don't think you know?
Pushing social programs which fail spectacularly? Hmmm - who else is trying to do that these days? Looking your way Nancy and Chuck.
Quote from: Dolph1 on January 29, 2019, 11:33:06 AM
Quote from: Eamonnca1 on January 28, 2019, 09:44:02 PM
Quote from: dec on January 28, 2019, 07:39:42 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up
Norway did a much better job managing the wealth from their oil.
Chavez and Maduro spent too much with no thought for the future.
Pretty much. Chavez was so incompetent he'd have made Trump look like a genius, and that's saying something. I saw a good show about it one time, showing Chavez doing long TV marathons, Fidel Castro style, where he'd talk a big long rambling monologue and end up making executive decisions live on the air. Like turning around to one of his generals and saying "Send a battalion to the Colombian border." He had a live audience full of his supporters to clap and cheer his every word. He even made pronouncements on what to do with the currency, only to have advisers pull him to one side and warn against it, saying it'd tank the economy.
Instead of investing the oil revenue in a sovereign wealth fund, he took the money directly and spent it on micromanaged social programs that had little or no benefit. They set up businesses that produced goods but didn't know how to sell them, set up public housing programs that were left incomplete, etc.. Then more recently they fired a ton of people from the oil company and replaced them with stooges loyal to the regime and who hadn't a clue how to run an oil company. Jobs were handed out like prizes at a bazaar.
Venezuela is no Norway, that's for sure. It's a textbook example of resource wealth squandered by an incompetent dictatorship.
So you are an expert on Venezuela now? Is there nothing you don't think you know?
Pushing social programs which fail spectacularly? Hmmm - who else is trying to do that these days? Looking your way Nancy and Chuck.
+1, what a toolbag.
lets incorporate Trump into how Venezuela has had issues for almost 20 years.
Apparently continual hand outs did not work there.
Just saw this headline
"Freshwater hotspots around the world are in danger, NASA finds"
Cannot wait for you to enlighten the masses on this one.
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.
Quote from: joemamas on January 29, 2019, 01:53:45 PM
Quote from: Dolph1 on January 29, 2019, 11:33:06 AM
Quote from: Eamonnca1 on January 28, 2019, 09:44:02 PM
Quote from: dec on January 28, 2019, 07:39:42 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up
Norway did a much better job managing the wealth from their oil.
Chavez and Maduro spent too much with no thought for the future.
Pretty much. Chavez was so incompetent he'd have made Trump look like a genius, and that's saying something. I saw a good show about it one time, showing Chavez doing long TV marathons, Fidel Castro style, where he'd talk a big long rambling monologue and end up making executive decisions live on the air. Like turning around to one of his generals and saying "Send a battalion to the Colombian border." He had a live audience full of his supporters to clap and cheer his every word. He even made pronouncements on what to do with the currency, only to have advisers pull him to one side and warn against it, saying it'd tank the economy.
Instead of investing the oil revenue in a sovereign wealth fund, he took the money directly and spent it on micromanaged social programs that had little or no benefit. They set up businesses that produced goods but didn't know how to sell them, set up public housing programs that were left incomplete, etc.. Then more recently they fired a ton of people from the oil company and replaced them with stooges loyal to the regime and who hadn't a clue how to run an oil company. Jobs were handed out like prizes at a bazaar.
Venezuela is no Norway, that's for sure. It's a textbook example of resource wealth squandered by an incompetent dictatorship.
So you are an expert on Venezuela now? Is there nothing you don't think you know?
Pushing social programs which fail spectacularly? Hmmm - who else is trying to do that these days? Looking your way Nancy and Chuck.
+1, what a toolbag.
lets incorporate Trump into how Venezuela has had issues for almost 20 years.
Apparently continual hand outs did not work there.
Just saw this headline
"Freshwater hotspots around the world are in danger, NASA finds"
Cannot wait for you to enlighten the masses on this one.
