BloggeRhythms

On a v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w  news day an article was found on Drudge by the Wall Street Journal’s Juan Forero @wsj.com. The subject is one often covered here, the deterioration of the socialist model, Venezuela. Of particular interest in the intellect, astuteness and awareness of readers as reflected in their comments farther down.  

Mr. Forero begins by noting: “Once Latin America’s richest country, Venezuela can no longer feed its people, hobbled by the nationalization of farms as well as price and currency controls”

“Venezuela has the world’s highest inflation—estimated by the International Monetary Fund to reach 720% this year—making it nearly impossible for families to make ends meet. Since 2013, the economy has shrunk 27%, according to local investment bank Torino Capital; imports of food have plunged 70%.” 

Rummaging through garbage is common, as “people in the countryside pick farms clean at night,” stealing whatever edible can be found. There are shortages of seed and fertilizer and looters targeting food stores, while families padlock their refrigerators. 

According to the National Poll of Living Conditions: “Three in four Venezuelans said they had lost weight last year, an average of 19 pounds. People here, in a mix of rage and humor, call it the Maduro diet after President Nicolás Maduro.” 

The Catholic charity Caritas and a team led by Susana Raffalli are monitoring Venezuelan conditions and results of their most recent study “of 800 children under the age of 5 in Yare and three other communities showed that in February nearly 11% suffered from severe acute malnutrition, which is potentially fatal, compared with 8.7% in October. Caritas said nearly a fifth of children under age 5 in those four communities suffered from chronic malnutrition, which stunts growth and could mark a generation.” 

“Nine in 10 homes said they don’t make enough money to buy all their food, according to the poll of living conditions. Nearly a third of Venezuelans, 9.6 million people, eat two or fewer meals a day, up from 12.1% in 2015, the poll found; four of out five in the nation are now poor.

“Cesar Augusto Palma, 75 years old, lays out the grim arithmetic of high inflation on a fixed income. His pension is now worth about $10 a month, he said, enough to buy four boxes of milk.” 

In response to the details exposed in the article and illustrating their understanding of the similarity to the political objectives of leading Democrats here, the following samples illustrate the majority of comments from readers. 

Jack Knolls wrote: “Venezuela is run by Democrats.  If Hillary would have won, this would be America in 8 more years of Democratic Party rule.” 

Guohua Li wrote: “All those elite colleges should send some students to study abroad there for a semester and learn from first hand experience what a great country can be built on socialism.”

Jack Knolls wrote again: “This is what Hillary, Obama, Sanders and the Democrats want for America:  Socialism.  It sounds great to give "Free" sh** to everyone, but then when you run out of someone else's money, it's a problem.” 

Larry Smith wrote: “I have noticed Maduro and his cronies have not lose a pound...he could benefit from missing a few meals 

Terry Oxley wrote: “Surely, the likes of Glover and Belafonte will be going to Venezuela to work on behalf of starving citizens.  Then again, maybe they should stay home as Venezuelans may still remember their support and encouragement of radical socialist reforms - a principal cause of the current humanitarian disaster.” 

Robert Diaz wrote: “It's amazing that the author reports the tragedy of a failed state as if it was some famine caused by drought. Venezuela has been destroyed by the communists that have ruled that country for two decades. It is an example of what happens when socialism/communism takes over. We are not immune.” 

BRUCE WING wrote: ‘If and when Schumer, Pelosi, Obama ran a country here is the example.

“So Democrats - this is what happens if you run things - it may take a bit longer here, but it will happen.” 

GeorgeB Purdell wrote: “Would someone at the WSJ please forward this to Bernie Sanders, Tom Perez, and Elizabeth Warren. Profits matter Mr Sanders. 

“No need to bother Barack. He's too much of a Chavismo advocate to admit failure. Like his communist brethren, Barack will blame this all on the capitalists who fled early and those who remained behind and gave up because they couldn't figure out how to stay in business while operating at a deficit. 

“Deficits never stopped Comrade O. Now where's his next $400k speech venue and who does he need to bump at the local country club to get a good tee time? 

Rick Williams wrote: “Even with exceptional natural resources and wealth socialism fails.  

“Wake up America!  The radical democratic left in this country, including Obama, once praised Chavez and his policies.” 

Thus, what the reader commentary reveals is that the past election results weren’t simply a fluke or reaction to a personally disliked presidential candidate. The greater probability is that the majority of voters across middle-America, being very well-aware of the country's direction for the prior eight years, said enough is enough, the socialist drain stops right here. 

And from the uptick in the nation’s economy during the past three and a half months, that decision by voters was absolutely correct.  

That’s it for today folks. 

Adios