Venezuela and Hollywood; Axis of Stupidity

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penn and chavez

Sean Penn is an idiot. But you knew that. There are more idiots in Hollywood. But you knew that too. Here is a who’s who of Hollywood idiots who were supporters of Hugo Chavez.

Oliver Stone, Danny Glover, Kevin Spacey, Harry Belafonte and Don King.

Belafonte has claimed that millions of Americans support Chavez. Of Chavez government King once said

“To see what is happening here makes me feel good all over.”

If only someone would shove a microphone up his in his face and in the faces of all these idiots and see what they have to say about Chavez’s Venezuela today.

A year ago I was in Caracas and described the visit here:

At first glance it seems like a reasonably decent airport. Then after a while you notice the dilapidation, the inoperative urinal, the broken floor tiles. A surprisingly pretty Immigration Agent waves me over, inspects my documents, asks a few questions in passable English and allows me into the country. I retrieve my bag and then pass both the bag and the carry-on through the x-ray machine just before the the exit.

This is my first trip to Caracas and I was not without anxiety given the tumultuous events of the last few weeks. I had been invited to come and lecture at a meeting. A giant screen in the airport lobby displays unending scenes of tribute to the departed leader. The termperature is comfortable but the exposed air conditioning vents are not controlling the humidity well.

It turned out that the person who I expected to pick me up never made the trip to Venezuela. I called him and he told me that a driver was indeed on the way and should be there already. Within ten minutes I located him holding a hand-made sign that read “Jhon…”

The twenty minutes or so ride to the Eurobuilding hotel downtown wound its way up the side of the mountain over roads much in need of repair. Chavez’ image is ubiquitous. The Eurobuilding Hotel is attractive but not world class. The staff is very polite and helpful. The bath/shower has dark marks on its floor and if you grab the towel rack a little too tightly one of the cross bars will fall out. There is free wireless internet and there are more than 100 channels on the TV and there are even American shows with Spanish subtitles. A complete lack of English speaking television is one of the best ways to create the feeling of cultural isolation, something I’d experienced in South Korea. The pool and the palm trees cannot hide a basic truth.

Venezuela is a mess.

It’s a lot more of a mess today:

Venezuela is faced by economic, social, and political challenges: Inflation is at 56 percent, the currency is rapidly devaluing, shortages of staples like toilet paper and sugar are plaguing the nation, and the murder rate is one of the worst in the world. What started out as roughly two weeks of small, student-led protests against the Maduro administration has turned into opposition-organized marches that involve stone-throwing and taunting met by tear gas and water cannons.

One the acts of a desperate regime is to create enemies:

(CNN) — Venezuela said Monday that three U.S. diplomats have 48 hours to leave the South American country, accusing them of conspiring against its government.

The State Department fired back, calling that claim “baseless and false” and saying the United States had not yet received any formal notification of the officials’ expulsion.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua accused the U.S. officials of using a visa program as a cover to meet with youth organizers at private universities “for training, financing and creating youth organizations through which violence is promoted in Venezuela.”

Then you shut down the media that’s critical of you

“These are legitimate issues that do need a popular voice and channel for expression,” says Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society in New York. “What makes the protests particularly volatile is that other avenues to express these demands have been closed down,” Mr. Sabatini says, referring to the closure of opposition media over the past several years and the shuttering of multiple newspapers nationwide more recently due to paper shortages.

and jail the opposition:

Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was arrested Tuesday after emerging from days of hiding and making an impassioned speech to thousands of supporters, saying he hoped his detention will open Venezuelans’ eyes to the increasingly authoritarian bent of their government.

Speaking with a megaphone to more than 5,000 people, Lopez said that he doesn’t fear going to jail to defend his beliefs and constitutional right to peacefully protest against President Nicolas Maduro.

“We’ve got nothing to hide,” Lopez told a sea of supporters who, like him, were dressed in white to symbolize non-violence. He said it is worth going to jail if it “awakens Venezuela” to the “corrupt” justice and economic “disaster” left by 15 years of socialist rule.

After the short speech, Lopez descended from a statue of 19th century Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, and clutching a flower stem, walked a few feet to a police picket, where he turned himself in.

Opposition politicians urged calm as Lopez was taken away by police in an armored vehicle, and frustration rose as a heavily armed police picket blocked supporters from marching downtown as they had originally planned.

Lopez was being sought by authorities on an arrest order for allegedly inciting violence that broke out during protests last week in which three people were killed. He faces charges including homicide and vandalism of public property. Maduro accuses Lopez of leading a “fascist” plot to overthrow him.

Speaking of idiots, about a year ago David Sirota also wrote an article titled

“Hugo Chavez’s economic miracle”

When a country goes socialist and it craters, it is laughed off as a harmless and forgettable cautionary tale about the perils of command economics. When, by contrast, a country goes socialist and its economy does what Venezuela’s did, it is not perceived to be a laughing matter – and it is not so easy to write off or to ignore. It suddenly looks like a threat to the corporate capitalism, especially when said country has valuable oil resources that global powerhouses like the United States rely on.

Well, Venezuela is cratering due precisely to socialism and command economics. Socialism ultimately fails. Too much government control is a bad thing.

Chavez and Maduro expropriated industry, capped prices and aggressively redistributed wealth. They drove out the talent needed to maintain their petroleum life blood. And you can see where that inexorably leads.

The ruins of the Venezuelan economy hold a warning for the US. The Alinsky-inspired President of the United States thinks government is the answer to everything, spies on reporters, is considering regulating news outlets, hears democrats call for the FCC control of Fox News, has weaponized the IRS to throttle free speech, has jailed one video maker, arrested another, without any doubt is behind the unending pogrom haunting the Governor of Wisconsin, is redistributing wealth in America and is incentivizing idleness.

