Reallife:Venezuelanofficialsprobingoppositionmessagescoded

Real life: Venezuelan officials probing opposition messages coded into crossword puzzles

posted at 7:11 pm on March 28, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

…What.

Crossword puzzles in a local Venezuelan newspaper are calling readers to violent protests with conspiratorial messages, the country’s information minister said today.

Delcy Rodriguez called for an investigation of El Aragueno daily from the industrial town of Maracay, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Caracas for putting “encrypted messages” in its puzzles, she said in a post on her Twitter account. She didn’t give any details. …

Brain teasers have triggered the alarm of Venezuela’s socialist government before. In May 2012, state television accused the biggest national newspaper Ultimas Noticias of trying to organize the assassination of then-President Hugo Chavez through coded crossword messages. Chavez died from cancer a year later.

OK, crazies. Let’s put aside for a moment that the Venezuelan regime has a persistent and peculiar penchant for concocting wild, baseless, scapegoatist conspiracy theories about even the tiniest, strangest things and go ahead and flesh this theory out: Even if opposition forces were communicating to the masses through some secretly planned conjunction of 17 down and 22 across — stranger things have happened in the world of revolution and espionage, after all — what exactly would they be communicating about? Is it those greedy, subversive businessmen waging an “economic war” on Nicolas Maduro colluding about ways to jack up prices to undermine his leadership, rather than following the simple economic laws of supply and demand and trying to make a living? Or is it the political opposition leaders who have been… well, really open, actually, about their feelings on the matter and what they’re trying to acheive. On Twitter.

Todos los alimentos,los artículos de primera necesidad subiendo sus precios!Todo hacia arriba,además con la escasez batiendo récord

— Henrique Capriles R. (@hcapriles) March 25, 2014

Este es el Gobierno que no construye nada,todo lo medio pinta y le cambia el nombre!No construyen sino destruyen y dividen

— Henrique Capriles R. (@hcapriles) March 28, 2014

Nutshell translation: This government sucks.

But by all means, keep reverting to crazy stories about Venezuela has not real problems other than foreign imperialists and internal traitors to glory that would otherwise be the Bolivarian revolution. Maduro should write a book: “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.”

Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy and diplomatic power, has toned down its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro because of disappointment over how he is handling mounting economic problems and opposition-led street protests.

The shift, while subtle, has deprived Maduro of some of the regional backing he wants at a time of food shortages, high inflation and political uncertainty in the OPEC nation.

Broadly speaking, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff remains an ally of Maduro. While Rousseff is more moderate, both are part of a generation of leftist Latin American presidents who grew up opposing pro-Washington governments and believe they are united by a mission to help the poor.

However, Rousseff has been increasingly disappointed by some of Maduro’s actions and has reined in the more enthusiastic support that characterized Brazil-Venezuela relations under his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, according to two officials close to Rousseff’s government.

Tags: Brazil, conspiracy, economy, Latin America, Nicolas Maduro, socialism, tyranny, Venezuela

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Source from: hotair

Yep:DennisRodman’snextbasketballdiplomacytripto

Yep: Dennis Rodman’s next basketball diplomacy trip to North Korea still a go

posted at 6:51 pm on December 13, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

I mentioned this story in the Green Room earlier today, but the whole thing is so bizarre and gruesome, and certainly has enough possible implications for the future of North Korea, that I think it warrants a bigger slot.

Late Thursday night, reports started to emerge that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un had suddenly had his mentor/adviser/uncle-by-marriage and at least several of his aides executed, with the state’s official media deeming him “despicable human scum” who was “worse than a dog” and “a traitor for all ages.” The NYT has more:

Perhaps one of the most intriguing details in North Korea’s announcement of the execution of Jang Song-thaek, the uncle and presumed mentor of the leader Kim Jong-un, was what its state-run news media reported that Mr. Jang said while confessing to plotting to overthrow Mr. Kim’s government.

“I was going to stage the coup by using army officers who had close ties with me or by mobilizing armed forces under the control of my confidants,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Friday quoted Mr. Jang as having said on Thursday during his court-martial. “I thought the army might join in the coup if the living of the people and service personnel further deteriorate in the future.”

It could not be independently confirmed whether Mr. Jang, long considered a champion of a Chinese-style economic overhaul in North Korea, actually made such a statement or whether the government made up the assertion to justify his execution. But the long list of crimes that Mr. Jang and his followers were accused of having committed was tantamount to a highly unusual admission of what analysts said could be a serious and bloody power struggle over economic and other policies inside the impoverished but nuclear-armed country.

