Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
|
|
|
Jan 30, 2010 - 07:40pm PT
|
You're a big fan of free markets, why don't you head on over to Somalia?
Fun stuff!!!111
That's not a free market, dickhead, that's a lack of a market!!!!!
(you know this too, so it's a weak troll at best...T0)
|
|
WandaFuca
Social climber
From the gettin place
|
|
|
Jan 30, 2010 - 07:53pm PT
|
There is a a market for food, weapons, khat, ships, and many other things.
There is a weak government that cannot regulate that market.
It is a free market, not free from violence or coercion or corruption, but by Republican (and Chicago school) standards it is freer than ours.
You'd be much happier there, really.
|
|
tomtom
Social climber
Seattle, Wa
|
|
|
Jan 30, 2010 - 07:54pm PT
|
I heard that George Bush was responsible for the earthquake in Haiti to draw attention away from his failed economic policies. Most of the money directed to disaster relief is being redirected to his political cronies. Where do you think that text message money is going?
|
|
Jeremy Handren
climber
NV
|
|
|
Jan 30, 2010 - 08:07pm PT
|
Comparing Tar Sands to the Crude in Saudi is not realistic. There are huge problems associated with getting energy out of tar sands. If I was going to hatch some Machiavellian plot to corner the worlds oil resources I wouldn't be starting with that low grade goop.
Bluering...the US uses about 20 million barrels a day....we produce about 5mbd....all our largest fields are in decline.....do you really think that its a good idea to drain our remaining reserves? For what? ...so that we can piss them away driving around in idiotic gadget filled gas guzzlers?....
We will really need that oil in the future.
|
|
Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 31, 2010 - 01:58am PT
|
The entire South American country of 28 million people depends to a large degree on the massive Guri Dam, which holds back the Caroni River in southeastern Bolivar state.
The blackouts are another economic blow after President Chavez devalued the nation's currency by as much as 50 percent on Jan 8 as he struggled with cash flow and a growing budget deficit. The overall economic situation may keep Venezuela mired in recession and erode Chavez's popularity in the run up to legislative elections in September.
"With these measures, we're trying to keep Guri from taking us to a very critical situation at the end of February, from creating let's say a total shutdown of the country," Electricity Minister Angel Rodriguez said on Monday night.
"The drought has exposed what was already a seriously overstretched grid and years of underinvestment," said Patrick Esteruelas, a New York-based analyst at Eurasia Group. "The government is going to try to soften the blow by spending very aggressively from now until voters go to the polls."
Energy experts reject Chavez's claims that the weather phenomenon known as El Nino caused the crisis. They accuse the government of mismanaging the sector, with more than a decade of underinvestment and a failure to maintain existing infrastructure.
Victor Poleo, a former vice-minister for electricity under Chavez, blames corruption for less than a third of the funds assigned to electricity projects reaching their intended destination.
AP-Bloomberg- Financial Times
|
|
bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
|
|
|
Jan 31, 2010 - 01:32pm PT
|
Your racism and hate are only trumped by your lack of IQ and ability for rational discussion and thinking.
Scott, maybe before you criticize someone else's IQ, you should check your own. As for Fatty's ability for rational discussion and thinking, see the previous sentence.
John, what's up? Hopefully you got a piece, hunker down. This sh#t will blow over one way or the other...
|
|
gazela
Boulder climber
Albuquerque, NM
|
|
Based on Largo's reports, Venezuela is starting to sound, ominously, like pre-coup Chile in mid-1973. (The big differences are (a) petroleum [and, especially, who controls it], and (b) Hugo Chavez's military connections [something Salvador Allende obviously lacked].) My wife and I were in the Caribbean recently (on a cruise--no jet-setters, we) and visited the island of Tobago, which of course isn't far from the Venezuelan coast. The young man we hired to drive us around the island--very pretty place, by the way--told us that Chavez is trying to extend his influence to neighboring jurisdictions (e.g., Trinidad and Tobago) by selling them oil at extremely low per-barrel prices; thus, gasoline on Tobago costs only about US$1.50/gallon at present. However, he said that all of T&T is wary of Venezuela's political future, and now it's easy to see why.
|
|
rmsusa
Trad climber
Boulder
|
|
So anybody who goes looking for news from VZ can find it. One English Language source is the Miami Herald. Another is repeated columns in the Wall Street Journal. Youtube provides a surprisingly large collection of Chávez pronouncements. It's not surprising that they're in Spanish. For those who can read Spanish, the Venezuelan newspaper "El Universal" is available online. For stuff that isn't covered in the local paper (for fear of nationalization, or complete ban like RCTV) the neighboring countries cover it pretty well. Try "El Tiempo" from Colombia, "El Universal" from Mexico and others.