Coincidentally, all of the above idiots are also Obama supporters.

Venezuela aquí llegamos.

We’re well on our way.

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But Socialism will work here, since our leaders are so much smarter than those of the failed states.

Anybody remember Teddy Kennedy’s response to a statement about socialized medicine having failed everywhere that it’s been tried?
“Because they didn’t have me to run it for them.”

That’s why there is no sarc/off following my first statement. Liberals actually believe it.

Great overview of the stupidity that is Marxism..

BTW, speaking of shutting down media critical of you, did you catch this one today?

Why is the Obama Administration Putting Government Monitors in Newsrooms?
http://aclj.org/free-speech-2/why-is-obama-administration-putting-government-monitors-in-newsrooms

I keep a list of businesses not to do business with. I also keep a list of people not to support. If any of them are in a movie, I don’t go to it. I don’t go to very many of today’s movies anyway. They are almost always propaganda for liberalism.

People who idolize dictators like Chavez wish they could be like him and others like him. What kind of dictator would they be if they got to be one? I don’t ever want to find out.

A simple comparison of the last ten years of politics in Venezuela to the last 6 years here shown the path we seem to be on….

Viva El Presidente Hussein!

@Scott in Oklahoma: #4
I agree.

Israel has socialized
medicine as does Please give an example of a country that does not have socialized medicine that you believe we should copy

How about this idea John… instead of trying to copy what other counties do, why not set an example of what we can do without having the government run everything in our lives. And if you believe “their way” whatever that is works better, why don’t you go ahead and move there?

@john:

Israel has socialized medicine as does Please give an example of a country that does not have socialized medicine that you believe we should copy

America before Obama.

John,

Are you joking with that? Why did we ever want to change the best healthcare system in the world to begin with? We could have instituted some measures like tort reform & cross border insurance sales to save people money but NO…

There’s a few statistics you should have a look at from Ann Coulter’s latest piece; “NEW OBAMA PROMISE: IF YOU LIKE YOUR LIFE, YOU CAN KEEP IT”

I will include an excerpt of it for you here….:

“With Obamacare, the Democratic Party has foisted the most regressive tax possible on America. This ruthless assault on the middle class is all so we can have a health care system more like every other country has.

Until now, the United States has had the highest survival rates in the world for heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Cancer comparisons are the most useful because all Western countries keep careful records for this disease.

For all types of cancers, European men have only a 47.3 percent five-year survival rate, compared to a 66.3 percent survival rate for American men.

European women have only a 55.8 percent chance of being alive five years after being diagnosed with any type of cancer, compared to 62.9 percent of American women.

American survival rates for breast, prostate, thyroid and skin cancer are higher than 90 percent. Europeans do not have a 90 percent survival rate for one of those cancers.

The European rates are even worse than they sound because many cancers are not discovered until the victim’s death — twice as many as in the U.S. All those cancers were excluded from the study.

Canadian cancer survival rates aren’t much better than the European rates — and they’ve been able to sneak into to the U.S. for treatment! Women in the U.S. have a 61 percent survival rate for all cancers, compared to a 58 percent survival rate in Canada. Men in the U.S. have a 57 percent survival rate compared to 53 percent in Canada.”

For more, see;
http://www.humanevents.com/2014/02/19/new-obama-promise-if-you-like-your-life-you-can-keep-it/

Now you tell me, why are liberals are so willing to flush the awesome system we had down the toilet? So willing to throw away those added years of life & health for themselves & their loved ones that will no longer be afforded to Americans?

Further, why do they seem to hate life & love death so much in all they do?

Lastly, why must they destroy EVERYTHING exceptional we’ve achieved as a nation?

Tabby@#10 – I say ditto! As for John….I’m not even hearing crickets…

@ Angel Artiste #9 – So right!

#3 – We do the same thing – the list just keeps getting longer. I would not support even if ….wait for it… it was Free!

My greatest hope is it will reach them in their pockets… perhaps THEN it will resonate with them…don’t bite the hand that feeds you…

@Angel Artiste: #9
Great answer.

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro sure is confused!
He has accused US conservatives of plotting to overthrow his government.
OK.
And WHO are these ”conservatives?”
CNN reporters …..
He described CNN of “hostile coverage”…..
“I won’t accept war propaganda against Venezuela. If they don’t rectify themselves, out of Venezuela,” he said.

And who else are these ”conservatives?”
Three US diplomats!
Obama’s men and women!

So, maybe farther lefty movie stars are all the non-conservatives we have here in the USA as far as Maduro is concerned.
Obama will have to lean further Left to please him.
Ay yi yi!

Oliver Stone did he cry big fat tears when Chavez croaked off? Did he attend the funeral? Yeah listen to Stone sit and snivel for his beloved dictator and tyrant now that Chavez is in the flamming place far below he can smell all the sulpher he can please

anti AMERICAN

I wonder how these Hollywood liberals like Oliver Stone and Sean Penn reacted with Hugo Chavez went to meet the devil?

@Tabby:
Perhaps we should be comparing the BEST of Eutopean healthcare to ours, instead of the average or the worst
Shall we compare it to the Swiss?

@Scott in Oklahoma:
Scott
I love the Jnited Sraes and want to make it even better
Why don’t you also want to make it better for all Americans

@John: Your idea of “better” obviously clashes with mine. I will leave it at that.

Sean Penn’s putrid movies are not worth wasting your hard earned money on just another hollywood blowhard