Blogging the democratic revolution
Do you ever wonder what power it was that made Ronald Reagan victorious during the Cold War? A new history book, compellingly reviewed by Herb Meyer, casts amazing insight on what really happened during Reagan’s great rise to crush communism – and the secret was, Reagan was a … union boss: Like Lech Walesa after him, and like Lane Kirkland who did his own share of communism crushing – and like Venezuela’s potential future leader, oil boss Carlos Ortega – union bosses, when they are good union bosses, have the incredible skills to enact great revolutions. Reagan certainly had them,…
You can kind of hear it in the distance, the tolling bell for Chavez as his regime spirals into ever louder lunacy. But there is a real tolling bell that will get him, the bell of plunging oil prices. That bell is starting to ring so you can hear it. This week, oil prices fell below $52 a barrel. That’s not just bad news for Hugo Chavez, it’s the worst news there could be. Combined with declining production, falling oil prices will ensure that Chavez won’t be making the buku bucks he’s been making in oil earnings, something he’s currently…
Bolivia is edging ever closer to civil war, with armies forming and violence being returned from violence on both sides – the independent, industrious, freedom-loving Bolivians of the four Media Luna provinces in the east, and hardcore socialist cocalero regime of dependency in the Evo Morales-controlled remainder of the country. If you need a primer on what’s going on over there, how to view it, be sure to check out Alvaro Navajas Ruiz’s excellent roundup called ‘Cochabamba Conflict FAQ.’ It’s a wonderful authoritative source on Bolivia and it’s engagingly written so anyone can understand it and seek to learn more.…
It’s a little thin on the ground for polls in this election season, but Boz at Bloggings by Boz has gathered up a few interesting tidbits, such as one on the attitudes of Latin America’s elites toward the new elected governments around the region and found some interesting stuff. Read the whole thing here.
Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon at a funeral for an assassinated official Source: Notimex, via Yahoo! Mexico Felipe Calderon is determined to take back his country. His war parallels that which the U.S. is fighting for Iraq’s freedom but he doesn’t have the luxury of fighting it in another country. He’s fighting the same caliber of thugs the U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq. They are gangsters, they are thugs, they traffic in contraband and they behead their victims. They are as vile as anything Mexico has ever known and world class in the beastliness, every bit a match for Sadr’s…
Charles at Little Green Footballs has happened upon the latest in sexy Saudi swimwear, with the New Zealand-designed ‘burkini’ – something which could keep a whale afloat. Which is just the thing. Islamofascist women are getting fat under all those bedsheets and Islamofascists want them to get swimming to slim down. Which is kind of strange, given the premise of the veil. I thought the purpose of the veil was for women to ‘cover their hair’ because the sight of hair was just too stimulating for Islamofascist men to restrain themselves. To them, women are these potential tramps and temptresses…
Yelling “Fatherland, socialism or death!” Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez was sworn in for his third term, to the sound of crickets chirping. Not one world leader showed up to this Caracas spectacular to witness it – not a single one. Chavez says he didn’t invite anyone, but given his need for adulation, I leave it to you to make up your own mind about the veracity of that. Even Evo Morales said he had better things to do. But the skies were full of world leaders in transport – they all found time to attend tiny Nicaragua’s presidential inaugural, of…
ON DANIEL TREISMAN AND HIS “NORMAL COUNTRY” . . . AND WHETHER PIGS HAVE WINGS The Walrus and the Carpenter walked on a mile or so, And then they rested on a rock, conveniently low: And all the little Oysters stood and waited in a row. “The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things: Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–of cabbages–and kings– And why the sea is boiling hot — and whether pigs have wings.” – Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass, 1872 If you are a fan of Lewis Carroll, then you know what happened to…
