The Ugly Face of Socialism

[rsbs]

Seems like everytime either I or someone else mentions the utopia wrought by Hugo Chavez you hear the sound of crickets here. A well written essay on what we have to lose, and why the fight must continue to keep that ugly institution at bay here in the land of the free. Not "free lunch" but freedom to chart your own destiny.

https://townhall.com/columnists/allenwest/2017/04/20/the-ugly-face-of-socialism-n2315921

[hardnox]

Or as 3020 says, Valenzuela......Valenzuela I tell you!

What about all the socialism that created the American middle class, and the neoliberal capitalism that that is disassembling it?

[r3020]

Neoliberal capitalism is socialism.

[hardnox]

Never mind that through history there's never been a first world democracy descend directly into a leftist dictatorship.

You have to go through the banana republic state first, which Trumpsky is working on.

[rsbs]

Just keep cashing the checks and saying to yourself "socialism is great". Unless, of course, some BTO is getting a bigger check, right?

This Obamacare fiasco is really showing to be a tipping point in America, though, as so many people that would be working harder have done the math, like you did, and see that it doesn't pay under the new rules. How do you feel about that? You were one of the first to write about it...does it make you feel good or do you think something is wrong?

Be honest.

[hardnox]

Ah, all the Lilliputians hold Great Men down.

[bruce MN]

Natural result of democracy being dismantled from the outside.  What remains is a system controlled by gangsters and oligarchs.  

Last resort borrow money from petro facists and allow the narco economy to carry on, short of any means or hope or deterrence. Or alternatives.  They want to collect.  The western powers who destroyed your democracy want a pound of flesh. You've got nothing left but your nuked principles.

Best analogy may be Iraq, circa 1948.  

But, hey, can't happen here.....we've got Tillerson

[bruce MN]

"Do you read much?".

Remindful of a guy back home who was trying to explain something to me about Iraq's WMDs and all.  Guy lives in his pickup when he's not in his sho p or a tractor or combine.

Gave me the most incredulous look and said "Don't you listen to the radio?".

[BA Deere]

I know it feels great to feel smug about reading a lot and you should read. However just because you read The Pilot's Handbook that doesn't qualify you to get behind the stick of a Boeing 767. And also Hitler wrote a book, just because Mein Kampf is on the written page doesn't elevate it above garbage. You need to read with discernment.

[hardnox]

across Latin America although the majority are of the type that the us either passively or actively has supported since the 1890s.

Brazil's semi-coup away from an arguably modestly successful center left government shows little sign of improving the country, similarly for Argentina's back and forth a couple of times since the

Junta fell.

Even the free market poster child- Chile- seems to find itself somewhat captive to commodity cycles.

In some ways the leftist experiment in Venezuela is like the guy renting 10,000 acres- would have worked OK if prices didn't get cut in half.