LOL
His fellow virtue signalers tell him that he's special. And his cat does too.
Hoping to be recognized as #1 social justice warrior on the board.
I can't wait to hear his solutions to all the worlds problems (which obviously Trump caused).
Quote from: vallankumous on January 29, 2019, 02:06:21 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.
Ehh yes they have, the state took over oilfields that they dont have the expertise to exploit and the entire production infrastructure is crumbling from under investment.
To exasperate the problem Maduro put military men in charge of the oil and they dont have a clue what they are doing.
Ah sweet jazes!
Quote from: omaghjoe on January 29, 2019, 03:11:20 PM
Quote from: vallankumous on January 29, 2019, 02:06:21 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.
Ehh yes they have, the state took over oilfields that they dont have the expertise to exploit and the entire production infrastructure is crumbling from under investment.
To exasperate the problem Maduro put military men in charge of the oil and they dont have a clue what they are doing.
There's a lot of parallels with W's handling of Iraq, where kids fresh out of college and who had connections with Rumsfeld/Cheney et al were given top jobs rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure when they hadn't a clue what they were doing.
When you put people in charge who don't know what they're doing, there are consequences. America's currently learning this the hard way.
Quote from: Eamonnca1 on January 29, 2019, 05:15:49 PM
There's a lot of parallels with W's handling of Iraq, where kids fresh out of college and who had connections with Rumsfeld/Cheney et al were given top jobs rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure when they hadn't a clue what they were doing.
When you put people in charge who don't know what they're doing, there are consequences. America's currently learning this the hard way.
Spot on analysis as usual. So in-depth. Everyone here will have to agree with you.
Yup. That's the level to which we've stooped. There's a President in charge of the US who has so little understanding of how things work, obvious concepts like "putting qualified people in charge" would be considered an improvement on the current administration.
It's just so duplicitous that the US et al are talking shit about how they are worried for democracy in Venezuela, there are hundreds of countries out there in much worse shape, with much worse regimes they don't give a f**k about, plenty of them are considered allies.
Quote from: vallankumous on January 29, 2019, 02:06:21 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.
The revenues have dried up. That's the point I was making.
Quote from: Jell 0 Biafra on January 28, 2019, 08:06:35 PM
Two good pieces on Venezuela, and on the role of US sanctions on it, here:
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/24/former_un_expert_the_us_is (https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/24/former_un_expert_the_us_is)
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/25/how_washingtons_devastating_economic_blockade_of (https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/25/how_washingtons_devastating_economic_blockade_of)
Chavez's goose was cooked if it wasn't already due to the oil by the US once he attempted to set up the Bank of the South (Banco del Sur,) in opposition to the IMF and World Bank who royally screw poor countries.
That's Western democracy for you.
View from Stephen Collins, former political editor and now columnist with Irish Times on Venezuela and Sinn Fein:
Sinn Féin's unfitness for government in this State has been illustrated once again in recent weeks by the party's continuing love affair with the repressive and incompetent regime which has destroyed the economy of Venezuela over the past two decades and left the mass of its people in dire poverty.
It was bad enough that two senior members of the party attended the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for another term as president of Venezuela but it was the defence of that decision by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald that exposed the party's wilful ignorance of economic reality and its lack of concern for basic human rights.
When questioned about Sinn Féin's decision to send two senior party figures, Conor Murphy MLA and general secretary Dawn Doyle, to attend Maduro's inauguration McDonald expressed the view that the Venezuelan election was open and democratic even though the European Union was highly critical of the way it was conducted.
More significantly, McDonald sought to draw a comparison between Ireland and Venezuela suggesting that people living in poverty in this country here might not endorse the leadership of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Apart from clearly having no idea about the scale and depth of the poverty in Venezuela, the casual dismissal of concerns across the democratic world about electoral manipulation, human rights abuses and widespread corruption shone a light on to the attitude of Sinn Féin towards democratic standards.
While Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan and Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesman Niall Collins criticised Sinn Féin and its leader for their support of the Maduro government the episode passed virtually unnoticed in the midst of the Brexit drama in the British parliament.
Sinn Féin's fondness for Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez may not have impinged greatly on public opinion here but it deserves to be highlighted because it illustrates the direction in which the party would like to take this country if it ever gets its hands on the levers of power.
The record of Chavez and Maduro is one of dire failure. There was undoubtedly huge inequality in oil-rich Venezuela when Chavez took power in 1998 and his focus on eliminating poverty was admirable. The problem is that the way he went about it destroyed the country's economy and left it in a far worse state that he found it.
To take up McDonald's comparison between Ireland and Venezuela, back in the early 1990s the United Nations development index, which measures the standard of living for all the countries of the world, ranked Ireland in 23rd place and Venezuela in 43rd. The latest UN index puts Ireland in fourth place and Venezuela in 78th.
The clear message is that the policies pursued by successive Irish governments have, in spite of a severe financial crisis, led to a massive increase in living standards in this country over the past three decades while the policies pursued by Chavez and his successor have destroyed whatever prosperity Venezuela had. Yet to listen to Sinn Féin and the hard-left TDs in the Dáil this State is a failure and Venezuela is a place to be emulated.
This narrative was on display again this week at the commemoration of the first Dáil by our current parliamentarians in the Mansion House.
Leo Varadkar, Micheál Martin and Brendan Howlin, all of whose parties have contributed to building the modern state we have today, made thoughtful and reflective speeches which acknowledged both what the State has done and what it has failed to do.
By contrast McDonald drew fallacious comparisons between the poverty and deprivation which existed in 1919 and the problems facing the country today.
Her solution was the aggressive pursuit of Irish unity, a dangerous tactic in the shifting and uncertain world created by Brexit.
Sinn Féin's incoherent economic policies do not attract much scrutiny and it would not be the first or last Opposition party to offer facile solutions to the complex economic problems that face a modern state.
However, when its economic policies are taken in tandem with its lack of democratic standards, as exposed in the cash for ash inquiry in Northern Ireland, the party's unfitness for government is obvious.
At the inquiry conducted by former judge Sir Patrick Coughlin, texts and emails from late January 2017 have emerged which show the Sinn Féin minister for finance at Stormont, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, had to get approval for key decisions from unelected senior republican Ted Howell, a confidant of Gerry Adams.
Ó Muilleoir had been asked to approve a plan to slash the costs of the scheme but David Sterling, then of the finance department and now Northern Ireland's most senior official, texted another civil servant to express the fear that Ó Muilleoir was "acting under instruction".
Despite being urged by officials to accept the curbs, Ó Muilleoir also consulted with senior former IRA members such as Padraic Wilson and Martin Lynch, who have no elected role and are largely unknown to the public.
This insight into how Sinn Féin acts when it gets power, when combined with its admiration for Venezuela, should be a salutary warning to any of the other Dáil parties that contemplate going into coalition with it after the next election.
Quote from: MoChara on January 30, 2019, 09:07:39 AM
It's just so duplicitous that the US et al are talking shit about how they are worried for democracy in Venezuela, there are hundreds of countries out there in much worse shape, with much worse regimes they don't give a f**k about, plenty of them are considered allies.
Well said.
Quote from: TheClubman on January 30, 2019, 12:36:53 PM
Quote from: MoChara on January 30, 2019, 09:07:39 AM
It's just so duplicitous that the US et al are talking shit about how they are worried for democracy in Venezuela, there are hundreds of countries out there in much worse shape, with much worse regimes they don't give a f**k about, plenty of them are considered allies.
Well said.
They don't even pretend otherwise.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-28/venezuela-regime-change-good-american-oil-companies-says-john-bolton
They don't even pretend otherwise.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-28/venezuela-regime-change-good-american-oil-companies-says-john-bolton
Is this the Britbart's illegitimate brother who nobody mentions?