A car near the Cochabamba governor’s office being burned by Evo Morales’ Marxist militants Source: Miguel Buitrago at MABB Marxist militants like to set things on fire, and these days none moreso than those in Bolivia, who’re burning down the town – of Cochabamba, so to say. That’s why they began massing on a Bolivian governor in Cochabamba state who’s been dissenting from the Morales bid to consolidate power. He’s been elected democratically, but no matter, what’s happening is what Morales does – wears people down until they give up and walk away. That’s what these militants are doing –…
Socialism, in various forms, ranging from democratic to totalitarian, is as natural as breathing in most parts of the world. From Indonesia to Tanzania, from Russia to Congo to Algeria, from Libya to Sweden to Canada to Mexico to Argentina, practically every nation out there has some variant of socialism. The odd thing is, the U.S. is the only exception. Socialism never really took off here, not even during the depths of the Depression, a detail that has baffled even socialists, including Stalin. Some theories given suggest that the U.S.’ lack of a feudal past is the reason why, and…
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has signalled his true intentions with more clarity than ever today, announcing that he would expropriate: 1. All the phone lines 2. All the electricity As this happened, a provincial governor from Bolivar state down south let it all hang out, simply saying he wanted to confiscate the entire media, forcing it all under state control. Just ‘nationalization’ don’t you know. Think of the implications of Chavez’s move, there, as well as the nutty governor’s statement. Chavez intends to control all the media and information all through the country. CANTV’s stock has now plunged 16% on…
Like a rotting jungle, redolent of every odor and fetid color, yet utterly impassable in viney tangles, nothing seems to stop the spreading corruption that has now gripped Hugo Chavez’s communist caudillo hacienda known as Venezuela. Daniel in Venezuela, at Venezuela News & Views has an excellent Venezuela corruption roundup, with links to several sources showing the extent of how corruption is overtaking the country and spreading beyond any reasonable reach of reform, showing itself in many different kinds of forms. Read the whole thing here. And don’t miss Miguel’s excellent translation of corruption stories from Le Monde of Paris,…
Is there any such thing as a Marxist regime without an invasion for territory? The Soviets did it – in Chechnya and elsewhere inside the marginally consolidated Tsarist empire, including the vast booty they took in one quarter of the Ukraine in the aftermath of WWI. Then they moved on to other territories, including forays into Mongolia and Afghanistan over the years, as well as spreading their influence significantly in other nonmilitary manners. Mao did it, rolling into Tibet and Xinjiang. The Southeast Asians did it, with Vietnam invading Cambodia and China – which in both cases were curiously justifiable…
In a December 6th installment of his column ???????Subjective Evaluation??????? for National Interest, Russia scholar Dmitri Simes of the Nixon Center purports to critique ???????highly simplistic and sometimes even misleading coverage??????? of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Simes argues that although Litvinenko was an employee of the FSB (successor to the KGB) is not appropriate to call him a ???????spy??????? since he never served in a ???????foreign intelligence??????? position but rather was assigned to handle organized crime issues and in that capacity made contact with exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky. He also argues that it is not appropriate to refer to…
Will Cuban dictator Fidel Castro ever die? Or will he just disappear into a miama of rumor? Val Prieto at Babalu blog has compiled a great list of all the dead Castro rumors as they multiply and explained how and why they are originating. He lays them out as anecdotes, gives them a good roughing up, and explains why they matter. He’s done the whole terrific thing in a long piece for Pajamas Media here.