I do business in VZ. It's definitely melting down. With the latest devaluation, Chávez will make the lives of his biggest supporters, the lower economic classes, even more miserable. The sooner people react to what's happening to their living circumstances, the better. ˇFuera Chávez, tas pochao!
|
|
Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 4, 2010 - 10:44pm PT
|
Getting worse. Just talked to my daughter who's presently in my crib in Ven. and she says the electricity is off and on and the water runs only every other day. She's going back to med school in a week for year five and she's hoping the generator is still functioning in the hospital where she works. If not, folks will be dropping like flies.
Last year, at this same (state) hospital, the air con system went down in the morgue - a crucial commodity to be sure - and the administrator couldn't get it together to get the system repaired, this, despite circling the entire hospital with huge billboards of President Chavez, holding babies and extolling the virtues of socialismo. Of course in summer swelter, the facility took on a withering bouquet, and those in charge of attending and dressing the dead didn't want to go anywhere near the morgue save to literally dump off the next dead guy. The bodies started piling up, so many and so fast that at one point they had to stack them like cordwood, and even place some of the deceased in chairs. By now the dead were stiff as teak. Later, come burrying time, and equiped in hazmat suites borrowed from the miliary, they had to "break down" the stiffs to fit them into caskets. That's a true story. The sloth and incompetance introduced and instutionalized by the Chavez regime will, IMHO, take a generation to reverse.
JL
|
|
bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
|
|
That's sad, John. At what point is it okay to overthrow that gov't by force?
I mean it.
|
|
bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2010 - 04:18pm PT
|
I wonder when our State Dept is going to condemn and sanction him? I mean, we were so critical of the legitimate Honduran coup, this strikes me as indefensible for Chavez.
Government seizing businesses and throwing their owners in jail on unspecified charges, where's the outrage?
Stalin is a pretty good analogy.
|
|
andy@climbingmoab
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2010 - 04:57pm PT
|
Comparing Chavez to Stalin is a bit hysterical. It is pretty hard to compete with a guy who had over a million people executed and killed pretty close to the entire population of Venezuela via executions, forced resettlements, and famines.
|
|
dirtbag
climber
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2010 - 05:03pm PT
|
Send in other people's children to fight our wars!
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2010 - 05:05pm PT
|
Send in Fatty - he looks like a seal. They'd instantly surrender.
Stalin was directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of between 30 and 40 million people, in the civil war, the famines, the purges, and his incompetence in World War II. Chavez is a clumsy and incompetent buffoon, but hardly a Stalin.
|
|
bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2010 - 05:21pm PT
|
Yeah, I suppose you're right. We should wait until he starts murdering masses of people before we compare his tactics/philosophy to Stalin.
|
|
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2010 - 05:23pm PT
|
but hardly a Stalin
Only because he is
a clumsy and incompetent buffoon
|
|
dirtbag
climber
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2010 - 05:52pm PT
|
"Monroe Doctirne"? What a f*#king joke. Fatty already has a throbbing warmonger hard on.
And "Stalin"? He's a thug alright but the righties' tendency to hype bad guys never ceases to amaze me.
|
|
Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2010 - 05:54pm PT
|
Invoke the Monroe Doctrine and dispatch Chavez in three days, the increased efficiency of the oil wells alone would provide more wealth for Venezuela's citizens.
Substitute "Saddam" for "Chavez" and "Iraq" for "Venezuela" and that quote sounds hauntingly familiar, doesn't it.
And after your three easy days of making everything right in VZ, how about holding a press conference on an aircraft carrier with a big "Mission Accomplished" sign behind the podium.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!