Quote from: Denn Forever on January 30, 2019, 01:48:47 PM
They don't even pretend otherwise.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-28/venezuela-regime-change-good-american-oil-companies-says-john-bolton
Is this the Britbart's illegitimate brother who nobody mentions?
Never heard of Britbart.
Is the story inaccurate?
Quote from: Hound on January 30, 2019, 10:28:23 AM
View from Stephen Collins, former political editor and now columnist with Irish Times on Venezuela and Sinn Fein:
Sinn Féin's unfitness for government in this State has been illustrated once again in recent weeks by the party's continuing love affair with the repressive and incompetent regime which has destroyed the economy of Venezuela over the past two decades and left the mass of its people in dire poverty.
It was bad enough that two senior members of the party attended the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for another term as president of Venezuela but it was the defence of that decision by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald that exposed the party's wilful ignorance of economic reality and its lack of concern for basic human rights.
When questioned about Sinn Féin's decision to send two senior party figures, Conor Murphy MLA and general secretary Dawn Doyle, to attend Maduro's inauguration McDonald expressed the view that the Venezuelan election was open and democratic even though the European Union was highly critical of the way it was conducted.
More significantly, McDonald sought to draw a comparison between Ireland and Venezuela suggesting that people living in poverty in this country here might not endorse the leadership of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Apart from clearly having no idea about the scale and depth of the poverty in Venezuela, the casual dismissal of concerns across the democratic world about electoral manipulation, human rights abuses and widespread corruption shone a light on to the attitude of Sinn Féin towards democratic standards.
While Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan and Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesman Niall Collins criticised Sinn Féin and its leader for their support of the Maduro government the episode passed virtually unnoticed in the midst of the Brexit drama in the British parliament.
Sinn Féin's fondness for Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez may not have impinged greatly on public opinion here but it deserves to be highlighted because it illustrates the direction in which the party would like to take this country if it ever gets its hands on the levers of power.
The record of Chavez and Maduro is one of dire failure. There was undoubtedly huge inequality in oil-rich Venezuela when Chavez took power in 1998 and his focus on eliminating poverty was admirable. The problem is that the way he went about it destroyed the country's economy and left it in a far worse state that he found it.
To take up McDonald's comparison between Ireland and Venezuela, back in the early 1990s the United Nations development index, which measures the standard of living for all the countries of the world, ranked Ireland in 23rd place and Venezuela in 43rd. The latest UN index puts Ireland in fourth place and Venezuela in 78th.
The clear message is that the policies pursued by successive Irish governments have, in spite of a severe financial crisis, led to a massive increase in living standards in this country over the past three decades while the policies pursued by Chavez and his successor have destroyed whatever prosperity Venezuela had. Yet to listen to Sinn Féin and the hard-left TDs in the Dáil this State is a failure and Venezuela is a place to be emulated.
This narrative was on display again this week at the commemoration of the first Dáil by our current parliamentarians in the Mansion House.
Leo Varadkar, Micheál Martin and Brendan Howlin, all of whose parties have contributed to building the modern state we have today, made thoughtful and reflective speeches which acknowledged both what the State has done and what it has failed to do.
By contrast McDonald drew fallacious comparisons between the poverty and deprivation which existed in 1919 and the problems facing the country today.
Her solution was the aggressive pursuit of Irish unity, a dangerous tactic in the shifting and uncertain world created by Brexit.
Sinn Féin's incoherent economic policies do not attract much scrutiny and it would not be the first or last Opposition party to offer facile solutions to the complex economic problems that face a modern state.
However, when its economic policies are taken in tandem with its lack of democratic standards, as exposed in the cash for ash inquiry in Northern Ireland, the party's unfitness for government is obvious.
At the inquiry conducted by former judge Sir Patrick Coughlin, texts and emails from late January 2017 have emerged which show the Sinn Féin minister for finance at Stormont, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, had to get approval for key decisions from unelected senior republican Ted Howell, a confidant of Gerry Adams.
