Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/06/pro-democracy-reformers-win-bi.html
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Damn. And just across the border, nothing reported in the news. " In mainland China, social media posts have been deleted, TV screens have gone blank, and news outlets have stopped updating the election results."
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Meanwhile, in South America, the Venezuelen dictator Maduro has suspended all future elections to prevent “instability in this time of crisis”, and his government has ruled all future laws by the elected legislative body pre-emptively unconstitutional so they are effectively disbanded, and no one is really talking about it anywhere.
Hard to believe in the forces of democracy actually winning anything against the dictators nowadays in the long run, but at least it seems like the people of Hong Kong are still fighting. I wish them luck.
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Which means “mission accomplished” for the Saud/Bush oil regime, expect oil prices to start going back up before next summer.
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O shit. Cue the Chinese Navy in 3… 2…
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You’re gonna have to explain this one to me. It’s still the same dudes in charge, they’ve just insured they’ll be the only dudes in charge ever (and also that they’re going to torture, starve and murder anyone who says otherwise).
Why would the Bush/Saud regime want the same people to continue being in charge? Why would they have hurried along the transition to dictatorship that was happening already? None of this accusation makes sense.
Yeah, this is the PRC we’re talking about. They’ll arrange for -something- soon enough.
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Especially since Latin American countries have traditionally been in favor of more expensive oil (they hedge against low prices) and the KSA has benefited from cheaper oil lately.
No wonder, since this is totally untrue. However it is surprising we haven’t heard this claim, since foreign media has not been shy about spreading exaggerations about Venezuela. But hey, Maduro’s a dictator, never mind the internationally monitored presidential election he won, or the recent parliamentary elections he admitted defeat in. Or the fact that much of the opposition’s leadership was affiliated with the US backed 2002 coup attempt.
With the record of US support for dictators in Latin America, we should be really careful about labelling governments as undemocratic when the US has officially declared them an enemy. Especially when these governments have won multiple elections on platforms of free public health care and redistributing Venezuela’s oil wealth more equitably. Whereas the US incarcerates the poor at rates that have no equal on Earth, including China, the original subject of the thread (or even more astoundingly, US rates exceed those in Stalin’s USSR).
Do you live in Venezuela? Or are you merely trusting your own “media”? What are you sources? Mine are actual Venezuelan media of various types (or at least what little is left of it) and knowing and talking with many people who actually live there, from all walks of life, and from the governments own goddamn statements where they’ve announced their rulings that all legislation passed by the National Assembly is now null and void.
What does the US declaration have to do with whether or not they are a dictatorship? What does their victory in past elections matter? Many dictators started out democratically elected. What the fuck does any of that have to do with US incarceration rates? The MUD is fucking terrible so why the fuck does it matter if the oppositions leadership was ever affiliated with a 2002 US coup attempt? I’m not an advocate for them and don’t claim to be.
You managed to spend a lot of words without offering a single refutation beyond “this is totally untrue”, so try again and this time actually support your points.
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It’s rumored that the drop in oil prices was in response to Venezuela’s “donation” of heating oil to Florida. I.e. Chavez tweaked the tiger’s tail and got spanked.
What was the mission, how was it accomplished, and how did the Chavistas end up “spanked” considering they now have absolute control over the country?
The mission was to teach Chavez (the individual) a lesson, and to show the other uppity oil states that they should stay in line.
It was accomplished through dropping the price of oil to where even the Saudis (with the lowest production costs in the world) were losing money on every barrel. This was possible because in spite of their seemingly profligate ways, the house of Saud has a metric fuck-ton of money in their rainy-day fund. (To the point where it is estimated they could have continued the bleed for a good 7-10 more years if necessary.)
The result is Venezuela in shambles, any other oil-producing countries watching Venezuela with similar thoughts (i.e. forming the oil industry version of BRICS) having a good object lesson in oil economics and what happens when you piss off the powers-that-be, with the added bonus that a lot of smaller oil companies went out of business letting the scraps be picked up for a song by those with the reserves to weather the storm.
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