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Of Salt and Socialism

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Nearly 75 percent of Venezuelans have lost 19 pounds or more in 2016. “People have become so desperate,” the Miami Herald reported recently, “that they are butchering and eating flamingos.”

While acknowledging the problem, TeleSUR, a television network based in Venezuela and funded by governments including Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, called the Herald’s story “kooky” and suggested taking reports “like alleged flamingo eating with a grain of salt.”

If, in socialist Venezuela, one could find a grain of salt.

In America, salt is necessary, too, when listening to our socialist Hollywood celebs blather about their kooky diets, for which some are blaming President Trump.*

Socialism kills. The deprivations in Venezuela are no joke, for along with economic chaos, Venezuelans are experiencing political repression on a grand scale. A new report from Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), documents the thousands arrested for protesting or “having posted something against the national government or a public official on Twitter.” The report details the “curtailment of civil, political and electoral freedoms” and “torture” and “censorship.”

Almagro calls for the suspension of Venezuela’s membership in the OAS, which is long overdue. The Human Rights Foundation demanded that nine years ago.

The Obama administration opposed such a move, as the Washington Post editorialized, in order to pursue “a legacy-making détente” with “the Castro regime in Cuba.”

At Townhall,** I urged Trump to support the effort to boot Venezuela out of the OAS, which might provide some assistance toward political change there . . . and Venezuelans eating more.

And perhaps to socialists in Hollywood and elsewhere eating crow . . . but not flamingo.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

 

* I covered this last week, when I compared their Trump Diet nonsense to the “Maduro Diet,” named for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the socialist dictator presiding over the complete economic collapse of what, prior to socialism, had been South America’s richest country.

** From which this Common Sense is adapted.


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3 replies on “Of Salt and Socialism”

Socialism, as practiced in Venezuela, is the ultimate and apex of market manipulation. As market manipulation is, by its nature, inefficient and in fact destructive of normal human interaction, its complete implementation therefore destroys human interaction, the result presently apparent in Venezuela. 
Market manipulation does no better if implemented only in sectors of an economy, and its result is a necessary part of the nature of the beast.
Sadly hope overrides historical fact in the “progressive” mind. The road to Venezuela’s present collapse was actually paved with good intentions. 

JATR4 — Do you have anger management issues? Whatever is causing these anti-social rages, I hope you’ll pause and do some introspection and/or get some help.

I’ve removed your filthy language from my site, while allowing what was left of your comments to remain. If you use such language again, however, we’ll block you from posting comments. Make your point or as many points as you want, but do so without profanity. Or go away.

You say I love Trump, but you didn’t bother to give any evidence. And in today’s commentary, my only mention of Mr. Trump is to urge him to take some small specific action. On Sunday, at Townhall, I actually praised him for so far being better on policy in Venezuela than was Mr. Obama.

Look, I love all people, or try my best to do so. But as for Mr. Trump’s behavior and policies, it is a mixed bag. As I said on this website months ago: “Yet, as with any president of these United States, I say: work with him when he’s doing right.”

You take issue with my two Townhall columns and several CS commentaries mentioning Hollywood celebs and/or producers, moguls, what-have-you in the last month. One column was about Hollywood hypocrisy on gender pay and race, etc. The other used silly things that movie stars had said about Trump and juxtaposed them to discuss the horrors in Venezuela.

Am I pandering to “my base”? I’m certainly trying to get people to read what I have to say. And to respond. Not as you have responded, hopefully, but with feeling. I’ll keep trying. Below are those commentaries (not including today’s) and columns mentioning Hollywood. Below that are some commentaries about Mr. Trump — in case anyone, in Hollywood or elsewhere, might be interested.

BTW, while my writing did not mention actor Sean Penn, his support for dictators is stupid and disgusting.

TH – Red Venezuela, Pink Flamingos, and the New Hollywood Diet
https://townhall.com/columnists/pauljacob/2017/03/19/red-venezuela-pink-flamingos-and-the-new-hollywood-diet-n2301053

CS – The Weight of Politics
https://thisiscommonsense.org////2017/03/10/the-weight-of-politics/

TH – The Stars of Sexist and Racist Hollywood Shine Bright Tonight
https://townhall.com/columnists/pauljacob/2017/02/26/the-stars-of-sexist-and-racist-hollywood-shine-bright-tonight-n2290760

CS – Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
https://thisiscommonsense.org////2017/02/27/deep-dark-truthful-mirror/

Trump =====>

CS – Trump’s Trump
https://thisiscommonsense.org////2017/01/05/trumps-trump/

CS – United We Disagree
https://thisiscommonsense.org////2016/08/23/united-we-disagree/

CS – Trump’s Dangerous Idea
https://thisiscommonsense.org////2016/04/28/trumps-dangerous-idea/

CS – Trump’s Road Rage
https://thisiscommonsense.org////2016/10/07/trumps-road-rage/

TH – Waking Up From a Nightmare… in a Cleveland Hotel… Not Owned by Trump
https://townhall.com/columnists/pauljacob/2016/06/19/waking-up-form-a-nightmare-in-a-cleveland-hotel-not-owned-by-trump-n2180689

CS – Extremist Over-reaction Syndrome
https://thisiscommonsense.org////2016/03/07/extremist-over-reaction-syndrome/

Just one question:  what purpose is served by booting Venezuela from OAS?
It sounds more like an empty gesture, a feel-good measure.   After all, what good did kicking out Cuba do for ordinary Cubans?   It didn’t lead to political change, in the short run or in the long run.

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