Ó Muilleoir had been asked to approve a plan to slash the costs of the scheme but David Sterling, then of the finance department and now Northern Ireland's most senior official, texted another civil servant to express the fear that Ó Muilleoir was "acting under instruction".
Despite being urged by officials to accept the curbs, Ó Muilleoir also consulted with senior former IRA members such as Padraic Wilson and Martin Lynch, who have no elected role and are largely unknown to the public.
This insight into how Sinn Féin acts when it gets power, when combined with its admiration for Venezuela, should be a salutary warning to any of the other Dáil parties that contemplate going into coalition with it after the next election.
Good piece. And it doesn't surprise me. It wasn't so long ago that I had Shinner friends posting on Facebook about how everything is fine in Venezuela and that stories about rampant inflation and a failing economy are just right-wing lies. The far right is not the only place where you'll find people who have abandoned reality-based politics.
Quote from: Eamonnca1 on January 30, 2019, 05:39:16 PM
Quote from: Hound on January 30, 2019, 10:28:23 AM
View from Stephen Collins, former political editor and now columnist with Irish Times on Venezuela and Sinn Fein:
Sinn Féin's unfitness for government in this State has been illustrated once again in recent weeks by the party's continuing love affair with the repressive and incompetent regime which has destroyed the economy of Venezuela over the past two decades and left the mass of its people in dire poverty.
It was bad enough that two senior members of the party attended the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro for another term as president of Venezuela but it was the defence of that decision by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald that exposed the party's wilful ignorance of economic reality and its lack of concern for basic human rights.
When questioned about Sinn Féin's decision to send two senior party figures, Conor Murphy MLA and general secretary Dawn Doyle, to attend Maduro's inauguration McDonald expressed the view that the Venezuelan election was open and democratic even though the European Union was highly critical of the way it was conducted.
More significantly, McDonald sought to draw a comparison between Ireland and Venezuela suggesting that people living in poverty in this country here might not endorse the leadership of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Apart from clearly having no idea about the scale and depth of the poverty in Venezuela, the casual dismissal of concerns across the democratic world about electoral manipulation, human rights abuses and widespread corruption shone a light on to the attitude of Sinn Féin towards democratic standards.
While Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan and Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesman Niall Collins criticised Sinn Féin and its leader for their support of the Maduro government the episode passed virtually unnoticed in the midst of the Brexit drama in the British parliament.
Sinn Féin's fondness for Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez may not have impinged greatly on public opinion here but it deserves to be highlighted because it illustrates the direction in which the party would like to take this country if it ever gets its hands on the levers of power.
The record of Chavez and Maduro is one of dire failure. There was undoubtedly huge inequality in oil-rich Venezuela when Chavez took power in 1998 and his focus on eliminating poverty was admirable. The problem is that the way he went about it destroyed the country's economy and left it in a far worse state that he found it.
To take up McDonald's comparison between Ireland and Venezuela, back in the early 1990s the United Nations development index, which measures the standard of living for all the countries of the world, ranked Ireland in 23rd place and Venezuela in 43rd. The latest UN index puts Ireland in fourth place and Venezuela in 78th.
The clear message is that the policies pursued by successive Irish governments have, in spite of a severe financial crisis, led to a massive increase in living standards in this country over the past three decades while the policies pursued by Chavez and his successor have destroyed whatever prosperity Venezuela had. Yet to listen to Sinn Féin and the hard-left TDs in the Dáil this State is a failure and Venezuela is a place to be emulated.
This narrative was on display again this week at the commemoration of the first Dáil by our current parliamentarians in the Mansion House.
Leo Varadkar, Micheál Martin and Brendan Howlin, all of whose parties have contributed to building the modern state we have today, made thoughtful and reflective speeches which acknowledged both what the State has done and what it has failed to do.
By contrast McDonald drew fallacious comparisons between the poverty and deprivation which existed in 1919 and the problems facing the country today.