In 1938, when President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized the oil industry in Mexico, everyone said it was the right move. After all, there were some pretty gamy capitalists from the U.S., Britain, France and Spain operating in the country, and getting them out and creating a national oil company, even if it meant expropriations, seemed like a good idea at the time. Today, amid a global oil boom, Mexico can barely keep up with its usual production, and it certainly can produce no additional oil or other energy. It now actually imports natural gas from the U.S., and though it is…
When I went to Venezuela late last year, I came back with the impression that it was heading well into Jim Jones territory. There was too much cult of personality there, starting with the gigantic Hugo Chavez billboard that greets you from Caracas airport before you take the highway into the shantytowns, and within the city, all the ‘Chavez IS the people’ posters, with him looking soulful and thoughtful, if not nauseastingly adored by small children gathered around his side. This imagery went well beyond the political and deep into the cultural realm, and beyond even cultural, to the religious…
RIA Novosti recently reported that from January through September of this year Russia received about $17.4 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) and slightly more, about $17.9 billion, in the form of international financial organizations’ loans and trade credits. At about $2 billion per month, we can project that Russia will have no more than $24 billion in FDI by year????????s end. Russia is a nation of about 140 million people. That means that Russia has an annual per capita FDI of roughly $170 per person. Virtually all of this investment is attributable to investment in Russia????????s energy sector, specifically…
Slavery, and human sacrifices, are the two great historic curses of our hemisphere that took vast amounts of blood and treasure and time to wipe out after great struggles. But amid these eradications, which were thought to be for good, the seeds of these evils apparently still exist. That’s why we are seeing slavery recrudesce. Who should be the caudillo to first to re-introduce that to our hemisphere? Why, the leader most in touch with his inner barbarism – Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Chavez is proposing to rope in every Venezuelan from ages 18 to 60 to “contribute” free labor…
Bolivians resist the destruction of their freedom and property and their eventual forced work in Marxist collectives How the citizens of Santa Cruz view Evo Morales Santa Cruz is loaded with pro-freedom anti-communist babes Indians don’t like their freedoms taken away either, Indians are protesting the Marxist Morales who also is Indian. However, with guys like him around, Morales cannot claim to speak for all Indians. As for Reuters’s headlines, yeah, this guy looks like a real wealthy oligarch all right. Notice that it’s Bolivians of every color at the march against Morales Bolivians march for autonomy in productive and…
When KGB spy Yuri Andropov (pictured above) expired as leader of the USSR after only sixteen months in office, the West breathed a sigh of relief. Power passed from the first KGB spy to rule Russia into the hands of Mikhail Gorbachev, who seemed far less threatening (even though he was a close associate of Andropov’s). When the USSR itself then collapsed without a shot being fired, many breathed a deep sigh of relief at the West????????s good fortune. Little did they think that the Andropov????????s KGB might return to power in Russia in exactly the same manner. Analyst Pavel…
Venezuela and Russia show remarkable similarities in their social, political and economic systems and levels of attainment, so it is perhaps not surprising to see their two tinpot leaders, Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez, seeking ever closer relations. An even more disturbing parallel, though, is that in both countries men who are essentially dictators have won ratification of their power through elections that, while fundamentally corrupt, are still a basic expression of popular support despite the vast majority of the population languishing in poverty while the regimes hoard oil revenue windfalls and obliterate individual liberty. UN data, as outlined below,…
Castro’s goon squads beat up Cubans in Havana Sunday Source: Stefania at Free Thoughts Their crime? Celebrating human rights day. You heard that right, they were observing human rights day. That’s why they were beat up by Castro’s ‘repudiation’ squads, the barrio thugs who serve as Castro’s illegal enforcers, beating others with impunity in the name of Castroism. It doesn’t get viler than this. What’s amazing to me is that the ruling Castro brothers don’t seem to be bothered by the irony. What this shows is their essential inhumanity and willingness to strike out at any thinking about human rights.…
Augusto Pinochet, 1915-2006 Source: CNN Chile’s former military strongman, Augusto Pinochet, has died in Providencia, Chile at age 91. Half of Chile is rioting in joy and the other half is rioting in rage. It seems about fitting, because not only did this guy do good and bad things through his life, these acts spanned extremes. 1. Pinochet is most famous for his role in the dirty war that left 3200 people dead in Chile. People were grabbed from the streets by creepy little men in grubby leather jackets and without trial, hurled into secret prisons, where many were tortured…
A procession to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe in Palm Springs Source: The Desert Sun At this time of year, millions of people participate in processions like this across the American hemisphere, an event that unites two American continents, Spain and the Philippines. On or around Dec. 10, millions will march for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. No, it’s not just a Mexican celebration, although the miracle it commemorates happened near Mexico City in 1517. It’s meant to unite the continent. This procession, pictured here, happened the other day in Palm Springs. It’s worth considering in the age…