Perhaps if we'd engaged

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 06:43:05 +0000

Perhaps if we'd engaged Chavez when he was actually helping the poor, it wouldn't have turned into this exploitive violent typical Latin American scene. For all their faults both Chavez & Qaddafi seemed to put oil money towards the poor, towards basic needs. What do our demagogues do? Feed the rich. For an atheist, I found the "as you do to the least of my brethren, so you do to me" message pretty loud and clear in the Bible. I can forgive I guess billions of people believing in superstitions like the Great Flood and immaculate conception, but how is it "love one another" is so easily morphed into "screw your neighbor, every man for himself'"? 95%+ literacy in this country of supposed Christins and we plead basic ignorance or just willfully preach opposites out of both sides of our mouths, over and over? An hour wasted on this stuff every week - they could be out doing drugs or something useful.

Violence, Including a

artappraiser — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 01:35:28 +0000

In reply to As Venezuela Prepares to Vote, Some Fear an End to Democracy

Violence, Including a Candidate’s Death, Mars Vote in Venezuela

By Nicholas Casey, Patricia Torres & Ana Vanessa Herrero @ NYTimes.com, July 30

[....] President Nicolás Maduro had ordered a rewriting of Venezuela’s Constitution, its governing charter. Sunday’s election was simply to pick the members of the constituent assembly that will carry it out. Nearly all candidates were politicians close to Mr. Maduro, presumably assuring that the outcome would leave his leftist movement with complete control of the country once the assembly takes charge [....]

Many Venezuelans decided not to vote, as evidenced by short or no lines at polling places, dealing a serious blow to the popular legitimacy of Mr. Maduro’s effort.

Prosecutors said on Sunday that they were investigating the death of José Félix Pineda, a 39-year-old lawyer running for the constituent assembly. An armed group broke into Mr. Pineda’s home in the city of Ciudad Bolívar on Saturday night and shot him dead there, they said.

Hours later, a large explosion rocked a middle-class neighborhood in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, injuring seven police officers on patrol there. Video circulated on social media showed the uniformed officers, all on motorcycles, riding into a fireball that had just erupted in front of them [....]

As the day wore on, government security forces used water cannons, rubber bullets and batons against opposition protesters, just as they have for the last three months.

Among those killed on Sunday were two boys, ages 13 and 17, who were shot dead during protests in the western state of Táchira; a police officer shot dead in front of a school; and a 43-year-old man killed in the central city of Barquisimeto in Lara State, when a bullet pierced his head, according to the state prosecutor’s office.

The focus of many voters in Caracas seemed to be on food, not politics. Venezuela remains in an economic tailspin, causing severe shortages of food and medicine [.....]

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Perhaps if we'd engaged

Violence, Including a