Her solution was the aggressive pursuit of Irish unity, a dangerous tactic in the shifting and uncertain world created by Brexit.
Sinn Féin's incoherent economic policies do not attract much scrutiny and it would not be the first or last Opposition party to offer facile solutions to the complex economic problems that face a modern state.
However, when its economic policies are taken in tandem with its lack of democratic standards, as exposed in the cash for ash inquiry in Northern Ireland, the party's unfitness for government is obvious.
At the inquiry conducted by former judge Sir Patrick Coughlin, texts and emails from late January 2017 have emerged which show the Sinn Féin minister for finance at Stormont, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, had to get approval for key decisions from unelected senior republican Ted Howell, a confidant of Gerry Adams.
Ó Muilleoir had been asked to approve a plan to slash the costs of the scheme but David Sterling, then of the finance department and now Northern Ireland's most senior official, texted another civil servant to express the fear that Ó Muilleoir was "acting under instruction".
Despite being urged by officials to accept the curbs, Ó Muilleoir also consulted with senior former IRA members such as Padraic Wilson and Martin Lynch, who have no elected role and are largely unknown to the public.
This insight into how Sinn Féin acts when it gets power, when combined with its admiration for Venezuela, should be a salutary warning to any of the other Dáil parties that contemplate going into coalition with it after the next election.
Good piece. And it doesn't surprise me. It wasn't so long ago that I had Shinner friends posting on Facebook about how everything is fine in Venezuela and that stories about rampant inflation and a failing economy are just right-wing lies. The far right is not the only place where you'll find people who have abandoned reality-based politics.
Correct. Democrats abandoned reality a long time ago and now are purely based on identity politics.
The weak minded have bought into it.
https://southfront.org/the-saker-interview-with-michael-hudson-on-venezuela
Thought this was an interesting take on the things going on over there
Quote from: omaghjoe on January 29, 2019, 03:11:20 PM
Quote from: vallankumous on January 29, 2019, 02:06:21 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.
Ehh yes they have, the state took over oilfields that they dont have the expertise to exploit and the entire production infrastructure is crumbling from under investment.
To exasperate the problem Maduro put military men in charge of the oil and they dont have a clue what they are doing.
That's just not the case.
It is the refusal to buy from Venezuela because of US pressure on third parties that has caused a lack of investment in maintenance. it's got feck all top do with local expertise.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil-exports/venezuelan-oil-exports-rise-but-not-enough-to-drain-stocks-idUSKBN1WH15N
Quote from: vallankumous on October 04, 2019, 02:39:18 AM
Quote from: omaghjoe on January 29, 2019, 03:11:20 PM
Quote from: vallankumous on January 29, 2019, 02:06:21 PM
Quote from: trailer on January 28, 2019, 06:58:30 PM
A socialist banana (oil) republic. Huge public spending based on oil revenues which have now dried up, leaving a population starving and destitute, with a government clinging to power. The self appointed interim President is most likely an American pawn.
The people will suffer.
They haven't dried up. Other countries are refusing to buy it.
It's the opposite of banana which seems to be the problem they have.
Ehh yes they have, the state took over oilfields that they dont have the expertise to exploit and the entire production infrastructure is crumbling from under investment.
To exasperate the problem Maduro put military men in charge of the oil and they dont have a clue what they are doing.
That's just not the case.
It is the refusal to buy from Venezuela because of US pressure on third parties that has caused a lack of investment in maintenance. it's got feck all top do with local expertise.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil-exports/venezuelan-oil-exports-rise-but-not-enough-to-drain-stocks-idUSKBN1WH15N
Not saying your not correct but its all relative..... They used to export 2.5million BBD 3 years ago. Now they are under 1million the majority of that drop is exclusively due to production ability.... So with the production loss they lost their customers and were politically ostracised both of which adversely affects their ability to export. So now they can produce more than they sell doesn't mean that they can produce anywhere near the levels they were at before if they were able to find the buyers.