What exactly is going on here? “Press freedom” isn’t really a thing in North Korea, so pinning down the background information here is a tough task. Is Kim losing his grip on power, and desperately trying to demonstrate and consolidate it? Is he trying to shake off the old-school senior leadership in his cabinet and prove himself? Was this merely the end result of a sordid family drama over some crazy love triangle?

Whatever the reasoning (or lack thereof) behind it all, we can at least rest assured that Dennis Rodman’s next date with his BFF is still on. Evidently, not even the possible shakeup of the NorK’s authoritarian political structure is enough to faze this bromance made in hell — and really, why would it? If mass crimes against humanity and a couple of nuclear bomb threats here and there weren’t enough to do the trick, I don’t know why a few wanton political executions would change things, either. Via Politico:

Dennis Rodman plans to travel to North Korea next week to train its basketball team, a trip unaffected by the execution of leader Kim Jong Un’s uncle. …

Rodman considers Kim a close friend and has a long-scheduled trip that starts Monday to train the national team. Rodman also has organized an exhibition game in January in Pyongyang to celebrate Kim’s birthday. …

“Yes, I’m going to North Korea to train the basketball team,” he told The Associated Press by phone. “I’m going to bring American players over there. Yes I am. I’m going to be the most famous person in the world when you see American people holding hands and hoping the doors can be opened. If they can. If they can. If they can. I’m going. I’m going back for his birthday. Special.”

Tags: human rights, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, tyranny, violence

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Source from: hotair

Awesome:Venezuela’sMadurogetshis“emergencydecreepowers”

Awesome: Venezuela’s Maduro gets his “emergency decree powers”

posted at 8:41 pm on November 20, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

Finally, Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has the proper executive tools he needs to combat the “parasitic bourgeoisie” and the imperialist conspirators waging “economic war” on his regime by inducing shortages of even the most basic goods, engendering the world’s highest annual inflation rate, and sending the local bolivar currency to historic lows against the U.S. dollar on the country’s black market. Man, I feel better about the whole situation already.

Venezuelan lawmakers granted President Nicolas Maduro yearlong decree powers on Tuesday that he says are essential to regulate the economy and stamp out corruption but adversaries view as a thinly veiled power grab.

Hundreds of supporters of the ruling Socialist Party cheered outside the National Assembly as the so-called Enabling Law was passed, while a recording of Maduro’s late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, singing Venezuela’s anthem rang out inside the hall. …

“With this Enabling Law we are following an order by President Chavez,” said Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly and a staunch supporter of Maduro.

“He told us to pass all the laws necessary to wring the necks of the speculators and the money launderers.”

With these new powers, Maduro intends to immediately stop the business class’s “gouging” and “usury” by limiting profit margins to 15 to 30 percent, as well create a new state body to oversee dollar sales by Venezuela’s currency control regime. …Yep, both of those action items sound like they’ll be super-duper effective in bringing about immediate economic relief for Venezuelans, and as for those who would accuse Maduro of a “thinly veiled power grab”? Why in the world would he ever do such a thing?

Forcing stores to sell their merchandise for a price that the owners say will put them out of business may sound like a bad idea, but President Nicola Maduro is not angling to improve the economy, Venezuelans say.

“This is going to help him and his party in the short term,” says Alfredo Ramos , a political science professor at the University of the Andes in Merida. “His actions are motivating his backers to go out and vote, and disheartening his opponents. However, his actions could very well hurt him in the medium term.” …

Taking a page out of the late Hugo Chavez’s populist playbook, Maduro is attacking the country’s producers and businesses to boost his United Socialist Party of Venezuela for local elections Dec. 8.

…Oh.

And just to really crack down on any illicit bolivar-dollar trading, Maduro’s regime had the good sense to personally ask Twitter to block any tweets that might help Venezuelans operate on that pesky underground market:

In response, Venezuela’s telecommunications regulatory agency, Conatel, said on Tuesday that it sent a letter to the San Francisco headquarters of Twitter, requesting that the social-media company take down accounts that publish the currency’s black-market rate. Twitter didn’t respond to a request to comment.

On orders from the president, Conatel previously blocked some 50 websites that distribute the underground exchange rate and opened administrative proceeding against several Internet service providers.

I have an unpleasant suspicion that the worst of Maduro’s rule is yet to come.

Tags: economics, Latin America, Nicolas Maduro, socialism, tyranny, Venezuela

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Source from: hotair